Employees can sue employers for certain workplace injuries in New Mexico

In nearly all workplace injury cases, workers’ compensation laws provide the employee’s exclusive remedy. It’s still possible, however, for a New Mexico employer to be sued for damages by an employee who gets injured on the job. As often happens, the law was changed years ago by a case with extraordinary facts. Read on to learn more.

Background

Workers’ comp laws provide a trade-off that benefits employers and employees alike. If injured while performing her job, an employee isn’t required to prove the employer was negligent to recover medical benefits and replacement of wages lost while recovering from the injury. Nor is she required to file a lawsuit and wait for months or years for the courts to decide whether she can receive recovery at all. Instead, she is entitled to benefits regardless of who was at fault for the accident and can expect to receive them quickly.

In exchange for benefits, the employee gives up the right to sue for damages when the injury was caused by the employer’s negligence. Often, the financial recovery through the workers’ comp system is considerably less than a person might receive in a traditional case for negligence or some other tort (wrongful act suit).

New Mexico workers’ comp law shift