Does your employer have to offer workers’ compensation?

You likely go to work every day in San Antonio confident that if you were to be injured in an accident while on the job, your employer would take of you (after all, that is what workers’ compensation insurance is for, right). Getting the news, then, that your employer does not carry such coverage can be quite jarring. Like most, you probably assumed that all companies are required to carry workers’ compensation for their employees. Many states do indeed make such coverage mandatory; is Texas one of them?

According to the Texas Department of Insurance, the answer to that question is no. Private companies in the state are allowed to opt-out of carrying such coverage, provided that they let the state’s Division of Workers’ Compensation know of their intentions on an annual basis. This does not mean, however, that all is lost as far your injury case is concerned; on the contrary, it might make it easier for you to get compensation for your accident expenses.

First off, you cannot be blindsided by such news. If your employer chooses not to carry workers’ compensation insurance, it must inform you of that when you are hired. It must also post notices in your workplace that make you and your coworkers of that fact. If it has not, then you may immediately may have a claim against it.

Of course, you already. That is because the TDI states that if your company does not carry workers’ compensation, you are allowed to sue in order to have your workplace injury expenses paid. In such a lawsuit, your employer cannot argue that yours or another employee’s negligence caused the injury, or that you knew the dangers associated with your job and that you still voluntarily accepted them.