A serious workplace accident can leave you unable to work at the same time medical bills and other expenses begin piling up.
In Texas, figuring out what happens next can be particularly complicated. Unlike most states, Texas generally does not require private employers to carry workers’ compensation insurance. Your legal options may depend on whether your employer has workers’ compensation coverage, whether it is a nonsubscriber, and whether another company or person contributed to your injury.
If you were seriously injured while working in San Antonio, D. Willis Law can help you determine what insurance coverage applies, who may be legally responsible, and whether you have a right to pursue compensation beyond workers’ compensation benefits.
Your health should come first. Obtain emergency medical care when necessary and report the accident to your employer.
If your employer participates in the Texas workers’ compensation system, deadlines can apply quickly. According to the Texas Department of Insurance Division of Workers’ Compensation, an injured employee generally must notify the employer of a work-related injury within 30 days. The employee generally must also file DWC Form-041 with the Division of Workers’ Compensation within one year to protect the right to benefits.
When circumstances permit, you should also preserve information about how the accident occurred.
That may include:
Do not put yourself in danger attempting to collect evidence.
In a serious accident, however, determining what happened and identifying every company involved can become extremely important.
No. This is one of the most important differences between Texas and many other states.
According to the Texas Department of Insurance, most private Texas employers can choose whether to carry workers’ compensation insurance. Employers that participate in the workers’ compensation system are commonly called subscribers.
Private employers that choose not to provide Texas workers’ compensation coverage are generally known as nonsubscribers.
Governmental entities such as cities, counties, public schools, and utilities are required to provide workers’ compensation coverage.
This distinction can fundamentally change an injured worker’s legal rights.
Do not simply assume your employer has workers’ compensation because it is a large company.
The Texas Department of Insurance provides resources for verifying workers’ compensation coverage.
Employers without workers’ compensation coverage are also required to provide employees with notice that they do not have coverage.
Determining the employer’s status should be one of the first steps after a serious workplace injury because it can affect the type of claim available.
Texas workers’ compensation is a state-regulated insurance system providing benefits for qualifying work-related injuries and illnesses.
The Texas Department of Insurance explains that workers’ compensation can pay for medical treatment for a covered work-related injury or illness and can replace some lost wages when an employee meets applicable requirements.
Depending on the circumstances, benefits can include medical benefits, income benefits, and death or burial benefits.
Workers’ compensation generally does not require an injured employee to prove that the employer was negligent in the same way that negligence must be proven in an ordinary personal injury lawsuit.
But workers’ compensation also does not provide the same categories of damages that may be available through a negligence lawsuit.
Usually not for an ordinary work-related injury covered by workers’ compensation.
Under Texas Labor Code §408.001, workers’ compensation benefits generally provide the exclusive remedy against a covered employer or its agents or employees for a covered employee’s work-related injury.
That means an employee usually cannot collect workers’ compensation benefits and then bring an ordinary negligence lawsuit against a subscribing employer for the same injury.
Texas law contains exceptions and special circumstances, including provisions concerning certain fatal injuries involving gross negligence or intentional conduct.
The important point is that having workers’ compensation does not necessarily mean there are no other potential claims.
Another person or company may be responsible.
Potentially, yes.
This is one of the most important issues to investigate after a catastrophic workplace accident.
Texas Labor Code §417.001 allows an injured employee or legal beneficiary, in appropriate circumstances, to pursue damages against a third party responsible for an injury while also pursuing workers’ compensation benefits.
A third party is someone other than the injured worker’s employer or a person protected by the workers’ compensation exclusive-remedy rule.
Potential third parties can include:
These claims can be especially important after catastrophic injuries because a third-party negligence action may provide damages that are not available through workers’ compensation.
Consider a construction worker injured when a delivery truck owned by another company strikes him at a jobsite.
The worker may have a workers’ compensation claim through his employer.
But the trucking company and its driver may also potentially be responsible for causing the accident.
Similarly, an employee injured by defective machinery may have a potential claim against the manufacturer. A worker injured because of dangerous conditions created by a different contractor may have a claim against that contractor.
These are examples of why I would not want to look at a serious workplace accident merely as a “workers’ comp case.”
One of the first questions I would ask is:
Was anyone other than the injured worker’s employer responsible for what happened?
That question can substantially change the case.
An employer that does not carry Texas workers’ compensation insurance is commonly called a nonsubscriber.
The Texas Department of Insurance explains Texas nonsubscriber requirements, including requirements that employers notify workers when workers’ compensation coverage is not provided.
If a nonsubscribing employer’s negligence causes an employee’s injury, the employee may potentially bring a negligence action against the employer.
These claims differ significantly from workers’ compensation claims.
Texas law gives injured employees important rights when their employer chooses not to participate in the workers’ compensation system.
