Workers' Compensation Attorney in Edison, New Jersey

Your workplace should be a safe place where you can do your job without risk of injury. While workplace safety is much better than it used to be, accidents, injuries, and illnesses still happen. When a workplace accident occurs, injured employees have the right to seek workers’ compensation for their injuries—and sometimes other types of money as well.

The New Jersey workers’ compensation is complex, and it helps to have an experienced hand guide you through the process. We can also let you know if you qualify to receive additional money for your injuries, losses, and pain and suffering through a third-party lawsuit.

If you’re looking for help after getting hurt at work in Edison, NJ, you’ve come to the right place. Our workers’compensation firm has successfully helped many workers recover from serious on-the-job injuries, including an on the job injury resulting in a third party case winning a $4 million defective machinery settlement.  Our team has more than 40 years of experience helping injured workers in Edison, NJ. Our record of success speaks for itself.

We want to make things easy for you. We provide free consultations in person in one of our New Jersey offices or virtually via FaceTime, Zoom, and Skype. If English is not your preferred language, we have Spanish-speaking team members and translators available for 11 other languages. We are prepared to accommodate you in whatever way we can.

Contact us today to get started.

Overview of New Jersey’s Workers’ Compensation Laws

The purpose of New Jersey’s system of workers’ compensation is to provide benefits for workers who suffer work-related injuries or illnesses. These benefits include payments for medical treatment and lost wages, compensation for permanent disabilities, and even death benefits.

Like all state workers’ compensation systems in the United States, New Jersey has a “no-fault” insurance program. In exchange for the right to receive benefits without proving fault, New Jersey workers give up their rights to file civil lawsuits against their employers to recover damages for their injuries.

New Jersey law requires that all employers in New Jersey carry workers’ compensation coverage. If they qualify, employers may instead self-insure. An employer who fails to provide workers’ compensation coverage can face serious financial consequences. New Jersey considers the failure to carry workers’ compensation insurance a criminal act. Employers are subject to a $5,000 fine for each 10-day period they fail to carry workers’ compensation coverage.

Our Edison workers’ comp lawyers can determine if your employer violated the law by failing to provide you with benefits.

Who Is Eligible for Workers’ Compensation in New Jersey?

If you’re a New Jersey employee who was injured while performing your job duties, you are likely eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. Workers’ compensation benefits do not cover independent contractors and self-employed people.

An employer might try to treat you as an independent contractor to avoid paying workers’ compensation. An independent contractor is a worker who can do their job without the employer’s direction, performs tasks outside the employer’s usual line of business, has their own business, and may have other clients. If you meet these requirements, you’re likely not an employee and are not entitled to workers’ comp. But if the employer has the right to supervise you and control what you do and how you do it, New Jersey will likely consider you an employee and eligible for workers’ compensation benefits.

What’s Covered Under New Jersey’s Workers’ Comp?

If you’ve been injured on the job in New Jersey, you may be entitled to various benefits through your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance. Those benefits include:

• Medical benefits – Workers’ compensation should cover all necessary and reasonable medical treatment, hospitalization services, and prescriptions required to treat your work-related injury. Your employer and insurance carrier may choose which treating physician you use in most cases.
• Temporary total disability benefits – These are wage replacement benefits for the period your doctor keeps you off work while you’re treating for your injury. You’ll receive 70 percent of your average weekly wage (before deductions), subject to the state’s minimum and maximum rates. You are eligible for temporary total benefits if you miss at least seven work days. These benefits continue until you return to work, reach maximum medical improvement, or reach the 400-week maximum for receiving benefits.
• Permanent partial disability benefits – You could receive these benefits if your injury leaves you with some permanent disability which impacts your ability to function to some degree. You are eligible for benefits based on your loss of function. These benefits cannot be paid until after temporary disability ends.
• Permanent total benefits – These benefits are paid when you cannot return to any type of gainful employment. If you suffer a permanent total disability because of your work-related injury or illness, you are entitled to benefits for 450 weeks. If you can prove that you are totally disabled after the 450 weeks, you might be eligible for continuing benefits.
• Death benefits – These benefits are paid to surviving dependents of a worker who died due to work-related injuries. Dependent children are eligible to receive benefits until they are 18, or 23 if they’re a full-time student. The surviving spouse may receive benefits beyond 450 weeks as long as they do not remarry. The weekly benefits shared among the dependents would be 70 percent of the worker’s average weekly wage. These family members can also receive up to $3,500 for funeral expenses.

Most Common Workplace Injuries in New Jersey

Sprains and strains were the most common type of injury in New Jersey among private businesses in one recent year, accounting for one-third of cases resulting in workers missing work time. Cuts and lacerations, fractures, and bruises each made up 10 percent of cases.

Common injuries also included overexertion, slip and falls, and contact with objects. These workplace injuries combined accounted for 83 percent of all cases where a worker missed a day from work.

Some of the most common work-related injuries in New Jersey include:

• Muscle sprains and strains
• Overexertion
• Cuts, lacerations, and bruises
• Fractures
• Falls, slips, and trips
• Contact with objects
• Burns
• Electrical injuries
• Chemical injuries
• Environmental injuries
• Workplace violence injuries
• Motor vehicle accident injuries
• Repetitive work injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS)
• Injuries from exposure to a toxic chemical, such as asbestos

While these injuries can occur on any job site, they tend to occur in certain industries. Workers in the transportation, construction, maintenance, and installation industries account for almost half the cases in New Jersey where a worker misses at least one day of work.

Get in Touch with an Experienced Workers’ Compensation Lawyer in Edison, NJ

Our team has experience investigating workplace accidents to determine where fault lies and how much money you could receive through a variety of claims. We have a vast network of experts we use to prove how much you deserve.

If you suffer a work-related injury or illness in Edison, the experienced attorneys at Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C. can help you secure the workers’ compensation benefits you deserve. We offer free consultations, so there is no risk in exploring your options after a work-related injury. We charge no fee until we get results for you and your family.

The workers’ compensation attorneys at Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C. have over 40 years of experience helping injured workers in New Jersey. Our team of more than 30 personal injury attorneys is available to meet with you and evaluate your workers’ compensation case. We will fight aggressively to pursue workers’ compensation benefits for you.

To learn more, contact Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C. today for your free case review.