Houston Loading Dock Injury Lawyer

Have You Experienced an Injury in a Houston Loading Dock? Houston Workplace Accident Attorney Michael Grossman Can Help You Seek Compensation

Loading dock injuries are a common occurrence at work sites in Texas and around the country. These types of workplace accidents can cause serious to severe injury, or even death.

If you’ve been injured as a result of a loading dock injury in Houston, you may be able to seek compensation for your injury through a workers' compensation claim or a personal injury lawsuit. Houston work injury attorney Michael Grossman, with 20 years of experience in personal injury law in connection to work-related injuries in Texas, can assist you in seeking full and fair compensation so that you can get back on your feet, and, where possible, back to working. The following article lists common types of loading dock injuries in Texas, and details the legal ramifications of seeking compensation for such an injury.

Common Types of Loading Dock Injuries

Any type of work-related accident that occurs on a loading dock and results in an injury to a victim due to a liable party’s negligence is grounds for a loading dock accident personal injury lawsuit in Texas. These types of accidents can happen in a wide variety of ways, resulting in a wide variety of injuries. Heavy-lifting injuries are a common result of loading dock accidents due to the strain that is put on the back from repeated lifting of heavy objects. Even one instance of lifting an object that is too heavy for one person to handle can result in serious injury. If proper safety equipment was not provided to assist in heavy-lifting duties, or if another co-worker was negligent in helping you to lift a heavy object, then a personal injury lawsuit may be merited.

Another common cause of loading dock injuries in Texas occurs when a delivery truck, 18-wheeler, or other type of commercial vehicle hits a loading dock worker. Since loading docks can sometimes be raucous, loud places with a lot of activity going on, these types of accidents are fairly common. However, drivers who exhibit such negligence while on a loading dock can still be held accountable for their negligent driving. Employers that do not adequately provide for their employees’ safety while on a loading dock may also be held liable for a truck wreck on a loading dock. Our Houston personal injury law firm has worked many cases in the past similar to these loading dock truck accidents, so we’re familiar with the intricacies of the law often involved in such technical matters. In other words, we have a full understanding of work-injury law in Texas, as well as a robust grasp of the laws surrounding commercial trucking accidents.

In a similar vein, forklift accidents on loading docks are another common cause of workplace injuries. If a co-worker is inexperienced or has received less than adequate training to operate a forklift, they may cause a severe loading dock accident. As such, both the co-worker and the employer may bear liability for such an accident, depending on the details of the accident itself. Our personal injury law firm in Houston has also represented plaintiffs in many pallet jack accident and forklift wreck cases. In the tragic instances where a worker has lost their life due to the negligence of a forklift operator, we’ve represented the family that has lost a loved one. In such work-related wrongful death cases, we help the family toward compensation for their loss while simultaneously working to ensure that a similar fatal accident does not have to befall another family in the future.

Lastly, loading dock injuries can also be caused by rather uncommon accidents, such as falling boxes or debris, or exposure to hazardous materials while on the loading dock. When these types of loading dock accidents occur, it can sometime be challenging to identify the liable parties. In many instances, liability for a loading dock accident may be placed with more than one party. When this occurs, a different case must be built against each unique defendant, so having the legal help of an experienced Houston work-injury attorney like Michael Grossman and his team at Grossman Law Offices can prove beneficial toward such cases being staked against the negligent parties.

Loading Dock Injuries Can Often Result in Traumatic Brain Injury

While loading dock injuries can run the gamut from soft tissue injuries to broken bones to herniated discs to more egregious injuries like severe lacerations or the loss of limbs, traumatic brain injury is a commonly occurring result of loading dock injuries, due to the vulnerability of a worker’s head, especially when forklifts are being used, or when proper safety equipment is not being utilized. Properly assessing a traumatic brain injury in the aftermath of a loading dock injury is vital toward seeking adequate compensation to cover the victim’s full extent of his or her injury. Since a traumatic brain injury may not fully present itself for days or weeks, an experienced attorney must seek the knowledge of competent medical professionals in order to help prove up damages, i.e. justify the amount of compensation being sought for the worker’s traumatic brain injury as a result of a loading dock accident. Long term damage may result in the victim not being able to return to work, and that is one of the items that must be factored into the amount of compensation requested from the defendant. With two decades of experience in proving up damages and working with medical professionals to ensure that our clients’ injuries are fully assessed, Houston work-injury attorney Michael Grossman has the necessary tools to help ensure that you and your family can stand to seek full compensation for your injury, including loading dock injuries that may result in a traumatic brain injury.

