San Antonio Construction Worker Fatality

San Antonio Wrongful Death Attorney Michael Grossman Explains Your Options Following a Fatal Construction Accident

Construction work is unfortunately dangerous. Poorly-maintained equipment, disorganized job sites, and lack of proper safety procedures claim the lives of many workers every year.

If you have lost someone you love in a construction accident, you probably have many questions: how did my loved one die? What legal avenues do I have available for seeking justice? Who can help me pursue these options? The San Antonio construction fatality attorneys at Grossman Law Offices understand what you are going through. We have helped hundreds of families who have lost members in construction accidents. We are here to help you however we can.

What can a Wrongful Death Claim do for me?

If you wish to seek justice for your loved one’s death, you will likely be filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the parties responsible for the accident. Unfortunately, wrongful death lawsuits are highly technical, but our attorneys can explain your options to you in a clear and straightforward manner, and we will help you make the best decision for your family.

Wrongful death lawsuits have two broad goals: to make sure that the injured family receives fair compensation, and to punish the negligent parties in order to try to keep a similar accident from happening again. Compensation in a wrongful death claim can cover any financial expenses (including lost future income), and the pain and suffering caused by losing the emotional support provided by someone you love. In addition, wrongful death claims try to force negligent individuals or organizations to mend their ways in order to protect other people in the future.

What is a Wrongful Death Claim?

In some cases, it is not easy for someone without legal experience to determine whether or not they have a valid wrongful death claim. In general, a wrongful death claim is used to hold a negligent entity responsible for someone’s death when there are no criminal charges to be filed. For example, if a worker dies in a scaffolding collapse, the company that made and assembled the scaffolding might be sued for wrongful death. In all likelihood, no criminal charges would be warranted since the scaffolding company did not deliberately kill the worker. But the scaffolding company might have been negligent in building the scaffolding, and that negligence lead to a worker’s death. Therefore, the worker’s family could sue for wrongful death, which is a civil charge, in the absence of any criminal charges.

Texas law gives four broad conditions that must be met in order for a person to file a wrongful death claim:

• Another person or entity must have caused the victim’s death, in part or in whole, through negligent action or inaction
• The responsible party was reckless with the victim’s safety and well-being
• There is some surviving family member or beneficiary who is eligible to file a claim
• The victim’s death resulted in some sort of financial damage to the potential plaintiff

Note that wrongful death claims are not the same as survival claims, though the two are often filed simultaneously. Survival claims are filed by a family member or beneficiary, and they attempt to seek compensation that the deceased victim would have been owed, had the victim survived. Essentially, the plaintiff is stepping in for the victim in a legal sense. Wrongful death claims, on the other hand, compensate the victim’s family for their own financial and emotional suffering caused by the victim’s death.

Filing a Wrongful Death Claim in a Construction Fatality Case

Unfortunately, filing a wrongful death claim in a construction accident case is even more technical and complex. A number of different factors contribute to this complexity, including whether the deceased worker was a contractor or an employee, and whether or not the construction company subscribes to workers’ compensation insurance.

Tort reform in the state of Texas has changed a number of laws relating to construction accidents. These changes have divided construction accidents into two broad categories: subscriber and non-subscriber cases. In a subscriber case, the deceased victim’s employer subscribed to workers’ compensation insurance at the time of the accident, whereas in a non-subscriber case, the deceased victim’s employer did not subscribe to workers’ compensation insurance at the time of the accident.

This distinction is of paramount important, as it determines how your case should be handled, what type of attorney you need, whether or not there will be any limits or caps on the amount of money that you can recover, and who can receive compensation – among other things.

What Exactly is Workers’ Compensation Insurance and What Does it Have to do With my Wrongful Death Suit?

In 1993, the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act was established, which provided an opportunity for companies to be essentially immune to lawsuits by subscribing to workers’ compensation insurance. This is important, so I’ll say it again: workers’ compensation insurance protects employees, not workers. When an employee is hurt while working for a company that subscribes to workers’ compensation insurance, that injured worker is provided money for his or her medical expenses and a portion of his or her income, up to $600 a week – and that’s it. The injured worker (in almost all cases) is not eligible to file a lawsuit, which means that, if a worker is killed on the job while working for an employer with workers’ comp, his or her family cannot sue for wrongful death (again, in most cases).

