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If There Was Gross Carelessness

Knowing the difference between regular negligence and gross negligence is vital. Showing gross negligence requires much higher evidence of proof, meaning that the plaintiff’s legal representation must essentially have an airtight case against the grossly negligent business owner. Regular negligence may be defined as simple carelessness or a momentary lapse of attention. Gross negligence occurs when an accident happens that could have knowingly been prevented. A construction worker using a pneumatic drill might cause injury to a fellow worker because of flying debris. This would be considered regular negligence. If that same construction worker had a known history of injuring fellow workers while working the drill and then harms a fellow worker, this would very probably be a case of gross negligence because the business owner should have taken the necessary steps to lessen the likelihood of an accident.

You will have to have a legal expert to evaluate the circumstance of the fatal work accident. In such cases – which are hard to show and require legal expertise and expertise in examining physical evidence and forming a case based on the physical evidence. A business owner may be held liable for damages far beyond the curtails of the workers’ compensation law. Let us repeat this: If a business owner manifests gross negligence or intent that leads to a fatal work injury, or in those cases where a business owner intentionally causes harm to a worker, the business owner/worker relationship is legally and fully severed. Our firm will help you make a case like this.

Dealing With The Limits of Workers’ Comp
The Texas Workers’ Comp laws and regulations work against the rights of family survivors of those who are killed in fatal work accidents. Working through the courts, examining physical evidence, and making a compelling case against liable parties is hard. However, you don’t have to do this alone. There are also cases where Texas Workers’ Comp won’t curtail your ability to sue for damages. If a business owner shows gross negligence that leads to your loved one’s death, or in those cases where a business owner intentionally causes harm to a worker, this is said that the business owner/worker relationship is held legally severed. In cases like this, which are challenging to show, this takes legal experience to look into physical evidence. A business owner may be held liable for damages beyond the curtails of the Texas workers’ comp law. While the law rewards those Texas business owners who are not grossly negligent this punishes business owners that act negligently. If they were grossly negligent, you may sue them for damages.

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Was Your Family Member A General Contractor?

Attorneys may use this case law to argue that your loved one did or did not have a working relationship because a business owner-worker relationship is defined not by contract but by instead the actual working relationship that you and your business owner have. Plainly speaking, a lawyer may indeed turn to previous legal rulings and then utilize these rulings – precedents – to determine whether a worker is a general worker, or if that person is a contractor in the eyes of the law. If your loved one was not, it may benefit your lawsuit. Many different criteria serve to determine what kind of business owner-worker relationship that you have under the law. Of course the most specific is a contract that asserts you are simply a worker of the firm. Another properly specific criterion is if a worker is doing any work services that are particular to that specific business owner’s business.

Deciding on an employment relationship is not usually that easy. Our firm may show that your lost loved one was not a worker but a contractor, meaning the immunity provided for death benefits is not always going to stand. According to precedents, your loved one was in actuality a contractor if you may answer no to most of these points:

When your loved one’s particular work was examined and critiqued at different steps of completion. For instance, when the firm examines your loved one’s work at various stages of completion along the line, then your loved one’s was a worker. But if the firm person only looks at your loved one’s own finished product, then your loved one was a contractor.
When your loved one was paid upon the completion of a given work. For instance, if as the worker your loved one was only paid upon the completion of a work project, then your loved one was a contractor. But if your loved one was paid on an hourly or annual basis, then your loved one was a worker.
When your loved one determined precisely how much time your loved one spent on a given work. For instance, if your loved one was able to devote as much time or as little time along the way as your loved one wanted to a particular work, then your loved one was a contractor. If the amount of the time your loved one devoted to a boss determines a given work then your loved one was a worker.
When your loved one worked for many different clients.
When your loved one was the one who brought his own tools. For instance, if your loved one was liable for bringing his or her own tools and equipment, your loved one was a contractor. But when the business owner provided the tools and equipment to do his job, then your loved one was a worker.

Survivor benefits for loved ones and children under Texas Workers’ Compensation law are somewhat curtailed and paltry. What they cover doesn’t begin to address your loss, and neither does this get you the justice that your lost loved one deserves. Texas workers’ comp law does provide you the curtailed possibility of some death benefits – the lost or diminished income that is paid for surviving loved ones is based on a percentage of the worker’s income. There exists a maximum cap on these benefits, and there is a minimum available for the surviving family. There also exists an allowance for funeral bills that may be awarded as well. These amounts will not give you the relief you need when you have lost a loved one in a fatal work accident.

Contact us toll-free so that our firm can show you how there are other ways to recover your damages beyond the basic state-authorized death benefits. With one of our attorneys by your side, our firm will be sure to look into every detail of your loved one’s fatal work accident. Our firm will bring to account all of those who may have contributed to your loved one’s death. Our firm will use every legal way to help ease your financial anguish, get your damages, and punish those who are liable.

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Lifting Accidents & Back Injuries
IF You Have a Workplace Back Injury Or Are Suffering From a Job Site Lifting Injury, The Work Accident Attorneys At Our Law Office Can Be Of Service.

Our wrongful death and personal attorneys have over twenty years of experience handling cases involving worksite back and lifting injuries. If you’ve been harmed while employed doing the heavy lifting for your employer, it’s very possible you may have a cause for legal action in which you can receive justice and compensation for your employer’s negligence.

Should you be considering retaining a lawyer to help you in pursuing an insurance claim or if you are considering a legal action related to your on-the-job injury, the skilled, experienced, and aggressive personal injury attorneys at our Law Office can aid you in receiving full and fair compensation for your lifting injury. Even in what many consider to be “simple” cases, retaining the services of a skilled attorney is often a good move since the first instinct of most insurance companies is to try to prove your claim lacks merit. With over twenty years of experience in handling personal injury claims concerning lifting injuries, our legal team can aid you with detailed information that can in the end help you receive full and fair compensation for your pain and suffering.

The Problem With Doing It Yourself
Many people mistakenly assume that because some work-related injuries seem simple and superficial, it follows that receiving fair compensation should be a rather simple and straightforward matter. Most people believe that if you hurt yourself while in the performance of your work, then the employer’s insurance will recompense you with little fuss. What most Texans don’t know is that this is often rarely the case. There are numerous factors that happen behind closed doors (that many people would be somewhat shocked to know) when it comes to workplace lifting injuries. The biggest shock comes when dealing with Texas workmans’ compensation insurance.

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Texas Workmans’ Compensation Insurance in Truth Protects Employers

The primary reason employers carry workers’ comp insurance is not to provide quality insurance for their employees, but to protect themselves from lawsuits brought against them by injured employees. Employees who have received back or other injuries while at work will in all likelihood be compensated for their lifting injuries and lost income through workmans’ compensation insurance, but the reality is that most compensation realized through the workers’ comp program is usually far from adequate, and usually not enough to cover the injured employee’s true losses. Just because your employer is enrolled in workman’s compensation, doesn’t mean that you can’t seek relief and truly fair compensation. The work accident attorneys at our Law Office can aid you in determining whether there is another party or other parties who may be responsible for your work-related lifting injury, and if another party or other parties are involved they may hold partial responsibility for your claim. For example, if you were injured lifting stock off of a manual pallet jack and the pallet jack is somehow faulty or poorly designed, then the manufacturer of the jack may carry partial liability for your injury and pain. In addition to your workers’ comp payout, whatever damages the manufacturer is responsible for will be added to your total compensation.

More Employers Than You Would Guess Lie About Carrying Workers’ Compensation
Because workers’ compensation insurance has such a good reputation and can truly protect employers from lawsuits, many employers who do not choose to subscribe to the program simply lie about carrying the insurance. Our Law Office has seen this ploy numerous times. Owing to our experience in working with workmans’ comp cases, we are very, very good at determining employers’ claims about belonging to this State of Texas program. In the possibility that your employer does not belong to workers’ comp, we can aid you in filing a personal injury lawsuit to ensure that you receive full and fair compensation for your lifting injuries.

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Contract Employees

Texas worker’s compensation law exempts contract employees from enjoying certain rights and privileges enjoyed by regular employees. Because of this fact, many employers believe they can shirk their employer obligations and duties by hiring what are known as “contract” workers. What this means is that if an employer deems you to be a contract worker, certain necessary conditions required to form an employer-employee relationship for legitimate workmans’ comp insurance claims are dissolved. It follows in this scenario that a contract worker who suffers an on-the-job back injury is not covered by workmans’ comp or any other employer insurance. By hiring contract employees, many employers mistakenly assume that they are then not responsible for any back injuries that happen to contract workers because they are not addressed in Texas workers’ compensation law.

These employers are deceived, however. Our Law Office has over twenty years of experience that has taught us that when dealing with workers’ compensation law and cases, we are usually able to establish that a true employer-employee relationship existed even if you were hired on as a contract employee, even if you sign a document stating that this is the case or if the employer hires you under that condition. Texas law is unclear regarding the status of a general employee, so there are a number of ways to show your relationship to be one of a regular employee. For example, if your employer withholds federal income tax and Social Security, or if you have to sign and abide by an employee handbook and take mandatory drug testing, Texas law will consider you a regular employee, no matter if you were hired as a contractor. There are many other ways to show that you may be a regular employee, and our extensive experience has taught us every aspect to prove that a traditional employer-employee relationship exists. We can cut through your employer’s terminology to hold your employer liable for your back injury or other harms. Many cases such as these are turned down by many law firms due to technicalities such as these, but by speaking to one of our work accident attorneys about your back injury, we likely may be able to show your status as a regular employee and hold your employer accountable, and/or find other third parties who may also be responsible for your lifting injuries.

Our Law Office Can Help With Cases Involving Lifting Injuries
If you’ve suffered a workplace back or lifting injury, you may be entitled to full and fair compensation for your injury. It is wise to act as soon as possible and contact a work injury attorney at our Law Office. You can call toll-free so that we can begin to build a solid case for you so you can begin to seek full and fair compensation for your lifting injury. We will perform a thorough and detailed investigation of the mishap scene and we will comb through your medical history to establish that your employer’s carelessness, recklessness, or other negligence is in fact the source of your injury. With over twenty years of experience in working these cases, we can demonstrate that your harms could have been caused by a lack of or poor training, a lack of satisfactory safety equipment, or the unavailability of a coworker to aid you in the performance of your job. These cases are never as easy as they seem on the surface.

Our Law Office has negotiated with or litigated against every major insurance corporation in the United States, and their defense attorneys and adjusters are more than familiar with our name and reputation. In many instances, they’ve offered our clients full and fair out-of-court settlements rather than fight us in a court of law. They know we are more than able to win court cases dealing with back or lifting injuries. We and our clients prefer this outcome because it saves all of us time and money and it allows our clients to begin to rebuild their lives. Should the case go to court, you should know that our Law Office work accident attorney will dedicate his or her services to do everything to ensure that you receive full and fair compensation for your injuries.

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Non-Subscriber Attorney

Have You Been Injured At Work and Your Employer Does Not Carry Workers’ Compensation? Contact a Non-Subscriber Attorney at Our Law Office, A Premier Nonsubscriber Injury Law Firm in Texas

If you’ve been injured in a workplace accident, the type and amount of compensation you will receive is directly related to whether your employer carries workers’ compensation insurance backed by Texas law, or if your employer carries traditional liability insurance.

