Workers Compensation
Lawyer for 40+ Years
If you’re injured in a vehicle accident while on the job, you qualify for BOTH workers compensation and no fault benefits. However, the vehicle must be moving (a collision, or a fall off the steps of a bus or truck while it’s moving, or getting hit by a moving or rolling vehicle). You may also have a negligence claim against the person who caused the accident.
I have represented Teamsters and non-union truck drivers and helpers for over 30 years.
If you are loading or unloading something from a vehicle, even while standing on the ground, you may be entitled to Michigan no fault insurance benefits, as long as the injury occurred while you were in contact with the vehicle. For example, if you hurt your back while lifting a suitcase into the trunk of a car, you can get no fault benefits. However, this benefit is not available to a person who is hurt on-the-job; then, workers compensation is the only insurance benefit available.
If you slip and fall getting in or out of a vehicle, you may be entitled to no fault benefits. For example, if you step out and your foot slips on ice or oil, making you fall and hurt your back, you get no fault benefits (if you have insurance)
However, if you are injured-on-the job, you cannot get no fault benefits; you are limited to workers compensation; also, if you have both feet planted on the ground and slip while walking away, you cannot get no fault benefits.
If, for example, you’re working on a vehicle’s engine and the hood slams and cuts off your finger, you get no fault benefits (if you have no fault insurance). You must be hurt as a “direct result of physical contact with equipment permanently mounted on the vehicle while the equipment was being operated or used.”
They include wage loss (85% of your lost wages, up to a monthly limit); “replacement services” (paying people to do work you would have done but for the injury, such as cutting grass, cooking, shopping, doing laundry); “attendant care” (paying people to help you bathe, dress, take medications, watch over you if you’re brain damaged), and medical bills to the extent your health insurance doesn’t cover them.