Can I Sue for a Work Injury in Pennsylvania: The Third Party Claim

The exclusive remedy rule, and what it does not cover

Pennsylvania workers compensation is a trade. You get benefits without proving fault, and in exchange you generally give up the right to sue your employer for the injury.

That bargain covers your employer. It does not cover the rest of the world, and most work injuries happen in a world containing other companies.

Who the third party usually is

• Another driver, if you were injured driving for work. This is the most common third party claim by a wide margin.
• A general contractor or another trade on a construction site, where their crew created the hazard.
• A property owner, where you were injured making a delivery or working at premises your employer does not control.
• A machine or component manufacturer, where equipment was defectively designed, inadequately guarded, or lacked warnings. Removed guards are a recurring theme.
• A maintenance or service contractor, where their work caused the failure.
• A staffing agency arrangement, where who actually employed you is genuinely contested.

Why it matters so much

For a serious injury the third party claim is frequently worth several times the compensation claim, because compensation contains no award at all for what the injury did to your life.

The lien, and why it is negotiable

The compensation insurer that paid your benefits has a subrogation lien against your third party recovery. That is the law and it is not a surprise to anybody in the case.

What people do not know is that the lien is routinely reduced. The carrier bears a proportionate share of the attorney fees and costs incurred in obtaining the recovery, and there is usually room to negotiate beyond that. Handling both claims in the same office is how that gets managed properly rather than left on the table.

Two clocks, and they are different

The third party claim is generally subject to the two year personal injury limitation, which is shorter than the three years for filing a compensation claim petition. People who deal with the compensation claim first and turn to the third party claim later sometimes find it has expired.

Why firms miss these

Because a compensation-only practice files the compensation claim, which is what it does. Nobody stands at the machine asking who manufactured it, or checks whether the driver who hit the van was working for someone with a commercial policy. It is not concealment, it is scope. We look for the second case in every work injury as a matter of routine.