Employers who carry workers’ comp are called subscribers, and those who do not carry workman’s compensation are called nonsubscribers. Workplace accident claims and court actions can be some of the most complex litigation our attorneys see in court.

The exact way your claim is addressed and handled is based on several issues. One of the biggest factors is whether the employer in question is a subscriber or nonsubscriber. Texas law, with very few exceptions, protects subscriber employers from lawsuits from most injured employees. Texas law admits there may be other extenuating factors that can break or reinforce the employer-employee relationship in spite of the subscriber status.

Should you suffer harm or injury in the workplace, the first thing you must do is seek immediate medical attention. Your health, and thus your quality of life and ability to provide for your loved ones, is at stake, and neglecting your health can negatively affect your recovery. Seeking medical attention is important to your lawsuit or claim since you will need official medical diagnoses and documentation. You shouldn’t worry about the price-tag for your treatment, it is likely your medical care will be covered by the compensation you are requesting. In many instances, we can help you find medical attention from a large association of medical professionals we’ve met over time. You shouldn’t worry about your financial situation here, either–they will consider your unique circumstances and finances, and sometimes, we may be able to help you find medical treatment with no up-front cost to you. Moreover, we can teach you how your time off to seek and receive medical care may be covered by workers’ comp or your employer’s insurance carrier. After you’ve received the necessary medical care, we can then begin to discuss the actions essential to finding the party or parties who are responsible for your injuries and losses.

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How to Determine Whether or Not Your Oil Industry Employer Purchased Workers’ Compensation Insurance

Texas, unlike most other states, does not make it mandatory for employers to purchase, or “subscribe” to, workers’ compensation insurance. The manner in which you pursue litigation regarding an oil industry accident depends on whether the employer subscribed to workers’ comp, or was a workers’ comp “non-subscriber” and did not purchase the insurance. The way you go about trying to obtain compensation in the event of an oil industry injury varies greatly depending on which description fits the employer in question, and the reasons why will be detailed later in this article.

It can be oftentimes difficult to determine whether or not an employer is a subscriber to workers’ comp. Many employers, after an accident occurs that results in an injury to a worker will claim it is a subscriber in order to keep from being the subject of a lawsuit filed by either an injured worker or the family member of a worker wrongfully killed in an accident. The opposite can be true as well. Some companies will feign not having workers’ comp insurance when, in fact, they really do. They do so because they are trying to avoid seeing their premiums raised after an accident. The oilfield accident attorneys with our Law Office have been practicing personal injury law and wrongful death law for the last two decades. During that time, we have seen many, many instances where companies have attempted this kind of blatant deception. No matter what the employer chooses to tell you, we know how to correctly determine the status of a company’s worker’s compensation insurance. We can help you, no matter if the company was a subscriber or a non-subscriber.

Benefits of Workers’ Compensation Insurance
When an employer purchases workers’ compensation insurance, it buys more than just insurance. It also purchases protection against legal action taken by employees who are injured on the job. If an employer has legitimate workers’ comp coverage, then an injured employee cannot sue that company. That employee must file an insurance claim through the correct channels through his or her workers’ compensation insurance provider.

There are many instances, however, where an insurance carrier’s idea of fair compensation for lost wages, pain and suffering, and medical expenses is one that does not come close to adequately compensating an injury victim for the actual expenses that have been accumulated by that victim. Because our oilfield accident lawyers have been dealing with this type of litigation for 20 years, we know that there can often be other liable parties other than the employer in an oil industry accident. Other potentially responsible parties include the owner of the property where the oil is being drilled, the person who owns the oil rig or oil platform, and the vendors responsible for providing any potentially faulty machinery (such as the steel lingers that are inserted into earthen tunnels that have been drilled). Either one or a combination of more than one, of these parties, can be found to have either negligently contributed to an oil industry injury or to have caused it outright through negligence. It is very commonplace for more than one party to have played some kind of role in an oilfield accident, and the lawyers with our Law Office have extensive experience in investigating accident scenes in order to identify all the parties that are liable.

You might be 100 percent sure that your employer subscribed to workers’ compensation insurance, but it can still be worth your time to call us toll-free for a confidential and free consultation. We can tell you whether or not the employer’s workers’ comp policy is sufficiently meeting your needs, and whether or not there may be another party or parties that you can take legal action against in order to try and obtain fair compensation.

Workers’ Comp Claim Exceptions
There is only one exception where the family of a deceased accident victim can sue a subscribing employer. That is when the employer’s gross negligence was the reason for the accident taking place that caused the wrongful death. It can be much harder to prove gross negligence, however, than standard negligence. Gross negligence is, in a nutshell, when an employer habitually created an unsafe work environment and was aware that an accident would likely happen that would result in either an injury or death. Standard negligence, on the other hand, is the temporary lack of focus or reason of an employee that led to an accident. A subscribing company cannot be successfully sued unless gross negligence can be proven. The oilfield accident attorneys with our Law Office are adept at building rock-solid cases against employers that are grossly negligent in order for the families of deceased workers can obtain the restitution they have coming to them.

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Oil-Industry Companies that are Workers’ Comp Non-Subscribers

The victim, or plaintiff, will more than likely have to file a lawsuit against a non-subscriber in order to obtain restitution after an oilfield injury. The first thing the victim must do is file a claim with the employer that details both the injury and the extent of the monetary damages the victim expects to receive in restitution. The employer then has the choice of either paying you what you demand or attempting to negotiate a settlement for a lesser amount. Most of the time, however, a non-subscriber will choose neither option. When that happens, your only recourse in securing the fair compensation you have coming to you is by pursuing legal action by filing a lawsuit.

A plaintiff can get a substantially higher amount of restitution via a lawsuit than he or she might be able to obtain through a workers’ compensation claim. Also, the plaintiff needs to only prove standard negligence – the aforementioned temporary, solitary error in judgment or the duty to provide a safe workplace – and doing so is fairly simple. When the Texas Legislature enacted workers’ comp in 1992, it did so with the purpose of trying to shield companies from frivolous employee lawsuits. It does not require employers to buy the insurance, but it very strongly encourages them to do so. As a result, non-subscribers are “punished,” so to speak, by allowing not only employee lawsuits but requiring that those employees need only prove standard negligence.

There can be extremely large amounts of money at stake, however, and employers will employ a wide variety of tactics – both legal and illegal – in order to keep from having to pay a claim. Through two decades of dealing with workers’ comp claims, the oilfield accident attorneys with our Law Office know the tricks that non-subscribing companies can try to pull. We can protect your right to pursue compensation by putting our experience and track record of success to use for you.

As we stated previously, an injured worker, or plaintiff, has to bear the burden of proof in order to win a personal injury case, and therefore has to be able to provide a convincing argument that will prove the negligence of the employer led to the accident that caused injury to an employee. The plaintiff has to establish that the employer should be held responsible for the pain and suffering, medical bills, lost wages, and lost potential earnings due to lifelong disabilities that the plaintiff has incurred. The standard of negligence that must be proven in a case regarding a non-subscriber is quite low, but it can still be very difficult for inexperienced attorneys and nearly impossible for those who have no legal background. But our experience enables us to establish standard negligence in a relatively easy fashion.

Hurdles Plaintiffs Must Overcome in Winning a Case Against a Non-Subscriber
Again, the purpose behind workers’ comp is to strongly encourage companies to purchase insurance. As a result, those that choose not to are punished for their decision by being afforded only one true defense against personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits – this defense, known as the “sole proximate cause” defense, means that an employer will not be held liable for any injuries suffered by their employees if it can be proven that the employee was 100 percent responsible for the accident that caused that injury. In this instance, a case involving a non-subscriber can get very personal. The employer will often defame the employee’s character, painting a picture of that employee as an incompetent and careless worker whose own negligence resulted in his or her injuries. Since the defense has no other option at its disposal, you can be virtually certain that the opposition’s attorneys will attack your character and make you look incompetent.

In addition, even though a non-subscriber chose not to buy workers’ comp coverage, that doesn’t mean it is without a very expensive insurance policy. Many companies choose to buy private insurance rather than workers’ comp, which can be even more expensive. Millions of dollars can be at stake in a case involving a non-subscriber, so the insurance company will have aggressive adjusters on the job who will do whatever it takes to either reduce the amount of restitution you obtain or simply flat-out deny the claim. These adjusters aren’t anything like the ones you may encounter after a run-of-the-mill fender-bender. These people are highly trained and highly paid professionals, and they could not care less about your injury, no matter how severe. In fact, they are often paid handsome bonuses for denying claims, so they have a strong motivation to do the same to yours. Shortly after an accident, they will likely attempt to pelt you with a barrage of confusing questions that are designed to trip you up and get you to admit responsibility for the accident. This way, the insurance company can potentially get away without having to pay you a dime. Never talk to an insurance adjuster without an experienced attorney by your side who will protect your rights. Also, the insurance company will also be represented by very formidable attorneys who love it when an injury victim decides to go it alone and represent himself or herself. They love it because they know they can easily out-negotiate you and either give you a relative pittance or leave you with no compensation at all.

These sharks only respect an opposing attorney that has a track record of success. Our Law Office has taken on nearly every major insurance carrier in the United States and defeated it. Because insurers know us and respect us, they will often offer our clients fair settlements rather than take the risk of losing a great deal more money by tangling with our attorneys in a trial. To have any chance at getting the restitution you have coming, you simply have to have a seasoned and skilled oilfield accident attorney working on your side.

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Proving the Relationship between Employer and Employee

Non-subscribing employers are under no obligation to provide a safe workplace to temporary workers or contract workers in the eyes of the law in Texas. Those workers are responsible for their own workplace safety. So an injured worker who falls under one of those categories cannot sue the non-subscribing company. However, there are many instances where a company will try and label its workers as contractors in order to avoid liability in the event of a workplace accident that results in an accident. This happens quite a bit in the oil industry, as many oilfield workers are considered contractors. Just because a company calls you a contractor doesn’t mean that a court of law will view you in that same manner. We have encountered myriad instances in our 20 years of practice where we have been able to establish that an employer-employee relationship did, in fact, exist by simply asking the right questions. As a result, we were able to help our clients secure just compensation. If you meet any of these following standards, then you will be seen as an employee in the eyes of the law.

The employer withholds taxes or social security from your paycheck.
The employer supplied you with the equipment that was essential for you to do your job.
The employer expected to you maintain a specific work schedule that is established.
The employer either inspected, oversaw, or managed your work on a regular basis, either by the employer, or the employee’s manager or foreman.
The employer asked you to either perform a task sign a document that in some way limited your rights. For instance, you were asked to take a drug test or to sign a document stating that you had read, and agreed to comply with, an employee handbook.
The employer employed you for an undetermined period of time, and not just for a certain job.
The employer paid you on either a salary basis or an hourly basis, and not on a job-by-job basis.
The oilfield accident attorneys with our Law Office can launch a detailed, thorough investigation in order to prove that you were, indeed, an employee and not a contract worker. We can procure pay stubs, interview fellow workers, and thoroughly review contracts in order to establish that you were an employee when injured.

