If you suffer an on-the-job injury in Oklahoma, the chances are good that your employer will have workers’ compensation insurance. This insurance helps you to get immediate benefits, including medical care and the possibility of lost wage payments. Without workers’ compensation, the only way to seek payment is through the court system. To avoid overloading the courts with job-related injury claims, the workers’ compensation system steps in. Thus, the state makes it mandatory for almost every employer to have to carry the insurance.
The Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Court of Existing Claims explains employers exempt from carrying workers’ compensation insurance are very limited. In general, they either are owners in the business. For example, a sole proprietor does not have to have coverage and neither do the members in a partnership. Members of a limited liability company who own 10% or more of the capital are also exempt. As are stockholders in a corporation with 10% or more ownership.
If you own and operate your own truck-tractor or drive-away, you also do not have to carry the insurance. In some cases, if you are a party to a franchisee agreement, you also do not need to have it.
Some agricultural workers and commission-based licensed real estate brokers are also exempt. As are employers who have less than five employees and all employees are family members. Finally, volunteers or those paid in non-monetary ways within any company or organization do not have to have workers’ compensation insurance coverage.
In most cases, your employer will have to have coverage. It is rare that an employer does not have to carry coverage, or in the event that the law does not make coverage mandatory, it is unlikely that your employer will not have some type of insurance to cover injuries.
