“[fusion_dropcap boxed=”no” boxed_radius=”” class=”” id=”” color=””]W[/fusion_dropcap]orkers’ compensation is a very important field of law, if not the most important. It touches more lives than any other field of law. It involves the payments of huge sums of money. The welfare of human beings, the success of business, and the pocketbooks of consumer are affected daily by it.” Judge E.R. Mills, Singletary v. Mangham Construction, 418 So.2d 1138 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982).
I just got back from an American Bar Association conference on workers’ compensation. All too frequently, I hear lawyers demean the practice of workers’ compensation, and I hear people, including injured workers, demean workers’ compensation claims (“It’s just a workers’ compensation claim”).
As the quotation above notes, workers’ compensation touches everyone.
Anyone who gets a W-2 form is probably entitled to workers’ compensation coverage. It doesn’t matter if they get hurt at work or not; the coverage is there in case they do.
Likewise, anyone who buys an American-manufactured product or uses American services has their life affected by the fact that the person who produces the good or service is covered by workers’ compensation.
Finally, businesses who are required to cover their workers are affected because their bottom line is affected by the cost of that coverage. It is important to realize that what everyone really needs is a healthy, well-functioning workers’ compensation system. When it doesn’t function well, it may appear that one side or the other is getting a better benefit, but the reality is that a distorted system leads to a distorted society.
As always, we at Moore & Jensen are here to help people injured at work and trapped in a system that is very difficult to understand or function within.
