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If you were injured at work, we can help you pursue medical care, lost wages, and disability benefits. We charge no upfront fees and only get paid if you win your case.
Charleston's economy has grown significantly. The port moves record container volumes, Boeing operates assembly lines, new hotels and restaurants open regularly, and construction crews work throughout the area. This growth has created jobs, but it has also led to workplace injuries. Port workers deal with heavy machinery and container operations, while aerospace employees face repetitive stress and industrial hazards. Healthcare workers at MUSC and Roper St. Francis lift patients, and hospitality workers work in busy kitchens and hotels. Construction crews work on high-rise projects.
When you are injured at work in Charleston, workers' compensation should cover your medical care and lost wages. Most people start by searching for a “workers' compensation attorney near me” or a “work injury lawyer near me,” and quickly run into how complicated this can get. Charleston's mix of industries creates unique challenges. Port workers might fall under federal maritime law instead of state workers' compensation, while large employers like Boeing have sophisticated insurance programs designed to minimize payouts. Tourism and hospitality jobs often have high turnover, making it harder to document workplace injuries. The rapid growth means some businesses are still learning their obligations.
We have represented Charleston workers across all these industries. The Wilson PC understands port work, aerospace manufacturing, healthcare injuries, and hospitality claims. We know which system applies to your situation, how to document your injury properly, and how to respond when insurance companies try to delay or deny legitimate claims.
In South Carolina, most employers with four or more employees must carry workers' compensation insurance under S.C. Code Ann. § 42-1-360 (businesses with an annual payroll under $3,000 are exempt). The system is no-fault, which means your benefits do not depend on who caused the accident. If you were hurt on the job, you have the right to file an injury at work to claim whether your injury happened in one moment or developed over time.
However, Charleston's diverse economy means different rules can apply. Port workers might be covered by the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act instead of state workers' compensation. Large employers use different insurance structures than small businesses. Some industries, like hospitality, have unique challenges documenting injuries in high-turnover environments.
Having a work injury lawyer who understands both the law and the local industries, and who knows how insurance companies operate in each sector, can be important to getting your claim approved and your benefits paid.
The type of injury you sustain depends on your job. Warehouse workers develop back problems, while nurses injure their shoulders moving patients. Office workers develop carpal tunnel from typing, and construction workers fall from ladders.
Some injuries happen quickly when you slip on a wet floor, catch your hand in a machine, or get hit by something falling. Others develop gradually as your back starts hurting a little, then more, until you can barely move.
Falls occur in many workplaces, restaurant kitchens, warehouse floors, construction sites, and parking lots in winter. People break bones, injure their backs, and hit their heads. These are not minor injuries.
Back and neck problems are among the most common injuries we see. Years of lifting, bending, or even sitting incorrectly at a desk can lead to herniated discs and pinched nerves. This is the kind of pain that does not go away with rest.
A spinal cord injury is one of the most serious things that can happen on a job site. A bad fall, a crush accident, or a heavy object striking your back can damage the cord itself, sometimes leading to permanent loss of movement or feeling. These cases involve a lifetime of medical care and need to be handled carefully from the start.
Head injuries are complicated because you might feel fine at first. A week later you are getting headaches, you cannot concentrate, and you feel dizzy. What seemed like a minor bump on a job site can turn into a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that affects your memory, your mood, and your ability to work.
Repetitive stress injuries develop gradually. Carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, bursitis, your wrist starts aching, then your whole arm. By the time most people see a doctor, they already have real damage.
Hands take the worst of it in a lot of jobs. A hand injury at work can come from a machine, a saw, a crush accident on a loading dock, or a fall. Lose the use of your hand and you lose the ability to do your job, so compensation for a hand injury often needs to account for far more than the initial medical bills.
Machine accidents are severe, amputations, crush injuries, serious burns. Manufacturing and industrial workers face this risk every shift.
Construction injuries cover many situations. Falls from heights, objects falling on you, electrocution, trenches collapsing. There is a reason construction is one of the most dangerous industries.
