San Antonio Oilfield Injury Attorney

San Antonio Oilfield Accident Lawyer Michael Grossman Discusses West Texas Oilfield Work Injury Accident

Touted as one of the most dangerous of all jobs in the country, the oil and gas industry presents both financial rewards to the worker and very serious safety challenges as well. With the present state of our economy and the need to find employment that will provide their families decent housing and living expenses, the decision to become an oil and gas worker is really an easy one.

To those workers in the oil and gas industry in San Antonio and throughout West Texas, the work is steady, the days are long, and the work requires sufficient physical effort day in and day out. Oil and gas workers often pay the ultimate price with their very lives.

There are those who advocate the use of other forms of energy consumption and more often than not, many of these anti-energy naysayers cite the negative statistics of oil and gas work-related injuries and they often allude to the drilling and production of natural gas as an alternative. However, neither is the oilfield industry without its anti-energy naysayers as they cite the negative aspects of work-related injuries and fatalities directly related to the natural gas industry.

Sometimes when these opposing components get together and verbalize the pros and cons of natural gas vs petroleum, they give us all food for thought. Though natural gas is certainly not yet as easily identifiable a household name as gasoline or petroleum, natural gas can not be denied or discounted in America’s ongoing search for alternative sources of clean energy to meet America’s growing needs.

Natural gas does have its challenges and when it is released into the air, natural gas is potentially very dangerous. The combined mixture of air and the lowest concentration of combustible natural gas becomes a flammable atmosphere that explodes when there is an ignition source. In addition to natural gas being flammable under the right circumstances, there are also the cuts, bruises, broken bones, and other disabling work-related injuries to include fatalities that occur to workers in the oilfield industry.

The ever-growing need to protect our environment and at the same time the need to combat the growing health concerns directly related to pollutants or toxins in the environment is paramount. The need to find ways to become more independent and use America’s resources and become less dependent on foreign oil resources is also paramount as is the need to bring back more jobs to American soil.

No matter whether you are a laborer, a worker on an oil drilling crew, or a deck hand, or an actual driller, or whatever your worker description may be, if you have a work-related injury resulting from an oilfield accident in San Antonio, you may be entitled to financial compensatory recovery. San Antonio Oilfield Accident Attorney, Michael Grossman, or one of his associates will listen to you as you explain your concerns. Attorney Michael Grossman or an associate will then give you the benefit of twenty (20) years of legal experience as you are advised on the legal aspects of your rights.

Noted Oil Rig Working Dangers

Because of the very skittish work environment not to mention the uniqueness of an oil rig worker’s job duties, there is a clear and ever-readiness for danger at most every turn of any worker’s workday. These dangers include but are not limited to:

• The strong possibility of a flashover or an explosion.
• The ever-present and continuing loud drone or hum of an engine or motor that prohibits normal verbal conversation and makes hearing virtually impossible.
• Machines or components of a machine that are not working properly and are not performing as expected.
• Untrained workers who, unknowingly, cause mishaps.
• Exhausted employees working long hours without a break who often find it difficult to focus.
• Loose surveillance and/or guidance over workers who are inexperienced and untrained.
• The failure to regularly check a piece of equipment or mechanism designed to serve a specific purpose.

The potential for danger as listed above can account for a wide array of accidents or injuries to oneself, to ones fellow workers, to oilfield working mechanisms, and to the environment. Frequent oilfield work-related injuries or fatalities include, but are not limited to:

• Lung problems directly related to inhaling poisonous fumes
• A serious abrasion or damage to the outer layer of the skin relative to being in close proximity to combustive materials
• Severed or crushed limb-type injuries directly related to machinery working improperly or the carelessness of a co-worker
• Cranial injuries, i.e., skull or brain trauma resulting from an impact to the head by a falling object or a falling or faulty piece of machinery
• Backbone or spinal cord damage often related to an unusual jump or plunge which can also result from a heavy object or piece of machinery falling and impacting an individual’s back
• Flammable combustion or a sudden and unexpected plunge or possibly resulting from being in close proximity to a nearby oil rig experiencing a serious mishap

When an oilfield work-related mishap happens relative to the failure of another person to use an expected standard of care or caution, as the injured party you have a right to seek legal restitution. San Antonio Oilfield Injury Attorney Michael Grossman will listen to you and with twenty (20) years of experience and much success in the courtroom, he will explain your legal rights and he will suggest a course of action, however, the decision is yours alone to make. Below are some frequently asked questions and answers to and from attorney Michael Grossman.

