What Is Workers' Compensation or Workman's Comp?

Workers compensation is a system that exists in all states to protect workers who become hurt on the job or contract an illness as a result of their job. Fundamentally, the system works like this: when a worker becomes injured, rather than sue their employer, they can file a claim for compensation for the employer's workers' comp insurance company. The workers' compensation program used to be known as "workman's comp."

Workers' comp is a no-fault benefit system designed to help workers who have become injured or sick due to their work conditions or environment. Unfortunately, it is also a system whose outcomes are often unfair to sick and injured workers. Because the system is complicated, to win a workers' comp claim, a worker should learn about the workers' compensation system in their state and consider hiring a workers' compensation attorney or lawyer to handle a claim, if they can find one.