Workers Compensation Insurance and Houston Loading Dock Injuries

Unlike most states in America, Texas does not require its employers to carry workers compensation insurance. However, a majority of employers in Texas are covered by workers compensation insurance due to the protections it affords them. Namely, they choose to be subscribers to workers comp because it means that they’re immune to lawsuits brought against them by an injured victim or a bereaved family. (However, the one exception to such immunity is if an employer’s gross negligence contributed to an employee’s death). Employers that are not covered by workers compensation insurance, a.k.a non-subscribers, can be sued through a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit. As such, assessing whether or not a liable employer is covered by workers’ comp insurance is the first issue that must be addressed in choosing to seek compensation for your loading dock injury in Texas.

If you are injured while on-the-job at a loading dock and your employer is covered by workers compensation insurance, you will have to seek compensation for your injury through the workers compensation insurance policy. While this means that you will likely receive some type of compensation for your injury at some point in the future, such compensation is often not quite enough to cover the actual financial losses that you’ve incurred as a result of your injury, such as medical bills or lost wages due to time off from work. Furthermore, the workers comp process is often a bureaucratic and laborious process filled with mountains of paperwork. A Houston workers comp lawyer can help you through this process where necessary. However, a Houston work-injury attorney may also be able to help you identify other possible liable parties involved in your loading dock accident that are not covered by workers compensation insurance. Since these parties can be litigated against, the compensation possibly received from these other liable parties may assist in making up for the deficit that often exists between a victim’s incurred damages, i.e. financial losses, and the amount of compensation they’ve received through a workers comp policy.

If you’ve been injured on a loading dock and your employer is not covered by workers compensation insurance, then you can bring a personal injury lawsuit against your employer. With the help of an experienced Houston personal injury lawyer like Michael Grossman, you could then stand to be fully and fairly compensated for your loading dock injury. However, since many Texas employers have a fair understanding of workers comp law, some non-subscribers may attempt to act as if they are subscribers so that an injured victim will assume that they cannot bring a lawsuit against their employer. Managers and other co-workers that you may assume would know the answer as to whether or not your employer carries workers comp insurance may not know the true answer, or may hesitate in providing you with a definitive answer. In these instances, assessing an employer’s workers comp status may often only be accomplished with the help of a Houston workers comp attorney who can investigate the matter. Some non-subscribers have even gone so far as to offer payments out of their own pockets while suggesting to an injured victim that such payment is coming from a workers comp insurance policy.

Certain challenges can arise when seeking compensation against a non-subscriber for a loading dock injury. Since loading dock accidents can often result in severe personal injury, such as a traumatic brain injury as previously described, the damages incurred by a victim can often be quite high. Even though a non-subscribing employer is not covered by workers comp insurance, it’s likely that they’ll be covered by some other form of insurance. In these instances, such a policy may be worth quite a sizable sum. Consequently, insurance adjusters sent to work such a large-sum claim will work toward having the claim denied or diminished so that their company does not have to pay out such a large sum in compensation. Furthermore, they will likely have defense attorneys on call that can quickly investigate the scene of an accident so that the liable company might be able to be cleared of any or all liability. Ensure that you have legal help on your side that has both the experience and the ability to act quickly so that a strong case can be built on your behalf. Going against such insurers and defense attorneys is best left to attorneys that have proven themselves time and time again against such stout defensive teams.

