Employee Or Not? What To Know About Workers' Compensation

Law Blog

If you qualify for a particular kind of insurance, you won't need to worry about medical bills or a lot more. Workers' compensation is paid for by your employer and will cover you from your first day of work. If you get hurt, as long as the injury or illness meets the guidelines, you will have several benefits available. Some people may be unsure whether or not they are covered, so read on to learn more.

You work there so you are an employee, right? Unfortunately, this is not always the case. You might be working right alongside another worker doing the very same job and be in two separate job categories and employment circumstances. You might want to take a look at your paycheck and your employment paperwork to determine exactly who you do work for and it can be confusing in some instances. If you are covered by workers' comp you very likely signed paperwork when you first started your job. Contact your human resources office to make sure that you are not actually a contract employee.

Contract employees work for other companies that may provide temporary or permanent workers for another company. Some well-known examples of that are Manpower and Kelly Services. You may still be covered by workers' comp insurance by the contractor, however.

Are you an independent contractor? This is another common situation where you should question your coverage. Independent contractors don't work for an agency and their paychecks may have the name of the company on it. This is not a guarantee of coverage, though. Independent contractors must often procure their own coverage using something like Aflac.

There has been some controversy about companies mis-classifying employees as contract employees to avoid having to pay for benefits like workers' comp insurance coverage. Every state differs on what makes an employee and what makes an independent contractor so consult your state's agency on labor to learn more. If you believe you have been purposely classified as a contractor speak to an employment law attorney.

Are you a volunteer? Unless you fall into a specific category you likely won't be able to use that workplace's workers' comp coverage if you are hurt while volunteering. In most states, there is a notable exception made for volunteer firefighters.

Are you a domestic worker? If you work for a cleaning agency you might be able to their workers' comp insurance for injuries sustained on the job. If you are privately employed as a cleaner, pool guy, handyman, nanny or other domestic positions you may not have any coverage at all.

Speak to a workers' comp attorney to learn more.

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17 May 2018

How to Gain Guardianship Over a Child

The laws governing child custody and guardianship can be confusing. As a family attorney, I have helped many clients gain legal guardianship over a foster child or a relative's child. Getting legal guardianship of a child you are caring for is important because you need to be able to make decisions about that child's education, health care and other matters. This blog will help you navigate the world of legal guardianship and show you how to take steps to get guardianship over a child whether the child's parents are cooperative or not. Legal guardianship does matter even if a child is not going to be adopted. I hope to help people find the way to get this done.