If you are injured while on the job, South Carolina’s workers’ compensation system can provide you with medical care, along with partial wage replacement and other benefits.
Employees who are injured in the course and scope of their employment or contract illnesses due to their occupations are generally eligible for workers’ compensation benefits.
Basics of South Carolina’s Workers’ Compensation System
South Carolina’s workers’ compensation laws and regulations require any employer with four or more full-time or part-time workers (including seasonal workers) in South Carolina to carry workers’ compensation insurance.
Sole proprietorships, partnerships, and LLCs are not required to have workers’ compensation insurance coverage for their owners, although they may elect to do so. Certain industries, such as agriculture, railroads, and commission-based real estate, also are exempt from compulsory coverage.
Employers are usually required to purchase private insurance, although some businesses that meet certain requirements can self-insure.
South Carolina workers’ compensation is a “no fault” system. That means that an employer or their insurer is required to pay benefits to an injured or ill employee so long as the employee’s injury or illness arose due to their work for the employer. It does not matter whether the employer, the employee, or someone else was at fault for the accident.
Workers’ compensation benefits can include:
- Medical care – All necessary medical care to treat your work-related injury or illness, such as doctor’s office visits, prescriptions, physical therapy, surgery, and hospital stays. Your employer or their insurer can require you visit a doctor or medical facility on an approved list to receive benefits.
- Partial wage replacement – If you cannot work due to your injury or illness, you can receive payments equal to two-thirds your average weekly wage, capped at the average weekly wage in South Carolina, as determined by the state.
- Disability benefits – If you are temporarily or permanently disabled in some way, you can receive additional cash compensation equal to two-thirds of the employee’s average weekly wage, for a period of time that is determined by the severity of the disability.
Am I Eligible for South Carolina Workers Comp Benefits?
In order to be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits in South Carolina, you must be working for an employer that is subject to the compulsory workers’ compensation insurance requirement or has otherwise elected to obtain workers’ compensation insurance to cover workers in your position.
You must report your injury within 90 days of the accident that caused it or within 90 days of a diagnosis of a work-related illness. If you miss this reporting deadline, you may lose eligibility for benefits. However, after you report your injury, you still have two years to file a claim for benefits.
Workers’ compensation benefits are paid only for an injury or illness that arises from an employee’s work. If an injury or illness is determined to not have arisen from an employee’s work, the employee will not be eligible. For example, you might not be eligible for benefits if you are injured in a car accident driving to or from work, but you might be eligible if the accident occurs while you are driving somewhere during work hours at the direction or request of your employer.
How Can Jebaily Law Firm Help Me?
Do you believe you should be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits, but your employer or its insurer is delaying, denying responsibility, minimizing the extent of your injury or illness, or not paying you the full benefits you believe you are entitled to? Jebaily Law Firm can help you pursue a formal South Carolina workers’ compensation claim.
We can collect all the evidence in your case, including evidence relating to your workplace accident or your work-related illness. We will work with medical and vocational experts to show that your illness or injury is compensable under the workers’ compensation law and prove your entitlement to various types and amounts of workers’ compensation benefits. We will seek a full and fair settlement of your claim.
When settlement is not possible, we can pursue your case in a workers’ compensation hearing or before the courts. We also will pursue other avenues of relief, including third-party tort claims or claims for Social Security disability benefits.
Call us now to speak to an experienced South Carolina worker’s compensation lawyer.