Driving injuries affect anyone who drives for work. Truck drivers, delivery workers, anyone with a company vehicle, accidents, loading dock incidents, hauling cargo in bad weather.
All of these injuries are covered by workers' compensation, whether they happened in one moment or developed over many years.
Senior Workers' Compensation Attorney
Dylan Bess grew up in Florence County, South Carolina, and now resides in East Cobb, Georgia. He finds great fulfillment in his work in workers’ compensation, particularly because he is able to help those who are injured or out of work navigate a system that can be very tricky and is full of potential pitfalls. Dylan takes great pride in guiding clients through complex legal processes and ensuring they receive the support and benefits they deserve during difficult times.
Dylan previously worked in staffing and human resources before transitioning to the legal field. His background in HR gives him unique insight into workplace dynamics and employee rights, allowing him to approach workers’ compensation cases with both legal precision and practical understanding.
Dylan previously worked in staffing and human resources before transitioning to the legal field. His background in HR gives him unique insight into workplace dynamics and employee rights, allowing him to approach workers’ compensation cases with both legal precision and practical understanding.
Gate City Bar Association
Traveling and cheering on the South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball team. Dylan has a deep love for his home state and enjoys following the team’s success.
Dylan has served on the boards of directors of the Georgia Legal Foundation and the Joanne W. Charles Memorial Foundation, where the focus is on raising ovarian cancer awareness and funding research, especially in rural areas.
Dylan and his wife, Nikki, are the proud parents of Zoe and Ivy. Family is at the heart of everything he does.
Charleston's economy has grown rapidly, bringing more jobs and more workplace injuries. From the shipping containers moving through the port to the aircraft being assembled at Boeing's North Charleston facility, workers here face real risks.
The Port of Charleston is one of the busiest on the East Coast. Longshoremen, crane operators, and warehouse workers face daily hazards from heavy equipment, ship loading operations, and constant physical demands. Many of these workers fall under the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act rather than state workers' compensation, which changes how the claim works and who pays.
Boeing and its suppliers employ thousands in the region. Assembly line workers, machinists, and quality inspectors work with heavy machinery and repetitive tasks that lead to serious injuries.
MUSC and Roper St. Francis are major employers. Nurses, aides, and support staff regularly suffer back injuries from patient handling, along with needlestick injuries and exposure risks.
Hotels, restaurants, and attractions throughout downtown and the beaches employ thousands. Kitchen burns, slip and fall accidents, and repetitive stress injuries are common.
The building boom across Charleston County means more workers on scaffolding, rooftops, and job sites where falls and equipment accidents happen regularly.
Distribution centers throughout North Charleston and Summerville put workers at risk for forklift accidents, back injuries from lifting, and repetitive motion problems.
We have represented workers from nearly every industry in this area. If you were injured at work, you have a right to file a claim regardless of what job you have.
Here is what you need to do after getting hurt at work. Getting this wrong will make things more difficult later.
Report your injury to your employer the same day if you can. Under S.C. Code Ann. § 42-15-20 you have 90 days to give notice, but waiting is risky. Put it in writing and keep a copy. If you wait three weeks, the insurance company will question why you waited so long if it really happened at work.
Your employer usually has a list of approved doctors in South Carolina. Try to use one if you can. If you need emergency care, go to the emergency room. Make sure you tell them exactly how you got hurt, and save all your paperwork.
Show up to appointments, take your medications, and do the physical therapy even when it is difficult. Insurance adjusters review your records looking for reasons to cut you off. Miss a few appointments, and they will say you must not be that injured.
Write down every day you miss work, how bad the pain is, and what you cannot do anymore, maybe you cannot pick up your child, sleep through the night, or drive. This might seem tedious, but it matters if things go wrong.
Your employer should report the injury, but you protect your own rights by filing a Form 50 with the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission (Form 52 for a work-related death). You generally have two years from the date of injury to file under S.C. Code Ann. § 42-15-40. Do not wait around for someone else to handle this.
