There's a conversation I have several times a month, and it almost always opens the same way.
"I don't think I have a case. I was a contractor."
Then I ask what the job actually looked like. And what I hear is a man who showed up at the same address every morning at the same time, used the company's truck and tools, did the work the way the foreman told him to, couldn't send somebody else in his place, and got paid every two weeks by the same outfit for eleven months straight. The only thing that made him a "contractor" was a piece of paper handed to him on his first day.
He fell off a roof. Now he has a shattered heel, no income, and a hospital bill — and the company's answer is one sentence: you were 1099, so there's no workers' comp.
That sentence is a position, not a ruling
I'm not going to lay out a legal test in a blog post, and I'd be suspicious of any lawyer who tried to boil one down to a paragraph on a website. What I will tell you is this: when a business tells an injured worker there's no coverage because of how he was classified, that is the business's argument. It's where the dispute starts. It is not a decision anyone with authority has made about your case.
The label on the paperwork describes what somebody wanted the relationship to be called. Whether it matches what the relationship actually was — the control, the tools, the schedule, the ability to work for anyone else — is a question of facts. And facts get examined.
The tragedy is that most people never get that far. They hear "1099," they believe it, and they eat the injury.
Why this happens so often here
Nebraska's economy runs on industries where this classification is everywhere: residential construction and the trades, trucking and delivery, landscaping and roofing, cleaning and sanitation crews, agricultural labor, and warehouse work staffed through layers of contractors. Some of those arrangements are legitimate. Some exist because somebody figured out that a worker who thinks he's a contractor doesn't file claims — and the workers hit hardest are usually the ones least equipped to push back.
What to do in the first two weeks
- Report the injury to whoever runs the job, in writing, even if you've been told you're not an employee. Text or email is fine. Keep your own copy. Do it now, not after you've decided whether you have a claim.
- Get real medical treatment and be precise about how it happened. "Hurt at work, fell from a ladder at the 90th Street site." Those notes matter later.
- Save everything that shows how the job actually worked. Texts from the foreman telling you when to show up and what to do. The schedule. Photos of the tools and truck. Pay records. Any agreement you signed.
- Write down who else was on that jobsite — the general contractor, other subs, an equipment company. On construction sites especially, the company that issued your 1099 is frequently not the only one with responsibility. I've written about how jobsite injuries often involve more than one company, and the same can be true here.
- Don't sign a settlement, release, or "independent contractor acknowledgment" after the injury without having somebody look at it first.
If you want a sense of what a Nebraska comp claim can cover when it is covered, I keep a plain-English rundown on my workers' compensation benefits page. And if you were placed by a staffing company, the temp agency worker injury page walks through how liability gets sorted out when two companies both had a hand in your work. Even a flat denial isn't the end of the line — here's what actually happens after one.
Bring it to somebody who'll test it
This is exactly the kind of claim that gets closed with a phone call when nobody pushes. I push. As an Omaha work injury lawyer, I dig into how a job was really run — the control, the tools, the schedule, the other companies on site — and I'm prepared to litigate it when the answer I get is a shrug. That approach has produced more than $23 million in recoveries for my clients, a $5.4 million top result, and the five-star reviews my clients left in their own words. My firm was voted Best of Omaha for personal injury law in 2025 and again in 2026.
If you got hurt on a job and were told you're "just a contractor," call me at (402) 378-9208 or reach out here before you accept that as the final answer. The consultation is free, and there's no fee unless I win your case.
Frequently asked questions
- Does being paid on a 1099 mean I can't file a Nebraska work injury claim?
- When a business tells an injured worker there's no coverage because of how he was classified, that is the business's argument. It's where the dispute starts. It is not a decision anyone with authority has made about your case.
- Why does the label on the paperwork matter less than the job itself?
- The label on the paperwork describes what somebody wanted the relationship to be called. Whether it matches what the relationship actually was — the control, the tools, the schedule, the ability to work for anyone else — is a question of facts. And facts get examined.
- Why are so many Nebraska workers classified as contractors?
- Nebraska's economy runs on industries where this classification is everywhere: residential construction and the trades, trucking and delivery, landscaping and roofing, cleaning and sanitation crews, agricultural labor, and warehouse work staffed through layers of contractors. Some of those arrangements are legitimate.
- What should I do in the first two weeks after getting hurt on a 1099 job?
- Report the injury to whoever runs the job, in writing, even if you've been told you're not an employee. Get real medical treatment and be precise about how it happened. Save everything that shows how the job actually worked — texts from the foreman, the schedule, photos of the tools and truck, pay records.
Your Attorney
Frank Younes
Every page on this site is written by Frank Younes, a Nebraska trial attorney with a published record of verdicts and settlements, selection to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, and a practice that covers every county in Nebraska and Iowa. No case is handed to an associate — the lawyer you read here is the lawyer who works your case.
More about Frank → · Free consultation: (402) 378-9208