This is a common misunderstanding. If you are injured at work, and pursue your workers’ compensation claim, you are not suing your employer. Every employer in the state of Colorado who has employees is required to carry workers’ compensation coverage to provide benefits to injured workers. If benefits are owed, an insurance carrier pays those benefits. Neither are you “suing” the insurance carrier. Pursuing your claim simply means that you are seeking benefits owed to you under the workers’ compensation system which are paid by an insurance company. In fact, when I represent injured workers, I rarely even communicate with the employer – my dealings are with the adjuster who is assigned to the claim for the insurance company. It is that insurance company who is responsible for admitting, or more commonly, denying benefits. It’s my job to get my clients those benefits they are entitled to, but I am not suing the employer to get that accomplished.
