888-900-0205Lost Wages and Medical Care
If you employ even just one person in your veterinary office, workers compensation is a legal necessity. The requirement for holding this type of insurance is to protect you from very serious expenses associated with accidents in the workplace. Your business insurance is there to provide the medical expenses your injured worker needs as well as their lost wages when they cannot return to work.
Business Travel Protection
If you ever need to send an employee out of state for work, you need to be sure they will be covered. If you have a typical workers compensation policy for your veterinary office, you may only get coverage for medical expenses and lost wages if an accident occurs within the state. If travel is a possibility you may want to purchase optional coverage.
Employer’s Liability
The workers compensation that you have for your veterinary office is a no-fault type of business insurance. This means that your hurt employee does not need to prove you were responsible to receive compensation. But, if they do believe it can be proven, they may choose to sue you in the hopes of getting more money. Your workers comp policy includes employer’s liability to protect you from legal fees and damages associated with the suit brought against you.
Employer’s Liability In Monopolistic States
In monopolistic states, business owners are required by law to purchase their workers compensation policies from a state fund. Any payments made to employees come from this fund. If you have your business in one of these states, you need to be sure that you are covered for employer’s liability. It may not be included in a typical policy for your veterinary office workers compensation. If it is not, you may consider purchasing it as additional coverage.
Legal Expenses
Although it may be tough to believe that one of your employers would sue you, it is a definite possibility. The expense of facing down a law suit can be tremendous and for this reason having coverage for employer’s liability within your veterinary office workers compensation is very important. You could be faced with attorney fees, investigative costs, charges from the court, and damages to your employee if they are successful.
Third-Party Suits
Another instance that is possible with respect to law suits and an accident involving an employee is that you could be sued by a third party. In the event that your employee feels they can prove that someone besides you or your business was liable for their injury, they could sue this third party. The third party may in turn sue you or your office if they think the blame is yours. The legal fees associated with this scenario could be steep. It is important, therefore, to have employer’s liability within your veterinary office workers compensation insurance.