===========================gtg
Work Injury Lawyer on Work-Related Injuries in Texas
All across the state of Texas, work-related injuries are an unfortunate commonplace occurrence, with effects that reach out to touch hundreds, even thousands of people every year: families, friends, and co-workers. A work-related accident can happen anywhere, anytime, on the road, in the office, or on the site of construction. All sorts of work-related activities can play a part in an injury while on the job, sometimes without even seeming to be dangerous. The average, everyday activity that an employee undertakes without considering the potential for danger can turn in an instant into a situation where lives are changed forever when the accident happens.
If you or a family member has been injured or even killed as a result of an accident while on the job, don’t hesitate to call us at our Law Office for a free consultation on your legal options toll-free.
The law in Texas will provide for legal action against employers who might have had some liability for the work-related accident and the resulting injuries you might have sustained. It is not always easy, as we will show, to prove that liability and to see the full amount of fair compensation for an injury that could potentially permanently affect you. The injured party actually has the burden of proof to show that the employer was somehow responsible and to show that negligence was involved. Work-related injury cases are extremely complex, as we will show, and require the assistance of an experienced and capable attorney who knows what needs to be done to get you the compensation you deserve.
After twenty years of experience in work-related injury cases, our work-related accident attorneys know all the ins and outs of work injury litigation and provide this article by way of information for those who might have suffered an injury while on the job. Below we will discuss some common types of work injury cases as well as some possible obstacles that the victim might face when trying to seek out justice for an injury they suffered while working. If at any point you have any questions or need to seek clarification on some point, don’t hesitate to call our office toll-free for a free consultation. If you are the victim of a work-related injury, call us today to help you protect your rights to full and fair compensation.
=================gtg
The Two Types of Work Accident Cases
Cases where an injury has occurred while at work can be one of two different types, depending on the type of insurance policy and coverage that the employer of the victim has purchased. The first type is a policy held through the Texas Workers Compensation Board and is generally referred to as workers comp insurance. The second type is general liability or a supplemental injury policy of one type of the other, bought through a private party by the employer. In the state of Texas, unlike in many other states, purchasing a policy through the Workers Comp Board is not a mandatory action; therefore your employer chooses what type of insurance coverage they will buy.
Workers Comp
When an employer purchases an insurance policy through the workers comp system, they are subscribing to a much broader service than just a simple insurance company’s protection. They are making themselves a part of a complex system that will engage to protect them and their assets from any workers who are injured while on the job. The benefit of Workers Comp is that it comes with a wall of legal protection from any employee who decides to sue the company. Through Workers Comp, the employer gains strong protection from any lawsuits. In most cases, this system that protects the employer will prevent any lawsuits following a work-related accident because the insurance company that provides the work comp policy should be the one to compensate the injured victim of a work-related accident for their hospital bills and a portion of the wages they might have lost as a result of the accident. This is all a best-case scenario, however, as in reality, it does not work this way every time. Remember, the insurance company through whom the employer has purchased a workers comp policy is still a for-profit business that is looking to increase earnings and decrease expenditures, a major one being the expense of paying an injured employee the compensation they deserve for their injury resulting from an accident while at work. The insurance company will make an effort to avoid payment or low-ball the victim, just like any insurance company and the result is that every year there are thousands of injured employees who are victims of on-the-job accidents who go in need because their worker’s compensation is either non-existent or far too low to cover all of their important needs. Even though in theory workers comp is an important tool for the worker to have in order to protect them from employers, the employer often uses it as a way to prevent injured employees from receiving the full benefits they deserve by manipulating the system and by setting out so much red tape that the employee can’t get their deserved restitution.
There are two major exceptions to the work comp system that can be applied in the event that they occurred. If the work-related accident or the resulting injury turns out to be fatal to one of your family members or your spouse, and it can be shown in court to have been the result of gross negligence on the part of the employer, the work accident suit can likely be taken to court a wrongful death lawsuit.
The second exception to the work comp system that can be applied is when the employer is not the only responsible party involved in the work-related accident and resulting injury. In many cases, some contractor, fellow employee, or another third party might bear some liability in the work-related accident. An experienced and competent work injury attorney can be vital to helping you find full and fair compensation and can often be the difference between success and failure in proving issues like third-party liability and negligence.
