More than 245,000 injuries and illnesses were reported by Florida employers in 2002, according to a joint federal and state survey. Industries involving wholesale, retail trade and services experienced the greatest number of incidents, with 32 percent of the total reported cases. Construction and manufacturing industries together ranked second with 10 percent each of the total cases.

Workers in the agriculture, farming and fishing industries had the highest incidence rate, with 7.4 injuries and illnesses reported per 100 workers. The industries with the lowest incidence rate was finance, insurance and real estate.

Employers are required to provide a reasonably safe workplace. This includes safe equipment, proper training, posting of warnings, and compliance with safety regulations. The Florida workplace injury attorneys of Rosen & Rosen have observed some patterns in accidents at work, and understand how to document injuries and workplace accidents.

Among the most common causes of serious work injuries are accidents involving falling objects, workers falling from elevated equipment or structures, highway accidents and those involving cars, trucks, forklifts, factory machinery and other devices. Other causes include electrocution and carbon monoxide poisoning. Our accident attorneys help employees with claims and lawsuits, including those whose injuries involve:

• Slips and falls at work
• Repetitive stress, back strain and other ergonomically based injuries
• Construction site injuries
• Equipment malfunction
• Motor vehicle accidents
• Lifting injuries and needle sticks in hospital or nursing home jobs
• Injuries traveling to work

Many times a workplace injury is the result of the negligence of someone unconnected with the employer. In those types of cases, a separate civil suit can be brought against that person for both economic and non-economic damages. This is called a third-party action. Your employer cannot be subject to a civil suit -- anything with the employer must be handled through the workers compensation process.

If you successfully recover damages for someone besides your employer, however, your employer’s insurance company may seek reimbursement for the sums expended on your behalf for disability payments and medical care. This is called a lien.

The employer’s insurance company has to reduce their request for reimbursement to reflect the employer’s fault. They may also get a credit against future payments for medical care, requiring you to first expend all of the monies you recovered in the third party suit, before they pay any additional medical bills. The attorneys of Rosen & Rosen will work with you to reduce any lien that may exist on your case.

The amount of compensation paid to an employee depends upon the classification of his or her disability:

• Permanent total disability: 66 2/3 percent of the employee’s average weekly wage
• Temporary total disability: 66 2/3 percent of the employee’s average weekly wage, up to 104 weeks
• Permanent impairment benefits: 75 percent of the employee’s average weekly temporary total disability; impairment benefits are reduced by 50 percent for each week the employee earns income equal to or more than his or her average weekly wage
• Temporary partial disability: 80 percent of the difference between 80 percent of the employee’s average weekly wage and the wage the employee is able to earn after being injured, up to 66 2/3 percent of the employee’s average weekly wage at the time of the accident

If you or someone you know was seriously hurt on the job, you may want to contact a workplace injury lawyer for a free evaluation of your case.

Whether or not there is a defendant other than the employer in your case, it is important that you have your case reviewed by an experienced lawyer. Contact the Rosen & Rosen law firm to put 50 years of combined legal experience to work on your workplace injury claim.