A CEO’s assistant suffers a personal injury at home—what are their rights?

In this scenario, often a full personal injury claim—and that’s better news than it sounds. Florida excludes domestic servants in private homes from workers’ compensation, and the same exclusion that denies benefits also removes the rule that normally stops an employee from suing. A household assistant hurt by a hazard on the property can usually sue the property owner in negligence.

That distinction is important. Workers’ compensation pays two-thirds of lost wages and nothing for pain and suffering. A negligence claim covers full wages, medical costs, pain and suffering, and loss of quality of life. A Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyer looks first at which system you fall into, because it changes what the injury is worth.

When can a personal assistant sue over an injury at work?

When workers’ compensation doesn’t cover them at all, which happens more often in household employment than people expect. Florida’s workers’ compensation law doesn’t count domestic servants in private homes as employees. They’re still employees in every other sense. They just aren’t in that system. Employers outside construction also need four or more workers before they have to carry coverage, so a small family office can fall below the line.

No coverage means no trade-off. Workers’ compensation normally takes away your right to sue your employer, and gives you guaranteed benefits in exchange. If you were never in the system, you never gave up that right, and what’s left is an ordinary negligence claim against whoever’s property caused the harm.

What does a premises liability claim require?

Proof that the property owner failed to keep the property reasonably safe and that the failure caused your injury. A paid worker invited onto a residence for the owner’s benefit is treated as an invitee, the most protected category Florida recognizes. The owner owes a duty to keep the property in reasonably safe condition and to warn about concealed dangers they knew about or should have known about.

In practice, that means showing the hazard sat there long enough that a reasonable owner would have found it, or that the owner created it. A loose stair tread, an unlit step down into a garage, a dog with a bite history, a pool gate that doesn’t latch: each is a different version of the same question. Premises liability claims against a residence work the same way they do against a store, just with a smaller cast of witnesses.

Who actually pays a claim against a private homeowner?

Their homeowners insurance, in most cases, rather than the homeowner personally. Standard policies carry personal liability coverage that responds when someone is hurt on the property, and most forms specifically address injuries to household employees. Terms vary, and some policies exclude injuries to anyone eligible for workers’ compensation benefits, which is one more reason the classification question comes first.

A third party who contributed brings another policy with them. A cleaning service, the contractor who built the deck, the manufacturer of equipment that failed, or a driver who hit you while you were running an errand are each separate defendants with separate coverage.

What can you recover in a personal injury claim?

The categories workers’ compensation leaves out. A negligence claim reaches medical bills and future care, the full amount of your lost wages rather than two-thirds, diminished earning capacity, pain and suffering, and loss of quality of life, plus property damage if something of yours was destroyed.

Your own share of fault reduces the total, and a claimant found more than 50 percent responsible recovers nothing. If workers’ compensation does end up paying benefits and you also recover from a third party, the comp carrier holds a lien on part of that recovery, so those two sources don’t simply stack.

When does workers’ compensation block a personal injury claim?

When your employer carries it, and you’re covered by it. Then Florida Statute § 440.11 makes compensation the only claim you can bring against that employer. You can’t sue them on top of it. The limit stops there, though. It doesn’t touch a claim against anyone else, so if a contractor, a defective product, or another driver caused your injury, that case is still yours.

Two situations let you sue the employer anyway. One is an employer who was supposed to carry coverage and didn’t. The other is an employer who hurt you on purpose, and Florida sets that bar so high, so it doesn’t apply often.

If workers’ comp might cover you, tell your employer about the injury within 30 days. Missing that deadline can cost you benefits, and reporting costs nothing if it turns out you weren’t covered.

Talk with a Fort Lauderdale attorney about the claim you have

Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey & Fronrath has represented injured Floridians for more than 40 years, with 21 attorneys and an office on Southeast 6th Street in Fort Lauderdale. We work on a contingency fee basis, so you pay no attorney’s fees unless compensation is recovered.

Florida allows two years from the date of injury to file most negligence claims. If you were hurt working in someone’s home, call us at (561) 655-1990 or contact us online for a free consultation.