When you retain the services of our Law Office, we will immediately set up an investigation into the accident and help you in determining all of the possibly liable parties who might or might bear responsibility in the accident and can be named in a suit in order to help you get the compensation you deserve.
Non-Subscribers
If you have been in an accident while at work and your business doesn’t subscribe to any kind of work comp (we generally refer to employers who choose to do this as nonsubscriber), the whole process for making the claim in order to receive compensation for bills, lost wages, additional expenses, and any possible property damage as well as potential emotional trauma, the whole process is very different from the work comp claims. The major difference between the two types of claims is that in the event that you are injured while at work and your employer is a nonsubscriber, you are eligible to begin the process for filing a conventional personal injury claim and a lawsuit, unlike the work comp claim where the whole apparatus of work comp prevents any lawsuits. If this is the situation, your case will be managed and ruled under the operations of trial law and won’t have the resulting red tape and bureaucracy of a work comp case.
However, even though the nonsubscriber cases are not hampered with the pro-employer apparatus found with the work comp claim cases, and even though the worker has more legal rights when it comes to lawsuits, the nonsubscriber case is by no means easy to litigate and really do require the services of an experienced and competent work-related accident lawyer. In the event of a nonsubscriber case, the claim is often not sufficient to convince the employer to agree to fair compensation and must often result in an accompanying lawsuit as well. In the event of a lawsuit, the injured worker has the obligation and the burden of proving that the work-related accident was in fact caused in major part by the negligence of the employer and that the result is a serious loss of income, loss of assets, steep medical bills, loss of future earning potential, pain and suffering, as well as other serious losses that the victim of the accident suffered.
On the positive side of the coin, another feature of Texas law where nonsubscriber cases of work-related injury are concerned is that there exists a low standard of the negligent behavior that the victim must prove in court, which somewhat alleviates the burden of the victim when it comes to showing that their injury is the result of an accident suffered while at work due to the negligent behavior of their employer.
===================gtg
Common Obstacle in Nonsubscriber Work-Related Injury Cases
The primary obstacle in a situation where an employer is a nonsubscriber to work comp insurance is that he or she is required to use just one defense when the claim goes to court. The only defense is called Sole Proximate Cause. In 1993, when the Texas state legislature passed what we call the Texas Workers Comp Act, they engineered a system that often gives employers a free pass when it comes to lawsuits and the subsequent result is that it is extremely beneficial to employers to buy work comp coverage. Why, then, would a business choose to be a nonsubscriber when the subscription gives them a ticket out of a legal suit when it comes to an injury while on the job? One simple reason is money. The costs of regularly buying the work comp policy added to the headache of the government bureaucracy involved are enough to drive many employers to purchase independent insurance policies. However, the legal system punishes businesses that choose not to subscribe by making their defense harder to uphold in court. The Sole Proximate Cause defense is really the only allowed defense for nonsubscriber employers.
Sole Proximate Cause
Sole Proximate Cause is essentially a strategy of legal defense that assumes at its heart that the injured employee is one hundred percent at fault for the accident in which they were injured while on the job. Since it is really the only available defense for nonsubscriber employers, they use it pretty much every time which means that every trial involving a nonsubscriber employer will come down to a veritable witch hunt trying to show how every aspect of the original accident was somehow the fault of the injured employee plaintiff. The nonsubscriber work-related injury cases are difficult and challenging because the plaintiff is working with a business that has a potentially particularly high insurance policy with a private business. The stakes are much higher and therefore the insurance company will fight much harder to defend their policy. This kind of insurance policy, it must be remembered, is not like a simple auto insurance policy where some agent of the company will come by and help you fill out a claim. This is a big business high-stakes insurance claim that will be defended against you by a whole team of highly experienced and aggressive professional adjusters whose sole goal is to either reduce the total value of your compensation or deny it altogether. Additionally, these types of cases will be defended in court by another team of highly experienced professionals, this time the defense lawyers, who will also be extremely aggressive in discrediting whatever you have to say and trying to show in court how the fault and ultimately the sole proximate cause of the accident lies with you rather than with the employer. The business and the insurance company from whom the employer has purchased the policy will fight as hard as they can to prevent the payout and in fact, both businesses and insurance companies, in general, are notorious in these types of situations for using aggressive strong-arm tactics to force the victim of the on-the-job accident to accept a settlement far below what they should by rights receive. The business and the insurance company, as we have already noted, have at their command a whole team of hardened professionals whose sole goal is to prevent your claim from succeeding. The employers and their insurance companies might tell you that they are going to be your friend and help and care for you at this time, but they are not interested in what is good for you. They are businesses and in business, there is a bottom line that you are not a part of. They are thinking and acting on the assumption that the important element is profit. A huge work injury claim payout is not profit.
