A Legal Question

No you do not usually have workman’s comp for 1099 contractors but they may very well be liable. It’s possible they may have some sort of business insurance though but it wouldn’t work like workman’s comp. Honestly if they won’t do anything for her she would probably have to decide whether it was worth it to get a layer involved if it was serious. Obviously that might complicate her relationship with the club if she wanted to stay there.

What boomer79 said, more than likely. It depends on what is in your state's workers comp statute. Or, if this happened in DC, where it looks like you are located, whatever workers comp rules apply. Don't know if its some federal law or a DC ordinance. But I'm willing bet workers comp would only cover an actual employee entitled to a W2. But she may have a good claim anyway.

The rash of law suits by strippers against clubs is based on claims they have been misclassified as contractors instead of W2 employees, who would be entitled to a minimum wage, social security contributions, possibly health insurance, and yes, workers comp insurance. Because of all the rules clubs place on strippers, they probably should be classified as employees, and as far as I know, they usually win when these claims are made. So if she isn't covered by workers comp, she might be able to sue and get the benefits anyway if she should have been covered.

If the club had reason to know the pole was in bad shape and didn't properly fix it, she may also have a good personal injury claim. Was it held together with duct tape before or after she was in injured? If it was half-assed repaired with duct tape before she was injured, she may well have a good claim. If there was no obvious sign of a problem and it just broke while she was on it, it may be a gray area. I'm also willing to bet the contract she signed with the club waived any claims she might have against the club, but lawyers can sometimes get around waivers like that.

Bottom line, if she was really seriously injured, she should go see a personal injury or workers comp lawyer. They would likely take the case on a contingency fee so she wouldn't have to pay any lawyer fees unless she won. However, it would have to be a pretty bad injury for them to take the risk on case like this. I hope she wasn't injured badly enough to make it worthwhile for a lawyer to get involved.

An interesting question, give the propensity of clubs to *classify* dancers as independent contractors, but *treat* them as if they were employees, I wouldn't be at all surprised if a good lawyer could make a case for her being covered in fact.

That is absolutely true. She probably could be classified as an employee but that involves getting a lawyer or the department of labor involved. She’ll have to decide if it’s worth it. It probably only would be if it’s serious which hopefully it isn’t.