Fatal Construction Accidents

Our Attorneys Can Discuss Your Fatal Construction Accident Case for Free

The construction profession is fraught with danger and hazardous workplace environments, and since Texas always seems to have some kind of construction project going in, the potential for accidents is always present. And, unfortunately, it’s inevitable that a fatal construction accident is going to happen. It’s sad, but it’s also inevitable.

Fatal construction accidents are all too common occurrences throughout the state of Texas. If you have lost a family member due to a construction accident, the attorneys at our Law Office may be able to help you during this tragic time. We are, unfortunately, very familiar with how losing a loved one because of a fatal construction accident can shatter the lives of family members. We are also well aware, however, that the tragedy can, many times, be only the start of the problems that the surviving family members will face. One of the biggest sources of stress during this trying time is the uncertainty of any legal action your family may be considering. When thinking about pursuing litigation, one of the first things a family needs to do is find out what legal avenues they might be able to take, and whether or not they need to employ the services of a wrongful death lawyer to take on their case. Our attorneys have been handling fatal construction accident cases throughout East Texas for two decades. We would like to fully spell out all of the intricacies and complexities that are involved in this kind of litigation, and the ways we can help you obtain just restitution for the loss your family has suffered and the hurdles you will have to overcome.

There are no guarantees you will be able to obtain that compensation, however, even though your family member was wrongfully killed. Most of the time in fatal construction accidents, the accompanying wrongful death litigation goes to trial. The family members of the deceased worker, referred to as the plaintiffs for legal purposes, are required by law to bear the burden of proof and establish that a responsible party’s negligence resulted in the fatality. For an inexperienced lawyer, it can be incredibly difficult to understand all the complexities and nuance associated with this kind of case. For someone with no legal background whatsoever, it can be harder than trying to learn a foreign language. It is imperative that you and your family enlist the assistance of a seasoned wrongful death attorney to help bring you the compensation you deserve and to bring those responsible for your loss to justice. Obviously, no amount of money, no matter how significant it may be, will ever be able to bring back your family member or to adequately compensate you and your family for the incredible loss you’ve suffered. But an experienced attorney can make sure those who played a role in the tragic accident that robbed you of your loved one are held accountable for their negligent actions.

Most of the time in the event of a fatal construction accident, the family members of the victim can obtain some restitution through workers’ compensation insurance. But that in no way guarantees that the construction company’s insurance provider will automatically provide your family with fair compensation. And if your family member’s employer failed to purchase workers’ comp insurance, the only way you’ll be able to get fair compensation is through the means of a lawsuit. And because the process surrounding this type of litigation, as has been previously mentioned, is so complex, you will need the help of someone who was waded through these treacherous waters and can guide you through all the complexities involved. A seasoned attorney can help you decide what type of claim you need to file and also give you an accurate idea of how much compensation you and your family may have coming to you.

Fatalities at a Construction Site

If the death of your family member took place while he or she was working at a construction site, you must first determine whether or not the employer purchased, or was a “subscriber” to, workers’ compensation insurance. Next – and this is a very important and vital step – it must be determined whether or not your deceased loved one was a “true employee” of the company he or she was working for and would be seen as such in the eyes of the court. We will go into great detail about how important it is to establish an employer/employee relationship later in this article. Then, most importantly, it must be determined whether or not the negligence of the employer resulted in the fatal construction accident. There are myriad questions you must answer as well as a great deal of evidence you must provide to satisfy your burden of proof. You need the experience of a wrongful death attorney who is very familiar with the process involved with investigating an accident scene to uncover critical evidence, who knows how to provide answers to all the questions surrounding your case, and knows how to create an effective strategy to obtain the compensation your family deserves, no matter what the circumstances were surrounding your loved one’s death.

