Is it Legal to Fire an Employee After a Workplace Accident?

You’ve been a good employee. You come to work on time every day, you never complain about your job, and you always hit your deadlines. But one day your life turns around for the worse after you get into an auto accident while driving to a client’s business. You’re now paralyzed from the waist down and spend months recovering from your injuries. Since you were on the job at the time of the accident, you receive workers’ compensation during this time but you’re looking forward to going back to work. That is, until you get a letter in the mail telling you you’ve been fired. Can they fire you after a workplace accident?

As we’ve mentioned before, wrongful termination happens when you are fired or laid off for an illegal reason, such as discrimination, sexual harassment, or retaliation. Since New Jersey is considered an “at-will” state, this means that your employer can fire you for no reason at all. But you can still have a case against the employer if he/she fires you after a workplace accident.

According the the New Jersey workers’ compensation laws, if you were injured in a workplace injury than your employer cannot fire you because of your accident. So if you suspect that your employer is firing you because of your accident, you are going to have to prove that’s the case. This may be hard to do, but with an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer by your side, your case will become much easier.

If this situation sounds familiar, you may want to speak to an experienced attorney to see if you have a case. For more than 26 years, the Law Offices of Anthony Carbone has been handling workers’ compensation cases throughout New Jersey. Contact us today for a free consultation of your case.