CALL US (402) 491-4003

When are you eligible for workers' compensation?

If you’re wondering if you’re eligible for workers’ compensation, you need to look no further than the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act. You can get these benefits if four different criteria are met. They are as follows:

  1. You were injured or contracted a disease that was directly caused by your employment.

  2. You were not willfully negligent in any way when you were injured. For example, if you neglected to use safety equipment that was provided to you, and you wouldn’t have been hurt if you’d used it, that could be considered willful negligence.

  3. You were doing your normal job, or working in the “usual course of the trade.”

  4. You were injured in Nebraska. Even if you were injured out of state, you may still be eligible if you were primarily located in Nebraska, you were hired there, or the business was based there. For example, if you were sent to another state to pick up parts and materials and you were injured in that state, you would still be covered because you typically worked in Nebraska and had left the state where the company was located as part of your employment duties. Your rights to compensation don’t end just because you crossed state lines.

It’s also important to note that the family of an employee who has been killed on the job may also be able to seek benefits, as long as the same criteria are met regarding that employee.

Once you know that you should be covered, it’s important to know what legal steps you need to take to get the money you are owed.

Source: Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court, “Rights & Obligations under the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Law,” accessed June 24, 2016