How We Can Help You
The attorneys with our Law Office can help you or your family, no matter how your injury or the wrongful death of your loved one took place in an oil industry accident. We will be passionate and dedicated to working on your case, and work tirelessly in order that you get the maximum amount of restitution that you have coming to you.

It does not matter whether the accident was caused by a subscriber or a non-subscriber or by one or more third parties. Call us as soon as you can toll-free for a confidential and free consultation. We will go over the specific circumstances of your case and tell you how we will be able to help you.

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Non-Subscriber Work Injury Attorney
Work Injury Attorney Discusses Non-Subscriber Injury Law in Texas

In 1993, when Texas passed the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act, it was designed so that companies buying into workers’ comp insurance would be shielded or protected from their employees’ lawsuits in the event of an on-the-job accident.

This aspect made the insurance very attractive for employers to purchase. Although there are a few exceptions, in most cases, workers’ comp determines an injured employee’s benefits and guarantees that employers will not be sued by a worker hurt on the job.

This law is a great example of Texas’ historically business-friendly legislation and was designed to protect both insurance companies and businesses from liability. However, it is not specifically designed to help workers injured on the job or to ensure they receive full compensation for their injuries.

When you are injured at work, under workers’ compensation laws, you can receive compensation even if your employer wasn’t necessarily at fault for your injury. Unfortunately, the amount of that monetary compensation awarded is frequently limited in a workers’ comp claim. It does not provide for punitive damages, or for non-economic compensatory damages, such as pain and suffering. The compensatory economic damages, such as lost wages, are capped in terms of both time and amount and are awarded in fractions of the employee’s previous income. This can be detrimental to your needs and the compensation you deserve, relative to your injuries.

Further, you cannot sue your employer or take them to court for any additional damages. The Texas workers’ comp law does limit your rights to the total amount of compensation you may receive. Also, the workers’ comp program is administered by insurance companies, and by nature, insurance companies are in business to benefit themselves by making a profit, and not to necessarily benefit or help you.

Workers’ compensation legislation, technically, was billed as “tort reform” legislation. The public and some legislators were influenced to believe the primary goal of the legislation was to alleviate the oppressive work injury lawsuit caseload that clogged up the courts. Many of these cases were characterized as unfounded, malicious assaults on business, and frivolous in nature. In this sense, reform often has nothing to do with its real purpose or stated intention or goal. . Ironically, often when a piece of legislation is offered to the public as “reform,” in the end, it may actually be used against the public’s best interests in many situations.

Texans have historically been home to individuals with good sense and integrity, so not everyone was on board with the new workers’ comp “reform” legislation. So, in order to pass it, they gave Texas employers the individual right to decide to subscribe or not subscribe to workers’ compensation coverage. This is in contrast to the majority of states in the U.S., where insurance companies, in collusion with the state, have mandated every employer must carry the coverage — it is a state requirement. There are still about 40% of Texas employers today, who have chosen not to subscribe to workers’ compensation coverage. These employers are termed “nonsubscribers.” The state and the insurance companies, as a form of punishment, would very much like to penalize these employers for not subscribing to their capped liability scheme. And after an accident, these employers do “pay the price”. However, this imperative to punish nonsubscribers is actually to your advantage in some specific ways.

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What You Should Do When Injured While Working for a Non-Subscribing Employer?

The primary difference between subscribing and non-subscribing employers is that an injured worker is prevented from suing a subscribing employer. The worker is limited to the compensation outlined by the workers’ comp statute. The law protects employers who choose to subscribe to the coverage, yet punishes nonsubscribers who choose not to be covered by workers comp. In regular courts, injured employees can sue nonsubscribers without limit, and recover all damages (compensatory economic, non-economic, and even punitive) to which they are entitled.

Under nonsubscriber injury law, among the damages you can claim (many of which are not available under workers’ comp) are lost earning capacity due to long-term disability, medical expenses, lost wages from time spent in the hospital, property damage, physical pain, suffering and discomfort, and emotional or mental distress caused by the injury.

When injured and trying to determine if you are covered under workers’ comp or not, you may face the common scenario where your employer is not covered by workers’ comp insurance but will tell you that he is, in order to avoid the much higher potential liability of a nonsubscriber work injury lawsuit. Any workers who ask if the employer carries workers’ comp coverage may be lied to outright. This is because of the high cost of workers’ compensation insurance to the employer.

In companies that are involved in inherently dangerous or risky activities and have worksites where accidents are likely to happen (such as construction or demolition companies), opting for workers’ compensation insurance can result in a significant financial burden on the company. So to reduce their overhead, many companies elect to not subscribe to workers’ comp insurance. Often, but not always, to reduce their exposure to risk, they will carry a less expensive private insurance policy. This strategy can save a company money until an accident actually occurs. For companies in accident-prone fields, like construction, playing Russian Roulette with workers comp coverage is unwise and risky. When an accident does occur, the liability and potential recovery amounts can be “through the roof”, because of nonsubscriber injury law, especially in the case of a severe accident or injury. As mentioned earlier, this is because the law frowns upon nonsubscribers, and as a way of punishing them for not subscribing, exposes them to extensive liability after an accident. By law, the injured employee is actually allowed to sue the non-subscribing employer for unlimited amounts of money, up to the total value of the losses the employee can prove they incurred.

So it is evident, nonsubscribers actually have much to lose after an accident. That is why so many of them pose as subscribers or pretend to be covered by workers’ comp insurance, even to the extent of cutting you checks to compensate you in the small amounts you would have received under workers’ compensation law. If you falsely believe your employer’s claims that these payments are workers’ comp settlements, and you accept them, it will be very difficult later for us to help you get more compensation. Don’t simply accept as fact your employer’s remarks that they’re covered by workers’ compensation insurance, since only a little over 50 percent of Texas employers carry workers compensation coverage. Instead, you should ask an experienced non-subscriber work injury attorney, who knows how to dig up the truth and how to respond to the tricks your employer, their attorneys, and their aggressive insurance adjusters may throw at you, to keep them from paying you the full value of your claim.

By now, you can see that if your employer was a nonsubscriber when you were injured, you’re probably entitled to a much higher amount of money than you would receive under a workers’ comp policy, and much more than the payoff your employer may have tried offering you. Finding out on your own whether your employer actually carries workers’ comp insurance, can be very challenging. The non-subscriber work accident attorneys at our Law Office understand exactly where to look to and how to find if your employer is really carrying coverage, as he stated.

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Preparing Your Case For Court
Once you’ve clearly determined your employer actually is a nonsubscriber, you can start to prepare your case. In order to file and pursue your nonsubscriber personal injury case in court, your situation should contain the following three important elements:

A solvent defendant
Liability
Damages

A Solvent Defendant
It’s only natural when you’ve been injured, to want to pursue the party who caused your injury and then to pursue compensation from them. If that party has few or no assets, there is really no logic in filing a case against them in court, because it will cost you more in court and filing fees than in a settlement or damages awarded from that entity. In spite of being entitled to compensation, it’s very possible you won’t receive any, just because the other party has no assets to compensate you for your claims. If the defendant has no financial means (income, insurance, or assets) to pay you for your claims, filing a case against them is a waste of time and money. Regardless of their guilt, unfortunately, as the saying goes, “You can’t squeeze blood from a stone.”

It’s also a natural tendency for a party who has injured another person or damaged their property, to make efforts to hide their assets or lie about insurance in order to protect them from being taken as compensation to the injured party. So usually, it’s best not to assume the injuring party has no assets, simply because they may appear to be hurting financially. Neither should you automatically accept your employer’s claims they do not have money or insurance. Remember, it’s a natural tendency for employers to hide and protect their assets if they think they can get away with the deception. Most of the time, it’s not their intent to injure, The injury was simply bad luck for you and for them as well. It may seem unfair or unjust to them to have to give their hard-earned assets to you as compensation, regardless of how badly they accidentally injured you.

However, if the injury was intentional, you can be sure they certainly had no intention of compensating you. This is where a non-subscriber work injury attorney can be invaluable to you Your attorney will know where to look to uncover the defendant’s hidden, undisclosed assets and insurance. In addition, there may be other third parties partly responsible for your injuries, including equipment manufacturers, and contractors, or property owners at unsafe worksites. Your attorney can review your case with you in consultation and help clarify all the liable defendants in your case and design an appropriate strategy.

Liability
When injured, Texas law requires that you prove the defendant is liable for and owes compensation to you, for injuries incurred. To do this, you must show they caused your injury and were responsible for it. In other words, you have to prove the defendant owed you a duty, and then violated or breached that duty to you, and this was the cause of your injury. Duty can take many forms. Generally, duty is simply taking reasonable care in the course of actions so that no one is harmed by either party’s actions or inaction. The injuring party breaches their duty when they do not take proper, reasonable care to prevent injury or harm. This is true both in the workplace as well as on the street.

Typically, based on the severity of the breach of duty owed to you, liability is divided into three categories. Simple negligence is the most common form of liability. This is the standard of negligence you will be required to prove under nonsubscriber injury law. Essentially, negligence is careless or reckless behavior that results in an injury and is most commonly called an “accident”. For example, if a coworker, playing around, carelessly swings a broom, loses his grip, and breaks your arm, this is negligent. He should have used more reasonable care with the cleaning tool so that no one was injured.

Gross negligence is the next category of liability and is characterized by someone engaging in behavior they know or realize is reckless and dangerous, or disregards an obvious danger any reasonable person would know could cause injury. For instance, if your boss tells you to climb a ladder he knows is unstable, dangerous, or defective and you fall and break your leg, he would be guilty of gross negligence.

The third category of liability is wanton and willful behavior and usually results in punitive damages. This is when the other party intentionally causes you injury and deliberately sets out to harm you in some way. For example, if a vengeful “ex-boyfriend” stalks you and deliberately tries to kill you or a neighbor angry over your Great Dane using his yard as a pasture, intentionally assaults you, they are wantonly and willfully liable. It’s to your advantage to engage an experienced nonsubscriber work injury, personal injury attorney to help separate the facts from the emotions and build the strongest case possible. Our Law Office has handled thousands of non-subscriber work injury cases, understands all levels of liability, and can help in determining how legitimate a case you have. They can help pinpoint where the acts that caused your injury land on the liability scale.

An experienced nonsubscriber work injury lawyer can assist you in sorting out the sequence of events leading up to your injury and separate the facts from the emotional elements of the case. That way, the court hears clearly exactly what happened and who caused what. You could easily get sidetracked in the emotional volleyball of “he said/she said” with the defending parties unless you have skilled attorneys advocating your rights. Although the parties at fault, the duties breached, and compensation you are entitled to in your personal injury case may seem crystal clear to you, in court, these issues often become murky, especially when argued against by savvy defense attorneys. In fact, it is the goal or intention of the opposing party’s attorney to make sure these issues become muddied. That is why you need an experienced lawyer on your side to clear up all the issues.

Damages
Initially, you have to prove you actually have damages, i.e. financial losses you’ve incurred because of your injury. This may strike you as totally obvious, but often it is overlooked in the rush to obtain compensation for an inconvenient, bothersome, or seriously annoying incident.

