In a construction accident, you may face injuries ranging from broken bones or serious cuts to amputation, serious back and neck injuries, or traumatic brain injuries. If you need time away from work and expensive medical care, you should seek help from a lawyer.
Our attorneys can fight for compensation from your employer or the at-fault parties to get medical care covered, lost wages paid, and pain and suffering compensated. If you act quickly, you can get your claims filed on time and potentially get all of your damages covered.
Call (617) 925-6407 for your free case evaluation with the Law Office of John J. Sheehan’s construction accident attorneys.
When to File My Claim
There are two types of injury claims you may be able to file for a construction accident: a Workers’ Compensation claim and a lawsuit.
Workers’ Compensation claims are typically available to employees who are injured on the job. These claims typically need to be filed within 7 days of the injury by giving your employer notice of the injury and details about what happened to you. This is not all it takes; employers often dispute these claims, and we may need to go before a judge to handle the case for you, all with additional filing and response deadlines.
If you are considering a lawsuit, you typically have 3 years to file your claim. This claim is filed in court rather than with your employer, though you do also need to give notice to the defendant, whoever that might be.
Can You File for Workers’ Comp and File a Lawsuit?
Many construction accident injury victims can actually file both types of claims.
When Workers’ Comp is Allowed
Workers’ Compensation is available to employees. This does not include independent contractors, though you should always speak to a construction accident lawyer about what your legal status actually is. Many employers misclassify workers, and many workers make the wrong assumptions about their status.
If you are covered under workers’ Compensation, you should be able to file a claim for any work injury, regardless of who caused it.
When Lawsuits Are Allowed
Lawsuits are only available against outside parties – think contractors, property owners, equipment manufacturers, or even drivers who caused accidents. If you are an independent contractor, you can also sue your client.
When Both Are Allowed
Notice that these situations do not necessarily overlap. If you qualify as an employee making a Workers’ Compensation claim against your employer, they pay it through their insurance. If you are suing an outside party, that is completely separate.
What this means, in practice, is that you often can sue and file a Workers’ Compensation claim. The difficult issue is that you cannot get paid twice for the same damages.
Overlapping Damages
Workers’ Compensation will typically pay for all medical care and 60-66 2/3% of lost wages. Lawsuits, on the other hand, can pay 100% of lost wages, plus compensate you for pain and suffering.
The law does not allow you to get paid double for these overlapping damages, and what typically happens is the insurance company is allowed to file a claim to claw back the money they spent on your damages. This means that when the defendant in your lawsuit pays you, you keep any extra damages, but you pay everything else back to the insurance company for medical bills and your covered wages.
These “subrogation claims” can be complex, and it is vital to always consult with a lawyer every step of the way.
Can I Settle a Construction Accident Case?
Most injury cases will ultimately settle. Especially with lawsuits, the settlement rate is approximately 98%.
When you settle a case, you give up any right to pursue damages further in exchange for a payout you agree to. Many defendants and any insurance companies that might represent them will typically aim for low settlements to end cases quickly and cheaply. These early offers are usually inappropriate.
However, our lawyers can go back and forth with them to negotiate for a better deal. If a fair deal is reached, we can counsel you on whether or not to accept, but the final call is yours.
You can also settle Workers’ Compensation claims. Instead of paying damages on an ongoing basis, this instead gets you everything you would have gotten paid over the years in one “lump-sum” settlement.
How Much is My Case Worth?
Many construction accident cases are very serious, and victims could be entitled to millions of dollars. Others are potentially worth only a few thousand. We cannot know what your case is worth without really looking into the specifics of what harms you faced.
All damages are specific to your case: the cost of medical treatment, how long you are away from work, whether you can work with accommodations, and how the injury affects the rest of your life.
Economic Damages
Any expenses you face can be totaled up and potentially claimed in your case. Although Workers’ Compensation only pays for medical care and lost earnings – and only at a certain percentage rate – it can still result in high-dollar payouts.
Specific Injury Payments
In addition, Workers’ Compensation also pays for specific injuries, such as amputation or lost function. These amounts are set by statute as a certain number for each injury multiplied by your average wage.
Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering in a lawsuit fulfils a similar role of paying you for the injury itself, but it more broadly covers all of the mental and emotional anguish of the injury, too. We use multiple potential calculation methods, depending on what works best in your case.
Do I Have a Case?
The only way we can tell you if you have a case or not is to examine the facts of what happened. If you properly qualify as an employee and you were injured while performing work tasks, you likely have a Workers’ Compensation claim. Lawsuits, instead, require you to show the defendant was at fault by pointing to a law or duty they breached to cause your injuries.
We can identify these factors in the facts of your case and advise you on how to proceed.
Call Our Construction Accident Lawyers in Stoughton Today
For a free case review, call the construction accident lawyers at the Law Office of John J. Sheehan at (617) 925-6407.