Why is my work injury claim denied?

Feb 24, 2022 | Compensability

Why is my work injury claim denied? – There’s a weird category of denials which involve certain things that you do, even if you’re doing them on the job, that are not covered under Workers’ Compensation.

Why is my work injury claim denied?

One of the weird exceptions to Workers’ Compensation loss in Colorado is that certain activities, even if they’re promoted by the employer, are not covered under Workers’ Compensation. The first one is voluntary participation in recreational activities.

Voluntary Participation in Recreational Activities

Often employers will set up situations or group events that are voluntary, meaning you can attend or not, and sometimes they can even be on the clock. For example, the employer may say everyone will get together for a volleyball game, or that everyone will walk around the block to get fit, and even if the employer sponsors it, compensates it, and pays for it, if you get injured during that activity, it’s not covered under Workers’ Compensation.

In the case of business trips, the general rule is that anything that happens during the trip is covered under Workers’ Compensation, if the plane goes down, if you get food poisoning, if you trip on your way to a conference, it’s all covered, except for recreational activities, so if you get injured walking through a park on your way to lunch it would be covered, but if you were there just sightseeing it wouldn’t be.

Domestic Work

The second category is domestic work, for example if you’re a nanny, or if you clean a house, take care of an elderly person, or if you cook for a family, or if you do landscaping, or mow the lawn, etc., it’s typically not covered unless you can show that it’s full time. If you’re hired on a full-time basis by a household working 40 hours a week, then you’re going to be covered under Workers’ Compensation.

If you’re just working casually, not full-time, and your employer is somebody in their private house and it’s not part of their business, then it’s not going to be covered under Workers’ Compensation because you won’t be considered an employee.

Casual Farm and Ranch

The third one is casual farm and ranch, which is when a farm or ranch asks you to come over to help on something, and if you get injured it won’t be covered as long as the ranch and farm hasn’t paid you more than $2,000, they don’t have any other employees and it’s not part of their other business.

Once they’ve paid more than $2,000 during that year, then they have to be considered an employer and you an employee if you get injured.