legal 1/14/2020 28.) Workers' Comp / Workplace Accidents - gtg

legal 1/14/2020 28.) Workers’ Comp / Workplace Accidents – gtg

Posted on January 14, 2020, 10:17 pm By David Strebler

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Starting at the Beginning: Determining the Employer’s Workers’ Compensation Status

We can thank our lawmakers (and the insurance lobby who pays for their lunches and nice vacations) for today’s difficulty in understanding workers’ compensation laws. No employer is required by the state of Texas to purchase workers’ comp insurance. Roughly one in two employers subscribes to the program. So, workers’ comp injury cases are divided into two separate types that require altogether different methods and strategies to resolve. Employers who carry worker’s comp are known as “subscribers.” Those who don’t are “non-subscribers.” In order to know how to proceed with your serious injury reimbursement, the first order of business is to determine whether or not your employer is one or the other.

Workers’ comp benefits are paid out of a “pool” of funds. This pool is stocked by private insurance carriers that participate in the program. It pays injury claims while it protects subscriber-employers from lawsuits and generally disregards the legal rights of employees. Whether the employer is negligent does not figure into the equation. Workers’ comp reimbursement amounts are limited or “capped.” So when an employee is seriously hurt, the monetary benefits they can receive often fall way short of what is actually needed to return to physical and fiscal health. Now workers’ comp does provide some compensation to employees who are injured on the job site. But it’s basically “no-fault” insurance because those covered by workers’ comp are reimbursed, no matter how the accident occurred or whose fault it was. And subscribing employers cannot be directly sued for the more appropriate amount of fair damage compensation. And we’ll go over that in more detail in a bit.

But on the other hand, in order to receive restitution from a non-subscriber to workers’ comp, an injury victim must first file claim with the employer’s private liability insurance company or a lawsuit in civil court if the employer is not covered or has no insurance at all. Fortunately, for the injured party, the prerequisites that have been established to encourage companies to subscribe to “no-fault” workers’ comp insurance are not as stringent as they once were. And these same lower standards of proving subscriber negligence, also apply against a non-subscriber in a civil case. So it’s not as difficult to assess true liability against a non-subscribing employer for on-the-job accidents due to these relaxed standards.

Since workers’ comp is cheaper than traditional employer liability insurance, one would assume all companies would be wise and purchase workers’ comp instead. But there’s no accounting for those who live dangerously (and pay higher rates) by not subscribing to workers’ comp because it is comparatively cheaper than private liability coverage. So many employers still choose to roll the dice and take the risk of being a non-subscriber. Then, when the odds catch up with them, they try to avoid a lawsuit and lie to you by claiming that they have workers’ comp when a worker is injured. These employers may try to quickly pay you benefits you would normally receive from workers’ comp, then ask you to sign what they may represent as a “standard workers’ comp release” in order to further their deception and get off the hook for the actual damages you are owed. But we don’t fall for this oft-used employer trick and neither should you

This is one of many examples of how you benefit from an experienced Texas workers compensation lawyer to get to the bottom of your company’s workers’ comp status, so you know what legal avenues are available to you. Once we have identified the nature of your employer’s workers’ comp standing, we then move forward together to secure your injury compensation.

An experienced Texas work injury attorney with our Law Firm helps injured Texas employees deal with their challenging work-injury cases. We have spent decades accumulating the expertise required to help injured workers just like you to receive the compensation they deserve for their medical bills, lost wages, pain, suffering, and disability through effective negotiation or successful litigation if the latter becomes necessary.

You have the opportunity to put our experience to work for you. If you want to know what your rights are, how to proceed with your claim and how much compensation you can reasonably expect to secure, then we can answer your questions. Call our Law Firm now at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.

You’ve already been hurt. Don’t let those who negligently caused your serious work accident injury victimize you and your family once again. We’ll help you fight for what is rightfully yours.

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Third-Party Liability and the Single Exception When Workers Comp Subscribers can be Sued for Negligence

When they subscribe to workers’ comp insurance, employers get far more than just inexpensive pool coverage that produces lower benefit payments to seriously injured workers. They are also virtually immune to civil negligence lawsuits. Unless the employer has committed gross(or willful) negligence resulting in wrongful death, they cannot be sued if one of their employees is injured on the job, or has been killed at work. And the negligence must be clearly overwhelming in order for this exception to apply. So whichever contributing insurance company is responsible for negotiating a settlement; again, with benefit caps, the odds are highly unlikely that the victim, or the victim’s survivors if a death has occurred, will receive the equitable compensation to which they are entitled without a trial.

In a perfect and fair world, insurance providers would be concerned with tending to the legitimate needs of injured parties, and victims (or their families) would receive fair payment for all medical bills, lost salary, pain, suffering, disability, and death. But the world is neither fair nor perfect. Insurance companies are in business first, to generate profits: not help people. And those who underwrite the workers’ comp pool are no exception. All insurance companies try to avoid fairly compensating injured employees every year throughout the Lone Star State. Those who participate in the state’s insurance pool are just doing it with the help of the legislature.

But aside from subscriber gross negligence in causing wrongful death, there is another weapon in your fight to receive just compensation for your serious injuries outside of (or in addition to) workers’ comp.

In many cases, someone besides the employer may have done something negligent to cause a serious workplace injury. If a faulty piece of machinery caused your injury, the manufacturer may be held accountable through a defective product lawsuit. If the owner of the property did not provide safe working conditions, then he or she could be held accountable. If another employee or a visiting contractor or one of the contractor’s employees negligently caused the injury, then they could be held accountable. In such a case, you can sue the responsible party or parties but not your subscribing employer. Experience and the ability to properly investigate not only the accident scene but the roles these third parties played in the accident are required in order to properly identify all of the parties responsible and make them pay for the injuries they cause. A skillful Texas workers’ compensation attorney with our Law Firm can devise a plan of attack for workplace injury cases that offer the best opportunity to secure compensation in a complex Texas work accident claim like this.

You’ve already been hurt. Don’t let those who negligently caused your serious work accident injury victimize you and your family once again. We’ll help you fight for what is rightfully yours.

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Success Against Liable Non-Subscribers is More Straightforward, but it’s Still Not Easy

We’ve already mentioned how it comes as no surprise that many employers neglect to purchase workers’ comp, or any other form of insurance. If you are to receive the compensation you deserve from non-subscribing employers, you certainly need the assistance of a skilled Texas work accident attorney to file a lawsuit and stubbornly see it through to the very end in order to receive the fair compensation you deserve as a result of this employer’s negligence.

In order to punish non-subscribing employers for not participating in this state-run program, Texas workers comp laws enable the victim to secure much greater damages than if the employer had purchased workers comp insurance. The workplace accident victim must merely prove standard negligence, which means the employer only committed a sole error or momentary inability to maintain safety. That’s enough to win. But as you can guess, the laws governing these principles are extremely intricate. So in order to succeed you will need a crafty accident lawyer to assist you through every intricacy of this challenging legal process.

It begins when the victim, also known as the plaintiff, files a claim with the employer, notifying him or her of the injury and the amount of money the victim expects as fair repayment. The employer can agree. But that rarely happens. Most of the time the employer has some sort of insurance of surety bond to cover these matters. If they have insurance, they just hand this matter over to their carrier. Then you and your attorney try to negotiate a settlement, although the insurance company will probably initially dispute your allegations outright just to see how serious you are.

