Workers Comp Information
Spouse and dependent's rights
1) Can a wife recover for loss of services in workers' compensation?
No. The benefits are paid to the worker for the worker's loss. Additionally, there are no punitive damage awards available under workers' compensation programs. Benefits in workers' compensation are limited and supposedly expeditiously paid. The legal defenses available in a civil action such as comparative negligence and assumption of the risk are not available to the employer in workers' compensation.
2) Do survivors of a worker whose death is caused by an on-the-job accident get worker's compensation benefits?
If a worker dies as the result of injury or exposure on-the-job, death benefits are paid to the surviving spouse and to any minor children (or under certain circumstances, other dependent relatives of the deceased worker). There is a maximum cap on the amount of such benefits.
Also, dependency benefits are usually paid to the dependents of the deceased worker. Dependency status is usually determined by the law, but a spouse and children living with the decedent at the time of his or her death are in many jurisdictions presumed to be dependents. The amount of the dependency benefits is usually determined by the wages in effect at the time of the accident. |
