You fall from a scaffold on a Henderson job site, or a pallet jack crushes your foot in a North Las Vegas warehouse. When you ask about workers’ compensation, the answer is a shrug. There is no policy. The company never bought one. Learning that your employer has no workers comp coverage feels like the floor dropping out. In a sense it is, because the ordinary system was built on the promise that a policy would be there. Nevada law anticipated this situation, though. The rules it wrote for uninsured employers are more favorable to the injured worker than most people expect.
This article explains what Nevada requires of employers and what happens to your claim when the coverage is missing. It covers the two separate paths to recovery that open up. It also explains why a serious injury at an uninsured company often needs a personal injury lawyer as much as a workers’ compensation one.
Who Nevada Requires to Carry Coverage
Nevada’s industrial insurance system is mandatory, not optional. NRS 616B.612 directs every employer within the industrial insurance chapters to provide and secure compensation for injuries by accident arising out of and in the course of employment. NRS 616B.633 extends those chapters to any employer who has in his or her service any employee under a contract of hire. One employee is enough. There is no small business exemption and no waiting period for new companies. There is no carve-out for employers who pay in cash.
Some businesses avoid the cost by calling everyone an independent contractor. Others run payroll through a shell or simply let a policy lapse. The label the employer uses does not decide the question. Whether a worker is an employee under Nevada law turns on the actual relationship, including control over the work. The same test applies whether the employer is a landscaping crew in Summerlin or a fabrication shop on Industrial Road.
What the State Does When the Coverage Is Missing
The Division of Industrial Relations investigates suspected uninsured employers through its employer compliance staff. The state’s attorneys treat the failure to carry coverage as a form of employer fraud. The Nevada Attorney General’s Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit investigates and prosecutes workers’ compensation fraud by claimants, employers and providers. It maintains offices in Las Vegas, Carson City and Reno for exactly this purpose.
Enforcement against the company is not the same as compensation for you. The penalties and prosecutions punish the employer. Your medical bills and lost wages are addressed through two other mechanisms. Understanding both is the heart of this subject.
Path One, the Uninsured Employers’ Claim Account
Nevada maintains a fund specifically for workers hurt at companies that failed to insure. NRS 616C.220 sets out how it works. An employee may receive compensation from the Uninsured Employers’ Claim Account if four conditions are met. The employee was hired in Nevada or is regularly employed here. The injury arose out of and in the course of employment in this state. The employee files a claim for compensation with the Division. And the employee makes an irrevocable assignment to the Division of its right to be subrogated to the employee’s rights under NRS 616C.215.
Two features of this section matter in practice. First, once the Division receives the claim it must immediately notify the employer. The employer then carries the burden of proving that it provided coverage or was not required to. The worker does not have to prove a negative. Second, the account pays the benefits a private carrier would have paid, including medical treatment and disability compensation. The Division then pursues the employer to recover what it spends.
The claim still runs on the ordinary workers’ compensation clock. NRS 616C.015 requires written notice of the injury to the employer as soon as practicable, but within 7 days after the accident. The notice goes on the state’s prescribed form, and the employer or supervisor must sign it as an acknowledgment. Do not let the absence of a policy talk you out of filing that notice. If the employer refuses to sign, keep a dated copy and note the refusal. The steps in our overview of what happens when you get hurt at work in Nevada still apply. The Division determines whether the employer was insured and assigns the claim to its designated third-party administrator or insurer for administration and payment if the claim is accepted, as NRS 616C.220 provides.
Path Two, a Direct Lawsuit Against the Employer
This is where an uninsured employer’s situation changes completely. For insured employers, NRS 616A.020 makes the workers’ compensation remedy exclusive. That is why an injured employee normally cannot sue the company for negligence, no matter how careless it was. The protection is the employer’s side of the bargain, and it is purchased with a policy.
NRS 616B.636 takes that protection away from the employer who did not pay for it. If an employer within NRS 616B.633 fails to provide and secure compensation, the injured employee or the employee’s dependents may bring an action at law against the employer for damages. The statute says the action proceeds as if the industrial insurance chapters did not apply. That means a full civil claim with the full range of damages. Pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life, which a compensation claim never pays, are on the table.
The statute then strips the employer of its traditional defenses. The employer cannot argue that the employee assumed the risks of the job. It cannot argue that it used reasonable care in hiring competent coworkers, or that a coworker’s negligence caused the injury. It cannot argue that the employee was negligent, unless that negligence was willful and intended to cause injury or the worker was intoxicated. The section closes with a presumption that the injury resulted from the employer’s negligence and that the negligence was the proximate cause. The burden to rebut that presumption sits with the employer.
