I got into a car accident in July of last year. I couldn't move my arm or my neck. It was pretty awkward and it hurt pretty bad. My friend already had a case with Mr. Grossman and she told me 'Why don't you go over there.' I hired Mr. Grossman and he took care of everything.
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J. Fernandez
Automobile Accident Case
Dallas Construction Accident Lawyer
Were You Hurt in a Construction Work Accident? Discuss Your Case With Our Lawyers
- What Makes Construction Injuries so Complex?
- What is Workers' Compensation?
- What is a Non-Subscriber?
- Contractors, subcontractors, and non-conventional employees?
- Fatal Construction Accidents
- Misconceptions About OSHA
It is very likely that you are trying to determine if you need a construction accident lawyer OR the company you work for has already turned their back on you leaving you no choice but to find a lawyer to help you with your case. In either event, our Dallas construction attorneys can help you make the most of your legal rights.
If You Are Not Sure if You Need a Texas Construction Accident Attorney, Consider the Following
The laws governing construction accident injuries in the State of Texas are very complex, contain many areas of overlap, and feature a variety of technicalities. Simply due to the complex nature of this area of law, you will need the help of an experienced law firm to receive fair compensation for your injury.
Construction accident cases are particularly tricky for you to win without the help of an an experienced attorney, partly because construction companies have become so good at manipulating the system. Many construction projects will have multiple contractors and subcontractors working in unison. While the obvious reason for this arrangement is due to the fact that different construction firms specialize in different tasks, the more devious aspect is that construction companies think they can absolve themselves from any liability by using contractors rather than employees.
If you interpret the law at face value, their plan would appear to be effective. However, in our 20 years of experience we have discovered case law that is instrumental in overcoming such obstacles. The experienced construction accident attorneys of Grossman Law Offices can overcome this manipulation where as a non attorney would not be able to do so.
Work Site Injury
The obvious difference between construction accident/ work site accident injuries and more conventional on-the-job injuries lies in the fact that the nature of the work is considerably more dangerous in a construction environment. Ultimately, this means that the employer owes a greater legal duty to the worker in order to ensure their safety. Unfortunately, in spite of the increased level of danger, many construction companies do not put as strong of an emphasis on safety as they should. Not focusing on safety in an office environment can be bad, but disregarding safety on a job site can quite easily result in major injuries or deaths.
What Makes Texas Construction Accident Laws so Complex?
Texas construction accident laws are complex largely due to tort reform measures that were passed some time ago. These tort reform measures have effectively resulted in two sets of laws which dictate your rights as a worker. Construction accidents in the State of Texas fall into two distinct categories:
- Work site injuries that are covered by workers' compensation insurance
- Work site injuries that are not covered by workers' compensation insurance
Your rights will substantially differ depending on your employer's status. This status will also determine the type of attorney that you will need, any potential limits or caps on the compensation you can recover, the specific strategies your attorneys can use in representing you and establishing your employer's liability, who may be a recipient of any compensation, and several other important items.
What Exactly is Workers' Compensation?
In 1993, lawmakers enacted the Texas Workers' Compensation Act. This act established provisions that protect companies by enabling them to purchase workers' compensation insurance, which shields them from law suits on behalf of injured employees. If an employee is injured on a job site and the company is a subscriber to workers' compensation insurance, the employee's medical expenses and some portion of their salary are, theoretically, taken care of by the worker's comp insurance carrier. However, that's not always the case, as many companies bend the rules, leaving employees with less than their fair share. If you are not being fairly compensated after your injury and your employer subscribes to worker's compensation insurance, call Grossman Law Offices today to discover what you are legally entitled to.
What is a Non-Subscriber?
When your employer chooses not to subscribe to workers' compensation insurance, the legal world refers to them as as a "non-subscriber". Non-subscriber construction accident cases are substantially different than workers' comp cases due to the "double edged sword" nature of the Texas Workers' Compensation Act. In essence, the TWCA provides some measure of immunity to companies who subscribe to workers' comp insurance, but also has built-in provisions to "punish" non-subscribers by taking away many of their legal defenses and by not setting a cap on the amount that can be recovered.
