If you were injured while working on another person’s property you may be entitled to compensation.
If you are injured on another person’s personal property you may be allowed to receive compensation from their homeowners insurance if their negligence was the cause of your accident. This may also apply to a person who has been hired by the homeowner to do repairs or maintenance work around the house. Some instances may be referred to workers’ compensation, while others will fall under personal injury. If you have recently been treated for an injury that you received while laboring on a persons home, speak with a Missouri personal injury attorney before discussing the case with any insurance adjusters.
Personal Injury or Workers Compensation?
Employees of certain types of businesses, landscaping companies for example, are often sent to do job related work on a home. If they are injured while mowing a lawn, the injury occurred in the scope of their job and is typically covered by workers’ compensation. If the homeowner was negligent in any way, say by supplying a mower known to be dangerous, then it is up to the business owner to then file suit against him if he chooses. On the other hand, if the homeowner had hired the neighbors’ son to cut the grass, and the same injury occurred, the responsibility to pay for the injury would generally fall on the shoulders of his homeowners insurance. A day laborer is not eligible for workman’s compensation benefits.
Proving Negligence
Proving a homeowner’s negligence in an accident is not easy. You must be able to show that they were aware of the risk and did not repair it, or give you fair warning of it. Insurance companies know the difficulties to a plaintiff in these types of cases, and work hard to avoid having to pay any compensation. They will do their best to find evidence that your actions also put you at fault for your injury. It is best to not speak directly with any insurance company unless it is in the presence of a Missouri personal injury attorney.
A mentally handicapped laborer was awarded a 1.2 million dollar judgment by a jury after falling off of a ladder on a neighbor’s property. The case only went to trial after the insurance companies’ refusal to settle for the $100,000 policy limit. The defendant in this case had asked the plaintiff to help him cut some trees on his property. He had no experience with this type of work, but the homeowner allowed him to climb a ladder and start cutting branches. A misplacement of the ladder by the homeowner caused the laborer to fall from the tree and injure his wrists and shoulder. While the jury did award a substantial sum well over the insurance policy limit, they also assigned almost half the fault of the accident to the plaintiff.
Speak With a Personal Injury Attorney
In any instance of personal injury, it is vital that you speak with a Missouri personal injury attorney before anyone else. While helping a neighbor out with an unpleasant task may seem like the right thing to do, defense will try and find evidence that you were well aware of the risk and proceeded anyway. Any proof of that can affect the amount of your compensation immensely.
photo credit: Habeeb Abu-Futtaim Photography
