Personal Injury: North Carolina
Workers' Compensation

If you have been injured on the job in the normal course and scope of your employment, then your employer is legally responsible for your damages and obligated to compensate you in accordance with the North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Act (the “Act”).  The Act governs the way in which claims for damages arising from workplace accidents or occupational diseases are handled in North Carolina, and it applies specifically to the employee’s claims against the employer.  Any other claims for recovery arising from the accident that may be available to the employee or which might otherwise exist would be governed by an entirely separate and distinctly different body of law--the common law of North Carolina.  If you or a loved one have suffered an on-the-job injury, your best interest demands that you contact an attorney experienced in handling workers’ compensation matters who knows the laws and can protect your rights and enforce your remedies under both the common law and the Act.

Pursuant to the Workers’ Compensation Act, claimants are entitled to recover 1) expenses incurred in treatment and rehabilitation of claimant’s injuries or disease, including claimant’s medical expenses and vocational expenses; and 2) claimant’s lost wages or disability benefits.  Where payment for reimbursement of medical and vocational expenses is made to the third-party provider, payment for the claimant’s disability benefits is made directly to the claimant and paid at the rate of 2/3 of the claimant’s average weekly wage prior to the claimant’s injury.  For those claimants who have suffered injury to a specific body part, their disability damages are determined by reference to the statutory formula as provided by the Act.  For those claimants who have suffered injury to their whole body, depending upon the nature of the injury as permanent or temporary and any “impairment rating” assigned by the claimant’s treating physician, damages will be awarded as:

• Temporary Total Disability benefits (TTD)
• Permanent Partial Disability benefits (‘PPD”)
• Temporary Partial Disability benefits (“TPD”)
• Permanent Total Disability benefits (“PTD”)

The Act seeks to strike a balance between claimants and respondents, providing no advantage to either side.  While the Act relieves claimants of the burden of having to prove fault on behalf of the employer, it also limits the claimant’s rights and recovery by denying claimants any right to a jury or to compensation that accounts for pain and suffering.  The best advantage available to you under the Act is securing the representation of a workers’ compensation attorney who is well-versed in all the Act’s provisions and can help ensure that you take every advantage available to you under the Act.

The workers’ compensation attorneys at DeMent Askew Johnson & Marshall have decades of experience representing injured workers and handling workers’ compensation claims in and around Wake County and before the Industrial Commission.  If you have been injured in the course and scope of your employment or suffer from an occupational disease, call us today for a consultation at 919-833-5555.