San antonio Work Injury Attorneys

Michael Grossman, San Antonio Work Injury Lawyer, Discusses the Specifics and Legal Aspects of Texas Work Injury Claims

Seeking compensation if you have been injured on the job can be an overwhelming process for many people. If you are debating whether or not to seek help from an experienced attorney, consider how complex on-the-job injury cases can be.

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The laws regulating these types of accidents in the state of Texas are highly technical, and many companies have numerous techniques at their disposal for trying to avoid legal liability, leaving you footing the bill for your injuries. Workplace injuries can include almost any type of injury you can think of, from severe injuries on factory floors and assembly lines, to explosions at oilfields, injuries caused by motor vehicles on the job-site, or even simple lifting injuries at a grocery or department store. In virtually all of these cases, an employee has some sort of avenue available for seeking compensation, but the process is far from simple. A number of factors determine how you should approach your case. Does your employer subscribe to workers’ compensation insurance? Are you a non-conventional employee, such as a contractor or freelancer? If you have any questions about your situation or you simply want some advice on how best to seek the compensation you need, contact an experienced San Antonio work injury lawyer from Grossman Law Offices.


What Makes Job-Site Injury Cases so Complex?

In years past, legislators have enacted numerous tort reforms to change the way work injury cases in the state of Texas are handled. Due to this tort reform, on-the-job injury cases in Texas now fall under two different categories: cases where the victim’s employer is protected by workers’ compensation insurance (these are called subscriber cases), and cases where the victim’s employer is not protected by workers’ compensation insurance (these are called non-subscriber cases).

These two types of cases are vastly different. Your rights depend heavily upon whether or not your employer subscribes to workers’ comp. This distinction determines the legal strategies you must employ when seeking compensation, the amount of compensation you will be eligible to receive, who will be eligible to receive compensation, and many other aspects of your lawsuit or injury claim.


What Exactly is Workers’ Compensation Insurance and How Does it Influence my Situation?

In 1993, Texas legislators established the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act. This act protects employers from legal responsibility when one of their employees is injured. Essentially, the workers’ compensation act allows employers to purchase workers’ compensation insurance. When one of the subscriber’s employees is injured, the insurance claim will (theoretically) cover the worker’s medical expenses and a portion of his or her lost income. This insurance also prevents the employee from filing a personal injury lawsuit against his or her employer.

Note that the employee has no choice in this matter. An individual employee may not opt out of a workers’ compensation claim in lieu of filing a lawsuit. Employers, however, may choose not to subscribe to workers’ compensation insurance, which opens the door for the injured employee to take legal action. Many injured workers think that they have a workers’ comp claim, when in fact they are dealing with a non-subscriber. Our attorneys can help you determine exactly what sort of situation you are in.

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Dealing With Non-Subscribers

Even though workers’ compensation insurance effectively provides some level of legal immunity to employers, many employers choose not to subscribe to workers’ compensation insurance. These cases are called non-subscriber cases. The Texas workers’ compensation act affects both subscribers and non-subscribers in different ways. While it provides protect to subscribers, it levies penalties on non-subscribers. Primarily, non-subscribers have only one legal defense from lawsuits, and there are no caps on the amount of compensation that an injured employee might potentially receive.

The only legal defense that a non-subscriber has, is called sole proximate cause. This basically means that the employee was the sole cause of their own accident. To argue this, employers will use anything they can to make the employee out to be the bad guy. This routinely turns into a which hunt against the employee, and other employees often times turn against them. Due to the lack of legal defenses, non-subscribers will often employ defense attorneys who focus solely on protecting non-subscribers in work injury cases. Due to the restrictions placed on non-subscribers by the Texas workers’ compensation act, these attorneys only have one option: building a case against you. In almost all cases, their entire legal defense hinges on proving that you are a careless and/or incompetent worker, and that your injuries are entirely your fault. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of workplace accident law, these tactics are often successful against victims who do not have extensive legal experience. Defense attorneys can help employers get off the hook based on an obscure technicality that you may have never even heard of. Our experienced attorneys can insulate you from these tactics and help you receive the settlement you deserve.

In general, when an employer chooses not to subscribe to workers’ compensation insurance, the employer thinks it has found some loophole. For instance, Texas state law ostensibly states that employers do not have a legal liability for injuries sustained by contractors or temp workers. Many employers therefore think that they can beat the system by not subscribing to workers’ compensation insurance and hiring entirely temp workers and contractors. They think that the temp agency takes on all legal responsibility for the workers’ safety. These employers believe that they can operate with legal impunity and avoid paying workers’ compensation fees. This is especially common in industries with dangerous working conditions, and this practice unfortunately encourages employers to put more effort into cheating the system and less effort into making sure that their workers are safe.


