Even when safety precautions are taken in Schenectady, New York, residents who go to work daily are often in many ways risking their lives and health. Particularly for those who work in manual or inherently dangerous occupations, like in construction or manufacturing, the reality is that employees may suffer serious workplace injuries from an accident that would have happened even if they exercised the utmost care in their work.
After getting medical treatment and taking the necessary time to process the situation, the first place a New Yorker who gets injured on the job should consider looking for compensation is his or her employer’s workers’ compensation insurance. Almost every employer in New York is required to carry this insurance, and it is there to provide for injured workers’ medical bills and lost income without regard to whether the worker was at fault for the injury or illness.
The major problem with workers’ compensation is that it only covers a part of an injured worker’s lost income, and does not afford any benefits for so-called ‘non-economic’ damages like pain and suffering. The result is a person can get workers’ compensation without a hitch but still not get the full compensation he or she needs and deserves.
Fortunately, in many types of work-related accidents, an injured worker may be able to pursue a personal injury lawsuit against a third party, such as the manufacturer of a defective product, or even the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident. These sorts of claims may involve additional issues not present in workers’ compensation cases, but an experienced New York attorney can be of valuable assistance.