Published by J.A. Davis & Associates – San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyers – Workers’ Compensation

Work Injury Attorney Discusses Non-Subscriber Injury Law in Texas

In 1993, when Texas passed the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act, it was designed so that companies buying into workers’ comp insurance would be shielded or protected from their employees’ lawsuits in the event of an on-the-job accident. More about our “Workers Compensation Attorneys San Antonio” here

This aspect made the insurance very attractive for employers to purchase. Although there are a few exceptions, in most cases, workers’ comp determines an injured employee’s benefits and guarantees that employers will not be sued by a worker hurt on the job.

This law is a great example of Texas’ historically business-friendly legislation and was designed to protect both insurance companies and businesses from liability. However, it is not specifically designed to help workers injured on the job or to ensure they receive full compensation for their injuries.

When you are injured at work, under workers’ compensation laws, you can receive compensation even if your employer wasn’t necessarily at fault for your injury. Unfortunately, the amount of that monetary compensation awarded is frequently limited in a workers’ comp claim. It does not provide for punitive damages, or for non-economic compensatory damages, such as pain and suffering. The compensatory economic damages, such as lost wages, are capped in terms of both time and amount and are awarded in fractions of the employee’s previous income. This can be detrimental to your needs and the compensation you deserve, relative to your injuries.

Further, you cannot sue your employer or take them to court for any additional damages. The Texas workers’ comp law does limit your rights to the total amount of compensation you may receive. Also, the workers’ comp program is administered by insurance companies, and by nature, insurance companies are in business to benefit themselves by making a profit, and not to necessarily benefit or help you.

Workers’ compensation legislation, technically, was billed as “tort reform” legislation. The public and some legislators were influenced to believe the primary goal of the legislation was to alleviate the oppressive work injury lawsuit caseload that clogged up the courts. Many of these cases were characterized as unfounded, malicious assaults on business, and frivolous in nature. In this sense, reform often has nothing to do with its real purpose or stated intention or goal. Ironically, often when a piece of legislation is offered to the public as “reform,” in the end, it may actually be used against the public’s best interests in many situations.

Texans have historically been home to individuals with good sense and integrity, so not everyone was on board with the new workers’ comp “reform” legislation. So, in order to pass it, they gave Texas employers the individual right to decide to subscribe or not subscribe to workers’ compensation coverage. This is in contrast to the majority of states in the U.S., where insurance companies, in collusion with the state, have mandated every employer must carry the coverage—it is a state requirement. There are still about 40% of Texas employers today, who have chosen not to subscribe to workers’ compensation coverage. These employers are termed “non-subscribers.” The state and the insurance companies, as a form of punishment, would very much like to penalize these employers for not subscribing to their capped liability scheme. After an accident, these employers do “pay the price”. However, this imperative to punish non-subscribers is actually to your advantage in some specific ways.