Friend severed fingers on a job site yesterday!

[David A.]

Hi all,

I have a friend that had an accident yesterday while remodeling a home. He had to be airlifted to the hospital and lost two fingers. He has been working for a guy for the past 7 years or so doing remodeling on his rentals and what he has told me he does not have any written agreement and has been getting paid per day or per job. What benefits if any could he receive from his boss? He is distraught, has 2 kids and has no idea what he can do for work until he can recover. Thank you for any answers

[J Scott]

Depends on the details...

I'm not an attorney, and certainly not a workers comp attorney, but if it's determined that the work he did for the guy constituted an employer/employee relationship, he'd likely be entitled to WC benefits under the employer's insurance.  If the employer didn't have WC insurance, I could imagine lawsuits and lots of ugly state WC stuff happening, and your friend may or may not get paid.  

Again, not a legal opinion, as I have no legal training...

Btw, the question of whether the relationship constituted an employee/employer one is going to have very little to do with whether they called themselves an employee and an employer (like many people think).  The relationship is defined by many things, including:

- Did your friend work exclusively/mostly for this guy?

- Did your friend have discretion with respect to when and how things got done?

- Was your friend allowed to sub out the work to others?

- Who supplied the tools?

- Did you friend have to work set hours?

- Did your friend work out of a business entity or under his own name?

- Was there contracts in place?  What did they say?

- Etc...

Your friend should probably contact an attorney...