Other Employer Defenses to Bar Recovery In a New Jersey Workers’ Comp Claim

Other defenses that an employer or its insurance carrier may claim in attempting to bar recovery of benefits in a workers’ compensation claim include employment not being the sole cause of the workplace injury and the injury being caused by neutral risks.

However, just because an employer raises a defense, it does not mean that you are automatically ineligible for benefits. With an aggressive New Jersey worker’s comp lawyer by your side, you will get the benefits to which you are entitled.

Employment As a Contributing Factor

In order for a workplace injury to be covered under New Jersey’s workers’ compensation laws, you do not need to prove that your employment was the significant or only cause of your injury. Rather, your New Jersey worker’s comp lawyer will only need to prove a slight connection between your injury and the your employment.

New Jersey courts have noted that employers must take their employees as they find them. In other words, if the circumstance, which caused the injury, is “unlooked for,” the employment or its insurance carrier does not have a defense and must compensate the employee for his or her workplace injuries.

Neutral Risks

Neutral risks are uncontrollable circumstances that do not originate in the workplace but which happen to befall the employee during the course of his or her employment. Examples of neutral risks include lightening, a stray bullet, and an unexpected criminal attack.

If your employer or its insurance carrier can successfully prove that such an accident, which is deemed to have an insufficient causal relation to the employment, was the cause of your injury, you will not be entitled to any compensation under New Jersey workers’ compensation laws.

Contact Us

For more information about the various defenses that your employer or its insurance carrier can raise in barring your recovery to workers’ compensation benefits, call New Jersey worker’s comp lawyer Dan Matrafajlo at (908) 248-4404.