The first question to ask is whether your employer falls under the Workers’ Compensation Act.  Generally speaking, an employer with three or more employees is required to carry workers’ compensation insurance.  As a result, if your employer has only two employees, they are most likely not required to carry workers’ compensation insurance and any injury you sustain would not be covered under workers’ compensation.  However, it will depend on the structure of the legal entity of the business and they type of business, so this number may be more or less.

You must also be an employee to receive workers’ compensation benefits.  Contract “employees” or independent contractors are not covered by the workers’ compensation act, so an injury incurred while working as a contract “employee” may not be covered by workers’ compensation

Next, is the injury sustained by an accident while performing your assigned job functions?  This question can best be answered by comparing what injuries can and cannot be covered by workers’ compensation.  Injuries you incur while on the job and while performing your job duties are generally included in a workers’ compensation claim.

Examples of Injuries Included in Workers’ Compensation:

If you work in a warehouse and a crate falls and breaks your foot as you are attempting to remove it from a shelf, the injury would be considered a workers’ compensation claim.

You are a sales person and while at a customer’s location you are accidentally hit by a forklift, this would most likely be a workers’ compensation claim.

Examples of Injuries NOT Included in Workers’ Compensation:

You are chasing a fellow employee in the parking lot after work, and you trip, fall and break your foot.  This would most likely not be considered a workers’ compensation claim.  You are obviously at work, but you are not performing your job duties when the accident occurred.

You are a sales person and you stopped to buy gas.  When you went into the store to purchase a cup of coffee, you slip and fall and you break your leg.  You may have a claim against the store where you fell, but you would most likely not have a workers’ compensation claim.

As you can tell by these examples, a workers’ compensation claim requires the accident occurred while you were an employee performing your job functions. Like most areas of the law, workers’ compensation claims can become pretty complex. To learn more, contact our Charlotte, NC workers’ compensation lawyers or our Greensboro, NC workers’ compensation lawyers.