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Defending Nonsubscribers

Texas Department of Insurance, Department of Workers Compensation
Texas employers have been opting out of Worker’s Compensation insurance in growing numbers in the past two decades to avoid the program’s high costs.

There are a lot of factors that go into the decision to be a nonsubscriber. How big is the company? What is their loss record? What are their comp premiums? Is it going to be a cost-saving measure from year to year? That just scratches the surface. There are so many questions, and there isn’t a cookie-cutter answer. More Information here
The big issue is how comfortable the employer is with allowing a jury to determine negligence.

Typically in a civil lawsuit, comparative liability deems that a Defendant can be held proportionately liable for a Plaintiff’s damages. If a jury finds a Plaintiff is thirty percent at fault, Defendant pays seventy percent of the damages. In Texas, if a Plaintiff is found to be fifty-one percent at fault, then Defendant pays no damages.

However, in nonsubscriber cases, if a jury finds a Defendant to be even one percent at fault, that Defendant is one hundred percent liable. Add to that the fact that the employer cannot show evidence that the employee was negligent or that the employee knew the risks and voluntarily proceeded. Nonsubscribers face a difficult challenge in the courtroom.

What’s key to being a nonsubscriber is having an attorney who is experienced in dealing with these limitations. Our Law Firm has found that many attorneys, unaccustomed to the critical differences, fail to grasp nonsubscribers’ intricacies.

Rather than try to spread liability, the defense must look to what the employer did by training, supervision, providing safety equipment, and providing a safe environment so that the one-percent threshold can be defused by showing how reasonably the employer acted. If the employer can show that it took reasonable steps and nothing it did or failed to do caused the accident. The fact that an employee was injured is not an indication of negligence. To that end, your approach to the case must be a little different.

The differences in handling nonsubscriber lawsuits may be subtle, such as refocusing questions in discovery or depositions, but an employer’s attorney must understand those differences. Our Law Firm has the necessary experience.

Our Law Firm has handled nonsubscriber cases for fifteen years and has worked with various employers. We are familiar with the nuances of nonsubscriber cases, how to evaluate them, and prepare them for trial.