Job Related Auto Accidents

Video Transcript:
Cindy Speaker: Job related auto accident injuries, that’s our topic for today and my guests is South Carolina attorney, George Sink. George, how are you doing today?

George Sink: I’m doing fine, how are you, Cindy?

Cindy Speaker: Very good. Well, George, I know that you handle all kinds of personal injury cases, but I’ve heard that one kind of case that you handle is particularly complex and that is this area of job related auto accident injuries.

George Sink: This is a fascinating area and the big idea to keep in mind is Workers Compensation which should be a job injury relates to permanent injuries most of the time. So you look for permanent injuries.

Now auto, you can have almost any sort of injury—something that hopefully will go away in a little while which is not permanent, and so if you’re on the job driving a car and you’re in an auto collision, you have to do some quick sorting. It takes a little bit of thought to decide which case or both to pursue.

Cindy Speaker: So when you say which case to pursue, then what you’re talking about is, am I correct, a case relevant to your employment and being hurt on the job, but there’s a second case because of the auto accident?

George Sink: Absolutely! And that’s a 50/50 proposition. In South Carolina, if you’re in an auto collision and it’s your fault. Let’s say you run into the rear of someone, you can’t bring a claim against that person you hit. Or you can, but you cannot recover, but if you are on the job and you’re going to the store to pick up something and you run in the rear of somebody, you can bring successfully a Workers Compensation claim if you have the right injuries for that accident.

Cindy Speaker: And what exactly does that mean to bring a claim?

George Sink: What that means was, in the history of the development of the legislative structure, which we now call Workers Compensation law, in exchange for a worker’s right to bring a claim to get money for an injury they sustained on the job, they had to give up their right to sue their employer, so now, instead of going to the courts, they go to a legislative mandated system of recovery for injuries which occur on the job, so accidental injuries on the job, you go to this legislative structure and they call it Workers Compensation.

Otherwise, you’re free to use the courts if it’s not on the job, so you gave up your right to sue your employer in almost every case. If they came up and hit you in the head with a baseball bat deliberately, that would fall outside the scope of that naturally, but in general, you can’t sue your employers.

Cindy Speaker: Suppose, I have an employee and that employee rear ends somebody else, so he’s at fault, but he’s injured, is it widely known by employees that they have a claim.

George Sink: They would have a claim against you in your own business. The insurance company who insures the Workers Compensation for that business would pay. If they were waiting at the light and someone hit them in the rear, it wasn’t their fault. They have an automobile claim, a tort claim against that person who hit them in the rear and if they’re seriously injured, they have a Workers Compensation claim. How those two work together is fascinating.

The big thing to watch is, you can’t settle your auto claim while the comp claim is pending because there is interacting liens the Workers Comp system has a right to get money back from you if you recover from the auto claim to pay for weekly pay and other medical bills that the Workers Compensation system would probably pay for while you’re recovering.

So they have that interaction that’s sort of complicated.

Cindy Speaker: I would think that the average person would not understand this at all.

George Sink: They don’t and it’s fun to educate them and usually the people that come trust us, so we’re able to do it very easily and we tell them what to do, we guide them gently through the system, we have them file the right forms for Workers Compensation, bring the right claims for the auto accident and the big thing is the chemistry between those two. How do you handle it for example, if you had a serious auto accident while you were on the job, the Workers Compensation system says you have to use the employer’s doctors—the ones the system prescribes, so you start off with them and if you’re not happy with them, you can get your own doctors outside of that system, but you have to pay for them.

So it’s sort of complicated, and you have to balance the cost, keep track of all of that, but eventually it all works out, but these systems are interrelated in a way it could be confusing to the ordinary person so it gives me some joy to explain it to them because it does work out well in the end, but it’s a little bit of a confusion in the middle. It’s usually a little—it’s tougher in Workers Compensation because the statutes are just what they are. You have to comply with them and it has to be noticed within a certain amount of time, you have to do this, you have to check the right box in this form and that form so it’s very precise and the auto, it’s a little easier, but the interrelationship between those two is, I’d say very difficult for anyone except a trained lawyer to understand.

Cindy Speaker: Well, George if somebody needs more information in South Carolina. They’ve been in a work related accident and they need somebody to help them, how can they reach you?

George Sink: Oh, we’d be glad to talk to them if they called 1-800-849-SINK or they can find us on our website at www.sinklaw.com. We’re here available all hours of the day and night, so please feel free to call and we’re delighted to talk to anybody who has any questions.

Cindy Speaker: Very good. George, thanks so much.

George Sink: Thank you, Cindy.

Cindy Speaker: Until next time, this is Cindy Speaker for State Law TV.