It Matters If Your Employer Has Workers’ Compensation Insurance

Texas is a unique state in many ways. One of the ways it is unique is if you own and operate a business in Texas, you do not necessarily have to purchase Workers’ Compensation Insurance. For those employers who do choose to purchase Workers’ Compensation Insurance they are known as Subscribers. For those employers who do not choose to purchase Workers’ Compensation Insurance, they are known as Non-Subscribers. The most important feature for a Subscriber to have this type of insurance is one hundred (100) percent protection from being sued by their employees who suffer work-related injuries. If an oilfield employee suffers an on-the-job work-related injury by a Subscriber, he or she should report the incident to the supervisor or foreman in addition to seeking treatment at the on-site clinic or nearby hospital emergency room to have the injury documented. The injured worker must file a workers’ comp claim with their employer’s insurance carrier and detail the series of events that happened just before the injury occurred. Copies of supporting documentation, i.e., the attending physician’s prognosis if available, doctor’s visits, payments for medications, taxi services to and from doctor’s visits in addition to any other outlay of finances directly related to the injury the worker wishes to be compensated for. Should the Workers’ Comp Claim be denied, the injured worker should contact a competent lawyer who is well-versed and experienced in this area of law in addition to a lawyer who has a proven record of winning in the courtroom. San Antonio Oilfield Injury Attorney, Michael Grossman, is such an attorney. With over twenty (20) years of legal experience, the Law Offices of Michael Grossman and associates will listen to you with an open mind and proceed to give you some good sound legal advice on what your options are.

Employers who are Non-Subscribers take a gamble by not purchasing Texas Workers’ Compensation Insurance. On the surface it might appear that they have left themselves and their company wide-open for countless lawsuits and the possibility of company ruin. However, just because an employer is a Non-Subscriber is no indication that the employer is not insured by some other insurer.

Should that dreaded time come and a Non-Subscriber has an employee who suffers and on-the-job work-related injury or even worse—a fatality, things can quickly go from bad to worse. If it is a work-related injury, the injured worker should report the injury to the supervisor or foreman and seek treatment at the on-site clinic or the nearest hospital emergency room and also to get the incident documented. As soon as possible the injured worker should file a claim with the Non-Subscriber and detail the series of events that happened just prior to the accident or injury. Any an all supporting documentation, i.e., the attending physician’s prognosis if available, doctor’s visits, payments for medication, taxi services to and from the doctor, and any other related out-of-pockets expenses incurred by the worker as a result of the injury the worker wishes to be compensated for. The Non-Subscriber might offer the injured worker a sum much less than requested and often it is a sum that just barely covers the injured workers outlay of expenses to date. The Non-Subscriber might deny the claim altogether and make no offer at all. When this happens, the injured has no choice but to retain the services of an attorney and sue for compensatory damages. Under Texas law, when the employer is a Non-Subscriber, there is no cap or limitation on the amount of liability the claimant can sue to recover.

Understandably, a Non-Subscriber is more often than not tight-lipped about whether they do or whether they don’t have Workers’ Compensation Insurance. The injured worker will desperately seek to get answers from co-workers and even from management only to be told very little that will aid the worker in the recovery process.

There have been times when upon careful investigation, it was determined that not even the injured worker’s supervisor was aware of whether the employer was a Subscriber or Non-Subscriber. Other times the degree to which a blatant and aggressive Non-Subscriber will go to so as to avoid discovery is appalling. Some unethical tactics used by Non-Subscribers to avoid discovery is to threaten or intimidate their manager’s to deny or lie about the company’s Subscriber or Non-Subscriber status.

Simply explained this means that a Non-Subscribing oilfield company may feign status as a Subscriber because if word is (accidentally, but “purposely”) circulated among the employees of the company’s feign Subscriber status, the employee’s know that the employer can not be sued. “Feigning” the façade of a Subscriber protects the employer from legal liability claims. Often it takes the experience and perseverance of an experienced litigator like San Antonio Oilfield Accident Attorney, Michael Grossman and his team of investigators to uncover the truth and hold liable that employer who will be made to ‘fess up’ and face the consequences.

Your Rights As a Subscriber’s Employee

If the truth is ascertained and the injured worker’s employer is a Subscriber, the injured worker is at liberty to file for Worker’s Compensation to include all personal outlays of expenses and lost wages due to the injured employee’s inability to work. Although Workers’ Compensation Insurance is good to have in case of a work-related injury, this plan does have its limitations to compensation. For example, an injured worker is only entitled to a percentage of his or her wages due to lost time from work related to the injury. Furthermore, no matter what the injured worker’s base pay was at the time of the work-related injury, the percentage paid the injured work will not exceed $600 per week. Should worse come to worse and the work-related injury the worker has sustained has rendered the worker permanently disabled and therefore unable to return to work, the $600 per week may very well become the amount the injured worker receives for life.

