Been in a Construction Accident? Get a Lawyer Immediately

adminLeave a comment

It’s financially and physically devastating to end up injured at a construction site. If you’ve been to construction accidents, you can get compensation by availing of a lawyer ASAP. You might have enough reason to launch a personal injury lawsuit against your workplace.

You don’t want your workplace to leave you high and dry while doing some of the riskiest tasks in the world. You have your worker rights to uphold, after all.

Why You Need a Lawyer after Suffering On-Site Injury

  • Workers’ Compensation Entitlement: If you’ve suffered an injury while on the job, you’re eligible for workers’ compensation by law. This money should cover your medical bills and other damages to your person, such as mental grief and trauma. However, many insurance companies or employers of big businesses wish to escape from this fiscal responsibility. 
  • Comp Payouts or Lack Thereof: Many employees are exploited by huge enterprises or corporations, making them ignorant of their rights. The big bosses of such companies also do their best to escape giving out comp payouts as much as possible. This goes double for greedy insurance agencies with huge premiums.
  • What are the Common Types of Accident Injuries? The most common instances of on-site worker injuries that can lead to the filing of an accident claim for workers’ compensation include the following examples:
  • Broken bones
  • Hearing damage
  • Spinal cord injuries
  • Severe cuts (i.e., lacerations)
  • Electrocution-related injuries
  • Loss of vision or total blindness
  • Burns that can range from mild to severe
  • Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) like concussions
  • Suing the At-Fault Party Might Be Needed: You might need to sue the company or insurance firm directly to get compensated. You can be the victim who got injured or the loved one of the seriously injured, seeking legal representation on his or her behalf. Most workers’ comp cases involve construction accidents requiring extended medical attention.
  • Lawyers Can Legally Coax the Payments: Personal injury and workers’ compensation lawyers know your rights, know what you’re eligible for in light of your work site injury, and know how to deal with even the high-paying attorneys of huge corporations in order to get some decent payouts for you when all is said and done.
  • When Do You Need a Workers’ Comp Lawyer? It can be difficult to ascertain when one should avail of a lawyer or not. Most people tend to avail of them in a per-need basis. Still, it’s in your best interest to contact a lawyer ASAP, particularly someone who’s knowledgeable about your plight.

For most people who’ve undergone onsite accidents, the preferable outcome is their employer and/or their insurance company give them ample coverage for the injury they’ve sustained “in the line of duty”. Once this trust is breached, a lawyer can’t be far behind.

Do People Really Collect Big Money In Personal Injury Lawsuits?

admin

If you have suffered from personal injury due to the negligence of others, you can sue the other party who’s responsible (or irresponsible) for your physical and mental grievances. Some personal injury cases lead to huge settlements or generous verdicts.

Not all of them net multimillion payouts. The norm is smaller amounts by the thousands to hundreds of thousands. Also, not every case or injury holds the value of millions of dollars.

Why Do Some Cases Get Large Payouts?

There are some things that can skew your point of view of the nature of personal injury lawsuits and how settlements work. Here they are.

  • The Values of Personal Injury Claims: Some cases get large payouts and some have smaller payouts. This is influenced by several factors, including the severity of the injuries, whether there’s permanent impairment involved, and whether or not the injured party has lost income due to the personal injury.
  • Mostly Depends on Insurance Coverage: The person who suffered the personal injury or his legal representative can sue or collect damages from his insurance. This is especially true of people who, for example, put up huge insurance policies for their hands (artists) or thighs (models) or anything valuable for their work.
  • The Right for Compensation: When someone is responsible for your injuries—whether it’s a drunk driver, the manufacturer of the car you’re driving, or the ladder you’re using to do home improvements on—you have the legal right of compensation for the loss of income incurred by your injury when push comes to shove. This could involve a fair settlement.
  • What’s a Fair Settlement? A fair settlement takes into consideration how your life has been changed by your temporary or permanent injury, the mental trauma you’ve suffered from the event, and other similar damages. This includes both monetary and non-monetary damages as part of your settlement or payout.
  • What are Economic Damages? Economic damages includes things like medical expenses, household maintenance fees, childcare expenses, diminished earning capacity due to permanent injury, and lost wages when push comes to shove. You can document your loss of income and expenses with financial records such as pay stubs, bank statements, and other financial records.
  • Which Non-Economic Damages are Recouped? You can get compensation for non-monetary damages to make your settlement into a truly fair one with true-blue compensation. Examples of non-economic damages you can get a settlement for include reputational damage, mental anguish, physical suffering and pain, diminished quality of life, and loss of consortium.

