Workers' compensation

Workers' compensation is a system of insurance benefits for employees injured or made ill in connection with work. It commonly provides medical care and wage replacement while limiting lawsuits against employers.

Workers' compensation claim: A request for workers' compensation benefits after a work-related injury or illness. The claim process determines whether an injury qualifies and which benefits are available.
Employment: A relationship in which a person performs work for an organization or another person under agreed conditions. Eligibility generally depends on whether the injured person counts as an employee.
Tort: A civil wrong that causes legally recognized harm and may give rise to a damages claim. Workers' compensation generally replaces an employee's ordinary negligence claim against the employer.
Occupational safety and health: The prevention and control of workplace hazards that can cause injury or illness. Reducing hazards can prevent the injuries and claims the system covers.
Industrial Revolution: The period of major industrialization that began in Britain in the eighteenth century and spread elsewhere. Industrial work expanded the scale of workplace injury and pressure for legal reform.
Occupational injury: Physical harm sustained in the course of work or because of workplace conditions. Injuries connected to work are a central basis for compensation claims.
Independent contractor: A self-employed worker who performs services under a contract rather than as an employee. Contractors are often excluded, though legal classification depends on jurisdiction and facts.
Negligence: Failure to use the care that a reasonable person would use in similar circumstances. Workers usually need not prove employer negligence to receive statutory benefits.
Return to work: The process of helping an injured or ill worker resume employment after an absence. Modified duties can support recovery while reducing prolonged wage-loss benefits.
Employers' Liability Acts: Nineteenth-century laws that modified or limited employer defenses in workplace injury lawsuits. These laws addressed some problems workers faced under ordinary negligence litigation.

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