If you work for a big company with offices in multiple locations, or if your job just requires you to travel between different worksites on a regular basis, you may spend some or most of your working hours in a motor vehicle owned by your employer. If you get into an auto accident while driving that vehicle, you may have multiple options for seeking financial compensation afterward, especially if you were actively on the job when the wreck occurred.
That said, company car accidents in Las Vegas can be difficult to recover from in financial and personal terms. People who try to do so without legal representation rarely get the positive case results they want. Fortunately, our dedicated Las Vegas car accident lawyers at Shook & Stone are here to guide you through your specific claim and ensure you get paid everything you deserve through workers’ compensation, insurance, civil litigation, or potentially a combination of all three.
Does Workers’ Comp Cover Company Car Crashes?
Often, the important thing when it comes to workers’ comp coverage for company car crashes in Las Vegas is not the fact that the car was the employer’s product, but instead that the collision happened as part of the driver’s working day. As a result, there are numerous scenarios in which someone driving a company-owned car would be considered a work-related task for the purposes of workers’ compensation coverage, such as:
- Making deliveries
- Providing services directly to customers
- Traveling between worksites
- Doing something as simple as picking up lunch orders for coworkers
That said, if someone is an independent contractor driving a car owned by the company they are performing contract work for, they may not be covered by workers’ comp since they are not considered an employee. According to our Las Vegas personal injury lawyers, there may also be exceptions made to workers’ comp coverage if an employee is significantly at fault for a company car wreck—for instance, because they were driving drunk.
How Fault Can Affect Recovery After a Company Car Wreck
Comparative fault for a company car wreck in Las Vegas can have a massive effect on financial recovery efforts through means other than a workers’ comp claim. If you try to file a civil suit or seek recovery through an insurance claim against someone else involved in such an incident, the fact that you were partially or primarily at fault for causing the crash could be held against you as a proportional reduction from your final damage award or even as a reason to deny you compensation altogether.
It is also worth noting that successfully filing suit over this sort of accident requires proving that someone else was at fault for causing it, which is a significant departure from how workers’ comp benefits function. In Nevada, workers’ comp covers certain losses stemming from work-related accidents on a fault-free basis. So, unless a worker is substantially to blame for their own injuries, as discussed above, the fault for a company car crash generally should not play into the workers’ comp recovery process at all.
A Las Vegas Attorney Can Help Handle a Company Car Accident
Driving an employer-owned car can feel different from driving your own personal vehicle, especially in a high-traffic area like Sin City.
If you were recently involved in a company car accident in Las Vegas, you have support available from seasoned legal professionals with long track records of case success. Call Shook & Stone today to discuss your recover options during a free consultation.
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