Employer Liability to Hospitalized Worker?

by Zelda
(Austin, Texas)

I accompanied a client from a treatment center home to see her ailing father. I got extremely ill and had to go to the hospital for 36 hours. The company I work for has no worker's compensation insurance and only paid me 19 hours of overtime (I was working from 2:30pm on a Friday to the next Thursday at 7:00pm).

Do I have any rights to get the hospital bill paid or more overtime pay? What's my employer's liability being that I was hospitalized in another city while on the job?

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ANSWER for "Employer Liability to Hospitalized Worker?":

Zelda (Austin, Texas):

Unless you have an employee manual or a written employment agreement with your employer, and in that manual or agreement there is a provision which calls for an employee such as yourself to receive compensation in the form of reimbursement for medical bills sustained on the job, you may not have a perfect case against your employer.

In the alternative, if your employer qualified to be an employer which was legally obligated to carry workers compensation insurance and failed to carry that insurance, you will have a right to file a lawsuit against the employer.

In that lawsuit you can ask the court to award you reimbursement for your medical bills, your out of pocket expenses such as prescription and over the counter medications, your lost wages as a result of your treatment and recovery, and an amount for your pain and suffering.

If your employer doesn't have any insurance and is not required to carry workers compensation insurance you will have a right to file suit against your employer for the same things.

Since laws change frequently and across jurisdictions you should get a personalized case evaluation from an attorney licensed in your state (if you haven't already). Find an experienced local attorney to give you a FREE personalized case review here.


Best of luck,

Law Guy