Worksites keep Texas moving: construction, plants, warehouses, refineries, and oilfields. They are also places where serious, life-changing injuries happen in an instant. If you were hurt on the job, here is a clear look at your options and next steps.
Common causes and injuries
Worksite injuries happen in many ways, but a large share of them involve:
- Falls from elevated work areas, such as ladders, roofs, scaffolding, platforms, drilling equipment, and structural framing.
- Being struck by or caught in machinery or equipment: operators who are distracted or not watching nearby workers, equipment run without following safety policies and procedures, or dangerous machinery missing required safety guards.
- Forklift, vehicle, and motorized equipment collisions. Worksites run like busy highways, with traffic, distracted operators, and blind corners, except the “cars” have forks, buckets, booms, and swinging counterweights.
- Electrical shocks and arc flashes, which usually happen when someone was supposed to confirm that the power was shut off to a work area and did not, or was never properly trained on how to confirm it.
- Burns, chemical exposures, and explosions.
- Heat stress and dehydration.
- Lifting injuries, often after being instructed to lift heavy loads manually without proper precautions, proper equipment, or a quick safety meeting on lifting procedures.
The injuries range from strained muscles, fractures, torn ligaments, pinched nerves, and herniated discs to traumatic brain injuries, spinal fractures and severances, amputations, burns, cardiac arrest, heart attacks, and death. An accurate, early diagnosis matters for your health and for your legal claims. In a workers’ compensation claim, who may serve as your treating doctor depends on whether the claim is in a certified health care network, and emergency care does not wait for that choice.
Who pays: workers’ compensation in Texas
In Texas, who pays your medical bills after a worksite injury depends on a few things. Texas is unique for many reasons, and workers’ compensation is one of them: Texas employers can choose whether to carry it. If you were injured on a worksite, your employer’s decision to subscribe to workers’ compensation or not greatly affects your rights and legal claims going forward. That coverage question is explained in more depth in the firm’s workplace injuries overview.
If your employer carries Texas workers’ comp
- Your medical care and a portion of your lost wages are covered without proving fault. The Texas Department of Insurance publishes answers for injured employees.
- Generally, you cannot sue a subscribing employer for negligence for causing your worksite injuries. This is called the “exclusive remedy” rule. The statute preserves one limited exception: the surviving spouse or heirs of the body of an employee whose death was caused by the employer’s intentional act or omission, or by its gross negligence, may seek exemplary damages. That is a possible recovery for those specific family members, not a general right to sue for negligence, and whether an intentional injury to a living worker is treated differently is a case-specific question for a lawyer.
- You can still bring personal injury claims against third parties who caused or contributed to your injuries (more on this below).
If your employer is a “nonsubscriber”
A nonsubscriber is an employer that does not carry workers’ compensation.
- You can generally sue the employer for negligence.
- Texas law limits the defenses a nonsubscribing employer can use. For example, it cannot blame your co-worker for causing the accident, or argue that you assumed the risk or caused the accident yourself.
- You can seek full damages: medical bills, lost earnings, pain, physical impairment, and more.
Third-party claims
Worksites are rarely occupied by just one company; multiple companies often work side by side. If another company’s unsafe act or defective equipment caused or contributed to your injuries, you may have a separate negligence or product-liability claim in addition to any workers’ comp benefits. How those companies are identified and separated from your employer is the subject of a third-party workplace claim.
What to do after a worksite injury
- Report the injury immediately. Tell a supervisor in writing. Document how the accident occurred and the names of everyone involved, and note all protective equipment you were wearing at the time. Keep a copy.
- Seek medical attention immediately. In an emergency, get treatment first; Texas lets you obtain emergency care without prior approval from the Division of Workers’ Compensation or the insurer. For ongoing care under a workers’ comp claim, the rules depend on the claim: if it is in a certified health care network, you must use a doctor in that network and may pick a new one from its list; if it is not in a network, you choose your treating doctor, as long as the doctor is allowed to provide workers’ compensation care, and changing doctors later generally needs the Division’s approval. Tell every medical provider that your injuries are work-related. Insurers look for any chance to say an injury was not caused by a specific work accident, because it gives them a reason to refuse to pay for treatment.
- Document everything. Photos of the scene, the equipment, and your injuries; names and phone numbers of witnesses; incident reports; badge scans; safety-meeting sign-ins; company logos; workers’ name tags.
- Preserve evidence. Do not repair or return equipment without photographing all of it in the condition it was in when the accident occurred. Save your boots, gloves, clothing, hard hat, and other personal protective equipment.
- Avoid recorded statements to the employer’s insurer or to third parties until you speak with a lawyer. Any time you are on a call with an insurance company or another involved party after an accident, assume the conversation is being recorded.
- Follow your doctor’s orders and attend every appointment. Gaps in treatment hurt both your recovery and your claim.
- Stay off social media. Do not post about the accident or your health, including workouts or strenuous activities. Insurers monitor social media for anything that could support denying a claim.
Texas deadlines
- Workers’ comp notice. You must report a work-related injury to your employer within 30 days of the injury, or within 30 days of learning that an occupational disease may be related to your work. If you do not, expect the workers’ comp adjuster to refuse to pay for your medical expenses; Texas law excuses a late notice only in limited situations, such as when the employer already knew of the injury or good cause exists.
- Workers’ comp claim. You must file your workers’ comp claim (form DWC-041) with the Division of Workers’ Compensation within one year of the injury, unless good cause excuses a late filing or the carrier does not contest the claim.
- Negligence lawsuits. Most Texas injury and third-party claims must be filed within two years of the incident. That does not mean you should wait until the last minute. The sooner you contact a personal injury lawyer after an accident, the stronger your claims and any lawsuit will be.
- Wrongful death. Generally two years from the date of death, with some exceptions.
Deadlines can be tricky, and the clock may run from when you knew or should have known the injury was work-related, which is common with exposures and repetitive trauma. Act early so evidence does not disappear and your claim can be filed on time.
Where Leatherwood & Schindler comes in
Contacting the firm immediately after a work-related accident allows its legal team to:
- Investigate quickly. Secure photos, video, equipment, safety manuals, company safety policies and procedures, training records, work permits, hot-work logs, toolbox talks, OSHA materials, and witness information and statements.
- Identify all liable parties. The employer (if a nonsubscriber), the general contractor, subcontractors, staffing companies, property owners, equipment manufacturers, and others.
- Put all liable parties on notice that they are legally required to preserve all evidence and data related to the accident.
- Protect your benefits and legal rights by coordinating workers’ comp benefits while pursuing third-party claims for full damages where allowed.
- Value the case properly, accounting for future medical care, lost earning capacity, and long-term effects such as chronic pain or impairment.
- Assert your claims on time. Filing sooner rather than later almost always benefits a case in the long run.
If you or someone you know suffered a work-related injury, tell the firm what happened. The lawyers at Leatherwood & Schindler review the situation, explain the options in plain English, and move to protect your health, your rights, and your claims.
This post is general information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines and rights may vary based on your facts. Contact a lawyer for advice about your specific situation.