For instance, imagine you’re in a department store on a hurried errand after work and another shopper accidentally bumps a giant stacked display of Barbie Dolls and hundreds of boxed Barbies fall on you and your cart. It takes a while to dig yourself out, right your cart, retrieve your spilled items, and continue. This causes you much frustration and anger, but you don’t have even a slight bruise, and the mishap doesn’t even make you late for work. Nothing was damaged when it fell out of your cart. You may want to get even with the careless shopper who buried you in Barbie Dolls, or the employee who built the ill-advised display, but you have no actual damages, and therefore, you have no case. You simply have the beginnings of a bad day.

Our attorneys have won hundreds of work injury cases, so call us today, toll-free to discuss the specifics of your case and to answer your questions.

Certainly, we’d all be happier and healthier if every accident only resulted in a slight inconvenience or annoyance, as shown in the above example. But unfortunately, workplace accidents often result in serious damages and injuries. In court, you must prove your damages, the severity of those damages, and that they were the result of the defendant’s liable behavior. You may, in some cases, also need to distinguish the injuries or damage resulting from the defendant’s behavior from “pre-existing” conditions. Some injuries and damages may be difficult to prove.

For instance, long-term future medical expenses and medication costs, or future medical or physical conditions likely to arise from the current injuries, or even future lost wages, can be open for debate and hard to place a specific value on. It can be particularly hard to distinguish current injuries and conditions from similar ones that were pre-existing. You can be confident the defendant’s lawyers will do all they can to attempt to show you have no actual damages arising from the defendant’s actions. After all, that is their job, and their intention, which is exactly why you need an experienced nonsubscriber work injury attorney to meet their challenges and to show the full extent of the damages and injuries the defendant caused you.

Once you and your attorney are sure you have the three major case elements in place–a solvent defendant, liability, and damages—then you can start to assemble your evidence and witnesses and proceed forward with the case. When a nonsubscriber is your defendant, you can avoid the entire bureaucratic red-tape of the workers’ compensation system.

That doesn’t mean your case will be any easier, however. You will still be dealing with regular civil court requirements, procedures, and filing deadlines, and will most likely face an intense, highly contested battle with aggressive defense attorneys and insurance adjusters, attacks on your character, and many other unpleasant scenarios.

You will need to present convincing evidence in court to prove all the various elements of your claim. You must show legally you were an employee, and not just a contractor or temporary worker, and that your employer was at least partially responsible for your accident. Also, you must point out how your employer’s negligence caused the injuries, and that you are entitled to specific damages as compensation for your injuries. Your claim will likely be dismissed if you miss evidence on even one of these essential points. Remember that in these nonsubscriber personal injury cases, the burden of proof rests squarely on you, the plaintiff. You must be proactive and aware of each of these requirements.

From the glass-is-half-full perspective, to win your case, you only have to prove standard negligence, where the employer experienced just a momentary or single lapse in his ability to maintain workplace safety. You don’t have the burden of proving the higher standard of gross negligence, such as where the employer consistently had a pattern of maintaining poor workplace safety or knowingly instructed employees to use equipment or engage in acts known to be unsafe.

The process of your nonsubscriber lawsuit begins when you, the plaintiff, file the claim and notify your employer of your injury, the damages, losses, and costs you’ve incurred as a result, and the restitution you expect for damages. The employer can make a decision to agree or to negotiate a settlement out of court. However, the majority of work-related injury cases, historically are strongly contested by the employer and insurer, and the plaintiff must file a formal work injury lawsuit in court to seek compensation.

Frequently, the court process will initiate and continue for some time, as both parties file motions, claims, responses, and so forth, trying to undermine the opposing party’s case. This continues until one party recognizes it has a substantially weaker case and cannot win. Then both parties may opt to settle out of court.

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Two Significant Challenges Your Non-Subscriber Case Will Face In Court

The Sole Proximate Cause Defense
Under the nonsubscriber injury law in Texas, this is actually the only defense a non-subscribing employer has, and you can bet they make the most of it. Texas law only allows nonsubscribers this single, rather difficult, defense. This limitation of possible legal defenses is another way of punishing nonsubscribers for not subscribing to workers’ compensation coverage. In almost every case, nonsubscribers use this defense, since it is their only hope. Consequently, you can expect it to be a major focus and issue in your case. Whole legions of high-blood-pressure insurance defense attorneys have built their careers around this defense. While you can anticipate it being a source of conflict in court for you, it is not an automatic airtight defense for your employer.

In order to win, your employer has to prove you were 100% responsible for your work injury. This requires your employer to prove you caused your accident entirely by yourself, and that no other causes (defective equipment, a slippery floor, or unsafe work procedures) contributed. It is rare that any person is 100% responsible for an incident. For this defense to be upheld, your employer would have to maintain 100% safe premises and equipment and have 100% observed totally adequate safety procedures at the time of your injury. Does this sound reasonable or likely to you? An employer who skimps on workers’ comp insurance expenses is also likely to skimp on safety precautions. For over twenty years, our Law Firm has been fighting for the rights of non-subscriber work injury victims. Call today, toll-free to discuss your case and the options available to you.

Regardless of the limitations, sole proximate cause is your employer’s only defense, so they will undoubtedly attempt to use it. Your employer and their insurance company will initiate a full-scale investigation into your work habits and work history. They’ll review your employment records, talk with coworkers, and search for and collect evidence to use to prove you were a sloppy, inconsistent worker who caused your injuries at the time of the accident. They will try to destroy your reputation and make you seem like a careless worker who can’t perform a simple task without bringing disaster. The seasoned high-end, savvy defense attorneys will try to prove their client has no liability whatsoever, by questioning your competence and ability to do your job. This literally adds insult to your injuries. The employer will talk with witnesses and try to get coworkers to say you make careless mistakes at work. The defense attorneys’ ultimate goal is to prove that on the day of your accident, your behavior was so sloppy and negligent, no one except you is to blame for your injury, Sad, but true, it’s just the nature of the game they play.

At our Law Office, we’ve seen this defense hundreds of times and know exactly what to expect. We’ll prepare your case to withstand these attacks and prepare you for what’s coming. When your employer hires a shrewd, aggressive defense attorney, you need to counter with an experienced nonsubscriber work injury attorney who can put the fault back onto the negligent employer, where it belongs. Remember the burden of proof in these cases rests with you, so don’t attempt to shoulder the burden alone. Our nonsubscriber work injury attorneys are ready to help you get the compensation you need to move forward with your life after your injury. We will help you navigate through the legal process to get the results you want.

A Solid Insurance Defense and Aggressive Opposing Attorneys
Despite your non-subscribing employer not willing to carry workers’ comp insurance, it’s highly likely the employer carries some form of insurance to help cover losses in the event there is a claim. This means your employer ultimately isn’t the only party with an interest in defending your claim. The insurance company, which would be responsible for paying a portion of your claim, has an inherently strong interest in undermining your claim. With a high-dollar personal injury case, that insurance company will be ready to deploy its team of sophisticated lawyers and slick insurance adjusters onto your case. So don’t expect the relatively friendly adjuster you encountered when you had a fender bender in your neighborhood.

Adjusters assigned to these personal injury cases are highly trained, highly compensated professionals who’ve risen to the top by denying claims and saving their employers money. They know where to find weak points in your case and are savvy in attacking its merits. Your employer and insurance company have an interest in protecting their assets and in you losing the case. Insurance companies are experts in avoiding liability. After all, that is their purpose for existing. They will use their expertise against you because that is what they are well paid for. The employer’s insurance company will have adjusters, investigators, and specialized defense attorneys to find ways to prove you aren’t entitled to recover anything for your injuries.

Your employer’s insurer and defense attorneys have one goal. That is to save their client as much money as possible by ensuring you receive the least compensation possible. They don’t hate you or are unsympathetic to your injuries. It’s simply their job to save clients money. Therefore, most insurance adjusters and injury defense attorneys use pressuring tactics to make an injured employee believe they don’t have a good case and should merely accept a token settlement much smaller than what is fair. They’ll likely make promises and claim to be on your side, but this isn’t the case.

Don’t rely on opposing parties who have opposing interests to yours. Hire an experienced nonsubscriber work injury lawyer to help you preserve the evidence, build your case, counter the opposing counsels’ work character assassination attempts, and guide and protect you through the maze of a personal injury case.

The work injury attorneys at our Law Office can link your injury back to your employer through your employer’s failure to provide necessary safety equipment, proper training, or other essential precautions. We understand how to prove your employer’s negligence directly caused your injuries when such negligence occurred. We are committed to helping you seek the compensation you require to move on with your life, whether your employer has workers’ compensation insurance or not. We can separate the fact and fiction in your case and get it moving on the right track.

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Are You Really an Employee, Legally?
This is a very important question to answer before beginning your case. In Texas, the law states employers are not obligated to keep the workplace safe for contractors, volunteers, or temporary employees. Consequently, many employers rely on only these types of workers so they can save on insurance costs, safety upgrades, and maintenance, and avert potential liability. The logic they rely on is simple. Why should they be responsible for your injury, when you, technically, were never their employee? Yet legally, even though an employer refers to you as a “contractor,” and even when you have a signed related contract, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not a true “employee”. It’s not set in stone.

To complicate the issue, Texas law doesn’t provide clear guidelines for determining employee status from a civil liability standpoint. Your attorney has to refer to previous rulings by the judge, called “case law,” to determine whether a worker is an employee or a contractor. Fortunately, case law in Texas is clear on this point: in terms of civil liability, an employer-employee relationship is determined not by your job title or a contract, but by your actual working relationship with your employer. You still may be able to recover from your employer, even if you were hired as a contractor or a temp worker if you can show the existence of an employer-employee relationship at the time of your injury. Some of the factors used to determine whether you are an employee or contractor are listed below:

If you are an employee, your employer withholds taxes or social security from your check.
If you are an employee, you are paid by the hour or on salary rather than on completion of a job or project.
If you are an employee, the employer sets your work schedule, (if you determine how much time is spent on each project, and can devote as much or as little time you want to a project, then you are a contractor; if the employer determines the amount of time devoted to a project, then you are an employee.
If you were hired for an indefinite period of time, as opposed to just completing a specific task or project, then you are an employee.
If you are an employee, the employer provides the materials and equipment you need for your job. If you are responsible for providing your own tools and equipment, then you are a contractor.
If you are an employee, you signed a document, like conditions of employment, an employee handbook, or a confidentiality agreement, which limited your legal rights relating to the job.
If you took a mandatory drug test, you are an employee
If you are an employee, the employer supervises, directs, and inspects you and your work as you do your job or examines your project at various stages of completion. If the employer only looks at the finished product, you are a contractor.
The employer can hire or fire you at any time if you are an employee.
If the employer can select a particular worker for a job, then that worker is an employee (if an agency can send over any worker it wants, then the worker is a contractor).
You are a contractor if you work for many different clients, rather than for a single company. For example, if a computer technician works for many different clients on different projects, he is a contractor; if he only works for an accounting company only, then he is an employee.
If an agency lending a worker can substitute another worker at any time, then the worker is a contractor.
If an employer “borrows” a worker for a particular skill set (for example, a framing company borrows an expert woodcarver from a furniture manufacturer for a special framing project), then the worker is a contractor. If, however, an employer “borrows” a worker to fill a position that virtually anyone could fill, then that worker is an employee.
As clearly seen in the examples above, the line between employee and contractor is not always completely clear-cut. The court usually looks at several factors in conjunction to determine whether such a relationship existed. The burden of proof to prove an employer/employee relationship existed at the time of your injury, will rest upon you in court, Proving this relationship existed when you were injured is a complicated process requiring some intricate legal thinking.

