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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. More information our San Antonio Workers Comp Lawyer here
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 that the family has suffered. More information our San Antonio Work Injury Lawyer here
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. 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 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 wrongful death construction worker can file a lawsuit when the construction company is a subscriber. The only way 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 office know 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 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. That is an example of standard negligence. If the construction site is continually filled with debris and other dangerous objects have habitually been knocked off of that roof, 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. 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 their heart, but don’t count on that happening to you. 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. They are at risk of having to pay out a lot more money than a subscriber has to.
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.
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