You may be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits even if you consider yourself an independent contrac­tor, work part-time hours, or have a pre-existing underlying medical condition which has been made worse by your work effort. The New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Act provides three types of benefits to injured work­ers. First, a person who suffers a work-related injury is entitled to receive all necessary and reason­able medical care without any out-of-pocket expenses. This is normally provided through your employer’s workers’ compensa­tion insurance carrier. Second, the law entitles an injured worker to receive seventy percent of her pre-tax wages while an autho­rized treating doctor keeps her out of work. Third, an injured worker is entitled to a monetary award for any permanent physi­cal limitations which she suffers as a result of the work-related injury. Fortunately, the law takes an employee-friendly approach to defining who is an employee, how to compensate part-time workers, and whether an injury is work-related.

An employee who considers herself an independent contractor, and even pays taxes as an independent contrac­tor, might still be defined as an employee under the workers’ compensation act. Because the purpose of the act is to provide benefits to people who suffer work-connected injuries, New Jersey courts broadly interpret who should be considered a quali­fying employee for workers’ com­pensation benefits. The law looks to the true relationship between the nature of the work and the operation of the business to deter­mine who qualifies. This means that the law not only looks to the degree of control that an employ­er wields over its workers, but also considers the level of inter-depen­dence between the parties. As an example, in 2000, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that real estate agents should be considered employees and not independent contractors for purposes of work­ers’ compensation, despite the fact that the agents in question had signed inde­pendent contractor fran­chise agreements, were permitted to set their own hours, and were entitled to retain the entire com­mission earned from any sale. In finding that the sales agents should be considered employees of the franchises, and not independent contractors, the court focused on the economic dependence of the sales agents, who relied upon the franchises to provide listings, offices, equip­ment, and support staff.

The New Jersey workers’ compensation act also reaches out to provide part-time workers with much of the same benefits afforded to full-time employees. When a part-time employee suf­fers a work-connected injury, she is entitled to the same level of medical care, free of out-of-pock­et expenses, as that provided to full-time employees. In addition, once an injured part-time worker is finished treating for her injury, she is often entitled to reconstruct her wages for purposes of per­manent disability compensation. This allows a part-time worker to collect a dis­ability award in the amount that would have been available to her if she had been earning full-time wages. Thus, the law affords a much needed protection to many people who are finding it necessary to work a second, part-time job in these difficult economic times.

Finally, many employees do not realize that they are legally entitled to receive workers’ com­pensation benefits for pre-existing injuries or conditions that are worsened by their work effort. The law says that an employer must take an employee as he finds her. This means that an employee who has a history of spinal sur­gery from a non-work related accident is entitled to workers compensation benefits, includ­ing medical care and a monetary award, for any amount that the pre-existing injury is exaggerated, accelerated, or exacerbated by her work effort. The work effort need only be a material contribut­ing factor to the worsening of the pre-existing condition, and need not be its sole cause.

These are just a few examples of the way the New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Act provides various types of compen­sation for injuries connected to work. The workers’ compensa­tion law is fraught with complexi­ties. Therefore, it is always best for an injured worker to be repre­sented by a competent and expe­rienced workers’ compensation attorney. You should consult with an attorney who is familiar with workers’ compensation to get a complete and accurate assessment of all the benefits that might be available to you. Your lawyer’s fee cannot, as a matter of law, exceed twenty percent of whatever the lawyer obtains for you. The lawyer cannot charge a fee based upon any benefit that is volun­tarily paid by the insurance com­pany. In addition, in most cases, the insurance company is required to pay up to sixty percent of an injured worker’s lawyer’s fee. If the attorney is unsuccessful in obtaining benefits over and above that which have already been paid by the insurance company, there is no fee charged.