A lot of people who find themselves hurt on the job are surprised to find that they are entitled only to a set recovery based on the type of their injury. They find themselves wondering why they are not entitled to damages based on pain and suffering and why they are not able to argue that they are entitled to greater compensation.
The unsatisfying answer is mainly historical accident. The law in regard to injury developed before industrialization and factories. People rarely got seriously injured and when they did it was usually at their own hand. When the law that developed in that environment was applied to workers getting injured in factories and working on the railroads, invariably the worker was unable to win a lawsuit against their employer for some reason or another, whether because of contributory negligence or assumption of risk or some other doctrine. The worker who was enriching their employer by working for him was left out in the cold to fend for him or herself after being injured on the job.
Clearly this was unjust.
The state legislatures stepped in to create employer liability for the first time. Obviously, employers were well represented before the legislatures and workers, maybe not so much. The laws largely passed based on this compromise: workers get compensation without regard to fault, but that compensation is severely limited. Today that means no pain and suffering and mere fraction of what a recovery would be in a negligence action.
Still, workers compensation assures a remedy for those actually injured on the job. Proving the actually injured on the job bit is often the hard party and it is where especially clever lawyers can especially help.
Workers Compensation Lawyers
The SC workers compensation lawyers at Reeves, Aiken, & Hightower know the South Carolina worker’s compensation system and are ready to get you the recovery you deserve. Browse our website, examine our credentials, and compare us to any other firm. Then call us at 877-374-5999 or contact us at this link for a private consultation.