Worker’s Comp Subscribers and Non-Subscribers

The way your claim will be handled will basically be determined by whether or not your family member’s employer purchased workers’ compensation insurance. The State of Texas does not force companies to purchase workers’ comp, but it is very, very strongly recommended. You’ll find out more about this later. Again, the kind of wrongful death litigation you will pursue depends on whether the construction company was a workers’ comp subscriber or non-subscriber. The method in which your lawsuit will progress is completely different regarding subscribers and non-subscribers.

Subscribing Companies

When a company purchases workers’ comp, it buys more than just an insurance policy – it also buys protection from lawsuits in the event of either work-related injuries or deaths involving its employees. A wrongfully killed employee’s family cannot sue a construction company, with one exception. If the family can prove the company committed gross negligence, and that led to the fatal construction accident, then the family can pursue litigation. Much more on this later. Workers’ comp does provide some compensation to the family of a deceased worker, but insurance providers will often try and get families to settle for an amount that does not come close to providing fair compensation for the loss the family has suffered.

The goal of an insurance company is to make a profit, just like any other business. It is not concerned with helping your family heal from the devastating loss it has suffered. As harsh as it sounds, it’s true – the less money they can convince you to take in a settlement, the more money they make. There are cases every year in Texas of insurance companies under-cutting or flat-out denying the claims of families of workers killed in construction accidents. And they do it time after time just to protect their bottom line.

The reason behind the creation of the workers’ comp program was to reduce the amount of personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits in an effort to lighten the load of an incredibly over-burdened legal system in Texas. Many insurers will, as noted previously, try and goad families into accepting a pittance compared to what they actually have coming in terms of compensation for their loss. These insurance professionals prey on people who don’t have legal representation, so you simply must enlist the help of an experienced wrongful death attorney in order to get the restitution you and your family deserve.

There are but two ways that family members of a wrongfully killed construction worker can file a lawsuit when the construction company is a subscriber. The only way that the family can sue the company itself is if that company committed gross negligence and caused the worker’s death. The family can still, however, sue another party other than the construction company if it can be proven that another party played a role in the accident. Other employees, other contractors, and independent third parties that may have supplied malfunctioning equipment could be held liable for the accident, either in part or in whole.

A seasoned wrongful death attorney has the experience needed to thoroughly examine all of the details surrounding your case and can devise a plan to help you obtain the just compensation you deserve. The attorneys at our Law Office known how to conduct a detailed investigation of the scene of a construction accident to determine the responsibility of those third parties and will hold them accountable for their negligence in causing the tragedy that has befallen your family.

Gross Negligence
Establishing gross negligence is the only way you can directly sue a workers’ comp subscriber, so it is very important that you realize the difference between gross negligence and “standard” negligence. Standard negligence is defined as an isolated error or a temporary loss of focus or reason and is covered by workers’ comp. Gross negligence, on the other hand, is when a company or one of its employees habitually and recklessly or carelessly fails to provide a safe workplace. A construction worker who accidentally knocks a large block of cement off the roof of a building, causing the block to strike and kill a co-worker standing below, is an example of standard negligence. But if the construction site is continually filled with debris, and other dangerous objects have habitually been knocked off of that roof, then the company is considered to have committed gross negligence. Those in charge of the site should have been able to reasonably predict that a fatality would have eventually occurred because of the series of accidents that had taken place.

We had one case where we were representing the family of a construction worker who died after his boss insisted that he work on a crane while wearing a malfunctioning safety harness. The harness failed, of course, and the worker fell to his death because of his employer’s gross negligence. To make matters even worse, the owner of the company, in an effort to cover up his negligence, raced to the nearest equipment store, bought a new safety harness, and put it on the deceased worker’s corpse before reporting the accident. But by thoroughly investigating the accident scene and interviewing co-workers, we were able to expose the disgusting behavior of the owner and made him pay dearly in court.

If that investigation had not taken place, that owner may have gotten away with it. This is yet another illustration of why you need a seasoned wrongful death lawyer who needs to strategize a rock-solid case to meet the exacting standards for establishing that gross negligence took place.