Since non-subscribers cannot rely on conventional defense strategies, a rarefied group of defense attorneys that do nothing but defend non-subscribers have stepped up to defend employers. By nature, they are the most aggressive defense attorneys in the industry. Left with so few defense strategies at their disposal, their case general centers around building a case against YOU. They will do everything in their power to discredit you, and otherwise show that the accident is your fault through some technicality or another. Without the help of experienced construction accident attorneys on your side, you won't stand a chance against the defense counsel. The Dallas construction accident lawyers of Grossman Law Offices have built a reputation for overcoming such defense strategies, resulting in substantial recoveries for our clients.
Why Would a Construction Company not Want to Subscribe to Workers' Compensation Insurance?
With all of the legal protection that it grants them, you would think that every construction company would elect to subscribe to worker's comp. However, many construction companies and general contractors will try to save money by not purchasing this rather costly insurance. Ultimately, they are risking your livelihood to in favor of profit.
Certainly, there are some companies that can risk not having such coverage since the work environment is not particularly dangerous. However, construction jobs are inherently dangerous, and the large majority of construction companies that we have gone against, as it turns out, are just trying to save money by not subscribing to worker's comp insurance. When their employees get injured, the company then has to pay out of pocket to compensate the employees. As you can imagine, most companies would rather fire the employee or otherwise skirt their legal obligations.
How Does the Law Apply to Contractors, Subcontractors, and Other Non-Conventional Employees?
At face value, the law states that a a company does not have to compensate a non conventional employee such as a contractor. Most construction companies are aware of this, and they try to use this loop hole to protect themselves from liability AND avoid paying for workers' comp insurance.That certainly sounds like a win-win situation for the employer and a losing deal for the contractor.
Most attorneys will give up on your case as soon as they hear that you are a sub contractor. Not Us.
Our experienced Texas construction accident attorneys have the legal prowess to circumvent the simplistic interpretation of the laws, and get help you recover fair compensation for your injuries; in spite of the fact that the construction company may have technically hired you as a contractor specifically to avoid any liability. Grossman Law Offices has a more broad understanding of the law to keep your employer from hiding behind this technicality.
For 20 years the experienced attorneys of Grossman Law Offices has helped construction accident victims get the compensation that they deserve for their job site injuries. This experience is absolutely vital to winning such complex cases. Many of our clients were turned down by numerous attorneys before finding our firm, simply because most attorneys understand how challenging these cases can be and they will try to avoid them. We are not afraid of a challenge, and we have the knowledge to make a hard case into a winner.
Construction Accident Wrongful Death
Due to the dangerous environment of the average work site, it is not uncommon for a construction accident to result in death. Common causes of construction site deaths are heavy machinery accidents, falling accidents, crushing accidents, and exposure to toxic chemicals, explosive chemicals, or electricity.
When a construction accident results in death, it is absolutely imperative for the family of the deceased to hire an attorney immediately. Work sites rarely stay still for long. It is not uncommon for a worker to be killed by a piece of machinery only to have that same machinery back in the service a few days later. In an environment that changes so rapidly, it is crucial for an attorney to be brought into the equation as soon as possible, so that the attorney can secure the site in order to preserve the evidence necessary to win a wrongful death case. For example, your attorney can file for a subpoena to keep the equipment out of service.
Additionally, while most companies will make an effort to adhere to the rules following an accident, there are many unscrupulous construction companies out there that have been known to engage in complex cover-ups to conceal their liability in a construction accident. Without an attorney to stop them in their tracks or uncover such a scheme through deposition testimony, it is very unlikely that the truth will over come out. To be more specific, investigators from OSHA and the local police department will generally ask questions designed to reconstruct the events immediately surrounding the accident, and not much else. Through our rigorous questioning techniques and investigative methods, our firm has uncovered SHOCKING aspects to wrongful death cases that the authorities never even knew to ask for.
