Does Joel Embiid Have A Right To Sue In A Workers’ Compensation Case? Personal Injury Attorney Ben Schwartz helps to a viewer with this question.

Hi Folks, I am Attorney Ben Schwartz,

Today we are going to answer a question from Reggie in New Castle County, Delaware. Essentially to sum it up, Joel Embiid plays for the Philadelphia 76ers and sustained an injury where he got a concussion and fractured the orbital bone which is the bone basically around the eye socket that holds your eye in place. Reggie asked when you are playing in the NBA and you sustain an injury, is that a workers’ compensation case?

I thought it was an interesting question and the reason I think it is interesting is, that it is something that quite frankly I never thought of before. Because I primarily practice law in the state of Delaware, although I do handle workers’ compensation cases we do not have any NBA teams or NFL teams, or real big-time professional sports teams where I would be getting NBA players coming to me for workers’ compensation cases like some of my counterparts workers compensation counterparts in other states with big major cities might be getting those cases coming to them. But to answer the question directly, yes! That is a workers’ compensation case.

So, if you are a player in the NBA or the NFL or major league baseball or whatever, if you sustain an injury while you are in one of your games, you would have the right to pursue a workers’ compensation case. You would pursue that workers’ compensation case in the city and the state where your team is located. So if you are on the 76ers in Philadelphia, you would be contacting a Pennsylvania workers’ comp attorney in or around Philadelphia, and there is plenty of them, but that is where you go. That is what you would do in order to make that claim.

Now in that claim, you would have the right to get your medical treatment paid for. You would have the right to get partial recovery of your lost wages. If you are, you know getting millions of dollars a year because you play professional sports you are not likely to get millions of dollars a year in lost wages through a workers’ compensation claim alone, because as far as I am aware all states cap the amount that you can get in terms of lost wages within a worker’s comp claim.

But there might be other avenues and other insurance coverages for that. It might pay you compensation if you have a permanent functional loss of use of a body part or a permanent functional impairment of one of your body parts. It might pay you compensation if you have a change in appearance. That is called a disfigurement claim.

There are other things and you know each state has a different workers’ compensation law or a different workers’ compensation scheme. And what you are entitled to is going to vary from state to state. but my point is if you are injured as an athlete, you need to contact an attorney in the state where your team is located where you are you know quote unquote employed, and get a free consultation with an attorney to learn your rights.

Reggie, I thought that was a very good question. It is something that I have never really thought of before. But I think it is something that a lot of people might wonder about. I appreciate you giving me that question to answer in this video format. Folks if you are watching the video and you think to yourself, well I have a question about personal injury litigation, workers compensation, an automobile accident injury claim, medical malpractice claims, or what have you, these are the things that I handle. I am happy to hear your question and if it is something that I can answer in video format like this or if it is something that I think other people will learn from and enjoy learning about then maybe I will do a video too.

So, send me those questions. I am attorney Ben Schwartz. My email address is ben.schwartz@schwartzandachwartz.com.