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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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