So What Can I Do?

In almost all cases, an injured victim has some avenue available for seeking compensation if he or she is injured on the job. Even contractors are not without options. The experienced San Antonio attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have a broad understanding of the spirit of work injury law, and we can use this understanding to secure compensation in cases other attorneys have thrown out. Even if you originally signed on as a contractor, certain elements in your working environment can cause your working relationship to be considered (from a legal standpoint) an employer-employee relationship, regardless of what your employer thinks.

For example, my firm recently took a case where a worker at a meat packing plant was injured. The employers at the meat packing plant though they had beat the system. They did not subscribe to workers’ compensation insurance, but they only used workers hired from a local temp agency. They believed that they were immune to lawsuits and that the temp agency would take on all legal liability. Due to this perceived immunity, they had extremely unsafe working conditions.

One of their workers was injured and took his case to a number of different attorneys before coming to our firm. These other attorneys told him that he had no case due to being a contractor. When my firm examined the case, however, we immediately realized that his working conditions actually constituted an employer-employee relationship, despite the fact that he was employed through a temp agency. We were able to successfully pursue a non-subscriber claim against the meat packing plant. Many attorneys do not have the broad understanding of work injury law required to make this kind of judgment.

Ultimately, the point is this: work injury cases are complex, but there are often avenues available for seeking compensation that people without legal experience cannot identify. Many people who think they have a subscriber case actually have a non-subscriber case, which allows us to file a personal injury lawsuit. In other situations, injured workers may actually be dealing with a subscriber, in which case they cannot bring a lawsuit against their employer. However, there may be numerous other parties who are partially responsible for the victim’s injuries. For instance, if a factory worker loses an arm due to a malfunctioning piece of equipment, the equipment’s manufacturer might be partially liable for that injury. In this situation, even if we could not bring charges against the victim’s employer due to workers’ compensation, we could file a lawsuit against the equipment manufacturer in addition to the money the victim received from his or her workers’ comp claim.

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No matter your situation, our attorneys can help you understand what options are available to you. We have spent the past twenty years helping people who have been injured on the job. We have seen all kinds of injuries in all kinds of industries, and we have dealt with subscribers, non-subscribers, employees, contractors, and everything in between. If you have been hurt on the job, our attorneys can explain to you exactly what options are available to you. On the other hand, if you have received money through workers’ comp but you are unsatisfied with the result, our lawyers can help you determine whether or not you have any other options available for seeking adequate compensation. We will do everything we can to make sure that, no matter what situation you are in, you receive all the compensation you deserve. If you or a loved one has been hurt on the job, contact an experienced San Antonio work injury lawyer from Grossman Law Offices today.

Use the navigation menu to the left to read about more specific work accident injury topics including fatal workplace accidents, workers' compensation, lifting injuries, how we can help, and what to expect after a work injury.


Some of Our Most Recent Successful Cases
$335,000.00 Recovery - Wrongful Death/ Commercial Vehicle Accident
The mother of a young man hired our firm to investigate the death of her son following a fatal car accident. The incident occurred as one of the two vehicles involved ran a red light and drive into the path of the other. The defendant was driving a work vehicle for a construction company. The defendant survived the accident and stated to police that the decedent caused the accident. The police could not conclusively determine who was at fault, yet the police report strongly implied that the decedent was likely at fault based on the statement provided by the defendant.

The plaintiff's mother was not convinced. Through a thorough investigation, we ultimately determined that the stoplight that the defendant claimed that our client ran, in fact, worked on a timer whereby the light was always green between certain hours unless a vehicle traveling on the intersecting road had been stopped at the right light for more than 30 seconds. Based on an analysis of the vehicles and tire markings, it was conclusively determined that both vehicles were traveling at the speed limit, which clearly indicates that the defendant driver had not accelerated from stop, rather, he was traveling at the speed limit, which would not have triggered a green light for the defendant.

