Workers’ compensation insurance helps to ensure that people hurt on the job have access to medical care and financial support. Workers’ compensation benefits are no-fault: An employee can recover compensation regardless of whether the employer caused the accident. In turn, workers’ compensation is a sole legal remedy for injured employees. Workers generally cannot file a […]
Category Archives: Serious and Willful
Workers’ compensation insurance provides medical coverage and wage loss benefits to employees who were hurt on the job. As emphasized by the California Department of Industrial Relations, “employers are required by law to have workers’ compensation insurance.” For employers and insurers, navigating the workers’ compensation claims process can be complicated. It is not uncommon to […]
A workers’ compensation claim is typically the exclusive remedy that an injured employee has against an employer. However, California Labor Code § 4553 provides an exception in cases of ‘serious and willful misconduct’ (S&W) by an employer. The general rule is that an employee’s total workers’ compensation award may be increased by as much as […]
Through a serious and willful misconduct claim, an injured worker may be entitled to recover penalty damages from their employer, valued up to 50% of the value of the underlying workers’ compensation claim. For employers, a finding of serious and willful misconduct carries harsh sanctions. There is considerable confusion regarding how exactly serious and willful […]
In California, employers are legally required to provide workers’ compensation insurance for their employees. In most cases, a workers’ compensation claim is an injured employee’s sole legal claim against the company. However, there are some limited exceptions to the rule. Under California Labor Code section 4553, an employee or surviving dependent can seek additional compensation […]
You may have heard that a workers’ compensation claim is the exclusive remedy that injured employees have against their employer in California. While that is mostly true, there is a narrow, but important exception: A serious and willful misconduct claim. In a serious and willful misconduct claim,an employer may face additional legal liability after a […]
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