When compared to economic damages it’s harder to get the value of non-economic damages because they don’t have an objective monetary value. It’s up to the judge and jury to decide how much you’re eligible for in damages due to your personal injury lawsuit.

The Hazards of Working on Scaffolds and Ladders

admin

It’s hazardous to work on scaffolds and ladders no matter how many safety precautions are involved with them and how sturdy they’re made. Of course, the weaker the ladder or the more poorly built the scaffolding is, the likelier you’ll end up in scaffolding accidents.

With that in mind, let’s talk about the four types of scaffolding hazards you should watch out for as a construction worker or home improvement specialist.

Four Major Types of Scaffolding Hazards

You need to be mindful of these four types of hazards involving scaffolding as a worker. They include scaffolding collapse, getting struck by falling objects, electrocution, and falling from the scaffolding.

  • Falling from the Scaffolding: Working with scaffolds involves workers working at high places to reach ceilings or put up roofs. Therefore, the likeliest accident they’ll face while standing on scaffolding or ladders is falling off of them.

Workers can fall off the scaffolding for a variety of causes, such as tripping on debris or tools lying on the scaffold surface, slipping on slippery substances like paint or water, the lack of guardrails, or wearing inappropriate footwear that lack grip.

Entering or exiting the scaffolding can lead to the worker accidentally falling as he climbs up or down if the access used isn’t meeting OSHA standards.

  • Struck by Falling Objects: When working with scaffolds, workers must wear helmets and have presence of mind to avoid getting struck by falling objects, like tools, materials, and debris from high levels of the scaffolding or work site.

The workers below the scaffolding or under lower levels of the scaffold are susceptible to the falling objects hazard. This also extends to other people working near the scaffold. Everyone is in danger of getting hit by a falling power tool, construction tool, paint cans, debris, or bricks.

  • Electrocution: Speaking of power tools, another common scaffolding hazard for workers is getting electrocuted while using tools for cutting, welding, and drilling while stationed in the raised platform. Electrocution hazards are likelier on scaffolds built with metal, by the way.

Scaffolding precautions against accidental electrocution while power tools are used on the scaffold must meet OSHA scaffolding standards. By the way, OSHA stands for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

  • Scaffolding Collapse: Workers should absolutely make sure the scaffolding they’ve built to reach higher places when doing construction or home improvement work also meet the standards for scaffolding of OSHA. This prevents the likely fatal hazard of scaffolding collapse.

For example, according to OSHA, suspended scaffolds should use strong ropes that must be securely attached to permanent structures. A competent person should also inspect the locking system, hoists, counterweights, wire rope clips, and tiebacks of the scaffold in question.

Only Experienced Attorneys Can Win Wrongful Death Lawsuits

admin

Victims of accidents can pursue legal action in the form of a personal injury claim depending on the circumstances behind their accident. They can then get compensation for all the losses they’ve gotten from their injury when push comes to shove, including non-monetary damages.

However, when it comes to wrongful death lawsuits, only depend on the most experienced attorneys. Inexperienced attorneys will be eaten alive in a court of law and won’t be of much help.

Discussing Wrongful Death and Why It Requires Experienced Legal Representation

A wrongful death claim might be called for in helping surviving loved ones like family members and whatnot to get decent compensation or settlement from the perpetrators of the wrongful death.