If your claim is denied, benefits are delayed, or your employer is being difficult about it, that is when you need help. Do not try to fight the insurance company alone, that is what they are counting on.
What can you actually get from a workers' compensation claim in South Carolina? Here is the breakdown.
This is the most important benefit. Doctor visits, surgery, hospital stays, prescriptions, physical therapy. If it is treating your work injury and the care is authorized, it should be covered. There is no dollar cap on authorized, related medical treatment.
If you cannot work, you receive two-thirds (66⅔%) of your average weekly wage under S.C. Code Ann. § 42-9-10, up to the 2026 maximum of $1,189.94 per week. These wage-replacement checks are called temporary total disability benefits.
Some injuries do not fully heal. If you are left with lasting limitations, you may receive permanent or partial disability benefits based on your impairment rating and which body part was injured. South Carolina uses a schedule that assigns a set number of weeks to specific body parts.
If you cannot return to your old job, vocational rehabilitation may help you learn new skills or find work that fits your restrictions.
If a worker dies from a job injury, eligible dependents can receive weekly benefits plus funeral costs. Surviving families generally have two years from the date of death to file.
If your injury keeps you out of work long term, you may also qualify for Social Security Disability (SSDI) on top of workers' compensation. The two can offset each other, so it is worth understanding how they interact before you file either one.
Here is how workers' compensation works in South Carolina. It helps to know what you are dealing with. You report the injury, your employer notifies its insurance company and the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission, and the insurer then investigates, which mostly means looking for reasons to pay you less or deny the claim entirely. Keep in mind the insurance company is not on your side; it is a business trying to reduce its costs, including what it pays you.
Tell your employer immediately and in writing. They file with their insurer and the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission.
The insurance company reviews your claim, mostly looking for reasons to deny or minimize payment.
In South Carolina, your employer usually picks which doctors you see. You cannot just go to whoever you want, though you can request a change of physician for good cause.
You can request a hearing before the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission to present your evidence and make your case in front of a commissioner.
Sometimes the insurer offers a lump sum to close out the case. Once you take it, that is usually it, you will not get more benefits for that injury, so do not sign anything without understanding what you are giving up.
People often go looking for a workers' comp settlement chart for South Carolina, hoping to find a fixed dollar figure for their injury. There is no official chart that tells you what your case is worth. Settlement amounts depend on your average weekly wage, the body part injured, your impairment rating, your future medical needs, and whether you can return to work. Anyone who quotes you a number off a chart before reviewing your file is guessing.
Insurance companies deny claims regularly. Here is what they usually use as justification.
Technically you have 90 days, but if you report it two weeks after it happened, they will say, "If you were really hurt at work, why did you not tell anyone sooner?" They could imply you got hurt somewhere else.
This comes up often with injuries that build up over time, bad backs, repetitive stress problems. There is no single accident to point to, so they claim you must have done it on your own time. Employers sometimes back them up on this.
If your doctor's notes are vague about what caused the injury, the insurance company will use that. They need documentation that clearly ties your condition to your job. Make sure your doctor knows exactly how you got hurt and writes it down.
Do you have an old back injury? They will say your current problem is just that old injury flaring up, not anything work related. However, if work made an existing condition worse, you can still get benefits. They do not always tell you that.
Did you miss appointments? Skip physical therapy? Not take your medications? They will use it against you, claiming you must not be that hurt or are not trying to get better.
This is why people end up needing a workers' compensation lawyer at The Wilson PC. Insurance companies have teams of people whose entire job is finding reasons to deny claims. You should not fight that alone.
That is what we do at The Wilson PC. As a work injury lawyer for Charleston workers, we handle workers' compensation cases and take the burden off your plate.
We fill it out correctly the first time. This sounds basic, but you would be surprised how many claims get delayed or denied because of paperwork mistakes.
Did the insurance company say no? We push back. We gather more evidence, build a stronger case, and take it to a hearing before the Commission if we have to.
You know that adjuster who calls you? They are not trying to help you. They are trained to get you to settle cheap or say something they can use against you. We handle those conversations instead.
