Navigating Work Place Injuries
With more and more drilling activity occurring across the Eagle Ford Shale and the economy doing better here in San Antonio, we are seeing more and more individuals injured on construction sites, work sites and oil well drilling sites.
Workplace injuries and deaths make up a large part of litigation handled by many personal injury attorneys. According to the United States Secretary of Labor, every year nearly 4 million people suffer a workplace injury, from which some never recover.
Workplace accidents here in Texas are primarily covered by Texas Workers Compensation Laws.
Texas Workers’ Compensation Law provides for the overall framework, procedures and compensation schedules for work place injuries here in Texas. This article assumes the employer of the injured party carries workers compensation insurance coverage. If they do not, then visit us on-line for more information.
Workers Compensation Insurance Coverage pays the injured employee’s medical bills, compensates the injured employee with a portion of their regular pay while that employee is off work recovering from the injury and provides compensation for any permanent total or partial disability as a result of the injury.
Assuming the accident and resulting injuries are minor in nature, workers compensation insurance for the most part, fairly compensating the injured employee.
However, when it comes to serious and catastrophic injuries or a wrongful death, workers compensation fails horribly. In my opinion, Texas Workers Comp Insurance does not adequately compensate the family that loses a loved one or an employee seriously injured.
In the event of a death, workers compensation does not begin to adequately begin to compensate the family for the loss of their loved one.
In the event of a serious injury like the loss of a limb, workers compensation does not compensate the employee for pain, suffering, mental anguish or loss of enjoyment of life.
When faced with an on-the-job serious injury or death, special attention should be paid to whether or not a 3rd Party personal injury case is present.
A 3rd party injury case is where the injured employee has suffered his or her injuries as a result of negligence of a non-co-employee or a defective product. A negligent non-co-employee would be any individual that does not work for the same employer as the injured party. Such a non-co-employee may have worked for some other business or worked for no one or it was any negligent corporation, entity, organization of municipality other than the employer.
In the event of a death or a serious injury in the workplace, it is imperative that third party claims are fully explored. Many times, cases against non-co-employees or defective products are overlooked.
The existence of a third-party claim can allow the family or injured employee to be fully compensated for their losses, with such damages as mental anguish, pain and suffering and more.
A solid understanding of Texas Workers Compensation Laws and experience in identifying potential responsible 3rd Parties is essential when representing the seriously injured. Lawyers in the Carabin Shaw Law Firm have pursued third party claims against negligent drivers, vendors, delivery personnel, drilling equipment, trucking companies, machine designers, manufacturers, installers and modifiers.
For more information visit www.carabinshaw.com
J. Shaw
Carabin Shaw
1-800-862-1260