Workers compensation claims check checks to see if one had a form of insurance that provides compensation medical care for employees who are injured in the course of employment, in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the the tort of negligence. The tradeoff between assured, limited coverage and lack of recourse outside the worker compensation system is known as "the compensation bargain." While plans differ between jurisdictions, provision can be made for weekly payments in place of wages (functioning in this case as a form of disability insurance), compensation for economic loss (past and future), reimbursement or payment of medical and like expenses (functioning in this case as a form of health insurance), and benefits payable to the dependents of workers killed during employment (functioning in this case as a form of life insurance).
General damages for pain and suffering, and punative damages for employer neglegence, are generally not available in worker compensation plans. Therefore a workmans comp claim made against an employer can become a very costly endeavor. While it is unlawful in most states to use previous workers compensation claims as a hiring or firing decision tt might benefit an employer to know if a potential employee has a history of filing such claims against previous employers prior to placing that employee into any kind of risk associated job positions. Some people are more accident prone than others and some people actually become what has often been referred to as “Professional Claimants” and make a living by filing bogus lawsuits.