Non-Subscribing Companies
Because a non-subscribing company chose not to buy workers’ comp, the only means available to the victims of a deceased worker to obtain restitution is a lawsuit. There may be an extremely rare case of a non-subscriber taking care of a deceased worker’s family out of the goodness of its heart, but don’t count on that happening to you. But even though it’s a near certainty that your family will have to pursue litigation, it is much easier to win a case against a non-subscriber because you need only prove standard negligence, rather than gross negligence. Standard negligence carries with it a much lower standard of proof.

The reason that only standard negligence has to be proven against a non-subscriber is that is the way the State of Texas punishes companies that do not purchase workers’ compensation insurance. As we stated previously, the state strongly urges companies to subscribe. If they don’t they are much more susceptible to a lawsuit as a result. And they are at risk of having to pay out a lot more money than a subscriber has to.

But just because you have a lower standard of proof to meet, that doesn’t mean you will have a slam-dunk case. In fact, these kinds of cases can be even more complex to litigate, thus necessitating, even more, the need for an experienced attorney. In a case involving a non-subscriber, not only must the plaintiffs prove standard negligence resulted in the fatality, but they must also prove that the compensation they are trying to obtain will be just restitution for the immense loss they have experienced.

Determining Damages
Wrongful death compensation can include:
The term “damages” carries a much different meaning in the legal realm. It does not mean damage like a car may suffer due to a broken windshield. Legally speaking, the term means is the monetary value of that broken windshield. Regarding a wrongful death lawsuit, there are two kinds of damages that the family of a deceased worker can pursue: wrongful death damages and survival damages. Wrongful death damages compensate the family for the suffering they have experienced due to their loved one’s tragic and untimely death. Survival damages allow the closest living relative to pursue damages the victim would have pursued had the injuries he or she suffered not proven to be fatal.

Wrongful Death Damages
Wrongful death compensation can include:

Medical and funeral expenses as a result of the accident and fatality.
The loss of monetary support the deceased provided before his or her death.
The resulting mental and emotional trauma caused by the family member’s death.
The loss of consortium and unique familial love that only the deceased could provide.

Survival Damages
Compensation for survival damages include:

Medical expenses due to the construction accident.
The victim’s lost wages during the time period he or she would have been expected to have stayed in the hospital had he or she survived the accident, or wages the victim would have lost as a result of any long-term disabling injuries caused by the accident.
The deceased’s physical pain and suffering he or she experienced.

Hurdles to Obtaining Just Restitution in a Construction Wrongful Death Case
There are very few options a non-subscribing company has in defending itself from a wrongful death lawsuit as a result of workers’ comp laws designed to punish these companies for not buying the insurance. Such a company basically has two ways to avoid compensating the families of deceased workers: proving Sole Proximate Cause or proving that the worker was a contractor and not an employee of the company.

Sole Proximate Cause
This is the only true legal defense a non-subscriber has, and it means that the worker was 100 percent responsible for his or her death. Since a non-subscriber basically has to use this defense, you can count on the trial becoming very disturbing. The reason is the company will try and ruin your loved one’s reputation by making him or her out to be routinely irresponsible and incompetent, to put it nicely. If the company can prove this in court, and that your loved one’s negligence was the cause of his or her death, it can get out of having to pay anything for the tragedy your family has experienced.

Even though the company didn’t see fit to pay for workers’ comp insurance, you can bet that company will spend whatever it takes to defend itself from your lawsuit. That company will pay a lot of money to a defense attorney, and that attorney will drag your loved one’s memory through the mud. These defense lawyers are extremely well compensated for what they do, and they are very good at it. You need a lawyer working on your side with the experience and skill necessary to combat this tactic and defend your family member’s reputation.

