Coming and Going Rule

Carter Corriston

Contributor

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What happens if I am injured on the way to work? Generally, unless you have arrived to your place of employment you will not be eligible to collect under workers compensation for injuries you suffer. This issue often is when are you deemed to have arrived at work. Certainly if your company has parking on the premises the minute you enter the lot you would be deemed to have arrived. Or if you take public transportation once you have arrived at the facility or office building.

This would be true even if your company shares space with other companies in the same building. However, if your employer designates that you park at a certain location and are injured while walking to your office or facility from that location you will be covered by compensation. If you choose to park in a non-designated area and are injured in that area and your employer has no control or connection to that property benefits may not be available to you. Conversely, if you are on your work premises but are not working then compensation may not be available. For instance if you went in on a day off to pick up your paycheck and were injured on your employer's premises then you may not be eligible for workers compensation benefits.

Another exception would be the special mission exception. This occurs when an employee is not on the premises of the employer but is in the course of employment. One does not have to have begun this special mission from work in order to be deemed a covered employee. A service technician on his way home from a call would be covered so long as he does not deviate from the special mission. that same employee who stops for dinner would not be covered for anything arising after dinner. Even employees traveling out of town on a special mission would be covered when they leave their residence. Workers on their way to the airport for a business trip have declared to be in the course of employment for workers compensation purposes.

Look for more examples in upcoming BLOGS.