What You Need to Know about Filing a Personal Injury at Work Claim

If you’re in a work accident, you might be able to claim workers’ compensation. This is not the same as filing a work-related injury lawsuit.

That’s because workers’ compensation (or workers’ comp) is a type of insurance often taken out by employers to cover medical expenses and lost wages for employees hurt on the job. Most states make workers’ compensation mandatory, but Texas is unique because this insurance is optional.

Workers’ compensation can be useful if you’re injured at work and can’t prove that your employer was negligent or reckless. All you need to do is prove that your injury happened at work to be entitled to a claim.

However, there are some limitations with this type of insurance: it only covers your past medical treatment and lost income. It does not allow for additional damages for pain and suffering or long-term rehabilitation.

The first thing you should do after a work accident is check if your employer has workers’ comp.

In either case, you may still be able to file a work-related injury lawsuit.

Our work-related injury lawyers in Texas can help you determine who’s liable for your accident and file a lawsuit for compensation.

Filing a Work-Related Injury Lawsuit

You can claim compensation in two situations:

• If your employer doesn’t have workers’ compensation insurance, you might be able to sue your employer directly
• If you’ve received a workers’ compensation insurance payout, but a third party is liable for your injury.

Whichever scenario best describes your case, to successfully claim compensation for a work accident, you must prove three things:

• That your employer (if they don’t have workers’ comp) or third party owed you a duty of care
• That they breached this duty of care
• That the breach caused your injury.

This breach could be anything from providing you with defective equipment to failing to protect you from exposure to hazards.

Our work-related injury lawyers in Texas can help you determine who’s liable for your accident and file a lawsuit for compensation.

What Compensation Can a Texas Work Injury Lawyer Help You Get?

A workplace accident can leave you needing significant time off work and with a painful — even lengthy — recovery. A work-related injury lawsuit allows you to recover your costs and losses as well as claim non-economic damages, such as loss of enjoyment, emotional distress, and pain and suffering resulting from your injury.

Your claim will also account for your age. If you’re young and have sustained a serious, long-term injury, you could be entitled to a substantial payout to help you manage your condition or disability.

Want to find out how much compensation you could be entitled to? Try our quick and easy personal injury calculator.

Who Is Liable for Your Work Accident?

In some cases, a third party might be liable for your work accident, and you can file a work-related injury lawsuit to seek compensation.

For example, you might be injured at work while using a defective tool. Your employer has workers’ compensation, so you file a workers’ comp claim to receive the wages you lost due to being unable to work and to recover the cost of your medical bills. However, you can still hold the manufacturer of the defective tool accountable for your injury, as your work accident wouldn’t have happened if the tool had functioned correctly.

In this case, you can claim because the third party meets the three criteria stated previously:

1. The tool manufacturer owed you a duty of care — to provide you with tools that worked safely.
2. The tool was defective, which constitutes a breach.
3. That breach caused your injury.

In proving the above elements, you can file for compensation and receive non-economic damages for pain and suffering in addition to any long-term financial losses. For example, if your injury has left you with chronic pain that requires medication or even surgery, or if you’re unable to work ever again because your work accident has left you disabled, you are entitled to have the costs of your long-term treatment and inability to work covered by the liable third party.

But a tool manufacturer isn’t the only third party that might be responsible for your work injury. Other potentially liable third parties include:

Construction Site Owners

If a construction site owner fails to adequately monitor the work environment, you may be able to hold them responsible for on-site accidents.

Contractors and Subcontractors

You may work with contractors, subcontractors, or other temporary workers who have been brought to your place of work. If they are responsible for warning you of potential hazards and fail to do so — or they are unqualified or incompetent — they may be liable. For example, if a contractor is brought in to complete work in your office block and they fail to place wet floor signs, leading to you slipping and sustaining a spinal injury, you may be able to seek compensation. 

Other Equipment Manufacturers

When a manufacturer provides defective equipment, equipment that is dangerously designed, or that doesn’t come with appropriate warnings or instructions, you can hold them responsible for work accidents that happen as a result.

The injuries you sustain from using faulty equipment don’t have to be immediate injuries, such as a broken bone or head injury. You may be provided with defective personal protective equipment that fails to effectively safeguard you from inhaling toxic chemicals, which causes you to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Defective equipment could also lead to you developing a repetitive strain injury.