Video Summary
This source features legal professionals discussing the severe risks employees face when working for businesses that lack workers’ compensation insurance. While victims can seek relief through an uninsured docket, the process often yields minimal financial recovery because these employers typically lack the assets to pay claims. The speakers highlight that the construction industry is particularly prone to these issues, sometimes using “ghost policies” that offer no real protection to staff. To avoid being left without support after an accident, workers are encouraged to verify coverage through state databases before accepting a job. Ultimately, the experienced emphasize that proactive research is the only way for laborers to ensure their medical and financial security in the event of an injury.
FAQs
What happens if a North Carolina employer lacks workers’ compensation insurance?
If a North Carolina employer is uninsured, injured workers can seek compensation through the state’s uninsured docket. This legal process holds the employer directly accountable for injury costs, though recovery is often limited by the employer’s available cash and assets rather than a dedicated insurance policy.
How many employees must a business have to require workers’ comp in NC?
North Carolina law requires employers with three or more employees to carry workers’ compensation insurance. This requirement is designed to provide a safety net for workers in the event of an on-the-job injury, though some employers in fields like construction may attempt to operate without it.
What is a “ghost policy” in workers’ compensation?
A “ghost policy” is a document that appears to show valid insurance on paper but provides no actual coverage for injured employees. These are often used by subcontractors to secure work from general contractors while leaving the actual workers without protection if an accident occurs.
How can I verify if my employer has valid workers’ compensation insurance?
You can verify an employer’s insurance status by searching the database on the North Carolina Industrial Commission website at www.ic.nc.gov. This searchable tool allows you to enter a company’s name to see their insurance history and current coverage status for several years.
Can an employer face penalties for not having workers’ compensation insurance?
Yes, employers who fail to carry required insurance can be found in contempt of court and may face criminal charges. While these punitive measures serve to discourage the practice, they are handled through the Industrial Commission and do not provide direct financial recovery to the injured employee.
What happens if you get hurt on the job and your employer doesn’t have workers’ compensation insurance?
In this episode of The Verdict, Clarke Speaks and Brian Groesser unpack the challenges employees face when an employer fails to carry required coverage. Brian explains the role of the “uninsured docket,” why recovery is often limited, and how employers sometimes hide behind “ghost policies” that look valid but offer no real protection.
If you’re wondering whether you’re protected at work, or what to do if your employer doesn’t have the coverage they should, we’ll give you the information you need today.
Here’s what we discuss in this episode:
⚖️ Uninsured docket – Injured workers can pursue claims, but recovery is often limited.
🚩 Ghost policies – Fake or hollow coverage that protects contractors, not employees.
🛠️ High-risk industries – Construction is the most common area for missing coverage.
🔍 Verify coverage – Use the NC Industrial Commission website to check employer insurance.
📞 Get help early – Attorneys can confirm coverage and guide you before problems arise.
Featured Keyword & Other Tags
Workers comp, insurance, coverage, high risk, attorneys, unisured
Client Links
Learn more about how Speaks Law Firm can help you: https://www.speakslaw.com/
Schedule your FREE case review: https://www.speakslaw.com/our-attorney/r-clarke-speaks/#contactFormTarget
Find us on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R40YMP
Transcript (Click To Read)
What Happens If Your Employer Doesn’t Have Workers’ Comp Insurance?
Clarke: I’m, um, Clark Speaks, the catastrophic injury lawyer. Welcome to the verdict. Welcome to the verdict. I’m Clark Speaks and I’m here with Brian Grosser. Brian, let me ask you about what happens if an employer, if a person’s hurt at work and their employer does not have workers compensation insurance or tells their employee they don’t have workers compensation insurance.
Brian Groesser: Yeah, that’s ah, an unfortunate scenario that I really don’t have good answers for you before in that regard. There is something that’s called the uninsured docket and the problem and the reason why I say I don’t have good answers for you. The employer is going to have to pay eventually something to somebody, right? It’s just going to be a matter of what money they have. Usually if you’re talking about an employer that doesn’t have comp insurance and they’re required to have it if they have three or more employees here within the state of North Carolina in those circumstances where they don’t have coverage, you see it a lot in construction, but it’s a situation that they’re probably flying by the seat of their pants anyways and they don’t have a vast amount of money. That’s why they don’t have the coverage in the first place, because they don’t have the assets to pay for it. And I say it’s unfortunate because the person that gets screwed in all of this is typically the employee. What you end up have happening is you get thrown onto this uninsured docket and that’s where the employer gets basically held to task by the industrial commission. And maybe they get ordered to pay something, but it’s only what they have available to pay. Like they’re not the insurance company that has all this revenue from premiums that have been paid over the course of the past few years. They’re just an employer with probably a very marginal, uh, profit, uh, existing, if at all. Maybe they don’t even have a profit. And so can you recover under uninsured? You can, you’d go through the uninsured docket. You can have representation for that. Um, typically, uh, your recovery is going to be very limited though, in that process because of the fact that you’re not dealing with an insurance carrier now, you’re dealing directly with an employer. And if that employer does not have coverage, it’s likely because they don’t have a lot of assets and money to begin with. And it’s getting like getting blood out of a turnip. Right.
