Tom McCutcheon
Q: This is my question. Suppose I hired someone to do work at my home and the person wasn’t licensed or bonded and that person gets injured while doing the job. Who is liable for his medical bills, financial compensation and things of that nature while off work?
Sherri
A: There are two separate areas of law that determine who is liable for an injury to an employee. One is the law of workers compensation and the other is premises liability.
Workers compensation generally applies to employers who have five (5) or more employees. If a worker on the job is injured, they are entitled to workers compensation which includes medical bills and financial compensation.
The other area of law is premises liability law that is most easily thought of as who can be on someone else’s property. For instance, a trespasser is someone who has no right to be on someone else’s property but you can’t willfully injure a trespasser. You just can’t shoot somebody crossing your yard.
The next common type of person that can be on your property is a social guest known at law as licensee. A social guest is just a friend that has come over to watch TV. You can’t willfully injure them and you must warn them of a dangerous condition that you know about but they wouldn’t easily find out about until they were injured.
A person who you hire to work on your property is an invitee. You have to provide them with a safe place to do their work. For them to sue you successfully they would have to prove that you either willfully injured them or that you knew of a danger and you didn’t warn them of it or that the place where they were to do their work wasn’t in a reasonably safe condition. Under this type of law, if you hire someone to clean out your gutters and they put their own ladder up without your advice or assistance and fall off of it, you simply aren’t liable for their injuries. If they get hurt and part of the fault they got hurt was that they weren’t paying attention or didn’t see something that was open and obvious, you’re not responsible.
I wouldn’t hire five (5) or more people without making sure that they had workers compensation insurance. Otherwise, for small jobs you’re probably not going to be responsible unless there is some danger or hazard that you know about and don’t tell them about.
Buckle up and drive safely.
256-764-0112
2210 Helton Drive
Florence, AL 35630
