At Grossman Law Offices, we have spent the past 30 years helping accident victims fight for injury compensation. Our oilfield injury lawyers in Texas may be able to help you too. Call now 855-326-0000 24/7 for a free, no-obligation case review.
If you were injured in a Texas oilfield accident, you deserve justice and fair compensation for your injuries and other damages.
Blow-outs, explosions, and other catastrophic events are unfortunately common in this high-risk industry.
Victims can sustain life-threatening injuries or even be killed. An oil field injury attorney understands how to hold the at-fault party accountable for their actions.
At the Grossman Law Offices, our personal injury attorneys assist victims who sustained injuries in Texas oil field accidents. We also assist the families who lost a loved one in an oilfield accident.
We fight to protect your legal rights and recover the compensation you deserve for the damages you suffered.
Critical Steps to Take After Being Injured at Work in an Oilfield
If you are involved in an injury accident, make it your first priority to seek medical attention.
Getting immediate treatment is critical, even if you don’t believe you suffered a serious injury. You could be in shock and not realize how badly you’re hurt, or you could have internal injuries that aren’t visible.
Get contact information from any witnesses that were present, and if possible, take as many photos as you can of the accident scene and your injuries. Along with your medical treatment records, this information may be invaluable for building your injury case.
Depending on the details of your accident, you may be required to report it to your employer, a supervisor, or your employer’s workers’ compensation carrier.
Before you provide any statement to any insurance company, consider talking to an attorney to learn more about your legal rights. Information that you provide via written report or recorded statement can be used to diminish the value of your claim or to deny it outright.
An attorney can explain your options and your obligations and help protect your right to recover compensation.
What Are the Most Common Injuries Suffered by Texas Oil Field Workers?
The explosive nature of oilfield accidents can cause the victims to suffer horrific and life-threatening injuries. Even those incidents that don’t involve explosions or fires often involve heavy industrial machinery and other dangerous factors.
Some of the most common oilfield accident injuries include:
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs),
- Fractured or shattered bones,
- Dislocated joints,
- Crushed or lost limbs or digits,
- Skin and soft tissue injuries,
- Spine and nerve injuries,
- Chemical and thermal burns, and
- Internal organ damage.
Whatever type of injuries you sustained, you deserve compensation from the at-fault party. An attorney from Grossman Law can help you pursue justice and compensation for your injuries, lost income, pain and suffering, emotional trauma, and more.
What Are the Most Common Incidents That Lead to Oilfield Injuries?
Although blowouts and explosions are common on oilfield sites and drill rigs, myriad other incidents can cause serious injuries.
Equipment failure is common as a result of operator error, manufacturing defects, neglected repairs or maintenance, or poor safety practices. Chemical spills are also unfortunately common, as are falls.
Victims on the ground may be struck by heavy or dangerous objects falling from above.
Trucking accidents onsite or near an oilfield can also lead to significant injuries or death.
Whatever the cause of your injuries may have been, an oilfield injury attorney from the Grossman Law Offices can help. We investigate the accident and gather evidence to show the events that occurred, helping us establish fault and liability for your damages.
Texas Oilfield Injury Statistics
Why Is It Crucial for Injured Oilfield Workers to Hire an Attorney Who Has Specific Experience with Oilfield Injury Cases?
Building a persuasive oilfield injury case is extremely complex and challenging. Negotiating a fair settlement with a large corporation or insurance company requires both extensive knowledge of the law and a wealth of experience.
Although you have the right to hire any attorney—or no attorney at all—to pursue your claim, you need an experienced attorney fighting for you.
Having an experienced lawyer and legal team on your side will help protect your legal rights. Your attorney will also ensure that the at-fault party or parties treat you with the respect you deserve and take your case seriously.
Where Do Most Oilfield Accidents Occur in Texas?
Although serious injury accidents can occur anywhere that the oil and gas industry set up operations, one of the most common locations where Texas oil field accidents occur is in the Midland/Odessa area.
In one alarming oilfield injury accident example, a worker sustained severe burns after a petroleum storage tank explosion in November 2019. This explosion occurred after a vehicle caught fire, causing mass destruction and requiring the surrounding areas to be evacuated.