Medical bills, lost wages, disability benefits. Whatever the law says you should get, we work to make sure you actually get it.
Your job is to heal. Ours is to deal with the rest of this.
There is no shortage of workers' comp lawyers out there. So why us?
Workers' compensation law in South Carolina has its own requirements, deadlines, and procedures, including rules about which doctors you can see, and we have been doing this for years. We know what works.
Nothing is worse than hiring a workers' compensation lawyer and then never hearing from them. We keep you informed. You will know what is happening with your case.
We have helped injured workers get their medical bills covered, recover lost wages, and win disability benefits. Our clients refer their friends because we came through for them.
We work on a contingency basis, no retainer, no hourly fees, nothing out of pocket. In South Carolina, attorney's fees in a workers' compensation case must be approved by the Commission, so you will know exactly what you are paying. If we do not recover benefits for you, you do not owe us a fee.
We work with people throughout South Carolina, Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Mount Pleasant, North Charleston, Rock Hill, and more. Whether you need a North Charleston workers' compensation lawyer, a Mount Pleasant workers' comp lawyer, or help with a claim in Summerville, it does not matter if you work downtown or in the suburbs.
In South Carolina, you have 90 days to report a workplace injury to your employer under S.C. Code Ann. § 42-15-20, but you should report it the same day. The longer you wait, the more ammunition you give the insurance company. They will ask, "If you were really hurt at work, why did it take you two weeks to say something?" Report it in writing right away.
If you miss the 90-day notice deadline, your claim can be barred, meaning you may lose your right to benefits. There are limited exceptions, including repetitive-trauma injuries where the clock starts when you discover the injury, and situations where your employer was not prejudiced by the delay. If you are past 90 days, talk to a lawyer before assuming your claim is dead.
You generally have two years from the date of your injury to file a claim with the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission under S.C. Code Ann. § 42-15-40. This is separate from the 90-day notice deadline, both clocks matter. For a work-related death, the family generally has two years from the date of death.
If you are hurt on the job in South Carolina, you have the right to file an injury at work claim, to receive authorized medical treatment, and to be paid a portion of your lost wages while you recover. You also have the right to request a hearing if your claim is denied, and the right to hire a lawyer. Your employer cannot legally retaliate against you for exercising these rights.
No, it is illegal for a South Carolina employer to retaliate against you for filing a workers' compensation claim. That said, employers can still fire workers for other reasons, "performance issues," "restructuring." If you are let go right after filing a claim, that timing is suspicious and may be unlawful. Talk to a workers' compensation lawyer at The Wilson PC.
In most cases, yes. In South Carolina, your employer or its insurer usually has the right to direct your medical care and choose your treating physician. If you go to your own doctor without authorization, you may have to pay for it yourself. You can ask the Commission to approve a change of physician for good cause.
Nothing upfront. Workers' compensation lawyers work on a contingency basis, and in South Carolina attorney's fees must be approved by the Workers' Compensation Commission. You do not pay hourly, and you do not pay a retainer, the fee comes out of your recovery only if your lawyer wins benefits for you.
It depends. There is no settlement chart that fixes a dollar amount. Your claim's value turns on your average weekly wage, the body part injured, your impairment rating at maximum medical improvement, your future medical needs, and whether you can return to work. A lawyer can estimate a realistic range only after reviewing your medical records and wage history.
Usually not. Workers' compensation is generally the exclusive remedy against your employer, you give up the right to sue them in exchange for no-fault benefits. But if a third party who is not your employer caused your injury, such as a negligent driver, a defective machine, or a subcontractor on the job site, you may have a separate personal injury claim in addition to your workers' comp benefits.
Not always. Some claims go through without problems. But if yours is denied, if your employer disputes what happened, or if the insurance company is being difficult about your medical treatment, that is usually when to get a lawyer for a work injury. The insurance company has attorneys working for it, it makes sense for you to have a workers' compensation lawyer too. Most of us do not charge unless you win.
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