Verifying Workes’ Compensation Insurance in Arkansas protect you.
By Brandon Thompson, CWCA — CEO, MBG Insurance
When you hire a contractor, a lawn crew, a roofer, or any business that sends workers onto your property or job site, you’re trusting that they’ve handled their end of the paperwork. Most of the time, they have. But when they haven’t — specifically when they’re operating without workers’ compensation insurance — the financial consequences of a workplace injury don’t just disappear. They can land on you.
Whether you’re a homeowner hiring someone to replace your roof, a business owner bringing in an outside vendor, or a general contractor hiring subcontractors, verifying workers’ comp coverage before work begins is one of the simplest ways to protect yourself. Here’s why it matters and exactly how to do it in Arkansas.
Why Homeowners Should Verify Workers’ Comp Coverage
Picture this: you hire a contractor to remodel your kitchen. One of his employees falls off a ladder in your home and suffers a serious injury. If that contractor carries workers’ compensation insurance, the injured worker’s medical bills and lost wages are covered by the comp policy — and that’s generally the end of the story for you.
But if the contractor doesn’t carry workers’ comp? That injured worker still has medical bills, and he’s going to look for someone to pay them. That someone could be you. Injured workers without access to comp benefits may pursue a claim against the homeowner, arguing the injury happened on your property and under your direction. Suddenly, a hiring decision you made to save a few dollars has turned into a liability claim, attorney fees, and a fight with your own homeowners insurance carrier.
Verifying coverage takes minutes. Defending a claim can take years.
Business Owners Face the Same Exposure
The same logic applies if you own a business. When you bring an uninsured contractor or vendor onto your premises and one of their workers is injured, your business can become the target for that worker’s medical costs and lost wages. Your general liability policy may respond — or it may not — but either way, you’ve invited a claim, a potential lawsuit, and a mark on your loss history that can affect your own insurance costs for years.
Requiring proof of workers’ compensation coverage from every contractor and vendor who works on your property should be standard operating procedure, not an afterthought.
Contractors: An Uninsured Sub Can Cost You at Audit Time
General contractors have an additional exposure that catches many by surprise. If you hire a subcontractor who doesn’t carry workers’ compensation insurance, your own workers’ comp carrier can treat that sub’s payroll as if it were your payroll. At your annual premium audit, you can be charged workers’ comp premium on everything you paid that uninsured sub.
In other words, you end up paying for their insurance — at your rates — after the fact, with no ability to recover it. And that’s the good outcome. The bad outcome is one of their workers getting hurt on your job and the claim flowing up to you as the general contractor.
The fix is simple: collect a current certificate of insurance showing active workers’ compensation coverage from every subcontractor before they set foot on your job, and keep those certificates on file for your audit.
How to Verify Workers’ Comp Coverage in Arkansas
Arkansas makes this easy. The Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission provides a free online coverage verification service that allows anyone — employers, employees, homeowners, and contractors — to confirm whether a business carries the required workers’ compensation insurance.
You can access the verification tool here: Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Insurance Coverage Verification
Search the business before you sign a contract or let work begin. If the coverage doesn’t show up, ask questions before you hire — not after someone gets hurt.
Don’t Stop at Workers’ Comp: Ask for a Current Certificate of Insurance
Workers’ compensation is only one piece of the puzzle. You should also request a certificate of insurance (COI) to verify the business carries general liability and any other coverage relevant to the work being performed.
But don’t just accept any piece of paper. A valid, current certificate should have three things:
- Current policy dates. Check the effective and expiration dates on each line of coverage. A certificate showing a policy that expired last month proves nothing.
- A current issue date. Look at the date in the top right corner of the certificate. It should be recent — ideally issued specifically for your job. An old certificate may reference coverage that has since been canceled or non-renewed.
- Your name or business name listed as the certificate holder. A certificate made out to you means the contractor’s insurance agent generated it recently and specifically for your project. A generic certificate — or one made out to someone else — is a red flag.
If a contractor hesitates to provide a current certificate, or the agent can’t produce one, that tells you something important about how that business operates.
The Bottom Line
Verifying workers’ compensation coverage isn’t about distrust — it’s about making sure the risk stays where it belongs: with the insurance policies designed to handle it. A few minutes on the Arkansas verification site and a quick review of a certificate of insurance can save homeowners, business owners, and contractors from claims that can cost tens of thousands of dollars or more.
Learn More about workers Compensation Insurance HERE.
Have questions about workers’ compensation, certificates of insurance, or protecting yourself when hiring contractors in Arkansas or Missouri? The team at MBG Insurance is happy to help. As an independent agency with offices in Springfield and Oak Grove, Missouri, and Bentonville, Arkansas, we work with dozens of carriers to find the right coverage for small and mid-sized businesses — and we review certificates for our clients every day.
Brandon Thompson is CEO and co-founder of MBG Insurance and a Certified Work Comp Advisor (CWCA). Learn more about Brandon at millenniumbrokers.com/brandon-thompson-biography-and-contact-information/.