But with a strong attorney and equally strong case, negotiations can progress in-good-faith, usually because your attorney’s very strong case shows you mean business. Then the matter is often settled, you get a fair compensation check and everyone returns to their regular lives. But often, work-related injury cases are contested and the plaintiff must file a lawsuit to win the compensation. As the injured party, the plaintiff holds the burden for proving that the employer’s negligence caused the injury, resulting in those high medical bills, lost salary, pain, and suffering. Fortunately, if the injured victims can prove simple negligence, winning that lawsuit is much easier.

You’ve already been hurt. Don’t let those who negligently caused your serious work accident injury victimize you and your family once again. We’ll help you fight for what is rightfully yours.

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Defendants Often Claim That you are the Cause of the Accident and They Owe you Nothing

If your employer is a workers’ comp insurance non-subscriber, then he or she isn’t likely to suddenly change his or her nature and agree to pay you out of the goodness of their heart or because it’s the right thing to do. Our experience in these matters has revealed that most non-subscribers try to use a couple of typical defenses to avoid paying injured employees the restitution they deserve.

The only reasonable defense afforded non-subscribers after an employee suffers a serious injury is to claim the worker caused his or her own injuries or, in legal terms is the sole proximate cause of the harm that befell them. In order to invoke this defense, non-subscribing employers will literally add insult to your injuries and soil your reputation by proving you were a negligent employee and caused your own injuries. They’ll call your general character in-question in order to convince a jury that you are such a reprehensible person that you don’t deserve a penny from them. They try in any way they can to hold you alone responsible for your injuries or infer that you’re a lowlife who is just out to get your employer.

While your employer may have been too cheap to buy workers’ comp coverage, you certainly won’t be surprised that he or she will think nothing of paying tens of thousands of dollars to an experienced and shrewd lawyer who knows how to make victims appear negligent for their own injuries. You need your own cunning on-the-job injury attorney to place fault back where it truly belongs, the negligent employer.

You’ve already been hurt. Don’t let those who negligently caused your serious work accident injury victimize you and your family once again. We’ll help you fight for what is rightfully yours.

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The Other Defense Tactic: Claiming You are a Contractor, Not an Employee

The sole proximate cause defense is not the only way that non-subscribers have to deflect liability after an injury has been suffered by an employee. But after that tactic has failed, many clever employers try to avoiding liability for your serious work injuries by trying to distance themselves from you as an employee, and their responsibility to fairly compensate you. Some even begin building that paper trail to prove their argument from the first day you show up for work.

Texas Employers are not responsible for what happens to contractors when an accident occurs at their place of business. So many companies will claim to hire their employees as contractors. By calling you a contractor, your employer tries to deny that an employer-employee relationship existed between you and the company. Then their attorneys or insurance companies will tell you that you don’t have a legal claim for damages. Their “pretzel logic” logic is simple: why should they be responsible for an injury to someone who was never actually an employee to begin with?

While many employers try to claim they hire their employees as contractors or as temp workers through a third-party, deep-down the employer knows an actual employer-employee relationship exists in many of these cases, and an injured worker deserves compensation. So don’t be misled by this shady ploy. Even though your employer claims you are a contractor, you are likely still considered an employee in the eyes of the law and are entitled to recover compensation for injuries suffered on the job.

Here are some of the ways in which a skillful and well-seasoned Texas work injury lawyer proves the employer-employee relationship by meeting at least one the following standards:

Social security or taxes have been withheld from your paycheck by your employer.
The essential equipment for the job was supplied to you by your employer.
Your work has been regularly managed, overseen or inspected by your employer.
A specific work schedule has been set for the job by your employer. You are not free to come-and-go as you please.
Your employer requires you to complete a task or sign a document that limits your rights while working for the employer. The most common examples are taking a drug test or signing a document that states you comply with an employee handbook.
You have been employed for an undetermined period of time and not just for a single job.
You are paid by a salary or an hourly wage and not on a job-by-job basis.
In cases where a worker is “borrowed” from another company, or a third-party employment agency, the rules for determining the working relationship are related, but there can be some critical differences. Some of these conditions may include:

If the borrowing employer has the power to hire or fire a borrowed worker at any time, the worker is clearly an employee. Otherwise, the worker is a contractor.
Most of the time, if the borrowing employer is allowed to pick a particular worker, then the worker is an employee. If the agency that provides the worker is allowed to send any worker they choose, the worker is a contractor.
If the worker must provide them, that person is a contractor. If the employer provides them, the worker is an employee.
If the employment agency can substitute the borrowed worker for another at-will, the worker is a contractor. If the lending agency cannot, then the worker is an employee.
If the worker is borrowed indefinitely, then the worker is an employee. If the worker is borrowed for a specific project with a specific date of completion, the worker is a contractor.
If a worker is being borrowed or “leased” because of a skill that is unique or hard-to-find, then the worker is a contractor. But on the other hand, if an employer borrows a worker to fill a position that just about anyone can fill, then the worker is an employee.
If the borrowing employer agrees to pay the worker’s social security and income tax, then the worker is an employee. If the borrowing employer does not accept this responsibility, then the worker is a contractor.
Our Law Firm conducts a thorough investigation to demonstrate the existence of one of these standards and many times, more than that. This clearly proves an employer-employee relationship existed for you. We depose co-workers, review contracts and examine pay stubs to establish that you were in reality, an employee when you suffered your serious workplace injury.

A couple of other things that are important. If you were hired by an employment agency to work at an “employer’s” company and suffered a workplace-related accidental death, your attorney must determine if the employment agency has workers’ comp. If so, then you would file a workers’ comp wrongful death claim against the agency, or a non-subscriber civil suit if not. In either case, this would then make the company where you actually performed the work a third-party contributor to the accident. Also, if your employer loaned you out to another company that may have been run by a friend, and when the accident occurred at that company, the issue of workers’ comp subscription with your employer comes to mind and the company where you suffered your injury will likely be treated as a third-party defendant in any civil claim or suit.

Workers’ comp claims are less-than-adequate when major injuries are involved, including wrongful death. So the traditional way for an employee to recover fair damage compensation is to file a workers’ comp claim against the subscribing employer (assuming that employer subscribes) and then supplement the claim with the appropriate number of third party claims or lawsuits. Whatever route is taken, if any of the above three scenarios exist, you can count on at least two sources of compensation: which makes the total amount collected a more just amount.

You’ve already been hurt. Don’t let those who negligently caused your serious work accident injury victimize you and your family once again. We’ll help you fight for what is rightfully yours.

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Your Opposition is Strong, and Dangerous Without an Experienced Local Workplace Injury Lawyer

In all non-subscriber and third party workplace injury claims defendants can have large insurance companies and lots of attorneys to oppose you. Or your employer will be “self-insured” or uninsured. Regardless, all fight very hard, to avoid paying for your injuries.