Under Texas Labor Code §406.033, an injured employee bringing an appropriate negligence action against a nonsubscribing employer must prove negligence by the employer or its agent or employee acting within the scope of employment.
But the law also restricts several defenses that ordinarily might be available.
For example, in an action covered by §406.033, the employer generally cannot defend the case by arguing that:
The statute does preserve certain other defenses, including circumstances involving intentional self-injury or intoxication.
Nonsubscriber cases therefore should not be analyzed like ordinary personal injury cases or ordinary workers’ compensation claims.
The worker generally must establish negligence by the employer or someone for whom the employer is legally responsible.
Depending on the accident, alleged negligence might involve:
The precise duty and evidence depend on how the accident occurred.
A workplace injury alone does not automatically establish employer negligence.
That is why preserving evidence about the accident can be so important.
Construction sites can involve numerous companies working in the same location.
A project may involve a property owner, general contractor, multiple subcontractors, equipment companies, delivery companies, engineers, and other entities.
Potential accidents include:
When a construction worker is seriously injured, determining who controlled the work and who created the dangerous condition can be critical.
A worker’s direct employer may not be the only company potentially responsible.
Falls from ladders, scaffolding, roofs, platforms, lifts, and other elevated work areas can cause catastrophic injuries.
Potential injuries include:
A fall investigation may examine the condition of the equipment, fall-protection systems, training, supervision, work procedures, and which company controlled the relevant portion of the jobsite.
If dangerous premises conditions contributed to a fall, some of the issues may overlap with those discussed on our San Antonio slip and fall accident lawyer page.
Industrial machinery can cause devastating injuries.
Workers may become caught in equipment, crushed between objects, struck by moving components, or injured when machinery unexpectedly activates.
Potential issues can include:
Responsibility depends on the circumstances.
An employer may have obligations concerning training and workplace safety, while a manufacturer or maintenance company may potentially be responsible for a defective product or negligent repair.
Identifying who designed, manufactured, owned, maintained, and controlled the equipment can therefore become important.
Many employees spend substantial portions of their workday driving.
Delivery drivers, construction workers, sales representatives, service technicians, commercial drivers, and many others may be injured in roadway accidents while performing job duties.
If another driver causes the collision, the injured employee may have both workers’ compensation rights and a potential third-party automobile claim.
Depending on the vehicle involved, additional information is available on our pages concerning:
The interaction between workers’ compensation benefits and a third-party recovery can involve reimbursement and subrogation issues, so the two claims should be evaluated together.
When workers’ compensation pays benefits for an injury caused by a third party, the workers’ compensation carrier may have a legal interest in the third-party recovery.
Texas Labor Code §417.001 provides for an insurance carrier’s subrogation rights in appropriate cases.
In simplified terms, this means an injured employee cannot necessarily collect workers’ compensation benefits and then keep an entire third-party recovery without accounting for the carrier’s statutory interest.
The actual calculation can become complicated.
A serious third-party workplace case should therefore be evaluated with the workers’ compensation lien or subrogation interest in mind before settlement.
Commercial vehicles create additional issues when they cause workplace injuries.
A construction worker may be struck by an 18-wheeler entering a jobsite. An employee driving for work may be hit by a commercial truck. A warehouse worker may be injured by a vehicle operated by another company.
Potentially responsible parties may include the truck driver, motor carrier, vehicle owner, maintenance company, loading company, or another entity depending on the circumstances.
Commercial truck cases may also involve evidence such as electronic logging records, vehicle data, company safety records, maintenance information, and commercial insurance.
Our San Antonio truck accident lawyer page explains those issues in greater detail.
Tools, construction materials, merchandise, equipment, and other objects can cause serious injuries when they fall from shelves, platforms, scaffolding, or elevated work areas.
A falling object can cause:
The investigation should determine why the object fell and who controlled the area or activity.
Video, photographs, incident reports, witness statements, and the object itself can become important evidence.
Electrical accidents can cause severe burns, neurological damage, cardiac injuries, falls, or death.
These accidents may involve:
Electrical cases can involve multiple companies and highly technical evidence.
Preserving the equipment and documenting the condition of the scene before it changes can be particularly important.
Industrial accidents involving fires or explosions can produce catastrophic burns, lung injuries, brain injuries, amputations, and fatalities.
Potential causes can include defective equipment, combustible materials, chemical releases, electrical failures, unsafe procedures, or inadequate maintenance.
These cases may involve employers, contractors, property owners, product manufacturers, or other entities.
Because physical evidence can be altered during cleanup and repairs, serious fire and explosion cases should be investigated promptly.
A workplace accident may involve more than employer negligence.
