What is employer liability in personal injury cases?

Updated on December 19, 2020

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Personal injuries can happen in a variety of situations. You may visit a store, a drugstore, or a restaurant and suffer an injury there. In any of those scenarios, you may have direct contact with an employee and suffer an injury directly as a result of that interaction. If this happens, you may want to know if you can bring a case against the employer of whoever harmed you.

Are employers liable for their bad employees?

The great majority of business owners carry general liability insurance in order to protect themselves from property damage and injury claims. These general liability policies cover incidents like slip and fall accidents by customers, errors in advertising, and damage to someone else’s property. They can also cover injuries that are caused by their employees.

What are the legal principles that are used to hold an employer liable for the behavior of their employees?

In these cases, these three legal principles apply:

Respondeat Superior – This phrase translates to “let the boss answer” and makes the point that the employer is responsible for anything that the employees do during their hours at work.

Vicarious Liability – Often paired up with the above principle, this means that the blame is assigned to a person, even though they did not cause the accident but who does have a relationship with whoever caused the injury or harm. In other words, since the employer has a relationship with the employee, the employer can be held liable for actions committed by the employee.

Negligent Hiring – Employers must take reasonable care when hiring an employee. If they hire them without taking reasonable care to make sure they would not harm others or continue to employ them even when they do, the employer becomes liable for the employee.

What happens when the employee is classified as an independent contractor?

Legally, independent contractors are not considered employees of the business. In these cases, a good personal injury attorney is needed to prove that the person responsible for your injuries meets the legal definition of an employee, even if the business does not have them classified as such.

Challenges to Employer Liability Claims

For the employer’s insurance policy to cover an injury attributable to an employee and the Respondeat Superior principle to apply, it must be proven that the employee was performing their job in the way that their employer expected them to.

However, there are many cases where the insurance company contends that the injury happened when the employee was not carrying out their work duties.

Proving that the Employer is Responsible for Your Injuries

While you may be suffering due to your injuries, the burden of proof is on you to prove that the employer of whoever caused you harm is liable for your damages. You must also prove that your injuries are real and that all damages you are claiming were directly the result of your injuries. To do so, you must show that the person at fault was acting within the scope of their duties or that it was the employer who was negligent when they hired this employee.

To have a successful claim, you must gather enough solid evidence to support your claim. Get more information on these and other personal injury cases at personalinjuryattorney-fresno.com.

The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.