In exchange for no-fault benefits, workers' compensation statutes bar tort claims against the employer arising from workplace injury. The bar typically extends to co-employees and often to statutory employers up the contracting chain.
Exceptions are narrow and vary, most commonly covering intentional injury by the employer.
Alternative Names:
Comp Exclusivity, Statutory Immunity
Why it Matters?
Exclusivity is why workplace injury litigation targets third parties rather than employers, and it creates the apportionment complication that follows: the employer whose negligence contributed may be immune from suit, raising whether fault can be allocated to an absent immune party. States answering that question differently produce very different exposure for the third-party defendant, who may absorb the employer's share entirely.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What are the exceptions to exclusivity?
Can a third-party defendant apportion fault to the employer?