Non-subscribers are represented by insurance companies who have attorneys either on-staff or on permanent retainer. And they are very skilled at defending insurance companies from people who try to sue them. Insurance companies are in the business of collecting high premiums, and then avoid paying claims. They are confrontational and intimidating from the start. But they don’t scare an experienced work accident attorney like those with our Law Firm who know every trick they pull, and how to effectively counter each one.

But self-insured employers or those who have no insurance whatsoever and are liable for serious workplace injuries are a different and very dangerous opponent. They resort to anything that will work for them once an injured worker takes legal action to recover damages. Some of their tricks are shameful, and a few downright illegal.

You will seek to settle with an officer of the self-insured company or maybe even directly from your employer if it is a small company. And often they will have an attorney with them in order to make you uneasy or settle quickly. In either event, the salary of whomever you deal with is likely tied directly to company profits. Any damage amount paid to you comes directly out of company coffers. So by compensating you, your employer literally takes money out his own pocket. We are rarely surprised when a sneaky, self-insured company officer uses any and all means to deny your claim in order to protect his company’s (and his personal) assets. If his lawyer is present, they’ll probably run the “good cop/bad cop” game at you, with the attorney playing the heavy and the employer ostensibly “acting in your best interests,” (yeah, right!).

Self-insured companies can also deliberately dispose of evidence and bribe or intimidate witnesses: even you. They sometimes resort to physical threats. This is why every time we represent a client against a self-insured company, the first thing we do is to file motions in court that prevents anyone with the company from behaving inappropriately against our clients. Sometimes these motions include a clear demand that they make no attempt to communicate with our clients in any way without one of our attorneys present.

You’ve already been hurt. Don’t let those who negligently caused your serious work accident injury victimize you and your family once again. We’ll help you fight for what is rightfully yours.

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OSHA Is of Little Use in an Injury Liability Claim or Legal Case

Maybe you are familiar with the government organization, Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA). This federal agency maintains minimum standards of safety for all American employers and compiles data on workplace accidents all over the state. And you might think OSHA will help you attain compensation: forget it! OSHA is not an advocate for injured workers. All it does is oversee the work environment in the U.S and assess fines against violators: often months (or years) after-the-fact. And for the past 30 years, OSHA regulations, and the fines levied for employer non-compliance have lost many of their teeth.

While OSHA sets safety standards in the workplace and fines transgressors, the fines were set long ago and no longer carry the proper financial motivation to convince safety violators to comply with these government standards. Many of these fine amounts were established 25-30 years ago and thought they might have encouraged compliance back then, inflation and other economic factors have eaten away at OSHA fines, making them little more than a slap on the wrist today. Additionally, over the years OSHA has become more restricted in the actions and investigations it can make due to more restrictive staff and budget limitations. OSHA has been all but emasculated when it comes to preventing on-the-job injuries before they happen.

Furthermore, OSHA cannot make any direct effort to help injured workers secure compensation for the damages that have been inflicted upon them. Only after an accident has occurred will OSHA investigate negligence. Their reports are designed to stop further problems and are only general in nature. And though that data might be ready to present as general evidence at a trial, for your purposes OSHA is little more than closing the barn long after the cow escapes.

You’ve already been hurt. Don’t let those who negligently caused your serious work accident injury victimize you and your family once again. We’ll help you fight for what is rightfully yours.

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The Most Important Thing You Need to Do Today to Protect Your Rights as an Employee

The first thing you need to understand is this. Before you speak with an insurance company, or accept even a single dollar of payment or compensation from your employer, or sign anything, or attempt to file a lawsuit on your own, you must contact a competent lawyer. Your employer or its insurance provider or lawyer wants you to accept a substandard settlement and save their own money. Don’t be taken advantage of. As a matter of fact, we warn you to never talk about any details of your intentions, or anything else surrounding the injury, with your employer or his or insurer or attorney without your own experienced lawyer protecting your interests.

Then, you must realize the critical importance of acting swiftly. In work accident cases, the evidence begins to fade and degrade immediately following the accident. The physical details of the scene itself can change quickly. And witnesses change their stories or forget what they saw because the mind is a mysterious thing. Sometimes, they’ve even been “encouraged” to forget, or to “take a nice long vacation.” If you wait too long to hire an accident attorney and put your counsel to work investigating the valuable trail of evidence, then you are doing irreparable damage to your ability to secure the restitution you deserve.

You’ve already been hurt. Don’t let those who negligently caused your serious work accident injury victimize you and your family once again. We’ll help you fight for what is rightfully yours.

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Third-Party Responsibility for On-The-Job Injuries Justifies Additional Civil Action

We’ve already shown you why you cannot directly file a civil suit against your employer who subscribes to workers’ compensation, and that much of the time workers’ compensation cannot fully pay for your medical expenses and lost wages. This is where an experienced work accident attorney can help you find third-parties who may carry some responsibility.

We investigate every work accident site, review paperwork, interview witnesses and collect forensic evidence that points to every liable contributor to your accident. After careful review of all of the data, most of the time we find another liable defendant or two who are treated as third party defendants to your accident. And they can be sued in open court.

For example, let’s say you work in a warehouse. A truck that is owned by a transportation company hits you. You aren’t entitled to receive damages from your employer past those offered by worker’s compensation if he or she is a subscriber. But you can bring a lawsuit against the transportation company for your injuries. Here’s another example: let’s say instead, that you are injured by a piece of machinery or other equipment that your employer owns. Again, you can’t sue your employer. But if the equipment that caused your injury is proven to be defective, the manufacturer is liable for damages through a product liability lawsuit.

Sometimes multiple third-parties can combine to cause your injury. And regardless of whether your employer subscribes to workers’ compensation or not, these guilty third parties have a responsibility to compensate you for your at-work accident.

Construction site injuries often involve multiple third-party contributors to a work accident. The general contractor might participate in workers’ compensation. So he’s covered. But with so many other contractors and subcontractors scurrying around the job site, many accidents are bound to happen. And not all are covered through workers’ compensation. If a scaffold collapses and you are injured, the company that built the scaffolding could be liable. If defective construction equipment causes you injury, you can likely file a product liability claim against the product’s manufacturer.

The bottom line is that you may have options in addition to workers’ comp to seek payment for damages from your workplace injury. Our work injury lawyers assist you in identifying all likely defendants in your case.

One other thing: we’ve seen many examples where employers “pretend” to have workers’ compensation, but actually don’t. This employer might even further the charade and “pay” you workers compensation benefits after your injury. The first thing we do is investigate your employer’s claim of of being a subscriber to the workers’ comp program. If this claim turns out to be false, and again, if your injuries are significant enough to justify legal action, we will help you file a very strong non-subscriber lawsuit in civil court, and then vigorously represent you.

You’ve already been hurt. Don’t let those who negligently caused your serious work accident injury victimize you and your family once again. We’ll help you fight for what is rightfully yours.

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What Are the Deficiencies of Workers’ Compensation and What Are My Options?
If you suffer a job-related injury and your employer has workers’ compensation insurance, you typically receive up to 70% of your lost income. But there is a cap on this amount of $600 a week. So if you are a carpenter and earn $70,000 per year, are injured on the job and your employer has workers’ compensation insurance, you will receive only $600 per week for lost wages while you recover.