An additional obstacle faced by plaintiffs in work injury claims where the employer is a nonsubscriber is that the plaintiff must show that an employer/employee relationship existed between the two. This sounds simple and in many cases it is, but there are situations where the employer will make a great deal of effort to hide the real nature of the relationship between the injured employee and the business. A number of businesses will hire their employees under the title of contractor even when the nature of the work is contract-type labor at all, in an effort to avoid having the employee listed as an official employee. If an employee is just contract labor, the employer will have to pay far less or not at all when it comes to an on-the-job injury, since the liability won’t be the same under the law. Having businesses deny the relationship between employee/employer is a commonplace occurrence in nonsubscriber cases and can often mean the difference between a successful claim and an unsuccessful claim.
Employee or Contractor?
As we stated above, an unfortunately typical tactic used by employers is to deny that the injured employee was, in fact, a regular working employee, stating instead that they were a contractor. They will go to the family of the victim and state that since the injured employee wasn’t really an employee, the employer is not liable and therefore there will be no compensation. It is not accidental on the part of the employer to hire employees under the umbrella of contract labor in order to avoid liability. When you are performing the duties of an employee, even if you are being called a contractor, you do not automatically have all of your rights to compensation should you be injured while on the job. The injured victim has the burden of proof and must show that somehow an employer/employee relationship did exist or risk having the entire case thrown out of court. The work injury lawyers at our Law Office have the experience and knowledge of all the different and efficient strategies for showing in court that the victim of a work-related injury was, in fact, a real employee and therefore has eligibility for just and fair compensation for the injuries sustained while working. If you meet one or more than one of the following different factors then you might still be a real employee despite the fact that your employer calls you a contractor.
Does the business withhold any social security, taxes, or any other withholding from your paycheck?
Does the business provide you with any of the tools that are necessary to complete your job?
Does the business design and oversee your work schedule for your job?
Does the business supervise, oversee, manage, or inspect any aspects of your work or job during a given period of work?
Does the business have you sign documents or contracts that create limits to your rights on the job (for example being drug testing or employment conditions)?
Does the business employ you as a worker for an unspecified period of time rather than just for a single job or task?
Does the business compensate you with an hourly wage or a salary rather than a lump sum in payment for a single job?
The Work Injury Attorneys at our Law Office will organize and conduct a full investigation to determine your employee status, including interviews, depositions, gathering physical evidence, and more in order to fully establish the relationship between you and the business that employs you.
=====================gtg
Can OSHA Help?
OSHA, or the federal agency called the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, has general and minimum standards for safety that apply to all employers in the country. There does exist a whole apparatus for determining what is appropriate safety-wise, and those employers who do not follow the guidelines for safety set down by OSHA are fined. However, the safety regulations and the administration are a large and even outdated bureaucratic system that is just as efficient as most outdated administrative and enforcement agencies like it. It is understaffed and under-funded and the investigative teams will often not visit a worksite until after an accident has been reported, by which time it is too late. At that point, OSHA will produce a general safety report on the site and on the accident and will take preventative actions and fine the business several thousand dollars accordingly in order to make sure nothing like this happens again, but they are not generally interested in your case or the compensation due to you. They have a job to do and they aren’t going to assist you in getting your just compensation because that is not really their job, as they see it. They enforce guidelines and standards. That is it. What this means ultimately for you is that OSHA is not going to help you get the compensation you deserve. The only help you can count on in order to be compensated will come from an experienced and capable work injury lawyer who has your best interests at heart.
What Do I Do?
