Ouch! The Costs of Working for Someone Who Has No Worker's Compensation Insurance

Worker's compensation insurance is insurance that your employer is required to have. It provides benefits such as medical payments and living expenses if you are injured on the job. So what do you think happens to an employee if their boss does not carry worker's compensation insurance? According to www.nj.com, stories about workers fighting for benefits is common. Here is a story about a cab driver that worked for a company that did not provide benefits:

"In July 1994, Adel Hanna began driving a cab for Terminal Taxi in Jersey City. To get the job, he had signed a two-page lease in which he promised to drive 12 hours a day and pay the company $450 a week. The form also stated that Hanna was not an employee and was responsible for any injuries to himself or passengers.

Late the next year, Hanna got into an accident in the cab, rupturing discs in his back. After the crash, he could drive only four or five hours each day. In 1997, he filed a claim for disability payments and help with his medical bills. The cab company denied it owed him anything and won 19 trial adjournments in five years.

After a workers' compensation judge finally ruled in Hanna's favor in December 2002 -- awarding him $27,000 in disability payments and $3,000 for medical bills -- Terminal Taxi appealed the decision.

Fifteen months later, a New Jersey appeals court affirmed the judge's ruling and criticized the system for the "inexcusable" delays.

"We also cannot understand how the division allowed this disability claim to be postponed repeatedly," the appellate panel wrote."