But if you suffer long-term disability and can never return to work, you will STILL ONLY RECEIVE $600 per week for the rest of your life, even though you previously earned about $1400 every week. Now you might receive an additional lump sum payment at the end of your recovery, but most of the time these payments are very small when you compare them to your total lost income, or any lost future wages if the disability is permanent.

There is another disadvantage to employees who are awarded workers’ compensation claims. The amount you receive does not account for lost future potential income. Let’s say you work at a grocery store while attending graduate school at night to earn a graduate degree in business. You are seriously injured on the job, unable to work and are also physically unable to continue your education. You will still receive ONLY 70% of your GROCERY STORE salary FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE (which is probably minimum wage or close to it) rather than the much higher salary you would have earned once you received your MBA.

This is why it is vital for you to have an experienced workplace injury attorney to investigate your case. If your employer does not have workers’ comp, you must know so that you can seek a more reasonable settlement. But if your employer does have workers’ comp, you and your attorney need to immediately begin the search for third parties that are liable for the injuries suffered in your work accident, and aggressively pursue any legitimate claims you have against them. Our workplace injury legal professionals build very strong cases and fight for your right to receive the fairest compensation you are owed.

You’ve already been hurt. Don’t let those who negligently caused your serious work accident injury victimize you and your family once again. We’ll help you fight for what is rightfully yours.

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Third-Party and Non-Subscriber Workplace Injury Defendants Work Hard to Wiggle Out

If your employer does not subscribe to the state’s workers’ compensation insurance program, you have a right to file a traditional personal injury lawsuit against that employer to compensate you for a variety of damages. They may include:

The income you have lost for the time you spent in the hospital.
Your diminished earning capacity if the injury produces long-term disability.
All of your medical-related expenses.
Property damage.
Your physical pain, suffering, and discomfort.
If you can prove that you are suffering mental or emotional distress due to the injury, you may also receive damages to cover these expenses.
One popular defense that is used by your employer (and his attorney) if he or she does not have workers’ compensation insurance and you file suit against that employer in civil court is a very simple one. Your employer will say that you were solely responsible for your injuries: the sole proximate cause. And since the burden of proof is on you, the plaintiff in your civil injury case, it is also on you to DIS-prove all countercharges.

Employers, with the help of their experienced attorneys and insurance companies (if they are insured) usually build a case against an injured employee’s claims by alleging that you alone are at fault for your workplace injury. You and your attorney must turn these allegations and the court’s attention around to where it belongs; your employer. Employers, with the help of their experienced attorneys and insurance companies (if they are insured) usually build a case against an injured employee’s claims by alleging that you alone are at fault for your workplace injury. You and your attorney must turn these allegations and the court’s attention around to where it belongs; your employer.

Let’s say you suffer a lifting injury while you are at work. Your employer will probably say that, since you were working alone at the time and there are no witnesses, your injury must be your own fault. But if our attorneys can link your actions and your injury back to your employer, it’s much easier to prove negligence by your employer and you the odds of winning your case rise significantly.

A couple of ways of proving employer negligence include focusing on their inability or refusal to provide proper safety training or equipment, or they didn’t find another employee to help you lift the heavy or cumbersome object. These are only two – of several – ways to possible employer negligence as a direct cause of your on-the-job injury.

In order to punish non-subscribing employers, Texas workers comp laws enable workplace accident victims to secure much greater damages than if the employer had purchased workers comp insurance. And the workplace accident victim must merely prove standard negligence to win their case, which means the employer only committed a sole error or momentary inability to maintain safety. In a way, once you get them into court, you’ve won more than half the battle because you have a lower standard to prove in order to win your case. But as you can guess, the laws governing these principles are extremely intricate. So in order to succeed you will need a crafty workplace accident lawyer to assist you through every intricacy of this challenging legal process.

But there are times when connecting your injury to your employer this way can involve other difficult to understand forms of legal liability. But our experienced non-subscriber attorneys, who are thoroughly familiar with work injury law, know how to prove to a jury that your injuries were caused by your employer’s negligence and are not your fault but that of the defendants: non-subscribers or third-party defendants.

You’ve already been hurt. Don’t let those who negligently caused your serious work accident injury victimize you and your family once again. We’ll help you fight for what is rightfully yours.

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Another Popular Defense Tactic: Claiming You are Not Really an Employee
The sole proximate cause defense is not the only option that non-subscribers have to deflect liability after an injury has been suffered by an employee. Many clever employers might anticipate an injury and begin avoiding liability for them even before accidents occur by trying to distance themselves from you as an employee, and their responsibility to fairly compensate you. Some even begin building that paper trail to prove their claim beginning the first day you show up for work.

Texas employers are not responsible for what happens to contractors’ on a job site injury. So many companies will claim to hire their employees as contractors. By calling you a contractor, your employer believes it’s possible to deny that an employer-employee relationship existed between you and the company, and then they will tell you that you don’t have a legal claim to compensation for your injury-related damages. Their logic is simple: why should they be responsible for an injury to a person who was technically never their employee to begin with?

While many employers try to claim their employees are contractors or temp workers who are employees of a third-party, the employer knows an actual employer-employee relationship exists in many of these cases, and an injured worker can still obtain compensation. So don’t be misled by this ploy. Even though your employer claims you are a contractor, in the eyes of the law you are likely still considered an employee, and are entitled to recover full and fair compensation for injuries that you have suffered on the job.

A skillful and well-seasoned Texas workplace injury accident attorney knows how to prove the employer-employee relationship by meeting at least one the following standards, and often more of them:

Social security or taxes have been withheld from your paycheck by your employer.
The essential equipment for the job was supplied to you by your employer.
Your work has been regularly managed, overseen or inspected by your employer.
A specific work schedule has been set for the job by your employer. You are not free to come-and-go as you please.
Your employer requires you to complete a task or sign a document that limits your rights while working for the employer. The most common examples are taking a drug test or signing a document that states you comply with an employee handbook.
You have been employed for an undetermined period of time and not just for a single job.
You are paid by a salary or an hourly wage and not on a job-by-job basis.
In cases where a worker is borrowed from another company, or a third-party agency, the rules for determining the working relationship are related, but there can be some crucial differences. Some of these conditions may include:

If the borrowing employer has the power to hire or fire a borrowed worker at any time, the worker is clearly an employee. Otherwise, the worker is a contractor.
Most of the time, if the borrowing employer is allowed to pick a particular worker, then the worker is an employee. If the agency that provides the worker is allowed to send any worker they choose, the worker is a contractor.
If the worker must provide them, that person is a contractor. If the employer provides them, the worker is an employee.
If the employment agency can substitute the borrowed worker for another at-will, the worker is a contractor. If the lending agency cannot, then the worker is an employee.
If the worker is borrowed indefinitely, then the worker is an employee. If the worker is borrowed for a specific project with a specific date of completion, the worker is a contractor.
If a worker is being borrowed or “leased” because of a skill that is unique or hard-to-find, then the worker is a contractor. But on the other hand, if an employer borrows a worker to fill a position that just about anyone can fill, then the worker is an employee.
If the borrowing employer agrees to pay the worker’s social security and income tax, then the worker is an employee. If the borrowing employer does not accept this responsibility, then the worker is a contractor.
Our Law Firm conducts a thorough investigation to demonstrate the existence of one of these standards and prove an employer-employee relationship existed between you and your employer/defendant. We will depose co-workers, review contracts and examine pay stubs to establish that you were in fact an employee when you suffered an on-the-job injury.

