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Approximately one-third of the states include the defense of "wilful misconduct" in their respective workers' compensation statutes. Under this defense, employers' will claim that the employee is ineligible to receive, or is only entitled to a reduced amount of, workers' compensation benefits because his deliberate action in, for example, violating a safety rule or committing an aggravated assault, is what caused his injury.

According to the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP), an employee who may be covered by the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act should take certain actions if he is injured.

The central question of whether a given state can apply its workers' compensation statute focuses on various factors including the place that the employment contract was entered into, the place of the employee's injury, and the employee's usual place of employment. For example, an employee who entered into an employment contract with a construction company in California, and who was subsequently injured on a construction site in Nevada, may be able to seek workers' compensation benefits in both California and Nevada. However, double recoveries are generally not permitted.

When an employee acts to aid a person in an emergency situation, his actions are generally considered to be within the course of employment. When the employee's rescue efforts are in the employer's interest, there is a strong likelihood that compensation for an injury incurred in such efforts will be allowed. Additionally, if the nature of his employment places him in a position where human decency requires action, an employee may recover benefits.

Workers' compensation is an employer-provided benefit that exists to aid an employee or his dependents in the event that the employee is injured or killed on the job. Workers' compensation is governed by each state's laws, but the general consensus is that eligibility for such benefits turns on whether the employee suffered an accidental injury that arose out of and in the course of his employment or an occupational disease.