Workers Compensation: A Pathway to Immediate Relief for COVID Vaccine Injury Victims?Workers Compensation:

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

In interviews with The Defender, three lawyers discussed workers’ compensation strategies that may help private-sector employees who sustained COVID-19 vaccine injuries obtain financial relief.

Could employees injured by a COVID-19 vaccine that was mandated by their employer get relief under the U.S. workers’ compensation program?

Some lawyers think so — including three who spoke with The Defender about specific workers’ compensation strategies that may help private-sector employees who sustained COVID-19 vaccine injuries obtain financial relief.

The attorneys also suggested that the more people file claims for their COVID-19 vaccine injuries, the more employers — and their insurers — may feel pressure to reconsider employer-mandated vaccines in the future.

Noting that the number of workplace disability claims in the U.S. increased in early 2021 — the same time COVID-19 vaccines were rolling out — lawyers interviewed for this story detailed the steps involved, the benefits that may be available and the potential hurdles claimants may face, and how to overcome the challenges of locating a suitable attorney and doctor to assist with the claims.

In the U.S., the workers’ compensation program — available in all 50 states — provides an option for employees of companies and businesses that mandated COVID-19 vaccination.

Filing a workers’ compensation claim doesn’t preclude an employee from filing claims via other legal channels. But it does provide the potential to receive immediate financial relief and medical treatment and also, possibly, long-term support.

Workers’ compensation provides possible recourse for vaccine-injured workers

The three attorneys — Ben Carlisle, Ray L. Flores II and Patrick R. Hollingsworth — are experienced in legal areas of relevance to those injured by the COVID-19 vaccines. Carlisle and Hollingsworth’s firms specialize in workers’ compensation claims, while Flores is experienced in issues of health freedom rights.

Flores told The Defender that workers’ compensation is “a much easier system to navigate” than the PREP Act (Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act) of 2005 or the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which are the traditional avenues to submit claims related to vaccine injuries.

Flores said the PREP system is “impossible to get through,” which has led to a situation where “everybody thinks there’s nothing that can be done.” However, he said, “I’ve cited in several places [that] PREP does not preclude workers’ compensation.”

In an Aug. 24 interview with CHD.TV’s “Good Morning CHD,” Hollingsworth said this means that “if you were mandated to take the COVID vaccine as a condition of employment and you were injured, you are entitled to file a workers’ compensation claim.”

Carlisle noted that the two legal avenues are “not mutually exclusive, it’s not one or the other,” but that workers’ compensation claims are “an avenue that’s a lot easier right now.”

Carlisle also pointed out that workers’ compensation “is a no-fault system” in states like New York, where he is licensed, “so there are a lot fewer hurdles you have to jump through.”

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Hollingsworth, in a May 23 presentation, explained that employees also can file workers’ compensation claims in situations where, even without an explicit mandate, an employee faced “coercion, exclusion, discrimination,” where they were “ostracized by their co-workers or it was strongly suggested that they get the vaccine.”

“I believe you would be able to show … causation there, whether your employer requested you to have it, mandated or not,” Hollingsworth said.

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Carlisle, who filed two such cases, said soon after mandates were implemented, he had tweeted a warning to employers that they might be liable for workers’ compensation claims in the future. “At the time, I think 10 people saw [that tweet],” he said.

However, “a million people have viewed” his Nov. 4 tweet about his first workers’ compensation hearing against an employer-mandated vaccine: “The judge found sufficient evidence to proceed. Trial set for January.”

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Flores said the PREP Act covers COVID-19 vaccine injury claims, as this act “is only for emergency medical countermeasures.” He added, “so everything falls under the PREP Act if there’s any injury.”

This makes a workers’ compensation claim more attractive for most vaccine injury victims, Flores said. “If you file a workers’ compensation claim, not only does the claim get started, there are initial payments that start being made right out of the gate.”

Hollingsworth said he and other workers’ compensation attorneys “work on contingency, so it doesn’t cost anything to file.” He told CHD.TV viewers in August that it’s a “no-lose situation” for applicants.

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File workers’ compensation claims as quickly as possible, attorneys say

Hollingsworth told The Defender that, in many states, such as California, potential applicants have one year from the date of knowledge of their injury to file a claim with their employer. In New York, however, the statute of limitations is two years, Carlisle said.

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“In New York and … probably a lot of states, you’ve got 30 days to provide notice of the injury. That doesn’t mean you’re bringing a claim. It just means you’ve got to tell your employer, ‘I took this shot, you made me take it, and now I’m missing time from work.’ That satisfies your notice requirement.”

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“It’s usually very easy to overcome the statute of limitations in workers’ compensation. That doesn’t mean you should sit on your rights forever. But it shouldn’t be a deterrent from at least attempting to bring a claim.”

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For federal employees, there is a separate federal worker’s compensation system. “The federal government is a little bit more difficult to navigate and less likely to be successful [because] they’re the ones mandating it all,” Hollingsworth said, “and finding an attorney for that unfortunately is going to be difficult.”

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How do you find a suitable attorney for your workers’ compensation claim?

Hollingsworth, speaking to CHD.TV in August 2022, emphasized the importance of hiring an attorney who specializes in workers’ compensation law, stating “You want to really make sure that they only specialize in workers’ compensation, as other attorneys aren’t really familiar with how workers’ compensation works.”

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Flores referred to legal resources compiled by Children’s Health Defense, including locating attorneys in their state who handle workers’ compensation cases (see attorney search engine, find legal help and find a lawyer by practice area and state), and also emphasized the importance of educating lawyers on such issues, telling The Defender:

“The more information that we have available to the injured party or to the attorneys, then that will reverberate so that they’re not going to turn away the business. That’s another benefit of what we’re trying to do, to educate the lawyers as well.”

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Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/workers-compensation-covid-vaccine-injury-victims/