But this topic brings a couple of other important things to mind. If you were hired by an employment agency to work at an “employer’s” company and suffered a workplace-related accident, your attorney must determine if the employment agency has workers’ comp. If so, then you would file a workers’ comp claim against the agency, which would then make the company where you actually performed the work a third-party defendant in your accident injury civil case.

Also, if your employer loaned you out to another company where the accident occurred, the issue of workers’ comp subscription with your employer comes to mind and the company where you suffered your injury will likely be treated as a third-party defendant in any civil claim or suit.

This brings another important point to mind. As we have previously told you, workers’ comp claims are less-than-adequate when major injuries are involved, including wrongful death. So the traditional way for an employee to recover fair damage compensation is to file a workers’ comp claim against the employer of record (assuming that employer subscribes) and then supplement the claim with the appropriate number of third party claims or lawsuits.

You’ve already been hurt. Don’t let those who negligently caused your serious work accident injury victimize you and your family once again. We’ll help you fight for what is rightfully yours.

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Your Opponents Fight Very Hard to Deny Your Accident-Related Legal Damages

In most non-subscriber and third party workplace injury claims or civil cases, defendants can have large insurance companies and lots of attorneys to oppose you. Or your employer will be “self-insured” or uninsured. Regardless, all fight very hard, to avoid paying for your injuries.

Most non-subscribers are represented by insurance companies that have attorneys who are either on-staff or on permanent retainer. And they are very good at defending insurance companies from people who try to sue them. They’re especially successful against opponents who have no attorney to represent them, or those who hire an attorney who is overmatched against them. Insurance companies are in the business of collecting high premiums, and then avoid paying legitimate claims. They are confrontational and intimidating from the very beginning. They can be dangerous and frustrating. But they don’t scare an experienced work injury attorney like those with our Law Firm who know every trick they pull, and how to neutralize each one.

But self-insured employers or those who have no insurance whatsoever, who are liable for workplace injuries are a different animal and very hazardous to your case. They resort to anything that will work for them once an injured worker takes legal action to recover damages. Some of their tricks are shameful while others can be viewed as downright illegal.

You will be seeking a settlement from an officer of this self-insured company or maybe even directly from your employer if it is a small company. In either event, the salary of whomever you deal with is certainly tied directly to company profits. So, any damage amount paid to you for an injury comes directly out of company income, not a policy or security bond. So when he or she compensates you, your employer literally takes money out of his own pocket. We stopped being surprised long ago when we see a sneaky, self-insured company officer use any and all means to deny your claim in order to protect his company’s (and his personal) assets.

Self-insured companies have been known to deliberately dispose of evidence as well as a bribe or intimidate witnesses; maybe even you. They sometimes resort to physical threats. This is why every time we represent a client against a self-insured company, the first thing we do is to file motions in court that prevents anyone with the company from behaving inappropriately against our clients. Sometimes these motions include a clear demand that they make no attempt to communicate with our clients in any way without one of our attorneys present.

You’ve already been hurt. Don’t let those who negligently caused your serious work accident injury victimize you and your family once again. We’ll help you fight for what is rightfully yours.

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Win the Compensation Your Deserve from Your Job-Related Accident by Hiring an Experienced, Local Workplace Injury Attorney with our Law Firm

Our lawyers can help you effectively seek fair compensation for being hurt on the job, through no fault of your own. If your employer has workers’ compensation insurance (or not), we will help you identify, then seek the proper compensation from liable third parties; even if their liability can only be proven based on obscure legal case law. And if your employer does not have workers’ compensation insurance, we can help you build the strongest non-subscriber lawsuit possible and counter the arguments that are used time and again by these employers and their shifty defense lawyers who help them avoid liability. We will immediately and thoroughly investigate your employer to clearly establish whether or not he or she has workers’ compensation insurance, and plan an effective strategy once that is learned.

But for your sake, please consider this bit of “free” advice.

Before you speak with an insurance company, or accept even a single dollar of payment or compensation from your employer, or sign anything, or attempt to file a lawsuit on your own, you MUST contact a competent lawyer. If you don’t do this, then you will be at the mercy of those who wish to deny you your rights to fair injury compensation.

If you contact us for a free consultation, we will be able to quickly tell you what your legal options are and how we can help you recover the appropriate compensation for your work-related injury.

The injury attorneys at our Texas Law Firm have regularly secured fair and just compensation amounts for injured workers who were refused assistance by other firms. Not long ago we successfully handled a case for a worker who was injured on the job but had initially signed-on to his job as an independent contractor. Eight different law firms told him he had no case because the company that hired him used contract workers. And yet, our firm still was able to successfully establish an employer-employee relationship. Because of that small fact, we won a seven-figure settlement for this injured – and very grateful – worker.

The legal professionals at our Texas Law Firm have been helping injured workers receive the compensation they deserve for decades. We have successfully investigated and resolved hundreds of high-profile work injury cases in our clients’ favor. We have faced-down virtually every major insurance carrier and work injury defense firm in the state. These corporations know how successful our attorneys are. Based on this, they often offer our clients sizable – yet fair – settlements once they we take on the case. This is because past experience tells them they don’t want to face our lawyers in court.

The best outcome for your workplace injury produces a fair settlement for you without having to go to trial. But if a trial is necessary, we are more than willing to vigorously argue your case in order to win the fair judgment that you deserve from ALL defendants. We represent you to the best of our skill and ability. And if we’re able to secure fair compensation for you without taking your case to court, you can get back on your feet faster and resume living your life.

So if you or someone you love has been hurt on the job, the work injury lawyers at our Texas Law Firm can help you collect the compensation you need and deserve, and bring those responsible for your work injuries to justice. Call us at 1(800) 862-1260 for a free consultation.

You’ve already been hurt. Don’t let those who negligently caused your serious work accident injury victimize you and your family once again. We’ll help you fight for what is rightfully yours.

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Sorting-out Your Full Legal Rights after a Workplace Injury at Your Texas Job

Have you been injured on the job? First, we sincerely hope it is minor; you’ll recover quickly and be able to return to work. But if you’ve been seriously hurt, who pays for your injuries, lost time at work or, heaven forbid, benefits owed because you’re permanently disabled, or your loved one was killed in on the job?

How to handle your claim or civil injury case depends upon the actual details of your accident and the events leading up to it. You must know whether or not the company you work for had workers’ compensation insurance: which pays reimbursement for medical expenses, lost wages, pain, suffering, and some disability. You also need to know what to do if your employer is not covered by workers’ comp. And you also must understand if – in the eyes of the law – you are an employee or merely a contractor. Your ability to obtain full, fair compensation for your on-the-job injuries depends on the answers to each one of these important questions in determining how to go about receiving a reasonable damages payment.