The best first guideline for the victim of an injury sustained while on the job is to never sign any document that releases the employer of any aspect of liability. They will probably give you some document that promises some small benefit in exchange for that release of liability and it would not be a good idea to sign it. You should also make an effort to preserve and evidence that you still have from the accident in order to keep it safe and unspoiled. Should you wait for a long time to retain the services of a work injury lawyer, most of the evidence will probably be gone or compromised in some way and you won’t have what you need to win your case.
If you have been injured in a work-related accident anywhere in the state of Texas, don’t hesitate to contact an experienced and competent work injury attorney. Here at our Law Office, our work injury lawyers have twenty years of valuable experience in work injury and understand the process for making sure that our clients get the best possible representation in order for them to receive the just and fair compensation they deserve following an accident while on the job. Our work-related accident attorneys can tell you the benefits you should expect and give you good advice on how to preserve evidence and what the next steps are if you have been injured while on the job. Here at our Law Office, we have twenty years of experience and the knowledge that goes with it to help clients like you, so if you have been injured in a work-related accident, don’t hesitate to call us today toll-free for your free consultation.
===============gtg
====================gtg
=======================gtg
Texas Attorney Discusses Slip & Fall Injuries & Premises Liability Law in Texas
According to the law, property owners in the state of Texas must adhere to minimum reasonable safety standards for visitors to their property. Due to a legal principle known as premises liability, a visitor to a property who suffers an injury due to the property owner’s negligent refusal to provide reasonable safety can legally seek damages from the property owner through a personal injury lawsuit. The handling of a premises liability case, however, relies a great deal on the nature of the visitor and the circumstances in which the accident occurred. If you or a loved one was injured while visiting someone else’s property, the attorneys at our Law Office want to help you better understand premises liability and the processes and challenges you will face in seeking fair restitution.
Three Types of Visitors
Legally speaking, a property owner owes the duty of safe conditions to nearly every visitor to his or her property. Many people don’t realize, though, that the property owner owes different legal expectations for different types of visitors. Texas law recognizes three distinct types of visitors in cases involving premises liability:
Invitees are people who enter another person’s property willfully and deliberately for the benefit of both the property owner and the visitor. A shopper entering a store, for instance, can benefit him or herself by purchasing something he or she needs, while the property owner benefits by making a sale.
Licensees are visitors who willfully and deliberately enter another party’s property but only the visitor benefits from the visit. It might seem odd, but the law considers a person dropping by to visit a friend as a licensee because that type of visit allegedly only benefits the visitor.
Trespassers are people who enter another person’s property deliberately, willfully, and illegally. A burglar breaking and entering is a prime example of a trespasser.
Different Legal Duties Owed For Different Visitors
Property owners owe three different duties to visitors:
To seek out dangerous hazards on the property and warn visitors of them
To warn visitors of dangerous hazards on the property that the owner is already aware exist
To avoid willfully and deliberately injuring visitors
Property owners do not, however, owe all three of these duties to all visitors. Property owners owe only invitees the responsibility of searching for and warning of the existence of dangerous hazards. Property owners must attempt to locate slippery floors, sinkholes, or frayed electrical wires, or other such dangers and then warn invitees about these problems. The law requires property owners to actively seek environmental hazards. Only invitees and licensees are required to be warned of pre-existing dangers according to Texas premises liability laws. For instance, if a property owner installs an electric fence to protect his or her property, then he or she must mark the fence clearly or be held liable for any electrocution injuries or deaths. Property owners cannot willfully and deliberately injure any visitors to their property even someone who has entered the property illegally. A property owner cannot set dangerous traps to injure someone breaking into the property, or the property owner is liable for any injuries the burglar may suffer as a result.
Premises Liability Accidents
Premises liability injuries that are eligible to file lawsuits can include but are not limited to: Slipping and falling: when dangerous conditions like a wet floor, a frayed rug, or a negligently placed extension cord causes an invitee to slip and fall.
Elevator collapses: a visitor who is injured during an elevator accident can file a claim against the property owner even when faulty machinery causes the collapse.
Falling downstairs: if a visitor falls due to a lack of adequate lighting or a handrail or possibly due to a missing or uneven step.
Criminal activity: if a crime results in an injury to an invitee, such as a customer shot in a jewelry store heist, then the injured party or his or her family in the event of wrongful death, may file a claim against the property owner.
Animal attacks: property owners can be held liable for injuries caused by their own animals to visitors, as well as, any injuries caused by any animal on his or her property.
