Workers' Compensation:
Workers' compensation is insurance that an employer is required by law to carry in case an employee is injured on-the-job or becomes ill, temporarily or permanently disabled, or fatally injured due to circumstances surrounding his or her job.

Although workers' compensation laws vary from state to state, covered medical care generally includes medical, surgical and hospital services, dental services, crutches, hearing aids, chiropractic treatment, physical therapy, nursing care and prescribed medications.  Additional monetary compensation may be provided if an injured employee is temporarily unable to work for more than a certain number of calendar days set by state law, hospitalized as an in-patient, or becomes permanently disabled due to a job-related injury or illness.  The right to receive medical treatment at the employer's expense typically continues as long as treatment is reasonable and necessary to treat the injury.

Orthopedic injuries:
Orthopedic injuries can include injuries involving the spine, bones, joints, muscles, nerves and other parts of the skeletal system.  The most common orthopedic injuries are bone fractures, sprains and strains.  Sprains describe an injury to a ligament and strains describe an injury to muscle.  Treatment for orthopedic injuries include medical counseling, medications, casts, splints and therapies, such as exercise or surgery.

Repetitive Stress injury:
If an individual develops a repetitive stress injury (i.e. carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, tennis elbow, etc.) from duties performed while on-the-job, he or she may receive workers' compensation benefits including their choice of doctor(s), full medical care compensation, lost wage benefits, a lump-sum cash settlement, vocational retraining or re-schooling and permanent wage loss benefits.

Construction/Industrial Accidents:
Construction labor makes up one of the three most dangerous occupations in the United States today; each year producing thousands of debilitating injuries and wrongful deaths.  Factors that contribute to construction accidents include workers lifting loads with worn and weathered cables, working on elevated platforms without fall protection or wearing defective safety harnesses and lanyards, and/or working in trenches with improper benching and using outdated tools and equipment.

Construction site personal injury law is not practiced nor understood by many personal injury attorneys.  As a result, many personal injury construction claims are often subject to mediocre representation and minimal financial compensation due to improper legal counsel.  Injured construction workers are urged to seek a workers' compensation attorney who is knowledgeable in a variety of construction techniques and has successfully litigated numerous construction site personal injury cases.

Burn Injuries:
People who have suffered and survived the agony of second, third and even fourth degree burns describe the pain they experienced as among the most severe of all traumatic injuries.  Personal injuries involving severe burns commonly result from explosions, premises fires, defective products, motor vehicle collisions, electric shock, as well as accidental exposure to harmful chemicals and radiation.

Toxic Exposure:
Due to the tremendous growth of corporate industry in the United States over the past fifty years, the number of dangerous, toxic substances in the environment has grown significantly.  Some toxic substances are shown to cause substantial injury to people, such as lead-based paint (linked to brain damage, especially in children), asbestos (linked to lung cancer and restrictive lung disease), dry cleaning and other solvents (linked to brain damage and major organ damage), pesticides such as dioxin and DDT (linked to birth injuries) and toxic landfill waste (linked to leukemia).

Retaliatory Discharge:
If an individual is terminated from their place of employment after reporting a workers' compensation claim, he or she could be entitled to substantial damages in a retaliatory discharge lawsuit against their former employer.

Federal laws prohibit an employer from discharging or discriminating against an employee because of a workers' compensation injury.  If an employer fires or forces the resignation of an injured employee in retaliation for filing a workers' compensation claim, the employee can file a civil lawsuit against the employer seeking damages in court, provided the employee has evidence of such an allegation.  Also, if an employer denies permission for immediate medical attention following a work-related injury, or does not permit an employee to seek out the services of other medical professionals in conjunction with assigned company doctors, the employee can seek legal retribution under workers' compensation laws.

If you or a loved one needs the dedicated legal representation of an experienced Philadelphia, Pennsylvania workers’ compensation lawyer, call Eric S. Borjeson today at 215-989-4215, or complete the contact form provided on this site to arrange for your free initial consultation.

What is workers' Compensation? 

The workers' compensation system provides payment to workers who are unable to perform their duties because of an injury or illness sustained in the workplace. In most situations, the employer`s liability is limited to paying wages and medical expenses, although each state has its own statute. If an employee can prove that the employer intentionally caused the illness or injury, a personal injury suit may be filed, and the damages can be far more significant.

My employer has asked me to sign an agreement waiving my rights to sue. What does this really mean?

A growing number of employers ask older workers to sign waivers -- also called releases or agreements not to sue. In return for signing the waivers, the employer offers the employee an incentive to leave the job voluntarily, such as a significant amount of severance pay. The Older Workers Benefit Protection Act places a number of restrictions on such waivers:

• Your employer must make the waiver understandable to the people who are likely to use it.
• The waiver may not cover any rights or claims that you discover are available after you sign it, and it must specify that it covers your rights under the Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
• Your employer must offer you something of value (such as severance pay) over and above what is already owed to you in exchange for your signature on the waiver.
• Your employer must advise you, in writing, that you have the right to consult an attorney before you sign the waiver.
• If the offer is being made to a group or class of employees, your employer must inform you in writing how the class of employees is defined; the job titles and ages of all the individuals to whom the offer is being made; and the ages of all the employees in the same job classification or unit of the company to whom the offer is not being made.
• You must be given a fixed time in which to make a decision on whether or not to sign the waiver.

Does the law restrict my employer from offering a Golden Parachute -- a benefits package that seems contrived to get me into early retirement?

Maybe. One provision of the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act regulates the legal waivers that employers are increasingly asking employees to sign in connection with so-called early retirement programs.

If your employer offers you the opportunity to participate in a staff reduction program, the Act indirectly puts you in a position to negotiate the terms of your departure. The fact that your employer has offered an incentive suggests that the company wants you gone and is worried that you might file a lawsuit for wrongful discharge. So, although the company may say that you have only two choices -- accept or reject the offer -- there is nothing preventing you from making a counteroffer.