How To Get Compensated After Being Assaulted At Work

The Interplay Of Criminal Justice, Civil Lawsuits, And Insurance Claims In Assault And Battery Cases At Work

Assault and battery straddle three legal systems designed to fight crime, compensate victims, and manage risk. As a result, employees assaulted at work can pursue multiple avenues to hold their assailant responsible for their actions.

Criminal Assault And Battery

When someone violates a criminal law, the state can prosecute them by filing criminal charges. Upon conviction, a judge can sentence the offender to imprisonment, fines, and other criminal punishments.

Under Nevada law, criminal battery occurs when someone willfully and unlawfully uses violence or force against another. Willfully means the assailant intended to use violence or force. If someone trips and falls on you, they did not batter you.

The degree of force does not typically determine whether a battery happened. Shoving you and hitting you with an object both constitute a battery. However, the punishment could increase if the other person uses a deadly weapon or causes substantial bodily harm.

Although you may hear “assault” used interchangeably with “battery,” they constitute different crimes. Nevada defines criminal assault as both an attempt to use physical force against someone else and an intentional act to cause another to fear immediate bodily harm. Thus, a common scenario involving workplace assault happens when a worker makes a credible threat of imminent harm to a co-worker.

Crime victims can report the assailant to the authorities by filing a police report. The police can then investigate the crime and arrest the accused if they have probable cause to believe they broke Nevada criminal laws.

Civil Assault And Battery

An arrest can lead to punishment by the state. However, it does not compensate the victim for their losses. Under Nevada law, victims of civil battery or assault can file a personal injury lawsuit against their assailant, including customers and co-workers. If they prove liability, the assailant must compensate the victim for their losses, such as:

• Past and future medical expenses
• Lost income due to missing work
• Diminished future earnings due to long-term disabilities
• Pain and suffering

The average payout for assault at work depends on the severity of the injuries. More serious injuries will often require more expensive medical care and cause greater mental and emotional distress. This means you may be eligible for a higher payout if you are seriously injured.

Civil assault and battery have definitions similar to their criminal counterparts. Battery is an intentional use of force against another, and assault is an attempted or threatened battery.

However, plaintiffs in civil cases have one significant advantage. In civil court, your Las Vegas personal injury attorney only needs to prove the case by a preponderance of the evidence. Criminal prosecutors, by contrast, must prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance

All Nevada employers must buy workers’ compensation insurance. This no-fault insurance compensates employees for on-the-job injuries regardless of fault. 

After an assault in the workplace by a customer or co-worker, the victim can usually file a claim for workers’ comp benefits. These benefits include:

• Medical care and physical therapy for their injuries
• Temporary or permanent disability benefits to partially replace lost wages
• Reimbursement for certain out-of-pocket expenses

Workers’ comp insurance only pays for work-related injuries. Keep in mind that insurers may be skeptical of claims based on workplace assault. Some common grounds for workers’ comp denials for assault-related injuries include:

• The attack did not happen at work
• The incident occurred outside of working hours
• The claimant started the fight

A Nevada workers’ compensation attorney can evaluate your case and help you fight any claim denials you might receive.

Lawsuit Against An Employer

Employers are usually immune from employee lawsuits for work-related injuries. The law accomplishes this by making workers’ compensation the “exclusive remedy” for on-the-job injuries.

However, the exclusive remedy doctrine has a few exceptions that might apply to workplace assault or battery cases. First, civil rights laws generally take precedence over workers’ comp laws. You may have a civil rights claim against your employer if the battery or assault occurred due to any of these reasons:

• Race
• Religion
• National origin
• Sex, including sexual preference
• Immigration status

To win a claim against your employer, your lawyer will need evidence of your employer’s involvement. This involvement might result from the employer initiating or encouraging the incident or knowing it might happen and failing to stop it.

Employment laws also prohibit sexual harassment in the workplace. Harassment can include threats, inappropriate touching, or sexual assault by a supervisor. To prove liability, your employer must have encouraged or knowingly failed to prevent it.

Additionally, an employer might be liable for intentional acts by co-workers outside of civil rights laws if it directed employees to commit those acts. For example, if a supervisor directs the security guards to rough you up because you damaged the company’s property, the company probably cannot hide behind the exclusive remedy doctrine.

Claiming Compensation For Workplace Assault And Battery

.Workplace violence is an unfortunate reality in Nevada. If you suffered injuries due to assault or battery by a customer, co-worker, or supervisor, you may have several options for seeking compensation and holding the assailant responsible.

Adam S. Kutner, Injury Attorneys, has decades of experience guiding injured people through the justice system. We can identify all your legal options and help you pursue a fair and just outcome for your case.