If a defective machine, tool, vehicle, safety device, or other product caused or contributed to the injury, the manufacturer, distributor, or another company may potentially be responsible.
Product-related claims can involve allegations concerning:
The equipment should be preserved whenever possible.
Allowing an important machine or component to be discarded, repaired, or altered can make it much more difficult to determine why it failed.
This is a particularly important issue on construction and industrial sites.
Your employer may have workers’ compensation insurance, which can limit ordinary negligence claims against the employer.
But that protection does not automatically extend to every unrelated company at the jobsite.
If another contractor negligently creates a dangerous condition that causes an accident, there may be a third-party claim.
Potential evidence can include contracts, safety policies, daily reports, witness statements, photographs, video, training records, and evidence concerning which company controlled the work.
Employees frequently perform work on property owned or controlled by someone other than their employer.
Examples include:
If a dangerous property condition causes an injury, there may be potential claims involving the property owner, occupier, contractor, or another entity depending on the facts.
These cases can involve complicated questions concerning who knew about the hazard and who controlled the premises.
Workplace accidents can produce almost any type of injury.
Serious injuries can include:
The seriousness of the injury can significantly affect the value and complexity of a third-party or nonsubscriber claim.
A catastrophic injury should be evaluated not merely in terms of current medical bills but also future medical care, future earning capacity, and permanent limitations.
Workplace falls, falling objects, vehicle accidents, explosions, and machinery accidents can all cause traumatic brain injuries.
A brain injury can affect memory, concentration, personality, sleep, emotional regulation, and the ability to work even when the injured person looks physically normal.
These claims can require substantial medical and functional evidence.
Our San Antonio traumatic brain injury lawyer page explains TBI symptoms, evidence, future damages, and other issues in greater detail.
Machinery, construction equipment, industrial accidents, and crushing incidents can result in the loss of a finger, hand, arm, foot, leg, or other body part.
An amputation can affect virtually every aspect of someone’s future.
Potential damages in an appropriate negligence claim may involve future medical treatment, prosthetics, replacement prosthetics, rehabilitation, loss of earning capacity, physical impairment, disfigurement, and other losses.
These are precisely the kinds of catastrophic workplace cases where identifying all potential defendants and insurance coverage can become especially important.
A serious workplace injury can permanently change someone’s earning capacity.
A construction worker who suffers a spinal injury may be physically incapable of returning to heavy labor. A brain injury may prevent someone from performing a cognitively demanding job. An amputation may eliminate an entire career path.
Lost earning capacity is different from simply adding up the paychecks missed immediately after the accident.
In an appropriate personal injury case, vocational and economic experts may be needed to evaluate how the injury will affect the person’s ability to earn income over the remainder of a career.
The answer depends heavily on what type of claim exists.
Workers’ compensation benefits are governed by the Texas workers’ compensation system.
A negligence lawsuit against a nonsubscribing employer or responsible third party can potentially involve broader categories of damages depending on the circumstances and applicable law.
Potential damages may include:
The damages available in a particular case depend on the evidence, defendant, applicable law, and type of claim.
There is no meaningful “average workplace accident settlement.”
A relatively minor injury that resolves completely presents a very different case from a spinal cord injury, severe brain injury, amputation, or death.
Potential value can depend on:
Before attempting to value a serious workplace accident, the first step is understanding what kind of legal claim actually exists.
Workplace cases can involve evidence that an injured employee never sees.
Depending on the accident, potentially important evidence can include:
One of the first things I would want to determine after a catastrophic workplace accident is what evidence could disappear if nobody takes steps to preserve it.
A surveillance system may overwrite video. Equipment may be repaired. A construction site may change completely within days. Companies may move machinery or clean up the accident scene.
Early investigation can therefore matter even when the legal filing deadline is much later.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration may investigate certain workplace incidents, particularly serious or fatal accidents.
An OSHA investigation and a personal injury claim serve different purposes.
An OSHA citation does not automatically establish every element of a civil negligence case, and the absence of an OSHA citation does not necessarily mean nobody was negligent.
Nevertheless, investigation materials, photographs, witness information, and findings may become relevant depending on the circumstances.
The legal claim should be independently investigated rather than relying entirely on the outcome of a regulatory investigation.
Texas law contains protections concerning retaliation against employees for pursuing workers’ compensation rights.
Employment-law and workers’ compensation retaliation claims involve issues different from the underlying personal injury case.
If you believe an employer retaliated against you because you reported an injury or pursued workers’ compensation benefits, you should obtain advice concerning those specific rights and deadlines.
The importance of that allegation depends on what type of case exists.
Workers’ compensation generally operates differently from an ordinary negligence lawsuit.
In a nonsubscriber case, Texas Labor Code §406.033 restricts certain defenses that would otherwise be available to an employer.
