Injured on the job while high? You may still get workers comp!

This crazy sounding workers’ comp story holds a solid lesson for Virginia workers.  A worker is in charge of feeding grizzly bears.  Before his shift one day, he decides to smoke some marijuana.  That day while he is feeding the bears as part of his normal work routine, he is attacked by the bears.  He is seriously injured.

Question: Does his employer owe him workers’ comp benefits?

Answer:  You may find this hard to believe, but the answer is YES. 

This case went to court.  His employer claimed that he was high on the job and therefore the accident was his fault – so he was not owed workers’ comp benefits.

The worker, however, argued that the fact that he smoked pot had nothing to do with the bear attack.  And he had a point.  While drug use is illegal, there was no proof that the worker’s pot smoking in any way contributed to him being mauled by a bear.

This is a great lesson for injured Virginia workers: even if you were found to have alcohol or drugs in your system, your employer still has to show that the accident happened because of the alcohol or drugs.  Just being tipsy or high by itself is not reason enough to deny workers’ comp benefits.

The bottom line: always talk to a lawyer before your give up on your workers’ comp case.  There may be more to the law than you realize.