A workplace injury can threaten your health and your livelihood. In Massachusetts, most injured workers are covered by workers' compensation, but that is not always the end of the story — when a third party's negligence contributes to a work injury, an additional personal injury claim may be available for fuller compensation.
Workers' Compensation in Massachusetts
Massachusetts requires most employers to carry workers' compensation insurance, which provides benefits regardless of fault — including coverage for medical treatment, a portion of lost wages, and permanent disability benefits. Workers' comp is generally the exclusive remedy against your own employer, meaning you usually cannot sue your employer directly for a workplace injury.
Reporting your injury promptly and following the proper claims process is essential. Disputes over benefits, denied claims, and inadequate treatment authorizations are common, and many injured workers benefit from legal guidance.
Third-Party Personal Injury Claims
While you generally cannot sue your employer, you can pursue a separate personal injury claim against a negligent third party. This is common in construction, where a property owner, general contractor, subcontractor, equipment manufacturer, or another company's worker may have caused or contributed to your injury. A third-party claim can recover damages that workers' comp does not, including full lost wages and pain and suffering.
Identifying every potentially responsible party is one of the most valuable things an attorney does in a workplace injury case, because it can dramatically increase your total recovery.
Common Massachusetts Workplace Injuries
Construction sites, hospitals, warehouses, and factories see falls from heights, scaffolding and ladder accidents, being struck by equipment or falling objects, machinery injuries, electrocutions, and repetitive-stress and lifting injuries. Many of these involve dangerous conditions or equipment supplied by parties other than the employer, which opens the door to a third-party claim alongside workers' compensation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Usually not directly — workers' compensation is generally the exclusive remedy against your employer. But you may have a separate claim against a negligent third party.
A personal injury claim against someone other than your employer — such as a contractor, property owner, or equipment manufacturer — whose negligence contributed to your work injury. It can recover damages workers' comp does not.
Generally three years from the date of injury under Massachusetts law. Workers' comp has its own separate deadlines.
Nothing upfront. Our network attorneys work on contingency — no fee unless they recover compensation for you.
Injured in Massachusetts? Your free case review is one call away. Reach us at 973-566-5599 — available 24/7, no fee unless you win.