Legal Question in Workers Comp in Maryland

Re: Severly injured at workplace

A person injured at work cannot sue his employer or a fellow employee in a court of law for damages based on negligent conduct. Your friend's employer, through their insurance company must pay all related medical expenses incurred by her, and must also pay her disability benefits as long as she is out of work. They must also pay the cost of any retraining or rehabilitation necessary to get her back into the work force after she makes a sufficient recovery from her injuries. If she has sustained a permanent disability as determined by her doctors, she may be entitled to additional benefits even if she's able to return to work. She doesn't have to establish that someone's negligence caused her injuries in order to obatin these benefits.

If her injuries were caused by someone other than her employer or fellow employees (for example, someone from outside the company or the maker of an inflammatory product), she is entitled to bring a lawsuit against that person or entity. However, she has to prove negligence and all of the other elements of a typical lawsuit in order to recover. And she would have to pay back part of her worker's comp benefits to the insurer that paid them from any proceeds she received in the lawsuit.