No matter where in Texas you suffered your injuries, a Midland or Odessa oilfield accident attorney from the Grossman Law Offices can help. The sooner we can get to work on your case, the sooner we can get you the outcome you deserve for your physical, emotional, and financial damages.
What Is the Deadline for Hiring an Oilfield Injury Lawyer and Filing a Claim?
Technically, no actual deadline exists for hiring a Texas oil field attorney. The timeline that you should be most concerned about is the deadline for filing legal action for a Texas injury accident.
This deadline varies depending on whether your employer has workers’ compensation insurance.
If your employer is covered by workers’ compensation, you must notify them of your accident within 30 days and file a workers’ compensation claim within one year of the accident.
If your employer is not covered by workers’ compensation, then you may be able to file a personal injury lawsuit. The Texas statute of limitations provides you with only two years from the date of the accident in which to file this type of suit.
Different rules and deadlines apply to offshore oilfield workers. These workers’ may have additional or different options for pursuing a claim under federal statutes or general maritime law. Your attorney can give you further details on these laws and the various deadlines that may apply.
If you miss the deadline for filing your claim, you could lose your legal right to recover compensation. Contacting an attorney as soon as possible will help you preserve your legal rights and ensure your lawyer gets started on your case quickly.
Who Is the Defendant in Most Injury Cases Involving Oilfield Injuries?
Oilfield accidents can often be attributed to multiple parties or factors.
Identifying all parties who caused or contributed to your accident is critical to a successful legal claim. These parties become the defendants in your case.
Any party who owns, controls, oversees, or manages an oilfield or drilling rig can have liability for an accident, and thus become the defendant. Contactors working on the site can also be responsible, as can material suppliers, delivery companies, engineers, equipment manufacturers, etc.
In your case, determining who was at fault will help guide the direction of your claim. If the at-fault party (or one of the at-fault parties) was your employer or someone else who was working for your employer at the time of the accident, you may have to pursue a workers’ compensation claim.
Otherwise, you could pursue a claim through the at-fault party’s insurance company or through a civil lawsuit.
The Victim in My Case Was A Family Member Who Was Killed on the Job at an Oilfield; What Can I Do?
Losing a loved one is devastating under any circumstances. Losing a loved one to the negligence or wrongful actions of another party can be especially overwhelming.
If you depended on the victim for financial support or another type of assistance, you could face financial hardship as well as emotional distress.
In Texas, the spouse, biological or adopted children, and biological or adoptive parents of the victim typically have the legal right to pursue a wrongful death claim.
In some cases, a personal representative or executor of the victim’s estate can file the claim if relatives do not come forward or pursue legal action.
The workers’ compensation laws in Texas may prevent you from filing a lawsuit if the victim’s employer was solely responsible for the fatal oilfield accident and subscribed to workers’ compensation insurance.
However, if any third party caused or contributed to the accident, you may have grounds to pursue a wrongful death claim through that party’s insurance company or by filing a civil suit.
Additionally, if your family member was an offshore oil worker, you may have a claim under the federal Death on the High Seas Act.
Depending on the circumstances, you may also have grounds for pursuing a survival action. Whereas a wrongful death action seeks compensation for the losses of the victim’s family members, a survival action seeks compensation for the damages that the victim suffered before their death.
Because these areas of the law are highly complex, talking to an experienced oil field wrongful death lawyer is critical. At Grossman Law, our knowledgeable attorneys can help you understand these and other options and get you started with the legal process.
Recovering a settlement won’t bring your loved one back, but it will help you communicate a clear message to the at-fault party and, ideally, provide you with critical economic stability in the future.
How Will OSHA Factor into My Oilfield Injury Case?
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) oversees the safety of the workplace. This agency recommends legislation and regulations designed to ensure the safety of workers in high-risk industries such as construction, energy, and oil.
Although the stated purpose of the agency is to protect workers, the reality is that OSHA’s role in today’s world is less effective than it has been in the past.
Big corporations are often successful in influencing these regulations by lobbying the government, and as a result, many legal experts have observed that OSHA no longer seems to have the best interests of injured workers in mind.
When an oilfield accident occurs, OSHA typically investigates to determine whether any parties might have had fault or acted with negligence. If so, the agency has the ability to impose harsh penalties on the owner.
