In exchange for no-fault benefits, workers' compensation statutes bar employees from suing their employers in tort for work-related injuries. The bar generally extends to co-employees and, in many states, to statutory employers up the contracting chain.
Recognized exceptions vary but commonly include intentional injury by the employer and, in some states, deliberate exposure to known dangerous conditions.
Alternative Names:
Workers' Compensation Bar, Exclusivity
Why it Matters?
Exclusivity is the reason most workplace injury litigation targets third parties such as equipment manufacturers, contractors, and premises owners rather than the employer. It also creates apportionment complications, since the employer whose negligence contributed may be immune, raising whether fault can be allocated to an absent immune party. That question determines whether the third-party defendant absorbs the employer's share.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Can an injured worker ever sue the employer?
Can fault be apportioned to an immune employer?
