If more than one party was involved in your on-the-job accident, workers’ compensation may not be your only source of recovery. A third-party injury is any workplace harm caused by someone other than your employer — and when a third party is at fault, you can bring a personal injury claim against them while still retaining your workers’ compensation rights.
What counts as a workplace third-party injury
A third-party injury is harm brought on by a party other than your employer. If you are hurt at work by defective machinery, or you are in a truck wreck caused by defective tires, the injury is attributed to the equipment manufacturer — making that company potentially liable for your damages. Both Texas law (Tex. Lab. Code Sec. 417.001) and Louisiana law let injured workers bring claims directly against the third parties whose negligence caused their injuries.
Common types of third-party claims
Workers’ compensation covers most basic on-the-job injuries, but several scenarios open a separate third-party claim against an at-fault party:
- Product liability — an on-the-job injury from a defective product, whether a design defect, a manufacturing defect, or inadequate warnings. You may collect workers’ compensation and still sue the product’s manufacturer.
- Auto accidents — another driver hits you while you are making a delivery or running a work errand. You can pursue the other driver’s insurance and a workers’ compensation claim at the same time.
- Premises liability — you are injured on the property of a company your employer does not own, such as during a site visit or home call, because of that owner’s negligence.
- Industrial and construction worksites — a general contractor, who may not be your employer, is typically responsible for site safety. If you work for a subcontractor and the entity controlling the site causes your injury, a third-party lawsuit may apply.
Uninsured motorist wrinkle
If you are hurt by an uninsured driver while working, the uninsured motorist (UM) carrier is not treated as a third party in a workers’ compensation claim. An injured worker generally cannot recover from a UM carrier covering them or their employer. Whether the employer or its comp insurer can be reimbursed from a UM policy depends on factors like whether the UM policy excludes repayment of workers’ compensation benefits and who paid the UM premiums.
Reimbursement, subrogation, and fault
Filing both a comp claim and a third-party claim does not let you recover the same damages twice. Through subrogation — the legal procedure that lets an insurer recover benefits it already paid — the employer or its insurer can intervene in the third-party lawsuit to recoup workers’ compensation payments. The injured worker then receives the excess of the third-party recovery. The exception is a waiver of subrogation, which gives up the insurer’s right to recover from the liable third party or from the worker’s settlement.
Fault shifts these numbers. If a worker’s recovery is reduced by comparative negligence, the employer’s or insurer’s reimbursement is reduced by the same percentage. Where the employer itself shares fault, that share is assessed as a percentage of the total fault and the insurer’s recovery is reduced accordingly — without reallocating that fault to any other party.
Why these claims are worth pursuing
When workers’ compensation is not enough to cover the financial toll of a serious injury, a third-party claim can reach the damages comp leaves on the table. These cases are difficult — they turn on the statutes and case law governing your state’s workers’ compensation system — so identifying every at-fault party early matters. If you believe more than one party is responsible for your work injury, an injury lawyer can review the facts and determine whether you have a viable claim beyond workers’ compensation.