Clarke: Most of the time they don’t Even show up and participate in this process, is that that fair?
Brian Groesser: That could happen. And they can be in contempt of court at that point. You can face criminal charges in those circumstances, but that doesn’t benefit you as the worker. Right. I mean, again, this is more of a slap on the wrist or more for the employer punitive for them to.
Clarke: Teach them a lesson so that in the future they’ll have its insurance.
Brian Groesser: But that doesn’t help you.
Clarke: Doesn’t help you.
Brian Groesser: Right.
Clarke: So the reason I ask is because what I’m picturing is, and a person looking at a new job and thinking, should I work for this employer or not? And doesn’t matter to me if this person has the insurance that they need and has done the things that they need to do to protect workers compensation, worker, uh, workers from, from accidents and from injuries. And so what’s your advice to those people?
Brian Groesser: I think, I think it looks weird if you’re in a, you know, an office setting or something and you’re in the hiring process. You’re like, hey, do you have workers? I mean, you can ask it. But I think that in a situation where you’re in physically demanding type of work, where injuries are more likely to happen, I think it’s a fair question to ask in the opening especially. Again, I would venture, I don’t have an actual statistic, but just based off of experience, I would say 75% of these cases where there’s no coverage have to deal with some sort of construction, whether it’s the folks that are doing the woodworking or the painters or the electricity, you know, whoever. In the construction industry, you see a lot of ghost policies. You see policies that, uh, that don’t exist at all.
Clarke: What’s a ghost policy?
Brian Groesser: A ghost policy? It’s kind of hard to explain, but it’s a. It’s a policy that on paper it exists sufficient enough maybe for that subcontractor or whatever to get the job. But there isn’t really a policy there. There’s not a paper.
Clarke: They can show the gc, the general contractor, and say, we have all the coverages we need, but when it comes time to pay a claim, there’s not sufficient coverage there to even address the claim.
Brian Groesser: And who that protects is the general contractor because they asked for the certificate and they got it. Who doesn’t protect is the employee who gets injured. And their employer, the subcontractor, doesn’t have a policy. There is no coverage for them. And the general contractor is typically protected because they were able to get the policy that’s all that they were required to do. And the person left holding the bag is the employee. So if you are working in the construction industry, if you’re working in a physically demanding type job, then yeah, I think it’s perfectly fine for you to ask, do you have workers comp coverage? And just to make sure that you are protected so that you are not. And ask and actually see the policy. Like, see the policy. One of the things that an employee or prospective employee can do is go onto the industrial Commission website, which is www.ic.nc.gov and under there there’s a subsection, it’s called database. And you can go and do a searchable database under the insurance website in terms of typing in an employer’s name. So if you have a Joe Smith Masonry, LLC is who you work for, you can type in that employer name and it’ll spit out their insurance coverage for like the past five, six, seven years. If you see that they don’t have coverage currently, then you know, or at least you have a pretty good idea that they probably don’t have workers comp coverage.
Clarke: And that can really matter. If something happens on the job and you get hurt, you know, this, this coverage becomes very, very important for people to be able to maintain their lifestyle and take care of their families going forward.
Brian Groesser: And this is also one of those things, Clark, that you could ask us about, right? If you are, if you’re familiar with speaks and you, you don’t feel comfortable about necessarily taking that job, just give us a call and we can look it up. Because we do this all the time. We can look it up quickly on the website for you and say, oh yeah, it looks like they have coverage. You know, it’s one of those things that at least we can look up for you as well and that you were talking about maybe making sure that your steps are correct at the very beginning of your path. You don’t even have a comp claim yet, right? You may never have one. Hopefully you don’t. But we want to make sure that you’re protected. This is kind of under your umbrella of comp. Make sure that this company actually has insurance.
Clarke: Thank you, Brian. That’s great. That’s helpful information. When we come back, I want to ask you about if people get frustrated at the end of or during the dependency of a workers compensation claim. Some people just get frustrated and they want to quit. I want to ask you about that and is that a good strategy and how that might affect a person’s claim? We’ll see you next time on the Verdict. Thanks for joining us. Don’t forget to subscribe and follow us to stay up to date with our weekly episodes. We’ll see you next time.
