Some days at work may not be pleasant, but they should never end in a visit to the emergency room. If you were seriously injured at the workplace, you may be facing weeks or even months of lost wages and massive medical bills. You shouldn’t have to face these difficulties on your own. A Beaumont work injury lawyer from Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law will help you determine your legal options after an injury in the workplace.
What Counts as a Workplace Injury?
When Do You Need a Work Injury Attorney in Beaumont?
If you suffer an injury while you are working, you have suffered a workplace injury. But that definition is too simple to understand exactly when you can and can’t file a workplace injury claim. The following situations typically count as workplace injuries.
Injuries at Offsite Locations as Long as You Are Being Paid to Work
Just because you aren’t at the office, that doesn’t mean you aren’t working. For example, if you are performing tech support for a cable company, you would be considered in the workplace even if you were at a customer’s home installing cable or resolving a tech problem. As a general rule, if you are getting paid while performing work, a work injury attorney in Beaumont can help you get compensation for an injury.
Car Accidents While You Are on the Clock
This primarily affects individuals who perform deliveries or drive company vehicles as part of their job. Traveling between worksites counts as performing a work duty because you are paid for that time. While liability in a car accident in Texas is usually assigned based on fault, that doesn’t remove the liability your employer has toward you if you are injured in this fashion. A Beaumont work injury lawyer at Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law can help you work through the complicated regulations in this type of situation.
Work Trips
This situation is even more complicated. But typically, if you take a trip for work, your workplace may be liable for injuries you suffer during that trip, even if you aren’t “on the clock” at the time you are injured. Effectively, you are considered to be working even while traveling to and from another location and while you are doing things on your own time (like eating or working out at the hotel gym). If you are injured while on a work trip, contact a Beaumont work injury lawyer immediately.
Unpaid Time While at the Workplace
Some situations may be unclear. For example, imagine you have arrived at work but haven’t clocked in yet, and you are injured while walking to your office. Even though you aren’t yet on the clock, you are at the workplace and doing something necessary to perform your job. In this situation, your injury would typically count as a work-related injury. Similarly, even if you are on an unpaid break, if you slip on a spill in the break room, that would usually be counted as a work-related accident. Beaumont work injury lawyers at Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law will investigate the circumstances of your accident and determine whether you have a legitimate workplace injury claim.
What Doesn’t Count as a Workplace Injury
It is just as important to understand when a Beaumont work injury lawyer can’t help.
Travel to and From Work
Your commute to and from work typically does not count as a workplace injury. This may even be true if you are driving a work vehicle. Similarly, if you are injured while in the parking lot of your workplace, that likely would not count as a workplace injury. Your workplace might be liable based on premises liability laws, especially if the injury was due to a lack of maintenance. A work injury lawyer in Beaumont from Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law can help you determine whether circumstances warrant a work injury claim.
Other Reasons for Being in the Workplace
There are other reasons that employees might visit their workplace, even when they aren’t on the clock. For example, you might go to work to pick up a check in person or to grab your jacket if you accidentally left it in the office. If you somehow got injured while doing these things, that injury wouldn’t count as a workplace injury.
An injury at the workplace shouldn’t put you in financial straits. If you were hurt at work, contact a work injury attorney from Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law at (713) 973-8888 or toll-free 1 (800) 444-5000 to learn about how you can get compensated for your injury.
Damages You Can Receive
The Value of Your Workplace Injury Claim
When you are injured at the workplace, your employer is typically liable for the injuries. There are several types of damages you can receive, depending on the circumstances of your injuries.
Economic Damages
These damages reflect costs and expenses associated with the injury you suffered. For example, if your injury prevents you from working for three weeks, you can get compensation for three weeks of lost wages. Economic wages need to be documented and can never exceed the actual costs or losses that you incurred or can be reasonably expected to incur.
Non-Economic Damages
This reflects pain and suffering. Assume that you suffered a spinal cord injury that kept you out of work for a year and required several surgeries to correct. Even if you receive enough money to pay all your medical bills, lost wages, and other expenses, that doesn’t compensate you for the intense pain that you suffered during that time. Our Beaumont work injury lawyers will also petition to get you compensation for that pain. The value of this compensation can’t be documented, but there are well-defined formulas for calculating a fair value of your suffering.
Why Choose Us?
Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law is a law firm that has been serving Texas clients for almost 40 years. Terry Bryant opened this law firm because he believed in helping people who have been seriously injured. While the firm has grown, that devotion to helping Texans hasn’t changed. The only difference between now and 1985 is that we now have several lawyers working as a team to help people recover from their injuries.
Our team of personal injury attorneys with experience in Beaumont, Jefferson County, and neighboring areas of the Golden Triangle has an exceptional record of success. We have litigated cases of all sizes and never back down from large corporations or insurance companies. Our attorneys have had numerous successes both in the courtroom and at the negotiating table, winning verdicts and settlements worth millions of dollars for our work injury clients. Your case may not be worth that much, but you can be certain that when you hire our team to represent you, we will fight to get you as much money as the law allows.
We’ve recovered over $1 billion for clients in nearly 40 years of helping injured Texans.
Frequently Asked Questions
Workplace injuries can result in a lot of complicated issues. You want to get whatever compensation you are eligible for, but you also want to stay on the good side of your employer. In a situation like that, you likely have lots of questions. We try to answer as many of those questions as possible before you even contact us.
How long do you have to file a work injury lawsuit?
Texas places limits on how long you have to file a personal injury lawsuit. Typically, you have two years after suffering an injury to make a claim. If you aren’t sure how much time you have left, talk to an attorney immediately. In fact, always speak directly to an attorney to learn the exact deadlines that apply to your potential claims.
Are there different rules if my employer is a government agency?
Yes. Texas limits your ability to file personal injury claims against government agencies. The biggest limit is a cap on how much you can receive. The state caps your damages to $250,000, with a further cap of $500,000 total per incident. This could be extremely limiting if you are seriously injured.
How much will a personal injury lawyer from Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law cost me?
We take our cases on contingency. That means we charge you no fee if we fail to get you money. And if we successfully get you money, we take only a percentage of that recovery as our fee. Our legal team will fully explain our fee structure before you decide whether to hire us.
Can I file a claim if a loved one died in a workplace accident?
Yes. We handle claims for wrongful death, as well as survival actions, for injured workers and their loved ones. Our attorneys will explain what benefits are available to family members.
Did this answer your questions? If not, our attorneys will answer any questions you have during your free consultation.
Contact Our Law Firm Today
Workplace injuries are an unfortunate occurrence. But with the right help, you can avoid the debt that comes from lost income and medical bills.
Where can you get the right help? Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law. Contact us now at toll-free 1 (800) 444-5000 to discuss your legal options with a lawyer who cares.
Attorney Terry Bryant
Terry Bryant is Board Certified in personal injury trial law, which means his extensive knowledge of the law has been recognized by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, setting him apart from many other injury attorneys. The 22 years he spent as a Municipal Judge, Spring Valley Village, TX also provides him keen insight into the Texas court system. That experience also helps shape his perspective on personal injury cases and how they might resolve. This unique insight benefits his clients. [ Attorney Bio ]