A worker in that position also has a tool that ordinary plaintiffs do not. NRS 616B.636 allows the injured employee to attach the employer’s property at any time upon or after filing the action, in an amount fixed by the court. The attachment secures payment of an eventual judgment. Uninsured employers are often undercapitalized and quick to close and reopen under a new name. The attachment remedy exists because the Legislature knew that.
Can You Use Both Paths
The account and the lawsuit are not mutually exclusive, but they interact. When the Division pays benefits from the account, the irrevocable assignment under NRS 616C.220 gives the Division subrogation rights. NRS 616C.215 provides that compensation paid is reduced by amounts recovered from the employer, and it gives the Division a lien on the recovery. An employer recovery can reduce compensation, including future compensation, and may be subject to an Administrator lien under NRS 616C.215(1). The exact benefit and lien accounting must be calculated for the claim before settlement; the worker should not assume a simple reimbursement-and-remainder split.
Sequencing these two claims is a strategic decision. The account can provide medical and disability benefits on an accepted claim, which matters when a family has no income; timing depends on the claim determination. The lawsuit takes longer but reaches the damages the account will never pay. Many workers are best served by filing with the Division immediately to secure treatment. They then pursue the employer in district court with counsel who understands both systems. We address a similar question in our article on pursuing a workers’ compensation case and a personal injury case at the same time. The difference here is that the employer itself is the defendant.
Third Parties Are Still on the Table
The employer’s lack of coverage does not change the analysis for anyone else who contributed to the injury. A general contractor who controlled the site remains a potential defendant. So does an equipment manufacturer whose machine lacked a guard, a property owner who kept a hazard in place, or a driver who hit the company truck. Staffing arrangements add a layer, because the company that placed you and the company that supervised you may have different coverage positions. We examine that problem in our piece on being placed by a staffing agency and hurt on the job in Nevada.
Identifying every responsible party early matters more in uninsured cases than in insured ones. The employer’s own ability to pay a judgment is often limited. A judgment against a company with no assets and no policy is a piece of paper. A claim against a solvent general contractor or a national manufacturer is not.
When the Injury Is Catastrophic
The difference between a compensation claim and a civil lawsuit is largest at the severe end. A spinal cord injury, a brain injury, an amputation or a serious burn produces a lifetime of costs. The workers’ compensation schedule was never designed to cover them in full. Attendant care, home modification, vehicle adaptation and decades of vocational loss all belong in a civil damages case. So does the human cost of the injury itself. NRS 616B.636 opens that door when the employer failed to insure.
Those cases are built with life care planners, economists and medical experts. They are built early, before the employer’s assets move and before witnesses scatter. The Bourassa Law Group’s catastrophic injury practice handles work injuries of that magnitude across Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas. The firm coordinates the Division claim, the direct action and any third-party claims so that each one supports the others.
Practical Steps in the First Two Weeks
- Get medical care immediately and tell every provider the injury happened at work, naming the employer.
- Submit the written notice of injury to the employer within 7 days and keep a dated copy, even if the employer refuses to sign.
- Preserve proof of employment, including pay stubs, cash payment records, text messages assigning shifts, and photos of you on the site in company gear.
- File the claim for compensation with the Division and state clearly that you believe the employer has no workers comp coverage.
- Write down the names and phone numbers of coworkers who saw the accident, because uninsured employers often pressure witnesses.
- Photograph the equipment, the hazard and the scene before anything is repaired or removed.
- Talk to a lawyer before signing anything the employer offers, especially a cash payment tied to a release.
What Not to Accept
An uninsured employer facing state penalties and a lawsuit will sometimes offer to pay medical bills directly in exchange for silence. Accepting that arrangement can complicate both the account claim and the civil case. It also leaves you with no recourse when the employer stops paying, which happens the moment the bills grow. Nevada built two formal paths for this situation. Use them.
If you were hurt on the job and learned that your employer has no workers comp policy, contact The Bourassa Law Group for a free consultation. The firm can file the Division claim, evaluate the direct action under NRS 616B.636, identify third parties and move to secure the employer’s assets while there is still something to secure.
This article is general information about Nevada law and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney client relationship. Every work injury depends on its own facts, and deadlines in the workers’ compensation system are short.
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