Can I make my employer pay for expenses if I was injured at work? 21 Answers as of February 17, 2012

Since you are an independent contractor you are probably not covered by your employers workers compensation insurance, if he has any. You can make a liability claim against your employer if you can show that the fall was his fault.

You are in an interesting situation. In that you an independent contractor you can not file for workers' compensation benefits, if you were not an employee you can sue your "employer" if the employer was negligent. On the other hand there is the real question of whether you were an independent contractor or an employee. You should contact a workers' compensation lawyer who specializes in same, because as an employee you are entitled to no fault worker's compensation benefits paying your medical bills; providing you with income replacement benefits and entitling to receive compensation for permanent injuries.

you should see if he has workers compensation insurance. Independent contractors are not covered unless you can demonstrate that it was in the nature of an employer-employee relationship. This will often turn on who had control of the work and provided tools. Here is a recent case on the subject: http://wcc.state.ct.us/crb/2010/5473crb.htm The information contained in this email may be confidential and/or legally privileged. It has been sent for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). If the reader of this message is not an intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication, or any of its contents, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

You are not an employee, so are not required to be covered by their Comp insurance. You would have needed to buy your own insurance.

As an independent contractor, you cannot claim benefits. You could possibly sue the property owner for the injuries but without more facts it would be hard to determine whether it would be successful.

You need to retain a workers compensation attorney right away because the definition in the workers compensation statute of "independent contractor" and the common idea of what that term means are two distinct things. Employers and companies try to push workers off into the "independent contractor" category for many reasons, one of which is that there is no workers compensation coverage for true independent contractors. However, do not accept the company's definition or the insurance company's definition. The final determiners of who is an independent contractor are (a) the state worker's compensation statute, and (b) here in NH, the state labor department. I wish you the best.

If you are an independent contractor you are not entitled to workers compensation and in order to obtain expenses for injury, you must first show that the employer was responsible for your injuries, i.e. negligent. You should contact a lawyer to determine the employee employer relationship and whether you have a case against the employer.

The answer to your question is dependent upon whether or not you are truly an "independent contractor." In the economic times we have, some employers try to hire workers and call them "independent contractors" in order to avoid paying the employer's share of withholding taxes, as well as worker's compensation insurance and other costs. To be a truly "independent contractor" you must have your own tools or materials for work, work independently of instruction from the employer (control your own rate and pace of work), and usually work for more than one person. You should ask your employer whether or not they carry worker's compensation insurance that may cover you. If you have doubts about whether you are truly an "independent contractor" you should contact an attorney about your specific factual situation.

Consult with your State's worker's compensation agency to see if you are covered by your employer. Also, you may want to consult with or retain worker's compensation attorney for legal representation. If your employer had significant control over your work schedule, job assignments and other terms and conditions of your employment, you may later be ruled by the court to be an employee rather than an independent contractor.