Misconceptions About OSHA
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is a federal regulatory organization the mandates all safety rules and investigates all construction accidents in the country. Immediately following a construction accident, an OSHA representative will be dispatched to the scene of the accident to conduct an investigation. Upon completion of the investigation, OSHA will file an official report with their findings. A common misconception that most people have regarding OSHA is that they will ultimately make a negligent company pay for an injured or deceased worker. In fact, OSHA does dispense fines to negligent companies, but the fines are horribly inadequate. The highest single fine that OSHA can impose for a death is only $7,000. Even if the employer is found to be responsible of numerous negligent acts, the fines rarely total a significant amount of money. Charles Jeffress, the former director of OSHA, has stated publicly, "...The current law is inadequate to deal with serious violators, repetitive violators, situations where people are put at risk day after day." Until laws are passed that grant OSHA some greater abilities to levy substantial fines, it is more cost effective for some companies to disregard safety and pay the puny fines.
...That is, until they face our aggressive attorneys. Our litigious efforts take the profit out of negligent operations to compensate the family of the deceased, and to influence significant change within the defendant's safety procedures which results in a safer environment for all of the victim's coworkers.
Immigration Status in a Construction Accident Wrongful Death
Many construction workers in The State of Texas are from Mexico or other foreign countries. Often, they are working in America illegally. While this is a highly volatile political topic, as it relates to a wrongful death on a construction site a worker's immigration status should have no impact on their rights as a worker.
However, there are a unique set of obstacles that must be addressed. It is fairly common for a worker to live here in America while their family lives in Mexico. In the event of a death, arrangements must be made to transport the decedent's remains back to their country of origin. This matter becomes quite challenging for the family members in Mexico, since the company the decedent worked for usually provides little to no communication to the family. Our attorneys can work with the Mexican Consulate to make arrangements to transport the decedent back to their family for burial.
Additionally, construction accident wrongful death cases involving a non Americans are further complicated by the fact that many construction companies feel little pressure from family members that are so far away. You don't have to be particularly cynical to see how many of these construction companies make a practice of hiring illegal immigrants partly because they know that the workers are always in a constant state of fear over being deported which makes them less likely to complain when they are being treated unfairly. We find such a notion to be completely appalling and unacceptable. To put this into perspective, in one of our firm's recent construction accident wrongful death cases, the victim was an immigrant laborer and in spite of the fact that his death was quite public, it did not even make the news. Such indifference shown by employers is certainly cause for special consideration in these types of cases.
A loading dock worker suffered serious including numerous facial fractures and minor brain trauma when an 18-wheeler back into him, crushing him against the loading dock. The plaintiff's employer was a subscriber to Texas Workers' Compensation coverage, thus a claim was rightly filed against the third party trucking company whom the truck driver operating the reversing 18-wheeler worked for.
The plaintiffs asserted the position that the trucking company in question was liable on the basis of respondeat superior and negligent retention. The defendants argued that the plaintiff was the sole proximate cause of his injuries by virtue of the plaintiff putting himself in harms way. They maintained that the plaintiff simply walked behind the reversing tractor trailer as it pushed back toward the loading dock.
It was later determined through deposition testimony that the truck driver had indeed instructed the plaintiff to stand behind the trailer in order to determine the vehicle's proximity to the dock. Once this fact came to light, the defendants agreed to mediate whereby the case was satisfactorily settled.
$300,000.00
$120,000.00
$9,807.00
A young worker was negligently trained to operate a piece of machinery. During a routine cleaning procedure, he suffered a serious hand injury consisting of numerous deep lacerations across his palm. The defendants claimed that he was a contract laborer and therefore owed no legal duty. Through litigation, our attorneys showed evidence to establish an employer-employee relationship thereby creating a non-subscriber work injury cause of action.
$1,010,000.00
$333,300.00
$50,000.00
(policy limits) Our attorneys secured a recovery against a major trucking company for the daughter of a man who was killed after his vehicle collided into an 18-wheeler which was blocking the roadway. Litigation is ongoing against additional defendants.