  • What Is Wrongful Death? First off, let’s define what “wrongful death” even means. It’s when an entity or person fails to fulfill a legal duty, which then results in a death to happen. They bear responsibility in this scenario, leading to this lawsuit filed by surviving family members of the bereaved or a representative of the deceased’s estate.
  • Things to Prove: An experienced lawyer must be involved when dealing with the legal complications of a lawsuit involving wrongful death because he should represent the plaintiffs with his years of legal experience to prove the following:
  • That there are damaged and compensation involved in the wrongful death.
  • The entity or person acted with negligence or committed a malicious and wrongful action.
  • The actions of the accused who caused the wrongful death to occur in the first place must directly cause the wrongful death.

After the abovementioned factors are proven, the surviving family members or the deceased’s estate could be eligible for compensation by the court. They could also agree to a settlement by the accused or their insurer.

  • Is It Wrongful Death or Personal Injury? A personal injury lawsuit is similar to a wrongful death lawsuit in terms of getting damages from a negligent or malicious party that caused a serious accident.

Their main difference can be seen by their names—one involves a wrongful death and the other involves personal injury caused by someone else’s negligence or malice. In other words, the lawsuit can either be a wrongful death or personal injury one depending on whether the accident involved causes either one or the other.

  • Is Wrongful Death Civil or Criminal? A wrongful death claim is a civil type of lawsuit. They should be filed by a family or person connected to the one who suffered the wrongful death against businesses, companies, or people who are linked to causing the accidental death.

The main purpose of a wrongful death lawsuit is to gain financial compensation to family members or the estate of the bereaved for the loss of a life caused by some sort of accident caused by a person or company.

The Most Dangerous Job in Construction: Working in Demolition

admin

One of the most dangerous jobs in construction work should unsurprisingly involve working in demolition. Just as you expect the risk of losing your grip and falling during rock climbing, you should also expect the risk of accidents to happen during demolition jobs.

This is exactly what the Taiwanese face after the recent Hualien City earthquake of 2024. They have to gingerly demolish whole buildings that slid or tilted off the side like leaning Towers of Pisa.

The Hazards of Working in Demolition

So what’s the deal with demolition accidents? There are a lot of them and they’re considered par for the course. It’s part of the job.

  • Dealing with Collapsing Buildings: Demolition involves demolishing old buildings to give space for new buildings. Making buildings collapse is as dangerous of a job as you’d expect. Demolition workers are faced with the prospect of operating on incomplete or crumbling work sites.
  • The Many Hazards of a Demolition Job: As a “destruction worker” (or the opposite of a “construction worker”), demolition staff have to operate on incomplete sites, often at great heights and with unsafe structures. They might even have to use explosives to destroy buildings before sweeping the rubble up.
  • The Risks of Running Heavy Machinery: There are many risks attached to demolishing buildings, chief among them your regular contact with heavy machinery to break down these walls, empty lots, evacuated apartments, and empty factories. You’ll have to learn to safely use machines like the wrecking ball or digger.
  • Falling Masonry and Debris: If you thought handling the hazards of falling objects from secured scaffolding is tough, it goes double when it comes to destroying the bricks and mortar of old rotting buildings. Falling masonry can be fatal when they topple all over you. You need loads of precautions and you’re paid to the nose to risk your life for this line of work.
  • Contracting Various Diseases: You might be faced with vermin, biohazardous materials, and obsolete building components like asbestos when undergoing demolition work of old buildings. Dismantling structures of yesteryear exposes you to old underground diseases, fatal lung diseases from asbestos dust, or at least increases your risk for tetanus.
  • Construction and Destruction: Just as constructing buildings is an inherently dangerous line of work, so too is the destruction of constructed buildings. Demolition jobs is considered one of the most dangerous jobs in construction and in the world.  It’s right up there with working at an oil rig.

There are many hazards associated with destroying existing structures that only the best and brightest of able-bodied adults could handle. However, if you’re willing to take such risks, you will be rewarded handsomely for taking a job many others pass on because of its inherent dangers.