How Long Do You Have to Sue After Being Hurt at Work?

When an injury occurs at work, the worker is usually covered by the employer's workers' compensation insurance. Legal action, or "suing" would only be necessary if the workers' compensation insurance carrier denied the claim when the injured worker felt this was legally unfair. Occasionally, a work injury would be litigated instead as a personal injury claim (for example, when an employer has no workers' compensation coverage, or if there was any dispute as to whether an employer-employee relationship existed at the time of injury). For each type of legal claim there are time limits for legal action, which are referred to as the "statute of limitations". These time limits vary by state.

Who To Sue

• If your employer has workers' compensation insurance coverage, then you can pursue a legal claim against the workers' compensation insurance carrier. In personal injury cases, legal action may be taken against the employer personally, or any other individual or entity (for example, a contracting firm) who could be deemed liable for the work injury.

  If a faulty product or tool was involved in the work injury, the manufacturer, distributor and/or seller of that product could also perhaps be sued. It is not possible to double-dip any settlement monies arising from a work injury. However if, for example, a workers' compensation carrier pays out benefits but the injured worker also successfully pursues a personal injury claim against another entity, the workers' compensation carrier would need to be repaid out of the personal injury settlement.

Workers' Compensation

• In a legal claim against a workers' compensation carrier, the statute of limitations varies state by state. California and Texas both enforce a one-year statute of limitations, which means that an injured worker has up to one year from the date of the work injury to file a claim for damages. In Florida, the statute of limitations is two years, and in states including Vermont and Pennsylvania, the statute of limitations is three years from the date of injury.

Personal Injury

• If an injured worker intends to pursue a legal claim for personal injury, again the statutes differ by state. In Vermont and South Dakota, for example, the claim must be brought within three years from the injury date. In Oregon, the statute of limitations is two years. Florida allows up to four years for an injured worker to file a personal injury claim.

Product Liability

• Product liability lawsuits are less commonly pursued with regards to work injuries, but can lead to a successful settlement under the right conditions. In Florida, product liability cases must be filed within four years; Montana and other states impose a three-year statute of limitations; Louisiana state law allows only one year from the date of injury for a product liability claim to be filed.

Extensions

• In many legal cases, the state's statute of limitations regarding a work injury have effectively been extended. Sometimes the date of disability is used rather than the date of injury as the start of the time period in which a claim may be filed (for example, Zimmerman v W.C.A.B. (Pa Cmwlth 1991)).

  Other times, a statute may be liberally interpreted to extend the time limit--for example, in a situation in which the injured worker was not immediately aware of the medical condition arising from the work injury.