Many attorneys do not have a grasp of how to prove this relationship, so for a layman, the task is even more difficult. To establish this relationship and obtain compensation for your injury, you need to hire a competent, experienced legal professional who understands how to prove you were a legal employee under the State of Texas laws. Even if you’ve been turned down by another attorney and told that you don’t have a case, call our nonsubscriber work injury law firm for a free consultation. On many occasions, we have won cases for contractors and temporary workers, when other law firms turned down their cases. We’ve been handling claims for twenty years. Even if you were called a temp worker or a contractor, we can help you show the existence of the employer/employee relationship so you can receive compensation from your employer for your injuries.

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Other Factors Affecting Your Claim

In order to sue, you must be able to prove that you have damages. Damages can come in many different forms. Compensatory damages include all non-economic and economic damages arising from your injury. Economic damages can include lost wages, all medical bills and expenses, loss of future income, travel expenses going to and from medical treatment, and essentially any measurable financial loss. Non-economic damages are less tangible losses such as interference with family relationships, loss of companionship, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life. Punitive damages are those damages intended to punish the defendant for their bad behavior. Punitive damages in Texas can be up to twice the amount of your compensatory damages, both economic and non-economic, but cannot exceed $750,000 or $200,000, whichever amount is greater.

The amount of compensation you can receive for your damages in workers’ compensation cases is set by statute and is limited to economic compensatory damages. Just as you are able to sue a subscribing employer under a wrongful death claim involving gross negligence, you can also obtain compensatory non-economic damages and punitive damages. In nonsubscriber cases, you are entitled to both economic and non-economic compensatory damages in addition to punitive damages, where warranted.

Texas adheres to the doctrine of “modified comparative negligence”, which means as long as you were less than 50% responsible for your injuries, you can collect compensation for your injury from the other responsible parties. The doctrine is known as “joint and several liability” can have an unusual effect on the collection of your damage award. Although a defendant whose blame for your injury is less than 50% can only be held responsible for their share of the damages, a defendant who is found to be more than 50% at fault for your injury, can be held liable for the entire amount. In other words, a defendant may have to pay damages resulting not just from their share of the fault for your injury, they may have to pay the damages owed by every other defendant as well. This applies when the other defendants are not sufficiently solvent enough to pay.

Personal Injury Lawsuit Statute of Limitations in Texas
Texas has a two-year statute of limitations, or time limit, for most personal injury cases. This time frame is marked from the date of your injury until the time you must file your personal injury lawsuit. There are a few exceptions to this, such as in the case of an injured minor, or when the victim is in a coma or completely unable to assent to a case, or where the date of the injury cannot be determined. The application of these exceptions varies on a case-by-case basis, depending upon the specific circumstances surrounding the injury. For this reason, you should consult a knowledgeable and experienced personal injury attorney regarding the statute of limitations in your case. Don’t make a mistake and wait to file, assuming one of the exceptions may apply to you. Consult with your attorney, and be sure to file before the deadline. If you don’t, your case will be dismissed and your plans thwarted, leading to disappointment.

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Determining Your Employer’s Liability and Culpability for Your Injuries is the First Step

Many of the current rashes of petroleum drilling and pipeline accidents can be caused by worn or defective rigging and machinery, or negligence that leads to explosions. Falling heavy objects slip, falls, and a cornucopia of other hazards are very common. We already mentioned that petroleum production workers are being pushed to their physical and mental limits every day. A lot of workers choose to take drugs to keep up the grueling work pace. Many drilling contractors turn their backs to this illegal practice, claiming to know nothing about it, though some of them silently encourage such unlawful behavior, which is typified by a lot of them not even testing their employees. Production is more important to them than safety.

Because of this employer’s “blind eye,” numerous petro-production mishaps occur such as broken bones, head and crush injuries, falls from derricks, and even deaths (at an alarming frequency). One reason for this callous behavior by petroleum production employers is because workers’ comp insurance provides them a “no-fault” coverage umbrella. This means drilling contractors and rig owners have a liability buffer that doesn’t significantly penalize them if they don’t provide a safe workplace. Those who subscribe to workers’ comp are rarely, if ever, sued by their injured employees because workers’ comp generally shields them from injury lawsuits, though there are a few exceptions. So if they don’t have to pay for the injury out of their own pocket, they view an employee who is hurt in a job-related accident as little more than the cost of doing business as a driller.

Texas oil and gas drilling companies are not required to purchase workers’ comp. So when you are injured on the drilling rig or pipeline you must quickly learn if your employer carries workers’ comp or not. Employers who have worker’s comp are “subscribers.” Those who don’t are “non-subscribers.” How you seek compensation for your injury is determined by the answer to this first, very important, question. The answer determines which one of a number of unique compensation methods and strategies is used to win your case.

The funding pool that pays workers’ comp claims for companies that subscribe to the programs comes from participating private insurance carriers. Subscribing companies are also protected from all but a few civil lawsuits. Texas workers’ comp does deliver a certain amount of financial relief to employees who are injured on the job site, mostly for your medical bills and short-term income loss. They also pay a modest amount of money for disability, but certainly not all that is needed. This “no-fault” insurance covers drilling and pipeline workers, no matter how the accident occurred or who was at fault. As you may already suspect, this quick and easy coverage comes with some serious financial risks for claimant workers. The limited amount of money received for the injury doesn’t always cover the total value of your actual damages, especially if the injury is severe, requires long-term care, or causes permanent disability.

Workers’ rights of access to fair reimbursement are highly dubious. This “donut hole” of substandard coverage in workers comp benefits for major injuries and disability (and lost wages) just don’t match-up with fair-market compensation levels. This is because workers’ comp benefits the employer, not the employee. They benefit the insurance companies, not the workforce in general. You can thank the legislatures in Austin and the insurance lobby for this “tort reform” legislation.

There is one exception where an employee can bring a lawsuit against their workers’ comp subscriber employer in both states. But being able to build an airtight case that proves gross negligence is problematic at-best without an experienced drilling accident lawyer to handle what is always a very complicated case.

Since only about half of Texas employers (and petroleum production companies) subscribe to workers’ comp, which leaves another very large group of employers who do not participate. We find it curious that many Texas drilling contractors, their subcontractors, and pipeline transport companies are willing to risk being a workers’ comp non-subscriber, which subjects them to a possible civil action for a petroleum production or drilling injury. Who can say? Those who do not subscribe run the risk of not only an expensive non-subscriber lawsuit but heavy fines (and possible prosecution by the state) for failing to participate in the workers’ comp program.

Be that as it may, eventually, the odds catch-up with non-subscribers and someone gets hurt. Then, because they aren’t protected, the injured worker can sue them for civil damages, without benefit caps. Some of the things non-subscribers attempt in order to avoid a work injury lawsuit is sinister indeed. Many employers try to sweep their non-subscriber status under the rug by claiming to have workers’ comp when they really don’t. They want to quickly close the matter by offering to pay the benefits injured workers normally receive from workers’ comp by asking them to sign what appears to be a workers’ comp release that accompanies what appears to be a nice check. You’d be surprised how many drilling and pipeline employers resort to this and how many of their frauds our experienced petroleum accident attorneys expose.

For an injured drilling or pipeline accident injury sufferer to win compensation from a non-subscriber, the only course of action is a civil lawsuit. An experienced petroleum accident attorney can easily determine the true nature of your company’s workers’ comp status and quickly take the best legal option available to you.

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The Best Legal Results Combine Thorough Investigations and Carefully Crafted Strategies

When you know whether or not your employer is a workers’ comp subscriber (or not), the next steps involve developing a specific strategy to get your deserved compensation from those liable for your drilling rig or pipeline-related injury. There are several options, and combinations, from which to choose. You’re already aware of the exception that allows you to sue a workers’ comp-covered employer for gross negligence. So if your loved one was killed on the rig or at a pipeline and our investigation proves your employer’s gross (or willful) negligence, then you should definitely file a civil wrongful death lawsuit. In Texas, there is a side issue that comes into play when it comes to wrongful death, and it’s an advantage to your case.

Texas workers’ comp’s no-fault insurance carries much lower standards of proving negligence when calculating the value of a claim. This is especially true if the accident causes a worker’s death. Those same lower standards of proof apply in civil cases surrounding gross negligence in death-related lawsuits, including non-subscriber cases as well, so don’t forget that. So if a family member has died due to anyone’s gross negligence on a Texas drilling rig or pipeline, proving it in civil court is easier.

We have also mentioned that injured workers who are employed by non-subscribers can be directly sued. But in this case, a more practical and supplemental approach to either a workers’ comp claim or civil suit, regardless of whether the employer is a subscriber or not, involves third-party claims and lawsuits against those whose negligence helped cause the drilling or pipeline worker injury. Faulty or improperly restored equipment that breaks and causes an injury, even if expired warranties exist, might expose the manufacturer (or workshop that rebuilt it) to a defective product lawsuit. The owner might not have cared for or serviced his equipment properly, or it was old and not reconditioned at all before being put back in service, or the owner of the rig (or the drilling contractor) did not create a safe workplace, either through oversight or willfully.

These are a few of the many instances of employer (and third party) negligence for which defendants can be held legally accountable for your damages that include the injury itself, medical bills, pain, suffering, lost wages, and disability. We often find that employees of contractors or subcontractors, or other vendors the owner might have allowed on the job site might have caused the accident. Is it possible that even the corporation that owns the rig or the owner of the lease if he or she is a legal “working partner,” shares some of the blame? Many of these scenarios fall under the purview of the personal injury law called respondeat superior. It states that employers of those found to be liable for an accident, even if they don’t have a direct hand in the mishap, are ultimately responsible for the actions or inactions of their employees.

So, once the above facts of liability in the case are known, your drilling accident attorney generally has two basic options to choose from in order to develop your winning legal strategy:

You can sue your workers’ comp non-subscriber employer and all identified third parties for damages.
If your employer is a workers’ comp subscriber, you will file your normal claim and augment its coverage benefit cap with targeted civil suits against all third parties your attorney’s investigation has identified who should pay supplemental damages in addition to that claim. Often, a workers’ comp claim and third-party lawsuits combine to produce fair liability compensation.

Your lawyer knows how to look before he leaps down either of those prospective strategies, so it doesn’t happen immediately. Because he has to learn, without a shadow of a doubt, who did what, when, and whose negligence caused your injuries. His ability to properly (and immediately) investigate the accident scene and the roles everyone played in your drilling rig or pipeline accident is critical. He also must research the financial assets of all liable defendants too. A lawsuit is a waste of time if the guilty defendant doesn’t have the money to pay damages. These are all good reasons why it’s best to hire an experienced oilfield accident attorney to safely navigate you through this intricate case, and the investigation that produces the evidence which leads to your best legal strategy.

