What Lawyers Do

A lawsuit was filed in Texas on December 28, 2008 against Southern Hardwood Company, the owner of a sawmill, by the widow of a worker who died as a result of a board edger that “shot back” a board into his chest. The worker, Jose Luis Flores Guadarrama, was pronounced dead at the hospital due to blunt force trauma to the chest.

OSHA cited the company for numerous safety violations following the accident. Those related to the accident included that the edger did not contain proper warnings and did not have a kickback feature in proper condition.

My law firm handles cases that are similar to this. Notably, in New York and New Jersey where we are licensed to practice law, a suit cannot be brought directly against the employer, as it was in this Texas case, because of what is known as the “workers’ compensation bar” – the injured worker is entitled to workers’ compensation but cannot directly sue his or her employer. (The exception is if the worker, like the one here, is killed or suffers a ‘grave injury’ which includes loss of a limb or severe disfigurement).

Workers’ compensation provides a meager weekly salary replacement benefit and covers medical expenses; as those who receive it can attest, their benefits are frequently unjustly reduced or terminated even though their injuries continue to prevent them from working.

Injured workers hoping to find adequate compensation for their injuries must rely on “third-party” lawsuits against the manufacturers and distributors of unsafe products. Known as product liability lawsuits, they are expensive to bring and not easy to win. And they are unavailable to workers who are injured because of an unsafe work environment rather than an unsafe product.

These are the types of lawsuits my firm typically brings on behalf of injured workers, since most cases do not involve deaths or meet the requirements of a “grave injury.”  

Safer worksites and safer work equipment are much-needed in this country. Workers’ compensation does not help to lead to the former, however, since it immunizes employers from their own negligence.