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CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENTS / WORKERS COMP

Were You Hurt in a fall at a Construction Site? You May Be Owed Compensation for Your Serious Injury

Construction sites can be hazardous. Those in the business know that. They also understand that the most common hazards facing even the most careful worker are on, around, or under the construction scaffolding. It doesn’t matter if the project is a two-story mansion, an industrial or retail building, a low-rise office, or a towering skyscraper. At some point, scaffolding is necessary for most buildings’ construction (and maintenance). With all the building going on in Texas, there are likely as many scaffolds as there are construction workers. You’re a conscientious worker. You do your best to stay safe at work and keep a safe work area. That doesn’t mean you can’t still become a workplace injury victim anywhere on or near scaffolding. You may have suffered some injury from any construction or building maintenance site fall. Accidents happen, and, in many cases, when the injuries are serious and caused by someone else’s negligence, you’re entitled to some form of fair reimbursement under Texas law for the financial losses you’ve incurred from the mishap. Such legal entitlements can include your medical bills, the pain you’ve endured, and your emotional distress. If the accident produces disability, that is a justifiable request. When your construction site fall injury is very serious, it can strain your body, finances, and family. Whether you fell from scaffolding, scaffolding collapsed on you, or scaffolding collapsed while you were on it. You’ve been injured, and you need help; real help. You are not without your rights. You must, of course, focus exclusively on your recovery. That’s important. But you can’t take shortcuts that could hurt your claims and legal case further down the road. The laws that made workers’ comp more complex in Texas are a serious challenge to your ultimate compensation when all this is done. Often, some parties may talk a good game, pledging they have “your best interests” at heart. Suppose this is you: one who has suffered an injury while working on a construction site by falling from scaffolding or some other height or collapsed on or under you. In that case, you are right to consider seeking legal restitution to recover all appropriate damages. More on this webpage

Personal injury claims and lawsuits involving construction companies are complicated: you’ll begin to understand Texas workers’ compensation laws in a bit when we visit with you. The best legal strategies for your case differ because they are based on whether you are a subcontractor, contractor, or employee: and whether the construction company subscribes to workers’ compensation insurance or not. It’s a lot of territories to cover. No two cases are mirror images of the other. For instance, you should know that the laws which make non-subscribers liable for their employee’s injuries don’t apply directly to contractors. Often, construction companies think they can escape legal liability for injuries without even paying for workers’ compensation insurance by hiring contractors instead of employees. Unfortunately, this strategy often works for companies, especially when they don’t have an experienced construction injury and workers’ comp attorney like the ones at our Law Office when one is injured in a scaffolding accident. It’s hard not to feel that the laws surrounding Texas workers’ comp and the contractors who benefit from it the most work to allow them to avoid all liability. Many personal injury firms will drop your case immediately upon initially learning you are not an employee but not having the curiosity to investigate that point. You hear many urban myths about how a workers’ comp subscriber company makes them immune to lawsuits; or how employers can sometimes evade an actual “employer-employee” relationship by diving through a loophole in the law. But when held to the light of truth, they don’t always hold up when you have a team of experienced falling accident injury attorneys like those at our Law Office who advocate your case.

Truck Accidents

Texas highways are often filled with fast-moving vehicles, many of which are large semi-trucks. Unfortunately, truck accidents on busy highways are all too common.

The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety report that truck accidents kill over 5,000 people each year and injure around 150,000 more. Additionally, nearly one in four fatalities among passenger vehicle occupants in multi-car accidents involve a large truck. More on this website

When a large commercial vehicle, such as a semi-truck, collides with a smaller passenger vehicle, the results for the passenger vehicle are often devastating. The significant weight difference between a large semi-truck and a small passenger vehicle normally means that greater damage is incurred than in a typical passenger vehicle accident.

If you’ve suffered injuries in a large truck accident, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries, including payment for medical bills and lost wages as well as pain and suffering.

To speak with compassionate and caring attorneys, call our car accident lawyers toll-free or email us.

The Role Of Truck Driver Fatigue In Truck Accidents

Fatigue plays a major role in large truck accidents. Fatigued drivers are more likely to be involved in a motor vehicle accident. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration states that more than 750 people are killed and around 20,000 more are injured each year due to fatigued truck drivers.

Previous studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have also estimated that driver fatigue is a contributing factor in approximately 30 to 40 percent of large truck accidents.

Excessively long hours with minimal breaks are one of the main contributors to driver fatigue. The FMCSA notes that driver fatigue doubles between the eighth and tenth hour of driving and again between the 10th to 11th hour of driving.

