Posts Tagged ‘uninsured injury’

There is a legal requirement that NJ employers acquire and carry workers compensation insurance at all times. This insurance should cover all employees of the company, including new hires. It is a non-negotiable and extremely firm requirement that exempts few NJ employers. The structure of the workers compensation insurance obtained by your NJ employer may vary, but the legal obligation to protect workers through a policy is finite.

Yet, each year a small number of NJ employers neglect their workers compensation policies, fail to renew plans, forget to pay premiums, or just choose to take the legal risk and not obtain the mandatory insurance. What should an injured worker do if they discover their NJ employer doesn’t have workers compensation insurance?

#1: Determine There Isn’t an Applicable Exception

Upon the discovery that an NJ employer doesn’t have workers compensation insurance, your first step is confirming the employer is violating an NJ law. There are two major exceptions to the requirement to carry workers compensation insurance. You should be certain your employer doesn’t fall outside the insurance obligations.

First, the workers compensation law in NJ exempts any employer covered by a federal program from the workers compensation insurance requirements. This is a blanket exception, meaning it is applicable to all employers that receive insurance commitments from a federal program, but it is also extremely limited. There are few employers in NJ that would meet the criteria of the exception.

The second exception is applicable to employers that qualify for self-insurance. Again, …

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