In a third-party negligence case, Texas proportionate-responsibility law may apply.
The important point is that an employer or insurance company’s statement that “you caused your own accident” does not necessarily end the legal analysis.
The evidence and applicable law determine the effect of any alleged fault.
A work-related injury does not necessarily have to occur inside your employer’s building.
Employees can be injured while:
Whether an injury falls within workers’ compensation coverage depends on the circumstances and Texas law.
The location of the accident may also create potential third-party claims against other people or companies.
Calling someone an “independent contractor” does not necessarily resolve every legal issue.
Worker classification can depend on the actual relationship and circumstances rather than simply the label used in an agreement.
Independent contractors may also have potential claims against companies or individuals whose negligence causes an injury.
Because employment classification can affect workers’ compensation and liability issues, these cases should be evaluated based on the actual facts.
Fatal workplace accidents can create several potential legal issues.
Workers’ compensation death benefits may apply when appropriate. Third-party claims may also exist when someone other than the employer caused the accident.
Texas law also contains a specific provision concerning exemplary damages in certain workers’ compensation cases involving an employee’s death caused by an employer’s gross negligence.
When a workplace accident results in death, certain surviving family members may also have rights under Texas wrongful death law depending on the circumstances.
Our Texas wrongful death lawyer page explains those claims in greater detail.
There is no single deadline that applies to every type of workplace injury claim.
For Texas workers’ compensation claims, the Texas Department of Insurance explains that employees generally must notify their employer of the injury within 30 days and file DWC Form-041 with the Division of Workers’ Compensation within one year.
For ordinary Texas personal injury lawsuits, Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code §16.003 generally provides a two-year limitations period.
Exceptions and different deadlines can apply.
Governmental entities, occupational illnesses, minors, particular defendants, and other circumstances can create additional issues.
Do not rely on a general website article to calculate the deadline in a particular case.
And regardless of the legal deadline, evidence can disappear much sooner.
Be cautious about giving a detailed recorded statement before understanding which insurance company you are dealing with and what type of claim exists.
A workplace accident can involve:
Their legal obligations and interests are not necessarily the same.
You should always be truthful, but in a serious injury case it can be wise to obtain legal advice before giving a detailed recorded statement to an opposing liability insurer.
Not every work injury requires a personal injury lawyer.
A relatively minor injury handled appropriately through workers’ compensation may not justify separate personal injury representation.
Legal representation becomes more important when the accident involves:
The greater the injury and the more companies involved, the more important it becomes to determine whether potential claims exist beyond ordinary workers’ compensation benefits.
A workplace accident lawyer can investigate how the accident occurred and determine which legal system applies.
That may involve determining:
In a catastrophic case, experts may be needed in accident reconstruction, engineering, workplace safety, medicine, vocational rehabilitation, economics, or life-care planning.
The objective is not simply to label something a “work accident.”
It is to identify every potentially responsible party and every potential source of recovery.
Workplace injury cases can involve an unusual intersection of personal injury law, workers’ compensation, employment relationships, insurance, and third-party liability.
A case can look very different depending on whether the employer subscribes to workers’ compensation.
After many years handling personal injury matters, one of the things I would want to know immediately after a serious workplace accident is who employed everyone involved in causing the accident.
On a construction or industrial site, several people wearing hard hats may work side by side while actually being employed by entirely different companies.
That distinction can be legally significant.
The person who caused the accident may not be your coworker at all. He or she may work for an unrelated contractor, equipment company, delivery company, or other business.
Those relationships need to be identified rather than assumed.
Personal injury claims are commonly handled on a contingency-fee basis.
Under a contingency arrangement, the attorney’s fee generally is calculated as a percentage of the recovery rather than billed by the hour as the case proceeds.
The exact fee arrangement and responsibility for case expenses should be explained in a written agreement before representation begins.
D. Willis Law offers free initial consultations so you can discuss what happened and determine what legal options may be available.
A serious workplace accident can affect your health, career, income, family, and future.
In Texas, determining your rights requires more than simply asking whether the accident happened while you were working.
You may have workers’ compensation benefits. Your employer may be a nonsubscriber. A contractor, trucking company, equipment manufacturer, property owner, or another third party may be responsible.
Sometimes more than one claim may exist.
D. Willis Law can review the circumstances of your accident, determine which legal and insurance issues apply, and help you understand your options.
Contact D. Willis Law for a free and confidential consultation about your San Antonio workplace accident case.
This page is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Workplace accident claims can involve workers’ compensation, nonsubscriber law, third-party liability, employment issues, insurance, and other areas of law. The applicable rights and deadlines depend on the particular circumstances. Reading this page or contacting D. Willis Law does not create an attorney-client relationship. An attorney-client relationship is established only through an appropriate written agreement.