Contractors with Loading Dock Injuries

Loading dock injuries in Houston may often involve contractors or other types of workers that are not directly employed by the owner of the loading dock or transportation service using the loading dock. Since contractors are responsible for their own safety while on-the-job, contractors that have been injured due to another entity’s negligence may be confused about their legal rights or frustrated with the fact that they may not be able to seek proper compensation for their loading dock injury. However, Texas law includes an expansive definition of an employee, and if an employee-employer relationship can be established under the law, then a negligent employer can be held liable for a worker’s injury, even if that worker had been called a contractor from the outset of their job. The following statements can be used to help determine a worker’s status as an employee rather than a contractor:

• The employer withheld social security or taxes from the worker’s paycheck.
• The employer paid the worker through a salary or through an hourly wage, as opposed to the worker being paid per job completed.
• The employer employed the worker for an indefinite amount of time, as opposed to the worker being employed to complete a specific job.
• The employer asked the worker to sign a document, such as an employee handbook or an agreement to be drug-tested, that limited the worker’s work-related rights.
• The employer oversaw the worker’s work while they were working, as opposed to looking over the work after the work was completed.
• The employer provided a specific schedule for the worker to follow.
• The employer provided tools and equipment for the worker’s job, as opposed to the worker furnishing their own tools and equipment.

If any of the above statements are true, a legitimate employee-employer relationship can likely be claimed. Consequently, an injured worker could then seek compensation from such an employer through the routes previously mentioned, dependent on whether or not the employer is covered by workers comp. If you’re a contractor that has suffered a loading dock injury in Houston, an experienced Houston work accident attorney like Michael Grossman may be able to assist you in defining your employment status so that you can seek proper compensation from a negligent party.

Loading Dock Injuries and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

When severe accidents occur in the workplace, the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration may open their own investigation into the accident. Many people erroneously assume that such an investigation may be beneficial to their personal injury case for a loading dock accident. That is seldom the case. Such an investigation is most often conducted with an eye toward preventing future, similar accidents from occurring, and not with an eye toward the rights of the injured victim receiving proper compensation for their injury. Furthermore, OSHA investigations can sometimes take time to be completed and reports generated from such investigations are often written from a high level that is seldom concerned with the needs of an injured worker following the accident. While OSHA serves a worthy purpose to prevent future workplace accidents, a third-party investigation is often more beneficial to an aggrieved party in order to hold all liable parties accountable for their negligence. With two decades of work-injury accident experience in Texas, Michael Grossman and his team at Grossman Law Offices can conduct a thorough investigation of your loading dock accident site in order to ascertain proper liability so that you can stand to be rightfully compensated for your injury from all parties that may have contributed to the accident.

Contact Houston Workplace Injury Attorney Michael Grossman for Help With Your Loading Dock Accident Personal Injury Case

As a word of caution, refrain from signing any documents that your employer or an insurance company may foist upon you in the aftermath of a loading dock injury. Such a document is often a release of liability offered in exchange for the promise of forthcoming compensation. It is a first-gasp effort in an attempt to thwart any possible legal proceedings. However, such compensation, if it ever arrives, is often much less than what will likely cover the full extent of your incurred damages, and is often much less than what could be rightfully be obtained through a personal injury lawsuit. A key warning sign in such instances is if some form of compensation has been offered before you’re aware of the full extent of your injuries. If such a document is signed, as the promise of some compensation quickly can often be more alluring than seeking full compensation in time, there is little that can be done in the legal realm to seek further compensation since the victim has signed away their rights to do so. A Houston work-related accident lawyer can look over such documents to ensure that you’re not being taken advantage of by an employer or an insurance company that would rather make cheap and quick work of your claim.

The Houston work injury law firm of Grossman Law Offices has the experience, knowledge, and reputation to capably assist you in seeking compensation for your loading dock injury. Such compensation may be able to go toward medical bills, both past and future, lost wages due to time off from work, lost earning capacity if unable to return to work, legal fees, pain and suffering, or other incurred damages. Furthermore, we’ve taken cases against every major insurance company in the nation, so they’re aware of our track record in regards to the successful outcomes we’ve been able to obtain on behalf of our clients. Since they’re familiar with our work injury law firm, they’re often willing to work with us to reach a mutually agreeable settlement in which a client may be fairly compensated without having to step foot into a courtroom. However, if a trial case is necessary, we’ll be ready to defend your rights in that setting as well. Contact Grossman Law Offices at 1-855-392-0000 (toll free) if you’ve suffered a Houston loading dock injury. We offer free legal consultations where you can ask further questions about your legal options so that you might be able to start the legal process to seek due compensation for your loading dock injury.