The logical implications of this information is that the light could not have been red for the plaintiff, and it certainly would have been red for the defendant. As a consequence of this information, the case was resolved through litigation.
Total Recovery:
$335,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$134,000.00
Litigation Expenses:
$63,000.00
$75,000.00 Recovery - Workplace Accident (Soft-Tissue Injuries)
Recovery for worker who suffered soft tissue injuries when his fork lift was struck by a delivery truck.
Total Recovery:
$75,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$25,000.00
Litigation Expenses:
$350.00
$1,010,000.00 Recovery - Workplace Accident (Hand Lacerations)
A young worker was negligently trained to operate a piece of machinery. During a routine cleaning procedure, he suffered a serious hand injury consisting of numerous deep lacerations across his palm. The defendants claimed that he was a contract laborer and therefore owed no legal duty. Through litigation, our attorneys showed evidence to establish an employer-employee relationship thereby creating a non-subscriber work injury cause of action.
Total Recovery:
$1,010,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$333,300.00
Litigation Expenses:
$50,000.00
$700,000.00 Recovery - Commercial Vehicle Accident / Work Injury (Fractured Pelvis, Other Internal Injuries)
A loading dock employee suffered a fractured and damage to internal organs as the result of a crushing injury sustained when an 18-wheeler backed into him and crushed him between the trailer and loading dock.
Total Recovery:
$700,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$175,000.00
Litigation Expenses:
$1,084.00
$550,000.00 Recovery - Workplace Accident (Closed-Head Injury)
A painter fell from an apartment balcony resulting in a closed-head injury and other minor bodily injuries. The case was successfully resolved through litigation against the plaintiff's employer and the general contractor.
Total Recovery:
$550,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$220,000.00
Litigation Expenses:
$20,465.00
$550,000.00 Recovery - Wrongful Death / Workers' Compensation Gross Negligence
(policy limits) A father of two was killed on the job when he fell from a personnel platform atop an elevated piece of machinery. The defendant was initially afforded protection from a liability suit by virtue of their workers' comp policy. Upon thorough investigation, it became evident that gross negligence was at the root of the accident, and suit was filed accordingly. A successful outcome was obtained through litigation.
Total Recovery:
$550,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$220,000.00
Litigation Expenses:
$40,000.00
Confidential Recovery - Wrongful Death / Workplace Accident
Major freight train company sued as the result of an incident which claimed the life of an employee. Our attorneys settled the case outside of court for a confidential amount.
Total Recovery:
Confidential
Attorney Fees:
Confidential
Litigation Expenses:
Confidential
$300,000.00 Recovery - Commercial Vehicle Accident / Work Injury (Facial Fractures and Head Trauma)
A loading dock worker suffered serious including numerous facial fractures and minor brain trauma when an 18-wheeler back into him, crushing him against the loading dock. The plaintiff's employer was a subscriber to Texas Workers' Compensation coverage, thus a claim was rightly filed against the third party trucking company whom the truck driver operating the reversing 18-wheeler worked for.

The plaintiffs asserted the position that the trucking company in question was liable on the basis of respondeat superior and negligent retention. The defendants argued that the plaintiff was the sole proximate cause of his injuries by virtue of the plaintiff putting himself in harms way. They maintained that the plaintiff simply walked behind the reversing tractor trailer as it pushed back toward the loading dock.

It was later determined through deposition testimony that the truck driver had indeed instructed the plaintiff to stand behind the trailer in order to determine the vehicle's proximity to the dock. Once this fact came to light, the defendants agreed to mediate whereby the case was satisfactorily settled.
Total Recovery:
$300,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$120,000.00
Litigation Expenses:
$9,807.00
$1,450,000.00 Recovery - Commercial Vehicle Accident (Brain Injury)
Our firm was hired by a delivery driver who suffered a closed head injury resulting in the permanent loss of smell in a head-on accident. The incident occurred as the driver of an 18-wheeler lost control of his vehicle and veered into oncoming traffic. Our client's delivery vehicle was struck head-on, causing massive damage to both vehicles.

Our client was taken to an area hospital where he was treated for minor bodily injuries and a closed head injury which originally manifested itself as a concussion and temporary memory loss.

Suit was filed against the defendants following their failure to respond to our correspondence in a timely manner and litigation began. Included in the suit were both the defendant truck driver and his employer. The results of our investigation and the physical evidence from the accident scene made it apparent that the defendants had indeed caused the accident. Defense counsel soon conceded liability
Total Recovery:
$1,450,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$560,000.00
Litigation Expenses:
$31,410.00
$125,000.00 Recovery - Workplace Accident (Closed-Head Injury)
Recovery for injured worker who suffered a closed head injury in a scaffolding accident.
Total Recovery:
$125,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$30,000.00
Litigation Expenses:
$2,135.00

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