This is often confusing to many injured workers: If your employer uses the Texas’ workers’ compensation program, you have one set of rights, and if they don’t, you have another set of rights. You don’t get to choose which set of rights you have, your employer chooses for you when they either opt in or out of the workers’ compensation system.
The idea behind any state’s workers’ compensation system is that lawmakers take away the rights of an employee to sue their employer for a work injury. Instead, they provide a type of work injury benefit plan that pays workers more like an unemployment benefit system than like a court case. Again, if your employer buys into the workers’ comp system, your right to sue them is taken away and you are instead given the right to file for benefits paid by the workers’ compensation carrier that your employer has chosen. Not all companies in Texas wanted to have their employees covered by a workers’ compensation plan. Many employers would rather take their chances in court. Lawmakers recognized this and allowed Texas companies to opt out of the workers’ compensation system. For employers who opt out, normal personal injury law applies (much of the time), and employees who are hurt retain the right to sue their employer when an accident occurs.
As you can see, the rights you have are dictated by what type of work injury coverage your employer has. For More Information and a free Workers Compensation case review call a Houston Work Injury Lawyer today.
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