IF YOUR EMPLOYER DOESN’T HAVE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION INSURANCE

You work everyday, doing your job, giving your employer an honest day’s work. One day you get hurt at work and you report the injury to your employer or you could possibly be taken to the hospital in an ambulance, seriously injured. You arrive at the hospital for treatment. You soon find out your employer doesn’t have workers compensation insurance that is required by law in California. Employers in California are required to buy workers’ compensation insurance from an insurance company or become self-insured through a state program.

Now what do you do? How can you pay for your treatment? Your employer comes to visit you and promises he’ll take care of everything. But soon you find out, he has left you holding the bag for the bills, thousands of dollars of bills mounting up. You have collection companies calling you. Now what do you do?

As reported by PBS’ Frontline by Lisa Cullen, workers compensation fraud regarding employers being uninsured, “13.1% were operating without legally required workers’ compensation insurance. In just the next year, the auditors found the rate grew another half percent. Stating that 13.6% is probably an underestimate, the audit report explained that in addition to the large number of employers making no attempt to buy the insurance, still others cheat the system by intentionally under-reporting or misclassifying its payroll and by falsely representing employees as independent contractors.”

Stephen F. Dial and his staff at Dial & Associates can help you, guide you and get you treatment, speak to the collection companies and negotiate their liens against you for your treatment. The team at Dial & Associates will file a workers’ compensation claim against your employer by requesting the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) to decide what benefits you have a right to receive. If you get hurt on the job, the law requires your employer to provide workers’ compensation benefits. These include medical care for your injury and payments if you are unable to work or have a permanent disability because of the injury.

If your employer is illegally uninsured and does not provide workers’ compensation benefits for your injuries, you legally may file a civil lawsuit against your employer for personal injury and for your employer’s failure to carry workers’ compensation insurance also your employer is subject to substantial fines and penalties. California labor law gives the injured worker’s the right to sue illegally uninsured employer in civil court for personal injury: Labor Code §§ 3706-3709.5. A lawsuit allows an employee to claim a wider range of damages, including lost wages, and pain and suffering (the workers’ compensation system doesn’t pay injured workers for pain and suffering). Punitive damages may also be awarded in cases of an employer’s reckless disregard for safety of their employees and/or gross negligence. Unlike other workers compensation attorneys, Stephen Dial has experience in filing and litigating suits against uninsured employers successfully. He can get your medical bills paid and get you a settlement for your injuries.

Call Dial & Associates to meet with Orange County Workers Comp Lawyer Stephen Dial for a free, no obligation consultation to explore what your options are if your employer is uninsured and how you can get the help and treatment you need.

We are located in Orange County and handle workers’ compensation cases throughout Southern California including, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego and Riverside counties. We offer free, no obligation consultations and are available to answer your questions and help you understand the workers’ compensation process whenever you need us.

With our help you don’t have to worry about how you will pay for treatment