Confidential
Confidential
Confidential
Recovery for injured worker who suffered a closed head injury in a scaffolding accident.
$125,000.00
$30,000.00
$2,135.00
The mother of a young man hired our firm to investigate the death of her son following a fatal car accident. The incident occurred as one of the two vehicles involved ran a red light and drive into the path of the other. The defendant was driving a work vehicle for a construction company. The defendant survived the accident and stated to police that the decedent caused the accident. The police could not conclusively determine who was at fault, yet the police report strongly implied that the decedent was likely at fault based on the statement provided by the defendant.
The plaintiff's mother was not convinced. Through a thorough investigation, we ultimately determined that the stoplight that the defendant claimed that our client ran, in fact, worked on a timer whereby the light was always green between certain hours unless a vehicle traveling on the intersecting road had been stopped at the right light for more than 30 seconds. Based on an analysis of the vehicles and tire markings, it was conclusively determined that both vehicles were traveling at the speed limit, which clearly indicates that the defendant driver had not accelerated from stop, rather, he was traveling at the speed limit, which would not have triggered a green light for the defendant.
The logical implications of this information is that the light could not have been red for the plaintiff, and it certainly would have been red for the defendant. As a consequence of this information, the case was resolved through litigation.
$335,000.00
$134,000.00
$63,000.00
Our attorneys were hired by a delivery driver who sustained a serious shoulder injury when a worker for a third party negligently operated a fork lift. The accident occurred as the plaintiff delivered a load of hay bails to a commercial farm.
An employee of said facility attempted to unload the trailer with a forklift. In doing so, he pushed several bales of hay off of the flatbed, over the side opposite the forklift. Consequently, several of the 400 lb (est.) bales of hay struck the plaintiff who was working to disconnect tie downs on the opposite side of the trailer. This resulted in serious injury to the plaintiff's shoulder.
The defendants took an aggressive stance and denied the claim, asserting that the plaintiff was the sole proximate cause of his own injuries by virtue of the fact that he was standing in a known dangerous area. Suit was filed soon thereafter. Our attorneys argued that the plaintiff's ordinary work duties, and indeed the normal protocol for all flatbed delivery drivers, consists of letting loose the materials to be unloaded. We maintained that the true cause of the plaintiff's injuries was that the forklift operator rushed into unloading the trailer.
Furthermore, the manner in which he unloaded the trailer was itself a contributing element of the defendant's negligence. The forks that were incorporated into the forklift in question were not compatible with stabbing hay bails; they were ordinary forks that were designed to be positioned below a heavy object that was to be lifted. The case was successfully resolved in mediation.
$226,000.00
$84,000.00
$5,500.00
Our firm was hired by a delivery driver who suffered a closed head injury resulting in the permanent loss of smell in a head-on accident. The incident occurred as the driver of an 18-wheeler lost control of his vehicle and veered into oncoming traffic. Our client's delivery vehicle was struck head-on, causing massive damage to both vehicles.
Our client was taken to an area hospital where he was treated for minor bodily injuries and a closed head injury which originally manifested itself as a concussion and temporary memory loss.
Suit was filed against the defendants following their failure to respond to our correspondence in a timely manner and litigation began. Included in the suit were both the defendant truck driver and his employer. The results of our investigation and the physical evidence from the accident scene made it apparent that the defendants had indeed caused the accident. Defense counsel soon conceded liability
$1,450,000.00
$560,000.00
$31,410.00
A painter fell from an apartment balcony resulting in a closed-head injury and other minor bodily injuries. The case was successfully resolved through litigation against the plaintiff's employer and the general contractor.
$550,000.00
$220,000.00
$20,465.00
Major freight train company sued as the result of an incident which claimed the life of an employee. Our attorneys settled the case outside of court for a confidential amount.
Confidential
Confidential
Confidential
A loading dock employee suffered a fractured and damage to internal organs as the result of a crushing injury sustained when an 18-wheeler backed into him and crushed him between the trailer and loading dock.
$700,000.00
$175,000.00
$1,084.00