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Defendants Avoid Paying Your Damages by Trying to Deny the Employer-Employee Relationship

After the sole proximate cause defense, another popular method for employer-defendants to avoid workplace injury liability is to claim you are actually not an employee in the traditional sense. They (or their insurance companies and attorneys) know they are not liable for injury damages to their subcontractors, or their subcontractors’ employees. So in order to distance themselves from the prospect of an injury case, they will try and claim you are a contractor. But in the face of overwhelming evidence that you are an employee, proving their claim in court is hard. Remember, the burden of proof is on you. And that includes the burden of disproving every charge they fire at you, which means you must have irrefutable evidence to counter your employer’s claim that you are a contractor.
While many drilling and pipeline companies claim this non-employee point, often the employer knows that a true employer-employee relationship exists and that you have the right to receive damages from this defendant. Here are some of the ways to disprove this employer ruse and confirm an employer-employee relationship exists.

Social security or taxes have been withheld from your paycheck by the employer.
The essential equipment for the job was supplied to you by the employer.
Your work has been regularly managed, overseen, or inspected by your employer.
A specific work schedule has been set for the job by the employer. You are not free to come-and-go as you please.
Your employer requires you to 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 by-the-job contract.
Sometimes, an employer might claim you have been “borrowed” from another company, or hired through a third-party employment agency. The rules for determining the working relationship are closely related to those above. Depending on the actual wording of the defendant’s allegations, there can be some differences in determining how you prove the employer-employee relationship. Some of these conditions may include:

If the borrowing employer can hire or fire you at any time, you are clearly an employee. Otherwise, you are a contractor
Most of the time, if the borrowing employer can 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 you provide your own tools, then you are a contractor. If the employer provides them, then you’re an employee.
If the 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 you are borrowed indefinitely, then you are an employee. But if you’re borrowed for a specific project with a specific date of completion, then you’re a contractor.
If you are borrowed or “leased” because of a skill that is unique or hard-to-find, then you’re a contractor. But on the other hand, if an employer borrows you to fill a position that just about anyone can fill, then you’re an employee.
If the borrowing employer agrees to pay your social security and income tax, then you’re an employee. If the borrowing employer does not accept this responsibility, then you’re a contractor.
In cases where you were actually hired by an employment agency to perform work for a particular drilling contractor or pipeline company, there’s a good chance the employment agency subscribes to workers’ comp as almost 90 percent of those firms, and all of the reputable ones, do. So in this particular case, you would file a workers’ comp claim against the agency, and parties at the petroleum jobsite then become third-party defendants to your accident damage case. The same thing goes if your employer loaned you to another company and you were injured on that job site.

The drilling accident attorneys with our Law Office conduct methodical investigations of your employer to prove any one of the standards that determine an employer-employee relationship exists. Most often, all we need to prove is one (or two) of the above points and the link is legally established. We will depose co-workers, review contracts, and examine pay stubs to prove an employer-employee relationship existed when you suffered your petro-work injury.

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To the Defendant, It’s All About Not Paying You the Damages You Deserve

As you know, personal injury defendants break down into two basic categories. They are either covered (or represented) by an insurance carrier, or they are not. No matter what category they fall into, they fight tooth-and-nail to avoid paying your injury damages.

We’ve spoken about traditional insurance-related defenses, but at least belligerent insurance companies and their lawyers who are pitted against you are governed, somewhat, by a rather stringent legal code of ethical behavior. There are no such rules governing the behavior of self-insured contractors and subcontractors who are defendants in your lawsuit, or the non-insured. These defendants resort to a bag full of tricks (many of them questionable and some of them illegal) to defend themselves against your civil damage suit.

You will likely deal directly with an officer of the self-insured drilling or pipeline company. This person’s salary comes out of company profits. If injury damages are paid to you, they come directly out of company funds. This means your employer or that third party is taking money out of his own pocket. Small wonder a self-insured company officer uses any trick he can think of to deny your claim and protect his company’s (and his personal) assets.

These people will deliberately destroy evidence or intimidate witnesses and even bribe them. Sometimes they’ll physically threaten you, even your family. Often, we file motions that prohibit anyone with the company from inappropriate behavior towards our clients. Such motions can also demand they make no attempt to communicate with our clients, or their families unless one of our attorneys is present.

What You Need to Do (and Not Do) Right Now to Win Oilfield Injury Compensation
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 petroleum drilling or pipeline employer (or its insurance provider) wants you to accept a low-ball settlement and go away. They don’t care if it’s enough or not. In order to prevent them from taking advantage of you, don’t talk about your intentions or anything else about the injury with your employer, a third party, anyone with any insurance company, or even with your co-workers without a lawyer protecting you.

You must act swiftly in order to present your best case. You only get one shot at fair damage compensation. Make it your best because you can’t go back and ask for more later. Quick action is vital because evidence and the physical details of the accident begin to fade almost immediately. Witnesses change their stories, or forget what they saw, or even disappear. All of these, and more, can torpedo your ability to win the restitution you and your family deserve. This is why you need to act fast.

An experienced drilling accident lawyer with our Law Office can help you win your liability case. Call us now toll-free to arrange a free consultation and find out how we can help you. We can answer all of your questions and tell you the best way to win the compensation you deserve from your injury on a drilling rig or pipeline.

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What is Texas Law in Regard to Drunk Driving?
State law forbids those with a blood alcohol content level of .08% or more to be out in public or from driving a motor vehicle. Furthermore, state law prohibits alcohol-serving establishments from excessive alcohol service which causes the imbibing customer’s BAC to surpass .08%. Texas law attempts to limit public alcohol consumption because experience and research show that intoxicated persons are unable to adequately reason, judge, and think for themselves and they become unable to safely drive while under the influence of alcohol. Since drunk patrons are unable to reason, judge, and think for themselves, a server or bartender must make that determination on the customer’s behalf. It is at this point that a server and/or bartender have an obligation to public safety by attempting to make every practical effort to stop a drunk patron from getting behind the wheel of a car.

Alcohol-serving establishments are aware that they have this responsibility to the public and as a result, they have devised many programs to help take care of their intoxicated clienteles if they should become too drunk to drive. For instance, certain bars and restaurants ally with taxi cab businesses to give drunk patrons reduced fares for trips home, or they offer free appetizers for designated drivers who are patronizing the establishment with a group. Should a bar or restaurant not offer these and other programs or services to their clientele, there is nothing worse for a bar or restaurant’s reputation or worse for its profitability than for it to be accused of over-serving alcohol to its clientele and to threaten it with a drunk driving personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit. The drunk driver accident attorneys from our Office have over twenty years of experience with Texas dram shop law and we are very good at helping our clients in receiving out-of-court settlements with negligent bars and restaurants. We are able to ensure that you receive full and fair compensation for medical and/or funeral expenses, lost and future lost wages, and property damage bills you’ve received as a result of another’s carelessness or negligence.

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What is Proximate Cause in a Drunk Driving Claim?
Almost all Texas bartenders and alcohol servers are required to be certified by the state in order to be employed and to perform their alcohol serving duties, and because of this certification, bartenders and servers are acutely aware of their duties to their customers and their obligation to public safety. When these servers neglect to uphold their obligations, whatever the reason may be, and their actions or inactions cause a drunk driving accident that results in fatalities or serious injury, the bartender or server in question is said to be a “proximate cause” of the drunken driving mishap. They are partially liable for the drunk driver’s accident.

Bars and Restaurants Legal Obligations
Bartenders and servers can be found responsible for drunk driving mishaps because they are required to know and understand the many legal obligations that are attached to employees in their profession:

Bars and alcohol-serving restaurants are required to have every one of their servers licensed by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC). This certification requires intense training in the legal obligations involved in serving alcohol to the public. Alcohol-serving establishments cannot legitimately plead ignorance for their negligence.
The State of Texas expects those alcohol-serving establishments will have appropriate procedures, practices, and policies that declare how alcohol is distributed and tracked at their respective bars.
There is an expectation that alcohol-serving establishments will have guidelines and protocols in place showing servers how to handle intoxicated clientele and that all servers both know and abide by these protocols.
There is an understanding that all servers are to look for the often unmistakable indicators that a person is becoming too intoxicated to get behind the wheel of an automobile.

When confronted with negligence or liability for a drunk driving accident, many bars and restaurants will resort to what is known as the “safe harbor defense” in order to protect their interest and show that they have no responsibility for the accident in question. If an alcohol-serving establishment can show that its servers and employees have followed all of the expectations that we’ve just discussed, the establishment in question will not be held accountable for injuries or fatalities caused by one of their intoxicated clientele who was involved in a drunken driving mishap. The alcohol-serving establishment is then said to be in a safe harbor. Since all bars and restaurants are aware of this safe harbor defense, they will try to hide their carelessness, recklessness, or other negligence behind the veil of this defense. The problem is, however, that it is very difficult to establish that the restaurant or bar is lying about meeting those expectations and guidelines, and the problem is further complicated by the fact that the victim or his or her loved ones bear the burden of proof in trying to prove that the alcohol-serving establishment is being deceptive, deceitful or otherwise trying to cover up their negligence. You or your legal representation bear the task of proving the restaurant or bar enabled the drunk driver’s drinking and that this negligence led to the drunk driving mishap. Proving the relationship between the establishment and the drunk driving incident is a very challenging undertaking, and this can be too much for inexperienced lawyers and new law firms. The drunken driver accident lawyers at our Law Office have been handling Texas dram shop personal liability and wrongful death suits for over twenty years. We are intimately acquainted with this deceptive tactic and we will dedicate our efforts to exposing it and helping you receive the justice and full and fair compensation that is rightfully yours for your injury and/or loss.

It is in Your Best Interest to Contact a Drunk Driver Accident Attorney as Soon as Possible After Your Mishap
We absolutely know that you are working your way through a very trying time, especially if you’ve lost a family member or have suffered a serious injury. Part of the rebuilding process is seeking financial compensation for your loss and/or injury. It does not matter if you think you may not have the time, money, or strength to pursue legal action against negligent parties, but it more than likely the best course of action you or your loved ones can take.

If you have any questions regarding pursuing a personal injury or wrongful death claim for your drunken driving accident, please call our Law Office toll-free for a free consultation and discussion of your legal or other alternatives for your unique situation.

Moreover, if you’ve been involved in a drunk driver accident, you should take immediate action. Waiting too long to make a decision on a course of legal action could seriously harm your case or cause you to have no case at all because the evidence you will need to receive your full and fair compensation quickly degrades, gets lost, and otherwise simply disappears. Ensure that you receive adequate compensation to begin to rebuild your life. We can help you in your time of distress and need.

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Various Vehicle Accidents

Personal Injury Law Firm Explains What to do if You’ve Been Injured in a Vehicle Accidents in Texas

Most of the vehicles on Texas roadways are standard passenger cars or commercial trucks, but accidents involving other types of vehicles do happen with some regularity. From the motorbikes that roar down the interstate to the all-terrain vehicles that splash through mud and creeks, to the trains that shriek their lonely whistle as they roll through town in the middle of the night, thousands of people are involved in accidents with some form of unorthodox vehicle in Texas every year.

Unfortunately, most attorneys in Texas only take on cases involving passenger vehicle wrecks.

