Each state has enacted its own particular laws with respect to workers' compensation benefits, which provide aid for employees who suffer job-related injuries. Preexisting conditions that the workplace accelerates or aggravates, such as a bad back, even if pain from the injury is delayed until a later time. Injuries resulting from mental and physical strain brought on by increased work duties or the stress caused by a requirement that the employee make decisions on other employee dismissals. In some states, this includes employees who develop a disabling mental condition because they cannot keep up with the demands of the job and a supervisor's constant harassment. Lawyers representing injured workers typically prefer that their clients not receive workers' compensation benefits because the potential of being awarded money for damages in a personal injury lawsuit is vastly greater.
State courts seem to be divided on whether an injured employee can recover for horseplay.
Many states will not award benefits to a person who is injured while intoxicated or who deliberately inflicts injury on herself. If a worker leaves the employer's premises to do a personal errand, no compensation should be due. Always alert your employer immediately if you are injured on the job. Under compensation laws in most states, each employer must promptly provide medical, surgical, optometric, or other treatment for injured employees as well as provide hospital care, crutches, eyeglasses, and other appliances necessary to repair, relieve, or support a part of the body. Your company's medical team may eliminate unnecessary treatment, but an injured employee may select her own physician for authorized treatment, provided that physician is authorized by the state's workers' compensation board.