Attempts To Combat Truck Driver Fatigue

The FMCSA has enacted guidelines to ensure the safety of both truckers and drivers on the road. Current law requires that large truck drivers take regular rest breaks. The rules state that large truck drivers may not operate their vehicles for more than 10 consecutive hours before taking an eight-hour rest period.

However, the FMCSA regularly proposes new rules for truck drivers. One proposed rule would require drivers to take a continuous rest break for between nine and 12 hours each day. They would also be required to take an additional two- to three-hour break in addition to the continuous rest period.

Requiring longer rest periods for truck drivers would help reduce the risk of death or serious injury from a fatigued truck driver.

Driver Concerns
A variety of previous public opinion polls show that passenger car drivers have serious concerns about truck driver fatigue. In a Lou Harris poll, 81 percent of Americans believed that fatigued drivers posed a serious safety problem on the nation’s highways.

Trucking companies are responsible for ensuring that their drivers are alert on the roadways. If trucking companies fail to use reasonable care when regulating their drivers, they can be held liable for harm caused to other drivers.

An individual who is injured in an accident involving a large truck may be able to seek compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

If you’ve been injured due to the negligence of a truck driver or trucking company, call us toll-free for a consultation with our car accident lawyers, or email us.

This blog was posted by Ford and Laurel Attorneys Laredo, Texas

Motorcycle Fatality Accidents in Texas

Every day in Texas, according to the Texas Department of Transportation, a fatal motorcycle accident takes place. This is a sobering fact indeed, but it is compounded even more by the way in which it can be reinterpreted. Somewhere in Texas every single day, there is a family that suffers the loss of a loved one due to a motorcycle accident. If your family has suffered this kind of incredibly tragic occurrence, the motorcycle accident lawyers with our law firm can help you. We can investigate the scene of the tragic accident so that you can get the truth behind what happened to your loved one, and make sure that all liable parties that played a role in causing the accident are properly determined and made to face justice for their negligent actions. When a responsible party’s negligence leads to the death of someone in an accident, the surviving family members of the deceased can initiate a wrongful death civil lawsuit against the responsible party or parties in order to obtain fair restitution for both survival damages and wrongful death damages.

In regard to a survival damages lawsuit, only one family member can try to obtain survival damages on behalf of the deceased motorcyclist. However, multiple members of the family can seek wrongful death damages to compensate for the monetary losses they might have incurred due to the death of their loved one. But seeking fair compensation is not the only reason that many wrongful death lawsuits are pursued. The pursuit of restitution is a necessary component of a wrongful death suit and serves the purpose of helping the family overcome the financial losses that have been incurred as the result of the accident. However, this kind of suit also serves the purpose of holding those parties responsible for the accident accountable, and helping to make sure their negligent actions do not cause another family to experience this kind of tragedy.

Before initiating any form of legal action, however, it is strongly recommended that a grieving family get in touch with an experienced motorcycle accident attorney so that a thorough investigation can be launched. This investigation will look into the tragic accident in order to determine those responsible for causing it. Each responsible party can be sued for the role it played in either contributing to the accident or causing the accident. The attorneys with our law firm have 20 years of experience in investigating the scenes of fatal motorcycle accidents. As a result, we know all the complexities involved with vehicle accident scenes and know when it is appropriate to dig deeper into the cause so that all of the parties responsible are identified and held accountable. By doing so, we can work together to make sure those responsible for your pain and loss are brought to justice.

Motorcycle Accidents in Texas Involving Drunk Drivers

Motorcycle accidents that involve a drunk driver, just as automobile accidents that involve drunk driving, can result in a lawsuit being filed against the negligent drinking establishment that over-served the patron who caused the accident. According to dram shop law in Texas, an establishment that serves a patron to the point that he or she exceeds a .08 blood alcohol content, or BAC, level, and that patron injures himself or herself, or someone else can be held partly liable for the drunk driving accident. For example, a plaintiff can initiate a first-party dram shop cause of action if a drunken motorcyclist hurts himself or herself by wrecking the bike. If a drunk automobile driver causes an accident, then a third-party dram shop cause of action can be pursued. Either way, if the drunk driver became intoxicated because he or she was served past the point of intoxication at a drinking establishment before causing the accident, an injury victim can seek restitution from that negligent drinking establishment. In a third-party dram shop cause of action, the injured victim can seek restitution from the drunk driver as well as the alcohol-serving establishment. These same kinds of liability issues apply to cases where a wrongful death has occurred.

Determining that a person was served past the point of intoxication at an alcohol-serving establishment prior to causing a drunk motorcycle accident, however, can be very difficult for people who have no legal experience or inexperienced lawyers. The attorneys with our law firm have two decades of experience in handling drunk driving accident cases throughout Texas. We are intimately familiar with Texas dram shop laws and we can help you hold all responsible parties accountable.