After a Work Injury
Get treated first. If the hospital keeps you, a coworker or relative can notify the company and gather forms.
For a bad injury call 911, and make sure each provider's chart says it happened on the job and describes how. For nonemergency care, your employer or its insurer generally picks the treating doctor, so confirm follow-ups are authorized.4 Tell your supervisor what happened, when and where, ideally by text or email so the record has a date. Don't assume a claim was filed; ask, and get the answer in writing. Note the task, the equipment and who was nearby. Photograph your injuries and, if it's safe, the spot and any broken tool. Get coworkers' numbers now. Keep bills, pay stubs, schedules and every form in one folder, and many workers ask a lawyer before signing.
Work on the Grand Strand
Tourism keeps a lot of people working on their feet: housekeepers and maintenance crews in oceanfront hotels, cooks in busy kitchens, groundskeepers on golf courses, and drivers and delivery workers on US-17 and US-501. Construction crews build across the fast-growing parts of Horry County.
Workers' Comp Deadlines
Most on-the-job injuries in South Carolina go through workers' comp.1 Report the accident to your employer within 90 days.2 Make sure any required claim reaches the Commission on time.3 The ordinary filing period is two years after the accident, with exceptions, and telling a supervisor isn't necessarily filing. The Commission advises a Form 50, or a Form 52 for a death claim, even when the employer has reported it.5
Repetitive trauma and occupational diseases can follow different timing, and the day symptoms began isn't necessarily the day the clock started.6 A claim against a government agency responsible for whoever hurt you has its own, possibly shorter, deadline.7
Want someone to look at your situation?
Talk with our team about what happened and ask the questions on your mind.
What Comp Can Pay
Workers' comp may pay for authorized medical care, part of your lost wages and qualifying permanent disability, depending on the injury, your wages and the rules. Comp generally won't compensate pain and suffering. On the other hand, you usually needn't prove your boss did anything careless.8
Suing Someone Else
If someone outside the company, such as a delivery driver who ran a light, caused the injury, you may have a second claim against that party.9 Watch out with contractors, though: under the statutory-employer rule, a business that hires a subcontractor for its own line of work may share the employer's protection.1011
There's more on workers' comp claims in South Carolina.
Talk With Us
A work injury can put your health, your job and your bills in doubt all at once. Walk us through the shift when it happened and what the carrier has said since.
We take cases across South Carolina, including Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand. Our office is on King Street in Charleston. The first conversation can happen by phone.
If you were hurt on a building site, see construction injuries in Myrtle Beach. Tell us whether benefits were ever paid.
South Carolina Law on This
- Most injuries that happen on the job in South Carolina go through the workers' compensation system, which has its own rules, and usually limits suing your own employer.1
- An injured worker in South Carolina generally must tell the employer about a work accident right away, and no later than 90 days after it, to receive workers' compensation, unless an exception applies.2
- A South Carolina workers' compensation claim generally must be filed with the Workers' Compensation Commission within two years after the accident, or after a death it caused. Telling the employer does not count as filing. Occupational diseases and repetitive trauma follow different rules.3
- In South Carolina, an employer or its workers' compensation insurance carrier generally must provide and pay for reasonable medical treatment for a compensable work-related injury. The employer or insurer usually selects the authorized treating physician, although exceptions may apply.4
- The ordinary South Carolina workers' compensation claim-filing period is two years after the accident, but exceptions and special rules may apply. Reporting an injury to a supervisor is not necessarily the same as filing a claim with the Workers' Compensation Commission. The Commission advises injured workers to file a Form 50, or a Form 52 for a death claim, to protect their rights even when the employer has reported the accident.5
- Different workers' compensation timing rules may apply to repetitive trauma injuries and occupational diseases that develop over time in South Carolina. The date a worker first experienced symptoms is not necessarily the date the filing deadline began.6
- Claims against a South Carolina state or local government agency have their own filing deadline, which can be shorter, and there could be caps on damages under the South Carolina Tort Claims Act, depending on the facts of the case.7
- South Carolina workers' compensation may provide payment for authorized medical treatment, partial wage replacement when an injury prevents work, and benefits for qualifying permanent disabilities. Benefits depend on the nature of the injury, the employee's wages and the applicable rules. Workers' compensation generally does not provide damages for pain and suffering, and workers usually do not have to prove the employer was negligent to qualify.8
- In South Carolina, an employee injured at work may be able to receive workers' compensation benefits and also pursue a personal injury claim against a responsible third party, such as another driver. The workers' compensation insurer may have a right to reimbursement from any settlement or judgment. Special rules and deadlines apply when pursuing both claims.9
- Under South Carolina workers' compensation law, a business that hires a subcontractor to perform work that is part of the business's own trade or operations may be considered a statutory employer. When this rule applies, the business can be responsible for workers' compensation benefits for the subcontractor's employees, even though it did not hire them directly.10
- Workers' compensation is generally the exclusive remedy against a covered South Carolina employer for a qualifying workplace injury, although limited exceptions exist. South Carolina's statutory-employer doctrine can extend that immunity to some contractors or other businesses, so they are not automatically third parties simply because they are not the worker's direct employer.11
- Most personal injury claims in South Carolina must be filed within three years.12
- South Carolina's statute of limitations generally sets the deadline for filing a lawsuit in court. Simply opening a claim with an insurance company or negotiating with an insurance adjuster does not stop the statute of limitations from running.13
Frequently Asked Questions
I told my manager. Is that the same as filing?
Don't I get three years like other injury claims?
Can I sue the resort I work for?
Can I pick my own doctor?
For nonemergency care, your employer or its insurer generally chooses the authorized doctor, with some exceptions.4 Get emergency care right away, and confirm follow-up care is authorized to avoid a fight over bills.
Sources
- S.C. Code § 42-1-540
- S.C. Code § 42-15-20
- S.C. Code §§ 42-15-20 and 42-15-40
- S.C. Code § 42-15-60; S.C. Code Regs. § 67-509(A)
- S.C. Code § 42-15-40; South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission guidance for injured workers
- S.C. Code § 42-15-40
- S.C. Code §§ 15-78-110 and 15-78-120
- S.C. Code Title 42; South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission guidance for injured workers
- S.C. Code § 42-1-560
- S.C. Code §§ 42-1-400 through 42-1-420; Keene v. CNA Holdings, LLC (S.C. 2021)
- S.C. Code §§ 42-1-400, 42-1-540; Keene v. CNA Holdings, LLC, 436 S.C. 1, 870 S.E.2d 156 (2021)
- S.C. Code § 15-3-530
- S.C. Code §§ 15-3-20 and 15-3-530
This page is general information about South Carolina law, not legal advice for your situation. Every case depends on its own facts.