Resolving such cases can often be very complex due to the three factors mentioned above and other issues that influence any job-related injury case. And if that wasn’t enough, the complexity and occasional ambiguity of some of our laws allow employers and their insurance providers to unfairly refuse the rightful claims of thousands of injured Texas employees every year. It’s almost certain that inexperienced lawyers will falter in their attempts to secure the highest reasonable settlement in a work accident insurance claim or civil case. And it’s all but a lock that those with no legal experience whatsoever who represent themselves in such a serious matter is virtually certain to fail as well in their quest for rightful compensation.

The workers’ comp attorneys at our Texas Law Firm have decades of their lives invested in fairly resolving injury claims and civil cases for employees who are injured on-the-job. We use our expertise and skill to help you clearly understand the laws involved with such a case and all of the legal avenues that are open to you following your work accident-related injuries. And we are just as practiced at representing surviving family members when their beloved family member has been accidentally killed on-the-job. This is why we believe that honesty is the best policy in sharing all of the challenges you’re likely to face. For it is you who must make the best-informed judgment in the interests of your family; which is something your employer and his or her insurance company no longer care about – from the moment the mishap occurred.

Employers must protect their own assets! Some of them will attempt to hide whether or not they have workers’ comp insurance. Often, they attempt to evade liability and mislead you, the injured employee. Some might argue that you aren’t an employee to begin with and don’t owe you anything. And with the help of their insurance companies and attorneys, they’ll accuse you of being the actual cause of your own injury. And that’s only the beginning of their mission to deny you. An experienced work accident attorney knows how to counter the tricks of your employer, his lawyers, and pushy, underhanded insurance adjusters.

An experienced work accident attorney with our Law Firm helps injured Texas employees deal with their challenging work-injury cases. We have spent decades accumulating the expertise required to help injured workers just like you to receive the compensation they deserve for their medical bills, lost wages, pain, suffering, and disability; as well as family survivors of wrongful death accident victims in the workplace.

You have the opportunity to put our experience to work for you. If you want to know what your rights are, how to proceed with your claim and how much compensation you can reasonably expect to secure, then we can answer your questions. Call our Law Firm now at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free) for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.

You’ve been hurt once. Don’t let those who negligently caused your work accident injury to continue victimizing you and your family.

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Determining Employer Workers’ Compensation Status is the First Big Fork in the Road to Recovery

Thanks to our lawmakers (and the insanely affluent insurance lobby) understanding today’s workers’ compensation laws is a thorny challenge. No employer is required by the state of Texas to purchase workers’ comp insurance. Right now, roughly one in two subscribe to the program. So, workers’ comp injury cases are divided into two distinct types that require completely different starting points (and strategies) to resolve. Employers who carry worker’s comp are referred to as “subscribers.” Those who don’t are “non-subscribers.” In order to know how to proceed with your claim, you must first determine whether or not your employer is one or the other.

Workers’ comp benefits are paid out of a “pool” of funds. This pool is stocked by private insurance carriers that participate in the program. The program also protects subscriber-employers from lawsuits and generally disregards the legal rights of employees to be fairly compensated when the employer is truly negligent because it legally limits, or “caps,” the monetary benefits an injured employee can receive. If your employer subscribes to workers’ comp, it provides some compensation to injured employees who are hurt on the job. It’s like “no-fault” auto insurance for employers because when they’re covered by workers’ comp injured employees are automatically reimbursed: no matter how the accident occurred or whose fault it was. But many times the amount of money you receive doesn’t come close to fully covering the actual expenses of an on the job injury if it is a severe one. And we’ll visit further with you about that in a bit.

But on the other hand, in order to receive financial restitution from a non-subscriber to workers’ comp, an injury victim must file an insurance claim and then, if necessary, a lawsuit in civil court. Otherwise, they receive nothing. Fortunately, for the injured worker, there is a small victory. In order for the legislature to “encourage” Texas employers to subscribe to workers’ comp, they lowered the standards of proof for negligence in the event of a civil case or claim against a non-subscriber. So it’s not as difficult to affix true liability against a non-subscribing employer for on-the-job accidents in court and win fair compensation.

Since workers’ comp is cheaper than commercial employer liability insurance, one would assume all companies would be smart and purchase workers’ comp instead. But not every employer treats his business like a smart homeowner treats their home: the first check goes to the mortgage company and the second one goes to that (cheaper) insurance. So many employers still choose “live on the edge” and risk being a non-subscriber (or have no insurance at all). Then, when the odds catch up with them, they run for cover to avoid a lawsuit. A favorite tactic of such people is to fake having workers’ comp once one an employee is seriously injured. These employers may try to quickly pay you benefits you would typically receive from workers’ comp and ask you to sign what they may represent as a “standard release” in order to further their deception and get off the hook. But it’s a trick so don’t fall for it: even if the document you sign “looks” official.

This is one of many tricks that awaits you without the benefit of an experienced workers’ comp attorney to get to the bottom of your company’s workers’ comp status, so you know what legal recourse is available to you. Once we have answered this vital question, we can then move forward together to secure your just injury compensation.

You have the opportunity to put our experience to work for you. If you want to know what your rights are, how to proceed with your claim and how much compensation you can reasonably expect to secure, then we can answer your questions. Call our Law Firm now at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free) for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.

You’ve been hurt once. Don’t let those who negligently caused your work accident injury to continue victimizing you and your family.

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The Single Exception That Allows Injured Employees to Sue Workers’ Comp Subscribers

Did You Know?
Our Texas work injury attorneys have won thousands of cases. Call us today to discuss your case. 1(800) 862-1260

When employers subscribe to workers’ comp insurance, they get far more than just quick, no-fault and “capped” liability protection. They are also virtually bulletproof when it comes to civil lawsuits. Unless the employer has committed gross negligence that caused a wrongful workplace death, they cannot be sued.

In one case, our attorneys were hired by the loved ones of a construction worker who died after a fall from a crane. The employer had ordered the worker to work atop the rig without the mandatory safety harness. When the victim plummeted to his death, his employer rushed to a construction supply store, purchased a safety harness, attached it to the dead man and then reported the accident to the authorities. Our investigators were able to uncover this willful deception by interviewing the co-workers and hit him with a very expensive (and successful) gross negligence wrongful death lawsuit. So there’s truth to the saying that it’s not the act itself that gets you in trouble, it’s the cover-up.

However, if standard negligence applies to the wrongful death, subscribing employers are off-the-hook. And the facts of the case must be clearly overwhelming in order to prove gross negligence. So whichever contributing insurance company is responsible for negotiating a settlement; again, with benefit caps, the odds are highly unlikely that the victim, or the victim’s survivors if a death has occurred, will receive the equitable compensation to which they are entitled if they go-it-alone.

In a perfect world, insurance providers would be concerned with tending to the legitimate needs of injured parties, and victims would receive fair compensation for all medical bills, lost salary, pain, and suffering. But this the real world and far from fair or perfect: in spite of what some of these insurance companies who participate in workers’ comp try to say in the altruistic tone of their advertising and public relations’ campaigns. Insurance companies are in business to generate profits, not help people. And those who underwrite the workers’ comp pool are no exception. Insurance companies try to avoid fairly compensating injured employees every year in Texas. Insurers that participate in the state’s workers’ comp coverage pool are just doing it – while the legislature looks the other way.

