San Antonio Crane Accident Attorney

Texas Construction Attorney Michael Grossman Discusses Houston Crane Accidents and What to do if You've Been Injured

Crane accidents maim, injure or even cause the death of many construction workers and bystanders each year. Over 125,000 cranes are currently in operation on construction sites across the country. When something goes wrong with one of these heavy machines, it can result in catastrophe to the operator and anyone below. If a crane accident has shattered your life or the life of someone you love, you can turn to the San Antonio crane accident attorneys at Grossman Law Offices for help. We have years of experience recovering compensation for clients injured while simply doing their jobs.

Crane Injuries

Large, unwieldy cranes have the potential to inflict a horrific variety of injuries. A snapped line or dropped payload can crush anyone below it. A tipped crane can flatten a building or slam into other structures. The crane’s machinery can snatch people up and crush them. A crane that strikes power lines can electrocute operators, which could be avoided if employers simply provide an electricity-arresting device such as a non-conductive hook just behind the payload hook. Other injuries that result from crane accidents include burns, brain trauma, dismemberment and spinal chord injury.

Who is Responsible?

Several different parties may be responsible for the injuries you have sustained. If your employer failed to provide a safe working environment, then a worker’s compensation claim may provide an avenue to hold them accountable. However, someone else’s negligence often plays a role in crane injury cases. For example, a property owner may have left an object in the crane’s path, or the crane operator may have made an error while maneuvering the machine. With 20 years of experience, Grossman Law Offices can help you through this process so you can obtain the financial means necessary to rectify your life as much as possible.

Employers

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has implemented rules to protect workers against employers that might try to get by with less than safe conditions. The guidelines for the operation of cranes on construction sites are as follows:

• The crane must be operated per the manufacturer’s instructions and limitations.
• The operator of the crane must be able to see load capacity warnings and other safety warnings while they are in operation of the crane.
• An employer bears the responsibility to ensure that a crane has been properly inspected by a safety inspector prior to the crane being used. If any part is noted as broken, defective, or faulty, the at-risk part must be replaced or repaired before the crane is used.
• An employer also bears a responsibility to ensure that the crane is stationed or used in an area that is not near overhead power lines. When a crane must be used in close proximity to overhead power lines, an employer must make sure the line is not live.

You have the right to seek compensation from any employer that failed to follow these rules regarding such a precarious machine as a crane. The way your employer should compensate you varies depending on whether they had purchased workman’s compensation (a subscriber), or not (a nonsubscriber).

Texas law encourages, but does not require, employers to purchase worker’s comp insurance. Most companies forego the insurance due to the high cost. It is important not to immediately trust what your employer says about whether they have worker’s compensation insurance. Many employers will mislead injured workers by saying they do have the insurance just to dodge a lawsuit. An experienced San Antonio construction injury lawyer can determine fact from fiction and help you understand your true legal options. After we determine what kind of case you have, we can begin pursuing justice.

When an Employer Is a Subscriber

One of the benefits to the employer for purchasing worker’s compensation insurance is that it also protects them from lawsuits. Injured workers or the families of workers that have been killed at work cannot sue a subscriber, unless the employer committed gross negligence that led to a wrongful death. Unfortunately, worker’s compensation does not necessarily pay what you deserve.

You may expect that an insurance provider will understand your plight and be moved to deliver ample compensation for your medical bills, lost wages and pain and suffering. However, that is actually the opposite of how insurance companies think. They look at every case through the lens of how they can save money or deny it to protect their bottom line. Every year, countless construction workers in the San Antonio area either receive no compensation or insufficient compensation for their injuries from employers and insurance companies that often care only about money.

Worker’s compensation laws were created to decrease the number of lawsuits, yet in some cases a lawsuit is the only path that will lead to fair compensation. It takes an experienced attorney to go up against these insurance companies to protect your rights. Big insurance companies hire specialized attorneys that are skilled in intimidating or misleading workers into accepting settlements well below what their claim is worth. The San Antonio crane accident attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have a thorough knowledge of complex work injury laws in Texas. We’re also familiar with the tactics these companies use to divert liability so that your claim is denied or lessened. However, these companies are often familiar with our law firm as well, meaning that they’re far less likely to attempt these tactics against us and our clients.

When Can You Sue a Subscriber?

You may file a San Antonio wrongful death lawsuit if the gross negligence of your family member’s employer led directly to the death of your loved one. In one case, we represented a family of a worker that died while working on a crane without a proper safety harness after being ordered to do so by his employer. This man fell to his death, and this employer immediately went to buy a safety harness to attach to the corpse. We discovered this wrongdoing and won a significant victory for the employee’s family in court.

