Generally speaking, when you get hurt at work, you're only choice is to file a workers' compensation claim. The law forbids cases against your employer for negligently causing you injuries. The upside of this is that you do not need to prove your employer did anything wrong in order to make a recovery. You need only show that your job was the prevailing factor in causing you injury.
However, unlike personal injury negligence cases, you cannot recover money for pain and suffering in workers' comp claims. Typically, your measure of recovery in comp cases is your percentage of impairment from before your injury to after you've been released. Pain and suffering can sometimes factor into this percentage, but you do not get additional recovery for pain and suffering themselves.
The justification for this is that you do not have to prove negligence in workers' compensation claims. In fact, you can even be partly responsible for your injuries in a comp claim and still be entitled to a recovery. If you've been injured on the job and are curious about what kind of recovery you are entitled to, please contact our firm. We have experienced personal injury lawyers who can answer your questions.