Workers’ compensation is a payment, or series of payments, for any employee who is injured, or becomes sick, while at work. If you are traveling away from your normal workplace, for example on a business trip, you may also expect to be covered by workers’ comp. rules if injured in the course of your work. However, determining liability is typically more difficult than if the injury happened while in your usual workplace or base. It may help to use a workers’ compensation attorney if you encounter objections from your employer’s insurer when making a claim. Clarifying Liability While Working Away From Your Normal Workplace You should be entitled to claim workers’ compensation if you are injured while carrying out a work-related activity while on a business trip, or for any reason when you are not actually in your workplace. This is not always easy to determine. For example, imagine you are on an all-expenses paid trip to a foreign destination. Your air flights are paid, as are your hotel accommodation and meals. If you get food poisoning because of contaminated food while in the hotel restaurant, you could reasonably maintain that your illness happened because of your ‘work commitment.’ However, if you happened to meet an old friend when staying in the hotel and you were injured while in their car, this may not be part of the ‘course or scope of your employment.’ Workers’ compensation may be denied, but depending on the exact circumstances of the accident, you may have recourse to compensation from a different source, e.g. another driver, if his or her actions caused your injuries. Workers’ Compensation and Personal Injury Claims Compared In the last example above, you may not receive workers’ compensation, but may be able to make a personal injury claim instead. Generally, this is a lengthier and more complicated process. For a start, you would need to prove that your injuries were due to the other driver’s negligence, whereas with a workers’ compensation claim, this would be unnecessary. Personal injury claims, when successful, usually result in higher compensation payments than workers’ compensation because non-economic damages can be included. To take the examples given above, the food poisoning case may eventuate in compensation awarded for medical costs and lost earnings only. If the claim had been a personal injury claim against the restaurant, then in addition to medical expenses and lost earnings, other compensation may be included, such as for the pain and suffering experienced. Why You Should Contact an Attorney if You are Injured While on a Business Trip Because it is harder to determine liability when you are away from your own workplace it can be harder to prove that you were actually on work related business when you were injured. Your employer’s insurer may make an objection to paying compensation or deny the claim altogether. There is also the possibility that a third party may have been involved, as in the car accident example given above. In any situation like this, you can get valuable advice and legal help from an experienced workers’ compensation attorney. Additional Resources Time to File a Workers' Comp Claim? Hiring an Attorney for Workers' Compensation