At our Law Office, our team of associates has been litigating personal injury and wrongful death cases involving other vehicle accidents for 20 years. Thus, we have the necessary knowledge and experience of the laws and procedures involved in such a case to help you find the compensation you deserve after losing a loved one or suffering an injury in another vehicle accident. First, we want to help you better understand the laws and procedures involved in your case, so you can make the right decisions to get on the road to recovery.

By the time they’ve reached midlife, most Texans have been involved in some kind of accident or another. You may have filed one or two different insurance claims for a standard car accident. However, that has not prepared you to deal with a legal situation involving other vehicle accidents. When dealing with the fallout from injuries suffered in a bus, train, motorcycle, or ATV accident, you will likely need the help of an attorney with experience handling other vehicle accidents. Most attorneys never gain experience litigating accident cases beyond passenger cars and commercial trucks. At our Law Office, we’ve taken on accidents involving all types of vehicles for over 20 years. We know all of the obscure laws and procedures involving non-traditional vehicles, and we will give you an outstanding chance of securing the maximum compensation possible.

Motorcycle Wrecks
When you’ve been hurt in an accident while riding a motorcycle, you definitely need the assistance of a skilled and seasoned personal injury attorney who has extensive familiarity with these cases. You might not realize this, but many jurors have strong negative preconceptions about people who ride motorcycles. Due to media depictions, they perceive bikers as lawless miscreants and they usually assume the biker was the one responsible for the accident. A recent survey conducted by motorcycle rights activists showed that 85 percent of all people polled assume the biker caused an accident in which he or she is involved. This prejudice has been around since the biker movies first started cropping up in the early 1950s and it’s still running strong today. Insurance adjusters and defense attorneys are savvy and clever, so they know how to play upon these prejudices and use them against you. They know how to get jurors to overlook facts and evidence in the victim’s favor and rule strictly upon the basis of their false and unfair notions of motorcyclists. At our Law Office, our learned and experienced attorneys know how to get juries to concentrate on the facts of the case and overcome any prejudices they have.

Train Wrecks and Other Railroad Collisions
Not only do collisions involving passenger vehicles and trains happen more than you think, but they also don’t happen the way you think they do. Our natural belief again runs along with what we see in the media. We’re inclined to believe a car gets hit by a train when it’s trying to speed across the tracks – just like what happens all of the time in the movies. In reality, the lion’s share of most accidents involving passenger vehicles and trains occurs when a warning sign or light fails to work, and the driver careens directly into the side of the train without ever seeing it. In this case, it’s highly likely that someone else is liable for the accident. Our other vehicle accident attorneys know how to investigate a railroad collision to discover exactly who is responsible for it. Then, we will make sure the responsible party is made to pay for the injuries the victim has suffered or the loved one he or she has lost.

ATV Accidents
Texas is a state that appreciates the outdoors. Many people utilize ATVs to better enjoy the outdoors, using them to venture into the wilderness in search of fish and game, to ride for fun, or to use in work situations where roads are scarce. Like with motorcycle accidents, anyone who is injured in an ATV wreck must cope with the possibility that the jury will assume the ATV operator was at fault since ATVs are perceived as being such dangerous vehicles. This isn’t always the case, and again, you will need an attorney working for you who is capable of getting the jury to concentrate on the facts and the facts alone. In reality, many ATV rollover accidents occur due to the design or assembly malfunction of either of the vehicle or its component parts. In these cases, victims have the right to be compensated. The fact of the matter is that some ATVs are unsafe no matter how safely they are drive.

If you’ve been injured or a family member has been killed in a vehicle accident, you are going to need the help of an experienced personal injury attorney to receive maximum compensation. At our Law Office, our team of personal injury specialists has been investigating and litigating personal injury and wrongful death cases for 20 years. We not only know how to find the necessary evidence to prove your case, but we know how to use it to force a settlement or win a favorable verdict in court. We’ve won many millions of dollars for our clients in Texas. You need an experienced attorney working for you that has defeated every major insurance company in the land. Adjusters and defense lawyers are often eager to work out a fair settlement to avoid meeting our attorneys in court. If not, we will take them to court and get the compensation your case merits.

If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you, call us toll-free. After we’ve heard the details of your story, we can explain your options, answer your questions and tell you how we should begin.

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Contract Employees

Contract employees have the most difficult time seeking compensation from their employers. Under Texas law, employers have no legal obligation to pay benefits to their contract employees, but however, there is a catch which most Texans are unaware of. If the employer hires you as a contract worker and then requires that you perform certain functions and take on the responsibility of the company’s regular employees, the law then in effect gives you certain rights of a regular employee. If you are harmed or injured while acting in that capacity, you are likely eligible for the same medical compensation that a regular employee would receive. Because of this fact, employers try to hide this relationship and the responsibilities they owe contract employees. Since employers do have fewer responsibilities and obligations to contract workers in other areas (tax liability, etc.,) most wrongly assume this lack of responsibility exempts employers from possible liability for on-the-job injuries. This is not necessarily true. In many instances, employers are entirely liable to compensate contract employees for harms suffered while on the job.

In order to receive compensation as a contract worker who has been harmed or injured in an on-the-job accident, you will be required to prove you had an employer-employee relationship. In order to show that such a relationship in fact existed, you will need to meet one or more of the following criteria:

There is employer withheld social security or taxes from your paycheck
You use employer-provided equipment for your work
You put in employer designated work periods and hours for your job
You are effectively managed by your employer, and he or she inspects and oversees your work product.
You signed a statement agreeing to employment conditions such as mandatory drug testing or agreeing to the conditions of an employee manual.
You are hired for an extended and indefinite time period and not just for a single job.
You are paid an hourly wage or salary

The work accident attorneys at our Law Office have over twenty years of experience in proving that such relationships in many cases between employers and contract workers. In order to demonstrate this relationship, we will depose and interview coworkers and examine all available evidence such as employment contracts, pay stubs, and tax information.

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Will OSHA Help?
No. OSHA does not have the authority to help you seek compensation for benefits after your on-the-job injury.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets guidelines for minimum safety standards for workplaces in the United States. Their sole purpose is to issue safety regulations for employers, inspect job sites and work areas and then fine and/or punish non-compliant employers.

OSHA’s purpose is to ensure the work safety standards are met. Their job is not to aid an injured worker in seeking compensation, so an OSHA inspection is generally of very little use. OSHA has limited resources and a limited mandate, and they typically will inspect an on-the-job accident well after the incident happened and they will generally only tell the employer how to avoid a repeat event by issuing a short report.

What Should I Do?
Whatever you do, do not sign a document relieving liability or guilt for your on-the-job accident in exchange for the benefits you can rightfully receive. Once you sign a release, you give up your right to seek future compensation.

You also need to take immediate action. While you wait, evidence of your employer’s neglect is being corrupted, degraded, employee logs are thrown away or lost, witnesses lose memory, the list is endless. You need to hire a work accident attorney to help you gather the critical evidence to help you win your case.

Our attorneys have over twenty years of experience all across Texas in helping workers get their rightful and just compensation for their on-the-job-injuries.

If you are uncertain regarding the benefits and compensation you are entitled to, our work injury lawyers have the necessary skill, knowledge aggressiveness, and experience to help injured workers handle their claims and received their rightful and just compensation. Call us toll-free for a free consultation and to discuss your legal alternatives.

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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 work 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 expense is 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. 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 workers’ 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 workers’ 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 contractors, fellow employees, or other third parties 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 workers’ comp, we generally refer to employers who choose to do this as nonsubscribers. 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, is very different from the workers’ 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 workers’ 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 workers’ comp case.

Even though the nonsubscriber cases are not hampered with the pro-employer apparatus found with the workers’ 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 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 negligent behavior that the victim must prove in court. That 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.

Common Obstacle in Nonsubscriber Work-Related Injury Cases
The primary obstacle in a situation where an employer is a nonsubscriber to workers’ 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 a lawsuit and the subsequent result is that it is extremely beneficial to employers to buy workers’ 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 will 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 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 not 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, a 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. Our work-related accident lawyers 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 may 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.

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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 is 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.

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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. Again, we have twenty years of experience and the knowledge that goes with it to help clients like you. If you have been injured in a work-related accident, don’t hesitate to call us today toll-free for your free consultation.

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Non-Subscribers Vs. Workers’ Comp Subscribers
Texas Attorney Explains Non-Subscriber Cases VS Workers’ Comp Subscriber Cases

When you have been injured on the job, you need help from a lawyer with workplace accident experience, so you will be able to claim the proper compensation to which you are likely entitled. Accidents at work tend to make some of the most complicated cases we see in court.

The exact way in which these issues are dealt with varies depending on a number of factors. Perhaps the biggest question is whether the employer is a non-subscriber vs workers’ comp employer. When the employer is a subscriber, it may be that you as an employee can not sue your employer, although there could be other remedies available to you. There may also have been mitigating factors that severed the employee-employer relationship regardless of their subscriber status.

If you’ve been injured while at work, the first thing you should do is seek proper medical attention. This is your health at stake and may affect your recovery. Go see a medical professional. It is important for both your life and your lawsuit or claim. Do not worry too much about the cost. If you’re uninsured or underinsured, your medical treatment and examination may be covered by the compensation you can seek. In some cases, we are able to help you locate medical attention with the large network of medical professionals we’ve developed. They can take your financial and personal circumstances into consideration. Also, we might be able to help you see a medical doctor at no cost upfront to you. What’s more, we are able to show you how the time you take off from work to get proper medical care may be covered by the defendant or workers’ comp. Once your treatment is covered, we turn our eye to your employer and other parties that may be at fault.

If the company you work for has workers’ compensation coverage you will need to notify your employer immediately after the incident. Legally, you have 30 days to notify them, but many companies will try to deny benefits for an injured worker so you are best protected by reporting your medical visit as soon as possible. Furthermore, you will need to fill out a form TWCC­41 and submit it to the Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission within 12 months of the date of the injury accident or you could lose your benefits. You must also be sure to follow the guidelines set forth by the doctor – who has to be in your employer’s plan – and you must answer all written requests and fill out all necessary paperwork or you may lose your benefits.

What Makes Texas Work Injury Cases So Complex
Although workers’ comp often interferes with an injured party’s ability to get compensation, it’s not always as clear as it might seem to receive proper or fair compensation. An experienced attorney can find ways around the limits that may appear in your way. For instance, we have found that many companies will say they have workers comp insurance against accidents, when in fact they do not subscribe to it. In other cases we have handled, we discovered that, even if the employer is a subscriber, we could bring an action against liable third parties involved in the Texas workplace injury accident. Clearly, seeking legal action can be complex and may involve sifting through a large number of conflicting demands. To ensure you receive all the benefits to which you are entitled, you need the help of an attorney with experience in on-the-job accident litigation. Our Texas workplace injury attorneys can be there to help protect your rights.

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What is the State’s Workers’ Compensation and How Is It Limiting?