But there’s another very effective avenue to receiving fair workplace injury compensation. It calls for the injured employee to file a claim or civil action against someone other than the subscribing employer, which is commonly known as a third-party lawsuit:

In many cases, someone besides the employer may have done something negligent to cause a workplace injury. If a faulty piece of machinery caused the serious mishap, the manufacturer may be held accountable through a defective product lawsuit. If the owner of the property did not provide safe working conditions, then he or she could be held accountable. If another employee or a visiting contractor or one of the contractor’s employees negligently caused the injury, then they could be held accountable. In such a case, you can sue the responsible party or parties but not your subscribing employer. Experience and the ability to properly investigate not only the accident scene but the roles these third parties played in the calamity are required in order to properly identify all of the parties responsible and make them pay for the injuries they cause. A skillful work accident attorney can devise a plan of attack for workplace injury cases that offer the best opportunity to secure compensation in a complex Texas work accident claim like this.

You have the opportunity to put our experience to work for you. If you want to know what your rights are, how to proceed with your claim and how much compensation you can reasonably expect to secure, then we can answer your questions. Call our Law Firm now at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free) for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.

You’ve been hurt once. Don’t let those who negligently caused your work accident injury to continue victimizing you and your family.

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Receiving Compensation from Liable Non-Subscribers is More Straightforward, but Still Quite Hard and Contentious
We’ve already mentioned how it comes as no surprise that many employers neglect to purchase workers’ comp, or any other form of insurance. If you are to receive the compensation you deserve from non-subscribing employers, you certainly need the assistance of a skilled Texas work accident attorney to file a lawsuit and see it through in order to receive the fair compensation you deserve as a result of their negligence.

In addition to lowering standards of proof against non-subscribers in the wake of a serious workplace accident, the legislature allows the seriously injured victim the opportunity to receive much greater damage amounts than workers’ comp payouts; and also offers a larger number of damage types than available through workers’ comp. They really wanted all businesses to subscribe to the program, didn’t they? But with all these exceptions and loopholes, you can guess that the laws governing workplace civil action are extremely intricate. So in order to succeed you will need a crafty accident lawyer to assist you through every complexity of this challenging legal process.

The great majority of non-subscriber compensation journeys begin when the victim, also known as the plaintiff, inform the employer his or her intent to recover compensation for his or her injury; and possibly a dollar amount that the victim expects as fair reimbursement. The employer can agree: but good luck with that. This employer has some sort of insurance or surety bond to cover these matters. If they have insurance, they just had it over to their carrier in which case you (and your attorney if you’re smart) try to negotiate a settlement; assuming that the insurance company doesn’t automatically dispute your allegations outright. But if negotiations progress in-good-faith, usually because your experienced work accident lawyer makes it clear that you have a very strong case. Then the matter is settled, you are fairly compensated and everyone returns to their regular lives.

But most often, work-related injury cases are contested by the defense and the plaintiff must file a lawsuit to win the compensation he or she deserves. As the injured party, you – the plaintiff – holds the burden for proving that the employer’s negligence caused the injury that left you with those high medical bills, lost salary, pain, and suffering. Aren’t you glad that in this case you only have to prove simple negligence? Because with experienced legal counsel, that task is much easier than trying to adhere to higher standards of proof.

You have the opportunity to put our experience to work for you. If you want to know what your rights are, how to proceed with your claim and how much compensation you can reasonably expect to secure, then we can answer your questions. Call our Law Firm now at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free) for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.

You’ve been hurt once. Don’t let those who negligently caused your work accident injury to continue victimizing you and your family.

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Defendants Will Certainly Charge you as Being the Sole Proximate Cause of the Accident

Your workers’ comp non-subscribing employer is certainly not likely to suddenly change his or her nature and agree to pay you for the harm you’ve suffered due to that negligence. Our experience in these matters has taught us that most non-subscribers’ insurance companies (and their lawyers if it comes down to a trial) begin their defense with a couple of relatively predictable strategies to avoid paying injured employees the restitution they deserve.

We’ve mentioned the sole proximate cause defense. And in order to make an effective case your opponents will literally add insult to your injuries and soil your reputation by charging you were a negligent employee and caused your own injuries. They try to hold you alone responsible for them.

But this is the first step of their besmirchment campaign. Your character comes into question: ‘When did you stop beating your wife? and, Did we see you selling drugs on the job site? Questions begin popping up. They have no shame (or aversion) to painting the wrong picture of you as they desperately try to wiggle out of paying rightful damages. So in addition to your burden of proof, you and your attorney have an equally-important burden of dis-proof. And insurance defense lawyers know how close to the line truth and lie they can go without stepping over it; yet still make their sinister points against you.

Your employer may have been too cheap to buy workers’ comp coverage. But you can be sure that he or she will think nothing of paying tens of thousands of dollars to defend themselves. You need your own cunning work accident attorney to place the spotlight back where it belongs; squarely on the negligent employer.

You have the opportunity to put our experience to work for you. If you want to know what your rights are, how to proceed with your claim and how much compensation you can reasonably expect to secure, then we can answer your questions. Call our Law Firm now at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free) for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.

You’ve been hurt once. Don’t let those who negligently caused your work accident injury to continue victimizing you and your family.

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The Next Defense: Questioning the Existence of an Employer-Employee Relationship

The sole proximate cause defense has been thwarted. But there’s another defense trick awaiting you. Many clever employers begin avoiding liability even before accidents occur by trying to distance themselves from you as an employee, and their responsibility to fairly compensate you. Some even begin building that paper trail to prove their argument from the first day you show up for work.

Texas employers are not liable for what happens to contractors, in relation to job site injury liability. So many companies will claim to hire their employees as contractors. By calling you a contractor, your employer believes it’s possible to deny that an employer-employee relationship existed between you and the company, and then they will tell you that you don’t have a legal claim to compensation for your injury-related damages. Their logic is simple: why should they be responsible for an injury to a person who was technically never their employee to begin with?

While many companies try to claim they hire their employees as contractors or as temp workers through a third-party, the business owner knows an actual employer-employee relationship exists in many of these cases, and an injured worker can still obtain compensation. So don’t be discouraged by this ploy. Even though your employer initially claims you are a contractor, you are likely still considered an employee in the eyes of the law; and entitled to recover financial compensation for injuries suffered on the job.

