Charlotte Injury Lawyers Blog
Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matt Arnold answers the question: “What if my employer doesn’t have workers’ comp insurance or doesn’t file the claim?”
Those who suffer injuries at work in North Carolina are able to seek workers’ compensation benefits under North Carolina’s Workers’ Compensation Act. However, a Florida freight broker that contracted with a truck company to ship blueberries has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a North Carolina appeals court decision it argues wrongly decided that the broker was liable for an injury to a truck driver because the truck company did not have workers’ compensation insurance. In its petition, the broker company Owen Thomas Inc. told the Supreme Court that federal transportation law preempts the North Carolina workers’ compensation statute provisions that hold contractors responsible for benefits to the drivers of uninsured motor carriers. According to the North Carolina Court of Appeals, the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act did not preempt enforcement of the state statute because imposing liability for workers’ compensation did not amount to a regulation of price, routes, or services.