Legally, workers’ compensation in the Lone Star state is a kind of insurance, but it’s definitely not what you think of when you think of a normal insurance plan. In our state, our workers’ compensation program is part of a statewide reform of the tort rules that were designed mainly to protect employers against lawsuits filed by their workers who get injured on the job. Tort reform in Texas arose from heavy corporate lobbying. The workers’ compensation fund in Texas is run by the state government, but the actual insurance is provided by private insurers. In Texas, employers may choose not to buy into the program. They are called non-subscribers. The issue of non-subscriber vs workers’ comp must be properly addressed as soon as possible following a work injury accident since the legal routes available to an injured worker are so drastically different depending on the answer to that question.

Workers’ compensation insurance provides a relatively limited amount of benefits to injured employees. If your employer is a subscriber to Texas’ workers’ comp insurance and you suffer an injury while at work, you must accept the compensation the state sets, no matter who is at fault. However, such compensation is often limited and usually does not cover the entire cost of an injury in the workplace. Also, you cannot file a lawsuit against the liable company operating in Texas – whether you work in an office, a store, or on a construction site. There may be ways around this. An experienced lawyer can help you find other responsible persons that can be sued. For example, if you are injured in a warehouse where you work, and your employer has workers’ comp, you can file a complaint against your employer. However, many warehouse accidents are the result of several parties, so you may be able to sue those other parties.

Another avenue of redressing your grievances may be that your employer was not solely responsible for your injury. You can then file a lawsuit against other parties who are responsible for your injury. For many workplace accidents, there is often more than one party, person, or entity to blame.

Texas work injury law firm
Multiple parties can be sued for the exact same injury. So, even though the work injury law in Texas says that you cannot sue your employer, you may be able to sue others who are responsible. Let’s say that a piece of equipment has fallen and it breaks your legs. While an employer may be liable for failing to keep the workplace safe, your employer may be a subscriber company, thus immune to a lawsuit. Even if the collapse was caused in part by negligence on the company’s part, the employer can’t be sued. However, it might be that a contractor installing the equipment – be it a filing cabinet, scaffolding, a cubicle, or a store display – contributed to the collapse due to sloppy or incompetent installation. This contractor could likewise be liable for the on-the-job injury. Maybe the materials used to secure the item when it was installed were defective. If this is the case, the manufacturer of those materials may also be sued.

Suppose that you have been hurt by the collapse of the shelf at the Costco where you work. The company that built the shelf is probably responsible. If you are injured due to a faulty shelf, you may be able to make a product liability lawsuit against the manufacturer of the shelf. In principle, although you can’t go after your employer, you may have options for compensation. Let the Texas accident lawyers help locate and bring to justice all offenders as possible.

Your employer can say they subscribe to workers’ compensation insurance when in fact they do not. Some employers might even try to pay you all the benefits you’d get under worker’s comp to promote this lie. Our lawyers can investigate your employer to determine if they really are a non-subscriber vs workers’ comp employer. When a liable employer is a non-subscriber, we can help you file a Texas personal injury lawsuit.

The Workers’ Comp Process Is Complex
It is never easy or simple when navigating the workers’ comp insurance process in dealing with your on-the-job job injury. Companies will very often contest your claims, as will their insurer. Insurance companies are usually more interested in helping themselves than helping you because you are not the one paying their premiums. You are a liability in their financial ledger. The less that is paid to you, the more they still have.

Additionally, the burden of proof is on you. There exists a special workers’ compensation court established to hear some workers comp cases, and you have to prove your case. It’s often a complex, bureaucratic process fraught with many hazards. Your damages can be reduced by the court. The Texas work accident attorneys at our Law Office have been winning workers’ compensation cases against insurance companies for the past twenty years, and that’s why we feel it’s critical for injured parties to have representation that’s experienced and working in your interests.

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How Are Benefits Limited By Workers’ Comp?

If you are hurt at work and the employer has workers’ comp accident insurance, you usually get up to 70% of your income loss, but this compensation is limited to $600 per week at the most. For example, say you are an accountant who makes $70,000 a year. If you are injured on the job and the accident was caused by the employer, you get that $600 a week for the loss of income while you are healing. But, if you have a long-term disability and the doctor says you can never go back to work, you only get $600 a week for life, even if you used to take home $1,400 per week. You can also get a lump sum at the end of your recovery, but such payments are usually very minimal.

In addition, claims against workers’ comp do not take into account the future earning potential. Let’s say you work in a Texas Walmart while attending law school and you are seriously injured in an accident on the loading dock. It’s so bad, in fact, that you are unable to work or continue on in school. You will get only 70 percent of your salary from Walmart for the rest of your life. Your compensation is based on the life of your salary from Walmart and not the much higher average earnings you would have likely earned if you finished law school.

If the company where you work is supposed to be a subscriber, you will want to know for sure so you can seek proper legal action to pursue fair compensation. Alternatively, if one or more third parties are partly responsible for your accident, you should be able to go after them and take them to court. Our Texas on-the-job work accident attorneys can help build a solid case to get you the proper compensation.

Under workers’ comp, you are entitled to complete reimbursement for all your medical costs, such as the costs of medical treatment, prescription and over-the-counter drugs, and all the other medical supplies you need to recover from your injury. Continuing treatment and medicines are also potentially reimbursable. If you incur travel expenses in seeking medical treatment or therapy, or for your supplies and prescriptions, those may likewise be reimbursed. Workers’ compensation does not, however, include coverage or reimbursement for any pain, suffering, or similar general damages, except for that of lost income and medical expenses.

The single, most important exception to the rule that a plaintiff may not sue a subscribed employer is that you can sue a subscribed employer if you are the family member of an employee who died in a fatal work accident, provided that the employer’s gross negligence was the cause of that accident. If your case meets these two criteria, you can file a Texas wrongful death lawsuit in regular court.

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What if My Employer Is Not a Subscriber?
If the employer is not enrolled in Texas workers’ comp, you can bring a regular personal injury suit and claim damages for various injuries, such as:

Loss of income for the length of time in the hospital or out of work.
Any loss of earning capacity and long-term disability.
Your medical expenses.
Property damage incurred.
The physical pain, suffering, and emotional distress.

If your employer is a non-subscriber to workers’ compensation, they have only one legal defense known as sole proximate cause. This defense works to prove that you were solely responsible for your accident. Employers generally work towards building an argument against you that you’re the only person at fault. For example, if you have injuries in the workplace that resulted from you lifting something too heavy, your employer may argue that because you worked alone, the injury was your fault alone. Our lawyers are often able to prove the link between your innocent actions and any injuries by showing that your employer failed to provide the right safety equipment and training needed for someone to know how to lift and carry safely the heavy load. We also note that other forms may have been exhibited by other parties also involved in the workplace injury accident in Texas.

Connecting the incident to the employer in this way is often done by doing the hard legal work that’s often challenging for less experienced attorneys. This legal responsibility is not something that a less experienced attorney would likely understand as well as our lawyers. You need a lawyer who knows how to handle work-related accidents. We know how to prove to the jury that the injury was caused by negligence on the part of the employer, not you. We are dedicated to helping you seek compensation regardless of the non-subscriber vs workers’ comp status of your employer.

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Contracting vs. Employment – It Matters

Many companies mistakenly believe that instead of hiring employees, they can hire contractors in order to shy away from liability for accidents. This belief is because of the fact that Texas law expressly states that employees are generally entitled to protection from accidents, but not contractors. On the other hand, Texas law does not provide clear guidelines to determine the status of a person, whether an employee or a contractor. This means that the lawyer for you should review previous decisions to discuss whether a worker is an employee or a contractor. This is called case law and the state is very clear on this point: when it comes to civil liability, the actual work with the employer is what matters most.

Many factors can create an employment relationship. The most direct is a contract where you are employed. Another simple example is that if an employee serves, in particular, the activity of the employer. For example, a person who is working in a Gap, wearing a Gap name tag, and is serving customers in a Gap, then the person is a Gap employee, despite the absence of an agreement saying so.

In most cases, the determination between a contractor and an employee is not so simple. In these situations, we have listed a number of conditions to determine your relationship with your current employer:

The worker works for a lot of clients: If a plumber is working on various projects for several clients, he is a plumbing contractor. If he works on many buildings for one client, he is an employee.
The worker must use their own tools: If the employee is responsible for their own tools and equipment, a worker is a contractor. If the employer has the tools and equipment with which the employee works, he’s an employee.
The worker is paid at the end of a project: If the worker is paid at the end of the project, the worker is a contractor. If the employee pays the wages per hour or per year, the worker is an employee.
The worker has his work managed at various stages of completion: If the employer must take account of a project at different stages of completion, the worker is an employee. If the employer takes into account solely the finished product, the worker is a contractor.
When the worker gets to decide how long to spend on each project: If the employee cannot determine the time it takes for a particular project, the worker is not a contractor.
When you take a worker from another agency, the rules for determining the relationship may be similar, but there are fundamental differences. The conditions are:

Worker’s employer has the right to hire or fire: If the employer who borrows can fire an employee at any time, the worker is an employee.
The employer has the right to choose a particular employee whose employer: If this is the case, it’s an employee relationship.
When the borrowed employee is responsible for supplying their own tools, the worker is a contractor. If the employer provides tools for the job, the worker is employed.
The borrower cannot replace an employee with another employee at any time: If this is the case, the worker is a contractor.
When the employer borrows the worker for some unspecified time: If an employee has borrowed the worker for the length of the project only, the project worker is a contractor.
The worker is taken because of a specific skill: If a computer repair company borrows an expert on fiber optics, the worker is a contractor. However, if an employer has the employee fill a position that anyone can fill, then the worker is an employee.
Where the employer is liable for the income tax and social security: If the borrower pays for services and income so that the worker is employed. If the employer does not have this responsibility, while the worker is a contractor.

Our Texas Work Accident Law Firm is Ready to Help You Seek Compensation

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Our lawyers can help you find just compensation if you are injured at work. If the employer has state workers comp insurance – or when the employer does not – we can help you obtain compensation.

We can also help you identify third parties who may be liable and therefore financially responsible. Even when these third parties are liable only on the basis of unclear legal theories, we can help. If the employer does not have accident insurance, we can help build a strong and complete case against non-subscribers, and we can fight against defense lawyers, who will work to shed liability. We also thoroughly investigate your employer to determine whether or not they are a non-subscriber vs workers’ comp employer. Before talking to the insurance company, accepting a commitment fee from the company, or trying to sue on your own, contact our Texas work injury attorneys to learn more about your legal options and the possible value of your case or claim.

Our Texas workplace accident law firm is often able to obtain compensation for injured workers when less experienced lawyers have refused to help. We recently dealt with a case in which a worker was injured at work, and he had signed a contract saying he was only a contractor working there. More than half a dozen different law firms said that it was not a good case. Our Law Office, however, established a working relationship and eventually won a seven-figure settlement.

Our Texas on-the-job accident lawyers bring to the table decades of experience. We have successfully handled hundreds of occupational injury cases in Texas and throughout the country. We have gone against nearly all major insurers. Defense attorneys know and respect our name. They know that we care about our clients’ rights and will fight relentlessly to protect their interests. They are often afraid to face our lawyers in court. We will be able to obtain just compensation without the need to use the courtroom, but we are willing and ready to fight aggressively for your court when necessary. We do everything we can to ensure that you have fair compensation for your injuries. To learn more about your possible legal options following a work accident injury in Texas, call us for a legal consultation at no cost to you.

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