In Arizona, workers cannot receive workers’ compensation for emotional distress. This is one of the features of workers’ compensation: in return for foregoing their right to sue employers in most cases for work-related harms, workers do not need to prove negligence on the part of employers to collect workers’ compensation benefits.
However, there are certain cases in which a worker may be able to sue for emotional distress (pain and suffering) caused by an injury that occurs during employment.
If you have questions about the damages you can recover in a workers’ compensation claim, please call Matt Fendon Law Group at (800) 229-3880 or use our contact form.
Why Does Workers’ Comp Not Allow Emotional Distress Damages?
In personal injury claims, plaintiffs usually seek economic and non-economic damages.
- Economic damages are for direct kinds of harm, like lost wages, medical treatment expenses, and property damage.
- Non-economic damages are for more subjective, indirect harm, like pain and suffering damages, mental anguish, loss of companionship, and emotional distress damages.
Of these two kinds of damages, non-economic damages often carry the greater risk of a big damages award for personal injury defendants.
This is because direct damages are subject to what the plaintiff can prove in terms of calculated costs: for example, the number of hours lost from work, medical bills incurred, or costs to repair or replace damaged or destroyed property items.
Non-economic damages are not subject to direct calculation.
The jury in a civil trial for personal injury can assign a value to claims for emotional distress that have no connection to any objective formula. What this means is that non-economic damages can easily outstrip the amount of economic damages: a case in which the defendant may owe $50,000 in direct damages can include non-economic damages of hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.
Non-economic damages awards from employee personal injury lawsuits connected with a work-related injury can be ruinous to employers. Similarly, the potential for large non-economic damages claims against workers’ compensation insurance can make this kind of insurance impractical. The employer insurance premiums could become unaffordable, or the insurance system itself could run out of money to pay claims for workplace injuries.
To avoid these problems, under Arizona law, workers’ compensation insurance claims do not pay disability benefits for non-economic damages like pain and suffering compensation or emotional distress.
Can an Employee Hurt at Work Still Receive Emotional Distress Damages?
Two situations still exist in which an injured worker can make a claim for pain and suffering:
- When the employer (generally, an owner of the company) intentionally causes the harm and the outcome the worker suffers; and
- When someone other than the employer (a third party) causes the harm the employee suffers during the course of employment.
We consider each of these situations in more detail below.
Intentional Conduct by the Employer
Arizona Workers’ Compensation protects employers from negligence-based employee personal injury lawsuits, but it does not shield them from the consequences of purposeful wrongdoing that hurts an employee.
For example, let’s consider an employee who works as a delivery driver for a company.
If during a delivery run the worker is injured in a motor vehicle accident caused by the employer’s negligence in maintaining the delivery truck, workers’ compensation will pay for the employee’s direct damages-based injuries, but the employer is safe from any emotional distress claims from the employee.
But what happens if the employer and the employee have a falling out at work? Say, the employee makes a “whistleblower” claim against the employer for what he or she believes to be corrupt activities, and the employer retaliates by cutting the brake lines of the delivery truck, which causes the brakes to fail and the injury-causing accident to happen?
This is a different case, because here the employer’s wrongful conduct is intentional. This is called the “willful misconduct” exception to the exclusive remedy of workers’ compensation.
Here, the employee has the option to file a personal injury claim in court against the employer for the intentional wrongful act. If the employee dies because the injury happened as a result of the employer’s misconduct, then the surviving family members of the employee could sue the employer for wrongful death.
This lawsuit would replace a workers’ compensation claim. Thus, non-economic damages, including emotional distress and even punitive damages, are now possible to recover against the employer.
Wrongful Acts by Third Parties
Arizona Workers’ Compensation insures employers. It does not insure third parties who injure workers who are performing their employment duties.
If we return to our delivery driver example above, let’s say that two factors contributed to the cause of the delivery run truck accident:
- The wrongful conduct of another driver, who was speeding while driving under the influence of alcohol; and
- The negligent repair of the truck’s brakes by a company the employer hired to maintain them made it impossible for the driver to stop the truck in time to avoid the collision.
The employer could not prevent the negligent behavior of these third parties.
In this situation, the delivery driver can file a personal injury claim against both of these third parties. If the employee prevails in the personal injury claims against these third-party defendants, then under an Arizona personal injury lawsuit, non-economic damages are recoverable against them—including damages for emotional distress.
How Does Workers’ Compensation Work in Combination With Third-Party Lawsuits?
As we mentioned above, personal injury claims include both economic and non-economic damages.
In the delivery driver’s lawsuit against the two third parties above, the personal injury lawsuit claims could include lost wages, medical treatment costs, and personal property damage.
This does not preclude the worker from making a workers’ compensation claim because the accident happened during the course of employment.
So, does this mean that the worker can collect twice for these direct damage costs, like medical expenses, once from workers’ compensation and again from the third-party defendants?
No. Instead, if third parties are liable for costs that workers’ compensation would otherwise pay to the injured worker, then those third parties would be held liable to pay, not workers’ compensation.
- The workers’ compensation insurance company would be able to reclaim any additional compensation amounts it paid in benefits to the injured worker that amount to double payment to the worker.
- The third parties would still be liable to pay the non-economic damages awarded to the injured worker; these are unaffected by a simultaneous workers’ compensation claim.
Does a Personal Injury Claim Affect Your Workers’ Comp Claim Filing Requirements?
Filing a personal injury claim in Arizona has a different time restriction than filing a workers’ compensation claim.
You have two years under the Arizona personal injury statute of limitations to file claims against third parties (or against an employer who acted intentionally).
However, it is technically only a one-year statute of limitation if there is an Arizona workers’ compensation claim, because in Year 2, the worker’s compensation insurance carrier automatically takes the right from the injured worker to bring the lawsuit against the third party.
Do You Have a Claim for Emotional Distress from a Workplace Accident?
If you have a serious workplace injury, Matt Fendon Law Group specializes in helping many injured workers like you negotiate settlements for their workers’ comp claims under Arizona law.
- We will help you gather the information you need to support a workers’ compensation claim.
- We will give you the legal support to file your claim with your employer and its insurer.
- We will help you get the medical care you need for your work injury.
- We will help you receive the partial wage replacement and medical benefits you need by representing you to negotiate a structured settlement or a full and final lump sum payment for your workplace injury claims.
- We will partner you with a top-tier personal injury law firm to assist with the third party claim.
If you have any problems with your workers’ compensation claim, including a claim denial by the insurance carrier or trouble with the Industrial Commission of Arizona, our experienced workers’ compensation attorneys can help you resolve these problems.
We Are Arizona Workers’ Compensation Benefits Specialists
The legal avenues for Arizona Workers’ Compensation and Arizona personal injury laws work independently. Although we do not represent clients in third-party negligence cases connected with employment, we can help you identify possible third-party claims and possible non-economic damages you may have against others.
We can also assist you in finding a personal injury lawyer who can represent you if you have a simultaneous personal injury claim against one or more third parties, or in a case where you are suing your employer for intentional harm done to you.
Call the Matt Fendon Law Group Today
If you have any questions about how the Arizona workers’ compensation system works, including emotional distress damages, then call Matt Fendon Law Group at (800) 229-3880 or use our contact form to speak with one of our highly experienced workers’ compensation benefits attorneys.
Remember, both workers’ compensation law and Arizona personal injury lawsuits have time limits in which you must act to preserve your physical injury claims and recover compensation. Don’t wait—call Matt Fendon Law Group now.
