04 Feb Personal Injury and Subcontractors- Know Your Rights
Can a Subcontractor Sue for Personal Injury?
Wikipedia defines a subcontractor as an individual or even a business that signs a contract to “perform part or all of the obligations of another's contract.” This clearly indicates that a subcontractor is not an employee. Rather, a general contractor hires the subcontractor to perform specific tasks related to the overall project.
The financial advantages of hiring a subcontractor are many according to Business Link:
• Flexibility
• Lower cost on salary
• Lower cost on taxes, insurance
• Specialist expertise
• Less reliance on in-house specialists
• Specify duration and type of work
• Mitigation of project risk
Therefore, it seems like a fair question: is the employer or the contractor at fault if a subcontractor injures himself during working hours? After all, the subcontractor is not an employee, and therefore has no such recourse as worker’s compensation. Technically speaking, a self-employed individual has injured himself in the course of a job.
Legally speaking, Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary defines personal injury as “An injury not to property, but to the body, mind, or emotions.” The interpretations of that law can be very broad indeed. It is important to determine the “proximate cause” in a personal injury case. This refers to an event that precedes the injury and is sufficiently related to a legally recognizable injury.
If you have been injured as the result of someone’s negligence, whether you work as an employee or help out as a subcontractor, then you may have a personal injury case on your hands. Contact the Rasansky Law Firm at 1-877-659-1620 and relate the details of your case.
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