Workers Compensation in Texas Law

Worker's Compensation under Texas Law

Employees are entitled to compensation for injuries sustained on the job. If you have been injured in the workplace you may be entitled to recovery including monetary compensation to cover your physical pain, mental anguish, loss of earnings or earning capacity, medical bills, death and disfigurement, physical impairment and more.

In most cases employees may not sue their employers for injuries they have sustained on-the-job during the course of employment. By Texas law known as the "exclusive remedy rule", an employee's only remedy may be to pursue a worker's compensation claim.

One exception to this "exclusive remedy rule" is if an employee can prove that the employer acted with intentional misconduct such as when an employer knew of a hazardous condition (such as asbestos) and failed to remove the hazard or warn employees.

Another exception known as the "punch press exception" can arise if an employer removed safety protection in order to increase production.

An injured employee may pursue remedies against third parties who may be responsible or may have contributed to the accident if the third party is not the employer. In these instances an injured party may pursue both a worker's compensation claim and a third-party lawsuit. Often the amount of recovery awarded in a third-party lawsuit exceeds that of worker's compensation claims which are many times limited by Texas law.

If an on-the-job accident proves fatal the family's estate may sue the employer for gross negligence under Texas wrongful death statutes. Of course an employer may also be sued if they fail to provide worker's compensation insurance.