Many people are of the mistaken impression that filing for workers’ compensation and its process is a piece of cake. The truth is the process is sometimes a long, slow, aggravating, and frustrating one. There are hoops you have to jump through and rivers to cross and guidelines to follow and government red tape to unravel. Contrary to popular opinion, the employer’s insurance carriers are not in business to cover your work injury related losses nor are they in business to hand over large amounts of money in settlements without a fight. Their main reason for being in business is to receive the millions of dollars big companies and the working public regularly sends them for insurance coverage. As long as the premiums payments keep coming in and their profit margins continue to increase, all is well.

However, no matter what the injury or how bad or debilitating it is, there will be a fight because insurance carriers love to manufacture ways--either legally or by straddling the line--and find ways to reduce your claim. Game-playing and bouncing the ball back and forth between the claimant and the insurance carrier can become quite time-consuming and all of this could possibly result in a lengthy lawsuit that might drag on for a long time. When an injured worker’s comp claim is contested he or she can plead their case in what is a workers’ compensation court. It is most important that the injured worker have an experienced courtroom successful and savvy-type of attorney who knows the ins and outs of an Oilfield Injury Law. Experienced San Antonio Oilfield Accident Attorney Michael Grossman is such a litigant who can help you with the financial recovery you deserve. Call the Law Office of attorney Michael Grossman today. The telephone number is 1-855-393-0000 and attorney Michael Grossman and his associates are ready and waiting to advise and help you.

The One Exception to the Rule

An employer who is a Non-Subscriber does appear to leave their company wide-open for numerous lawsuits should an employee suffer a work-related injury. However, because the employer is a Non-Subscriber is not to imply that the employer has no insurance at all. However, should the worse happen and a worker is injured, the only protection the employer/Non-Subscriber has against a lawsuit and possibility of the loss of all company assets is to use the one legal recourse the Non-Subscriber has and that is to prove the employee did not exercise a standard of care to prevent the injury from happening and thus is 100 percent responsible for his or her own personal injury. The employer has to get down and dirty and use all kinds of unethical tactics as he attacks the credibility and the good name of the injured employee. To make certain the court has a chance to hear your side of the story, you need an experienced attorney who is well-seasoned, and courtroom qualified. San Antonio Oilfield Accident Attorney Michael Grossman and his associates have twenty (20) years of litigation experience in the courtroom and they know how to get the job done. Their skillful team of investigators will leave no stone unturned as they see to uncover the truth and give you the financial recovery you deserve. Call today!

“Contract Worker” or “Temporary” Worker—That is the Question

Employers in the construction industry and places like the oilfields and on oil rigs often employ workers whose status they intentionally list as Contract Worker of Temporary Worker. This is deliberately done to avoid having to pay Workers’ Comp Claims should there be a work-related injury. Under Texas Law, a contractor or Temp worker is responsible for their own safety. An employer knows that legally they do not have to offer the same standard of care to a Contract or Temp worker as they do their regular workers. Consequently, if a work-related accident occurs and employer thinks he should not be held liable. However, there are definite guidelines that prove or disprove whether a Contract or Temp is actually an employee.

If the guidelines prove the “Contract” or “Temp” worker is actually an employee with all the rights and privileges of an employee, then the injured worker has a right to seek Workers’ Compensation recovery.

OSHA

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration or “OSHA” as it is commonly

Referred to is mainly an understaffed government agency that has too much to do with too few people to do it. If a worker suffers a job-related injury, waste no time in thinking it is “OSHA to the rescue” because it won’t happen. In fact with OSHA get the mandatory report of a work-related accident, they may or may not physically come to visually inspect the scene of the accident. OSHA will make a report and a recommendation to the employer as a measure of an effort to prevent the same accident from happening again and this is the extent of any support they will render you in your time of need

Contact San Antonio Oilfield Injury Attorney Michael Grossman

Remember, if you or your loved one or someone you know has suffered an injury or if there has been a fatality, during a work-related injury in an oilfield or on an oil rig in San Antonio, you need the legal counsel of a qualified Attorney who is experienced in the specific area of the law.

San Antonio Oilfield Injury Attorney Michael Grossman and his associates for some good sound legal counsel that will help you make in informed decision. Call them today. The number is 1-855-393-0000. The call is toll free and their initial legal consultation is too.