The “Going and Coming Rule” in the District of Columbia

What tends to surprise a lot of our clients is the fact that, in the District of Columbia, injuries sustained by employees while traveling to work or traveling home from work, are not covered by the District of Columbia workers’ compensation statute. The DC workers’ comp statute is codified in Title 32 of the DC Code. In order for an injury to fall within the statute, the injury must “arise out of” the injured worker’s employment.

An injury is said to ‘arise out of’ ones employment if the injury would not have occurred ‘but for’ the fact that an obligation of the employment duties puts the injured worker in a position where he gets injured. An injury is therefore, said to ‘arise out of’ ones employment when it occurs in the course of the employment on account of conditions of the employment which are the immediate cause of the injury.

Therefore, while we must travel via some mode of transportation in order to be able to arrive at our place of employment, or to return home, the traveling itself is not a condition of the actual employment, and is not an obligation of the physical work we do; the traveling and the work are separate and apart from one another.

However, there are instances where an employee’s travel to and from work can be considered to be a part of the employee’s actual work and an obligation of the employee’s employment.When this occurs, injuries sustained by the employee while traveling to and from work would be an exception to the ‘going and coming rule.’ Some factors that the court will consider are the following:

1. Was the employee paid for his time to travel to and from work?
2. Was the employee driving a company vehicle to and from work that he parks in his “home garage?”
3. Is the employee paid gas money to get to and from work?

While there is no bright-line rule, the court will consider one or more of the above factors to see if there exists an exception to the “going and coming rule,” allowing the injury sustained while traveling to or from work to fall within the DC workers’ compensation statute. If any additional information is needed, I can be reached by email: lpisano@bsgfdlaw.com, or on my direct work number of: 301-740-3304.