Non-Subscriber Cases

In the construction industry in particular, many organizations choose not to subscribe to workers’ compensation insurance. This is largely because the subscription fees would be high since construction workers often work in very dangerous conditions. While the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act provides protection to subscribers, it levies penalties on non-subscribers. There are no limits to how much money the family of the victim might recover, and there are no innate legal defenses available to a non-subscriber.

Unfortunately, a group of aggressive defense attorneys has sprung up around this legal weakness. These lawyers focus solely on protecting non-subscribers in work injury cases. But since they have no immediately available legal defense, their strategy boils down to one tactic: build a case against the deceased victim. They will do everything they can to convince a judge or jury that the deceased worker was careless, incompetent, and that his or her death was a result of his or her own recklessness. But our experienced attorneys will do everything we can to keep these defense lawyers from debasing your loved one. We have a long history of successfully facing these lawyers in court, and we are dedicated to making sure that those responsible for your loved one’s death are brought to justice.

The truth, however, is that many construction companies choose not to subscribe to workers’ compensation insurance because they feel that they have beaten the system. Ostensibly, Texas law would seem to state that employers do not have a legal liability for the safety of contractors. Construction companies are aware of this, and they will often hire almost exclusively contractors, and then not subscribe to workers’ compensation insurance. They think that this protects them from legal responsibility, lets them avoid paying expensive workers’ compensation insurance subscription fees, and allows them to build a working environment with almost no focus on safety since they do not think that they are liable anyway. Unfortunately, this tactic is often successful. Only a handful of attorneys have a broad enough understanding of workers’ compensation insurance and construction accident law to effectively pursue settlements in cases where the deceased was a contractor. Many attorneys will simply decline to help you with your case once they learn that your loved one was not an employee.

But Grossman Law Offices can Help

Our attorneys, on the other hand, know that even contractors have numerous legal options available to them. Our firm has a broad understand of construction fatality law, and we know how to pursue settlements in cases that other attorneys give up on. For instance, numerous conditions in an employer-contractor relationship can lead to that working relationship being considered an employer-employee relationship from a legal standpoint, regardless of how the worker was originally hired. Our attorneys can quickly identify these conditions and determine whether or not the deceased victim can be treated as an employee rather than a contractor.

But even if this is not possible, there are other options, particularly in construction work. Construction workers often operate heavy equipment, work on scaffolding, etc. In these situations, a product defect or poor product maintenance could be a factor in a victim’s death. If this is the case, a victim’s family may be able to sue the product manufacturer in addition to receiving money from a workers’ compensation claim. Whenever my firm takes a case, we conduct an extensive investigation of the scene and identify all potential defendants, so that we can help you file a truly comprehensive wrongful death suit.

But it is important to act quickly. Construction sites are busy places, and an accident scene does not remain still for long. We have seen countless cases where a worker died on a piece of machinery, and that same equipment was in use the next day. Some unscrupulous workers and companies will even actively tamper with evidence in order to cover their tracks. It is imperative that our attorneys get involved as quickly as possible. We can lock down the scene in order to perform a thorough investigation and get to the bottom of what really happened to your loved one.

Ultimately, the truth is that construction fatality cases are extremely complex. Many families do not know whether or not they have a valid wrongful death claim, whether they have a subscriber or a non-subscriber case, or how many defendants might be liable. In many cases, a family might not even be able to get a straight story about what happened. Our attorneys want to help you get the answers you need, and, if necessary, fight aggressively to defend your family’s rights in court. We have 20 years of experience working with construction accident and wrongful death cases, and we will do everything we can to help you through this trying time. Whether you are still wondering how to handle your loved one’s death from a legal standpoint, or you have already received workers’ compensation insurance and you are unsatisfied with the results, contact our lawyers. We can explain to you what options you have available, and we will work hard to help you pursue whatever path you think best. If you have lost a loved one in a construction accident, contact a San Antonio construction fatality lawyer at Grossman Law Offices today, and let us help your family secure the compensation it needs and the justice it deserves.