Although the right of an employee is imputed upon leaving their home to go to work, rehabilitation from and to their “place of employment” for injury is subject to restriction. A worker who is injured at work is subjected to health benefits including coverage of medical expenses (subject to restrictions), reimbursement for income loss and compensation for permanent injury suffered.

If your boss tells you to leave work early so that on the way home you can take some parcels to the post office and kill someone in a serious car crash, is your employer responsible for the injuries you have caused? Sure, the employer most definitely is responsible for conduct that an employee uses his or her personal vehicle for business purposes.

If you are indeed on the job when a serious accident happens, the employer is likely to be liable for injuries and losses that you have incurred under a vicarious liability rule. The question arises, were you actually on the job when the accident happened? What about traveling to work? Are you covered?

Generally speaking, the employer cannot be held liable for injuries that occur while commuting to and from work. Employers in Texas must either subscribe to the Houston Workers ‘ Compensation Lawyer or face exposure to workplace claims that damage the job, known as non-subscriber cases. To put it as simply as possible, employers in most cases are responsible for providing some sort of compensation to workers if their injuries occurred on – the-job.

Exception

As you can see, workers ‘ compensation law has to determine who’s covered in all kinds of work. Some industries, such as truck drivers, see workers traveling straight from home to work site, or are road based.

It is well known that a worker can be on a journey from a place of residence to a place of work at the same time. Therefore, if your career is one that allows you to travel by its very nature, or even better you are paid to travel for work, then remote team management software you may have a claim under a whole host of different laws to offer a positive right to compensation.

Are you acting at the time of the accident, within the scope of your employment?

Running an errand in your private car

When you comply with the order of your employer to take packages to the post office and have a serious car wreck on the way, you will most likely be working within the framework of the job because your employer profits from your action to take the company packages to the post office in your personal car.

You are at work. But if you dropped off the packages, stopped for dinner and were on your way home when you had an accident, driving home after dinner did not benefit your employer so you were no longer “on the job” and your employer would not be responsible.

Business site to business site

This situation is a bit more complicated and depends on a number of variables. Almost never is your employer responsible for a serious accident that you may have on your way to and from work. But if your job requires you to stop inspecting a job site, pick up supplies, make a sales call or any other business-related activity, your employer will be responsible if you cause an automobile accident negligently.

Insurance Policies for Employer and Employee

Personal vehicle insurance policies may or may not allow car owners to use their cars for business purposes, with one exception referred to as the livery exception. It ensures that if you use your car to transport goods or people in exchange for money, insurance cover does not apply. That refers when using the car, such as a taxi or a delivery van, rather than a mere business errand.

Conclusion

Like us lawyers, many workers are office-based. We travel by car, bus, train, ferry, bicycle or even just using our legs from home to work. On our way to work, many injuries are suffered (many by no fault of our own).

Regrettably, in these cases most workers have lost their right to workers compensation.There are exceptions though. To know if you fall into one of these cases, we need to look at the entire situation in the workplace–your job contract, what you’re paying for, your responsibilities and the reasons for your travel.

If you’re injured in a motor vehicle or car accident it is best to contact our Houston Personal injury Lawyers to ensure that you obtain full access to any entitlements you may have.