QUESTION:
I want to sue my employer for pain and suffering due to negligence (unsafe work environment). They knew I have already been injured twice and more than 2 supervisors were involved in putting me in another unsafe work environment, causing a third injury to my back. This injury resulted to pain that I will bear for the rest of my life, loss of my job, and daily life as I knew it. When I filed for worker’s compensation, the employer changed the injury date, causing more grief. I want to sue my employer. What kind of lawyer do I need?
ANSWER:
A lawyer who specializes in personal injury claim is the kind of lawyer that you need. As to the present case, ordinarily, an employee’s rights against his or her employer for on-the-job injuries lie solely under the workers’ compensation law—i.e., when the “conditions of compensation” are present (Lab.C. § 3600), the employer is immune from civil damages liability because workers’ compensation is the injured employee’s “exclusive remedy.” [Lab.C. §§ 3600, 3601, 3602(a)]. An essential component of the workers’ comp “conditions of compensation” is that the injury must have arisen “out of and in the course of the employment” (see Lab.C. § 3600; and Shoemaker v. Myers (1990) 52 C3d 1, 15, 276 CR 303, 311). It must be shown that there was some connection between the employment and the injury, or the injury arose out of the reasonable use of the premises, or the housing placed the employee in a peculiar danger. [Vaught v. State of Calif. , supra, 157 CA4th at 1545, 69 CR3d at 609]. The same rules apply to on-the-job emotional distress injuries. However, employers are not protected by the exclusive remedy shield where the claim is predicated on an injury aggravated by the employer’s fraudulent concealment of the existence of the injury and its connection with the employment. [Lab.C. § 3602(b)(2); see Palestini v. General Dynamics Corp. (2002) 99 CA4th 80, 89–98, 120 CR2d 741, 748–754]. It would be best to personally seek assistance from a lawyer in order to help you in filing your personal injury claim.