The Employer/Employee Relationship
While this is not, legally speaking at least, a true defense option, a non-subscriber can still avoid compensating a bereaved family if it can prove that the deceased worker was not a “true employee,” but rather a contract employee. In Texas, contract employees are responsible for maintaining their own workplace safety. So it only follows logically – from the company’s perspective, at least – that if the worker was not an actual employee, why should the company be expected to compensate the family for that worker’s death?

This is a rather flimsy, desperate effort to avoid liability, but it must still be respected. The law may not agree with the company’s perception of your deceased loved one, and may still regard the victim as an employee even if the company claims otherwise. The wrongful death attorneys with our Law Office are very experienced in proving the existence of an employer-employee relationship. We know how to find contracts and pay stubs, and interview co-workers in order to prove one of the standards for proving that relationship listed below:

The employer withheld taxes or Social Security from your family member’s paycheck.
The employer provided the necessary tools your loved one used to perform his or her job.
The deceased worker followed a specific work schedule established by the employer.
The employer inspected, oversaw, or managed your family member’s work at regular intervals.
Your family member signed a form or otherwise did something that limited his or her rights, such as taking a drug test or signing a document stating he or she complied with the rules spelled out in an employee handbook.
The employer hired your loved one for an undetermined period of time, and not just for a single job.
Your family member was paid on an hourly or salary basis, and not job-by-job.

What Do You Do Next?
Someone from the opposition, whether it’s an insurance company operative or a defense attorney, will probably try to make you an insulting, low-ball settlement offer in an effort to keep the case from going to trial. NEVER surrender your right to sue by agreeing to such an offer, because it won’t come close to fairly compensating you and your family for the terrible loss you’ve suffered. In fact, it’s a good idea to not speak at all to any representative of either the insurance company or the construction company.

We know how shattering this experience is for you and your family, but if you’re reading this you are at least considering the possibility of getting legal help. We strongly urge you to find an attorney just as soon as you possibly can. In order to defend the reputation of your loved one from the attacks that the defendants will likely launch, you need evidence. And that much-needed evidence can quickly disappear due to a number of factors: the accident scene itself changes physically, witnesses’ memories can turn cloudy, or they can disappear completely. The longer you wait to get legal help, the worse your chances of getting fair restitution become, because it will become harder for an attorney to gather critical, compelling evidence. The defense will have already begun to build a case against your loved one; you need a seasoned wrongful death attorney working on your side to match that effort.

We know how shattering this experience is for you and your family, but if you’re reading this you are at least considering the possibility of getting legal help. We strongly urge you to find an attorney just as soon as you possibly can. In order to defend the reputation of your loved one from the attacks that the defendants will likely launch, you need evidence. And that much-needed evidence can quickly disappear due to a number of factors: the accident scene itself changes physically, witnesses’ memories can turn cloudy, or they can disappear completely. The longer you wait to get legal help, the worse your chances of getting fair restitution become, because it will become harder for an attorney to gather critical, compelling evidence. The defense will have already begun to build a case against your loved one; you need a seasoned wrongful death attorney working on your side to match that effort.

The wrongful death attorneys with our Law Office have been assisting bereaved families of the victims of fatal construction accidents for 20 years, helping them obtain the rightful compensation they deserve for their immense loss. We’ve helped hundreds of Texas families recover millions and millions of dollars. We launch a thorough and detailed investigation immediately after being hired, and we are very adept at finding the evidence needed to satisfy the plaintiff’s burden of proof. We will make sure justice is served and that all those responsible for your loved one’s untimely death are held accountable. Our attorneys have negotiated settlements with, and, when necessary, won cases against, every major insurance company in the United States. Those companies know our reputation, and will often choose to offer a fair settlement amount to our clients, rather than risking losing a much larger amount of money in a trial. And if they choose to take us on, we’ll make them wish they had settled. If you have suffered the loss of a family member due to a fatal construction accident, please do not hesitate to call our Law Office (toll-free) for a confidential and free consultation. We will go over with you all of the specifics of your case, spell out your legal options, then let you know how we can help you get the just restitution you and your family deserve.

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