If the owner contests the penalties, however OSHA often relents. This has created an atmosphere wherein employers may not be properly encouraged to practice high safety standards.
In Texas, the oil and gas industries are regulated not only by OSHA but by the Texas Railroad Commission, or TRC. Much like OSHA, the TRC does not have a strong reputation for putting safety first.
This general trend toward de-emphasizing safety in the industry may mean you face an increased risk of being injured in an accident.
However, violations of OSHA or TRC standards can be used as helpful evidence in a personal injury claim. If your employer knowingly violated safety regulations or recommendations, that can help support your claim that they acted negligently.
What Information Do I Need to Gather Before I Speak to an Oilfield Injury Attorney About My Case?
At the Grossman Law Offices, we take great care to investigate and document your claim as thoroughly as possible. This helps ensure that we recover the maximum possible compensation for you. To accomplish this goal, we need a variety of evidence and documentation.
Some of the most common types of evidence that we use to document oil field accident cases include:
- Accident reports,
- Witness statements,
- Photos/videos of the accident scene,
- Company safety policies,
- Prior accident records, and
- Medical treatment records.
This is only a partial list of what typically goes into documenting a serious injury accident of this nature.
The good news is that once you choose to work with us on your case, you won’t have to worry about tracking down any paperwork, documentation, or records.
We will obtain the accident report, follow up with witnesses to take their statements, and obtain all the evidence available to build your case.
After any type of injury accident, it’s critical that you speak with an attorney as soon as possible.
This helps protect your rights and ensure that you can pursue the compensation you deserve for your economic and non-economic damages. The longer you wait, the harder it can be to obtain evidence.
This also allows the insurance company and other attorneys time to potentially undermine the value and validity of your claim. Call Grossman Law immediately to learn more about your rights and options for pursuing legal action.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire an Oil Field Injury Lawyer?
When you choose one of our compassionate oil field injury attorneys to help you pursue a claim, you won’t have to pay any money out of pocket.
We understand that most accident victims don’t have a lot of money laying around to pay an attorney. To ensure you get the help you need and deserve, we accept injury accident cases on a contingency basis.
This means that unless we recover compensation for your injuries and other damages, you don’t owe us any legal fees.
During your initial consultation, we will discuss our fee percentage and how the process works. Then we get to work for you, building your case and pushing the insurance company for a speedy resolution.
We don’t collect any legal fees until the insurance company settles or we win an award in court. At that time, we will deduct our percentage (plus any reimbursable costs we agreed on with you at the start of the case) and issue you a check for the rest.
Will I Be Obligated to Hire Grossman Law If I Get a Free Consultation?
You are never obligated to work with us under any circumstances!
We provide no-cost, no-obligation consultations and case reviews for Texas oilfield accident victims because we know that knowledge is power for anyone who has been wrongfully injured. This terrifying situation can be highly confusing, leaving you unsure where to turn or what to believe.
The insurance companies don’t have your best interest in mind—they care only about limiting their financial and legal liability. If you were injured on the job, your employer might not have your well-being foremost in their minds either, as they might also face liability for their role in the accident.
When you have an injury accident lawyer on your side—whether it’s one from the Grossman Law team or another experienced oil field injury attorney—your lawyer will be the only one working just for you. Your legal team will fight to get you the compensation you deserve.
Understanding your options for pursuing legal action lets you make the best decision for your future. We hope you’ll choose us to assist you through this difficult time in your life, but you are in no way obligated to do so, and we will never pressure you in any way.
How Do I Contact You for a Free Case Review with an Oilfield Injury Lawyer?
The Grossman Law Offices is committed to making it as easy as possible for you to pursue legal action for your injury accident. We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to assist you.
We have a variety of options to assist you remotely, in the event that you cannot come to our offices or if you are concerned about maintaining social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We can consult with you and do your free case evaluation via video conference or over the phone. In fact, we can handle every aspect of your case remotely, so you never have to worry about traveling to us for any reason.
To schedule your free consultation or to speak directly to an oil field injury attorney in Midland/Odessa, contact us now. You can also email us or call (855) 934-1342 any time of the day or night. We look forward to helping you get the justice and compensation you deserve for your Texas oilfield injury.