Many different elements can affect a premises liability lawsuit, and a property owner can be liable for a wide variety of hazards: from a failure to put down a wet floor sign, to a lack of adequate lighting, to an angry copperhead snake. If you have been injured on somebody else’s property, then you need the help of an experienced premises liability lawyer to sort through the specific details of your case and the complex laws in question, so you can get the compensation to which you are entitled. After 20 years of trying cases all over the Lone Star State, the attorneys at our Law Office are here to help you understand the options available to you to seek restitution. We have won settlements from virtually every major insurance company in the country, proving over and over again that we know how to get compensation for the victims of premises liability injury cases. The insurance companies are imminently aware that it’s better to settle with us now than go to trial and pay more later. In many cases, our clients quickly receive settlement offers and can get back to enjoying their lives with minimal expense and inconvenience. We can help you get back to living your life too by quickly and efficiently settling your claim. If you or someone you love has been injured while visiting someone else’s property, then call our experienced premises liability lawyers today for a free consultation. We will answer any questions you have and get you on your way to finding just restitution for your injuries.
======================gtg
=======================gtg
========================gtg
Recoverable Damages Amount Limits in a Wrongful Death Lawsuit, Plus the Required Standards of Proof Plaintiffs Must Meet
There are some cases where the ability of a plaintiff to recover damages via the means of a lawsuit may be constrained due to limitations. There are other cases where plaintiffs are required to satisfy a higher standard of proof than might be required in traditional wrongful death lawsuits. Legislators, for example, have been convinced by effective lobbying that medical expenses were going through the roof because of excessive legal action. As a result, new medical malpractice legislation was enacted that placed limitations on the number of damages that could be recovered in a medical wrongful death lawsuit. They also raised the standard of proof that plaintiffs had to meet in medical malpractice cases. This legislation served its intended purpose in that it reduced the number of frivolous lawsuits, but it also had the unintended and unfortunate effect of making it far tougher for victims of legitimate medical malpractice to obtain the just restitution they have coming to them. To make matters worse, a significant portion of any settlement that is reached merely reverts to the doctor to pay for outstanding medical expenses. Therefore, there are many lawyers who will refuse to take lawsuits involving medical malpractice cases.
There are similar problems that can occur in workplace-related wrongful death lawsuits because of workers’ compensation insurance laws. Many people believe that workers’ compensation laws were enacted in order to assist injured employees in recovering from their injuries. However, this is not the truth; workers comp laws were designed to protect employers against litigation. If the employer of your deceased loved one purchased or subscribed to, workers’ compensation insurance, then the monetary compensation you will be able to secure will be far less than the harm that has been done to you and your family. That does not mean, however, that you cannot seek fair restitution from other parties. The Texas wrongful death attorneys with our Law Office are very familiar with the process of identifying responsible third parties who do not enjoy the protection afforded by workers’ compensation laws. As a result, we can go after them in order to try and obtain the fair compensation you deserve in the form of wrongful death damages. For example, let’s say a faulty piece of machinery resulted in the death of your family member. If this is the case, then you can file a wrongful death lawsuit against the equipment manufacturer. Also, if your family member’s employer committed gross negligence that led to the fatal accident, you can still try and obtain damages against that employer even if the company was a workers comp subscriber at the time of the accident. If this is the case, there are no limits to the amount of monetary compensation you may be able to obtain. The catch is that the standard of proof in this instance is exceedingly high to meet, so you need an experienced attorney on your side. As was previously mentioned, lawsuits involving wrongful deaths are significantly more intricate and complex than they may seem at first blush and that is not even taking into account the very formidable opposition you will encounter. You have very little chance of winning your case without having a seasoned and skilled Texas wrongful death lawyer on your side. You are allowed by law to represent yourself in your lawsuit, but if you choose to do so you are almost guaranteed to be disappointed. The best way to handle the complex nature of this litigation and to have the best chance of winning is to make sure you enlist the assistance of an experienced attorney. The Texas wrongful death attorneys at our Law Office will help protect you and your family’s legal rights and make those responsible for causing your tragic loss pay dearly for their negligence.
======================gtg
============================gtg
============================gtg
====================gtg
=======================gtg
=================gtg