Additionally, a personal injury lawsuit may be pursued when someone besides the employer commits negligence that led to a crane accident injury. A property owner that did not provide safe working conditions, a manufacturer that produced malfunctioning machinery, or an unsafe crane operator may all be sued if their negligence led to injury. However, establishing such liability, especially if multiple parties played varying roles in contributing to the same crane accident in San Antonio, can be a challenging issue for lesser experienced attorneys. Grossman Law Offices has prior experience in crane accident cases, so we know what questions to ask and what to look for at an accident site so that all liable parties can be discovered and brought to justice.

When the Employer Is a Non-subscriber

The non-subscribing employer is usually trying to save some money, such as construction companies that often face high insurance premiums due to the hazardous nature of working in the construction industry. A skilled attorney can help you win fair compensation against such an employer.

Worker’s compensation laws were created by the Texas Legislature as a punishment to non-subscribers for creating more litigation. Hence, you may likely pursue far greater compensation than if your employer subscribed to worker’s compensation. You also only have to prove standard negligence instead of gross negligence. However, the laws surrounding non-subscriber cases are more complex. A well-versed San Antonio crane accident attorney can help you navigate this maze toward a likely successful outcome.

The first step is for the victim to file a claim with the employer to explain the injury and request compensation for his injuries. An employer could then pay the amount owed or negotiate a fair settlement, resolving the case. However, it is far more likely that the employer will contest the victim’s claim, in which case the victim can file a lawsuit. The victim must also prove that their injuries resulted from the employer’s negligence and that the victim’s injury caused them to incur medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering from the accident. The good news is it is far easier to meet the standard of proof for standard negligence than gross negligence.

How Non-subscribers Try to Defend Themselves

Employers that try to save money by forgoing workers’ compensation insurance will usually try to save money by attempting to finagle out of compensating a victim for his or her injuries. Most employers will do this through one or more of the following defenses.

Sole Proximate Cause

After an injury has occurred, the only true recourse a non-subscribing employer has is the sole proximate cause defense. This means that they will try to blame you for your own injuries. Texas workers’ compensation laws are designed to keep litigation to a minimum, so they only offer one defense for employers. With sole proximate cause, they must prove that the victim was negligent and thus 100 percent responsible for his or her own injuries. Employers may actually sink to the level of portraying you as a chronically negligent or sloppy employee that would easily have caused his or her own injuries. Otherwise tight-fisted employers will spare no expense on attorneys that may be able to free them from having to compensate a worker injured in the unsafe conditions the company may have created or allowed to exist. It takes a San Antonio construction accident attorney with years of experience to defend a worker’s rights against such foes.

Employer-Employee Relationship

Many employers know that they only have the sole proximate cause to resort after an accident has taken place. Therefore, they attempt to prevent even getting to that point at all by obscuring the existence of the employee-employer relationship. In order to do this, many construction companies will hire their employees as contractors, who do not have the same protections as full-fledged employees, though the law may consider them as employees given certain circumstances. The employer will argue that they cannot be held responsible for an injury to someone that never actually worked for them, i.e. a contractor. The employer is usually aware that they and the plaintiff were engaged in a true employee-relationship and that there is still potential for the employee to obtain compensation if the law deems him an employee. By shirking the employer/employee relationship, an employer is also shirking their liability in the event of an injury crane accident or a fatal crane accident.

A San Antonio construction injury law firm will know how to prove that an employer-employee relationship existed if one or more of the following criteria are met:

• A worker’s taxes or social security were withheld in the paycheck.
• A worker was provided with tools by their employer in order to accomplish their job.
• A worker had a schedule set by an employer.
• A worker’s work was inspected or managed on an on-going basis (and not after the job was completed).
• A worker signed a work rights-limited document, like an agreement to be tested for drugs or a handbook for employees.
• A worker was hired for an unspecified length of time (and not just to complete a specific task or job).
• A worker received an hourly wage or a salary (and was not paid per project).

Contact San Antonio Crane Accident Lawyer Michael Grossman

To have hope of winning the fair compensation you deserve, you will need an attorney with just as much experience and sophisticated knowledge of crane injury law as those your employer will likely hire. A skilled and experienced San Antonio crane accident attorney can determine which parties caused your injuries and help to hold them accountable.

In our 20 years of service, Grossman Law Offices has helped numerous construction workers recover millions of dollars in damages. Our OSHA regulation knowledge, expert witnesses, experience and resources enable us to take on your crane accident case and litigate it to your satisfaction. We are ready to listen to the details of your case and present you your options. Contact us today for a free consultation toll-free at 1-855-393-0000.