A skillful and well-seasoned workplace employee injury attorney knows how to prove the employer-employee relationship by meeting at least one the following standards; and often proves more than two:

Social security and/or withholding taxes have been deducted from your paycheck by your employer.
The essential equipment for the job was supplied by your employer.
Your work has been regularly managed, overseen or inspected by your employer.
A specific work schedule has been set for the job by your employer. You are not free to come-and-go from the workplace as you please.
Your employer requires you to complete a task or sign a document that limits your rights while working for the employer. The most common examples are taking a drug test or signing a document that states you comply with an employee handbook.
You have been employed for an undetermined period of time and not just for a single job.
You are paid by a salary or an hourly wage and not on a job-by-job basis.
In cases where a worker is borrowed from another company, or a third-party agency, the rules for determining the working relationship are related, but there can be some crucial differences. Some of these conditions may include:

If the borrowing employer has the power to hire or fire a borrowed worker at any time, the worker is clearly an employee. Otherwise, the worker is a contractor.
Most of the time, if the borrowing employer is allowed to pick a particular worker, then the worker is an employee. If the agency that provides the worker is allowed to send any worker they choose, the worker is a contractor.
If the worker must provide them, that person is a contractor. If the employer provides them, the worker is an employee.
If the employment agency can substitute the borrowed worker for another at-will, the worker is a contractor. If the lending agency cannot, then the worker is an employee.
If the worker is borrowed indefinitely, then the worker is an employee. If the worker is borrowed for a specific project with a specific date of completion and no further, the worker is a contractor.
If a worker is being borrowed or “leased” because of a skill that is unique or hard-to-find, then the worker is a contractor. But on the other hand, if an employer borrows a worker to fill a position that just about anyone can fill, then the worker is an employee.
If the borrowing employer agrees to pay the worker’s social security and income tax, then the worker is an employee. If the borrowing employer does not accept this responsibility, then the worker is a contractor.
Our Law Firms conducts a thorough investigation to demonstrate the existence of at least one of these standards and prove an employer-employee relationship existed between the two of you. We will depose co-workers, review contracts and examine pay stubs to establish that you were in fact an employee when you suffered an on-the-job injury.

A couple of other things that are important: if you were hired by an employment agency to work at an “employer’s” company and suffered a workplace-related injury or accidental death, your attorney must determine if the employment agency has workers’ comp. If so, then you would file a workers’ comp claim against the agency, which would then make the company where you actually performed the work a third-party contributor to the accident and subject to the full extent of civil law. Also, if your employer loaned you out to another company where the accident occurred, the issue of workers’ comp subscription with your employer comes to mind and the company where you suffered your injury will likely be treated as a third-party defendant in any civil claim or suit. Or maybe they’re both non-subscribers in which case, there are no civil restrictions.

And finally, sometimes employers will deduct those Social security and withholding taxes and then put the money in their pocket, then try to claim an employer/employee relationship did not exist. They change their tune if we ask if the IRS will back them up. Then they change their tune really quickly. They know that we’ll know that truth in less than five minutes. Some people: and another benefit delivered by an experienced workplace injury lawyer.

You have the opportunity to put our experience to work for you. If you want to know what your rights are, how to proceed with your claim and how much compensation you can reasonably expect to secure, then we can answer your questions. Call our Law Firm now at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free) for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.

You’ve been hurt once. Don’t let those who negligently caused your work accident injury to continue victimizing you and your family.

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Your Opponents Fight Very Hard in a Workplace Accident Liability Case

In all non-subscriber and third party workplace injury claims defendants usually have large insurance companies and lots of attorneys to oppose you. They have sneaky underhanded adjusters to thwart your claims and work behind the scenes to deny you. They also have attorneys either on-staff or on permanent retainer. And they are very skilled at defending insurance companies from people who try to sue them. Insurance companies are in the business of collecting high premiums, and then avoid paying claims. They are confrontational and intimidating from the start. But they don’t scare an experienced local work accident attorney like those with our Law Firm. We’ve seen their tricks and know what to do to cut them down to size.

But if your employer is “self-insured” or uninsured, they’ll fight just as hard to avoid paying for your injuries. But these people are a lot more dangerous to your legal rights, and maybe even pose a direct threat to you and your family’s physical well-being. They’re a different animal altogether. Insurance companies have at least some semblance of a code of ethics and oversight. But none of these concerns self-insured or uninsured employers. So with them, the gloves come off. They resort to anything that will work for them once an injured employee takes legal action to recover damages. Some of their tricks are shameful at best. Others are utterly illegal.

You will be seeking a settlement from an officer of the self-insured company or maybe even directly from your employer if it is a small company. In either event, the salary of whomever you deal with is likely tied directly to company profits. Any damage amount paid to you for an injury comes directly out of company coffers. So by compensating you, your employer literally takes money out of his own pocket. We are rarely surprised when a sneaky, self-insured company officer uses any and all means to deny your claim in order to protect his company’s (and his personal) assets.

Self-insured companies can deliberately dispose of evidence and bribe or intimidate witnesses. They sometimes resort to physical threats against you or your family. This is why every time we represent a client against a self-insured company, the first thing we do is to file motions in court that prevents anyone with the company from behaving improperly against our clients. Sometimes these motions include a clear demand that they make no attempt to communicate with our clients in any way without one of our attorneys present.

You have the opportunity to put our experience to work for you. If you want to know what your rights are, how to proceed with your claim and how much compensation you can reasonably expect to secure, then we can answer your questions. Call our Law Firm now at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free) for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.

You’ve been hurt once. Don’t let those who negligently caused your work accident injury to continue victimizing you and your family.

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OSHA Is of Little Use in an Injury Liability Claim or Legal Case

You are probably familiar with this government organization, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA). This federal agency maintains minimum standards of safety for all American employers. And you might think OSHA will help you attain compensation. Nothing could be further from the truth. OSHA does not file lawsuits on behalf of injured employees. All it does is oversee the work environment in the U.S, crunch numbers and assess fines. And for the past 30 years, OSHA regulations, and the fines levied for employer non-compliance have lost most of their teeth.

OSHA fines were set long ago and no longer carry the proper financial motivation to convince safety violators to comply with these government standards. Many of these fine amounts were established over 30 years ago and though they might have encouraged conformity back then, inflation and other economic factors make many OSHA fines little more than a slap on the wrist. A $10,000 fine just doesn’t strike the fear in the hearts of employers like it did during the Reagan Administration. Additionally, over the years OSHA has become more restricted in the actions and investigations it can make, due to smaller staff sizes and operational budgets. Today, OSHA has been all but emasculated when it comes to preventing on-the-job injuries.

Furthermore, OSHA cannot make any direct effort to help injured workers secure compensation for the damages that have been inflicted upon them. Only after an accident has occurred will OSHA investigate negligence, and their reports are designed to stop future problems; not correct past mistakes or oversights. And though that data might be considered general evidence at a trial, OSHA is basically an example of closing the barn door long after the cow escapes: when it comes to aiding your compensation quest.

The Most Important Thing You Need to Do Right Now, and Why

The first thing you need to understand after a serious work injury is this. Before you speak with an insurance company, or accept even a single dollar of payment or compensation from your employer, or sign anything, or attempt to file a lawsuit on your own, you must contact a competent lawyer. All of your opponents want you to accept a substandard settlement, so they can save their own money. Don’t be taken advantage of.

Then, you must realize the critical importance of acting swiftly. In work accident cases, the evidence begins to fade immediately following the accident. The physical details of the accident scene itself can change literally overnight, especially if there is something to hide. And witnesses change their stories or forget what they saw because the mind is a mysterious thing. Sometimes, they’ve even been paid to forget, or to “take a nice long vacation.” If you wait too long to hire an attorney and put him to work investigating the trail of evidence, then you are doing untold damage to your ability to secure the fair restitution you deserve.

You have the opportunity to put our experience to work for you. If you want to know what your rights are, how to proceed with your claim and how much compensation you can reasonably expect to secure, then we can answer your questions. Call our Law Firm now at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free) for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.

You’ve been hurt once. Don’t let those who negligently caused your work accident injury to continue victimizing you and your family.

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