Dallas Workers Compensation Attorneys | Carabin Shaw Workplace Accident Lawyers

Workers Compensation Claims Lawyers

Have You Been Injured At Work and Your Employer Does Not Carry Workers’ Compensation?
Contact a Non-Subscriber Attorney at our Dallas Law Office, A Premier Nonsubscriber Injury Law Firm in Texas

According to data gathered by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly three million Americans report a workplace injury each year, and more than 5,000 workers die each year as a result of work-related accidents. Workplace accidents are, sadly, some of the leading causes of injuries and fatalities across the country. As a member of the workforce, you may know how frustrating it is to get sick or hurt. You need to be able to complete your daily responsibilities so you can continue to provide for yourself and your family.

But when your injuries or illnesses are a result of your job, there are options available to you to help you streamline your recovery. Under Texas law, you have the right to file a claim with your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance and recover benefits from the insurance companies. But in order to be successful with this endeavor, you’ll likely need the guidance of a qualified Dallas workers’ compensation lawyer at our law firm.

Subscribers and Non-Subscribers Workers Compensation:

If you’ve been injured in a workplace accident, the type and amount of compensation you will receive is directly related to whether your employer carries workers’ compensation insurance backed by Texas law, or if your employer carries traditional liability insurance.

Employers who carry workers’ comp are called subscribers, and those who do not carry workman’s compensation are called non-subscribers. Dallas Workplace accident claims and court actions can be some of the most complex litigation our Dallas attorneys see in court.

The exact way your claim is addressed and handled is based on several issues. One of the biggest factors in whether the employer in question is a subscriber or nonsubscriber. Texas law, with very few exceptions, protects subscriber employers from lawsuits from most injured employees. Texas law admits there may be other extenuating factors that can break or reinforce the employer-employee relationship in spite of the subscriber status.

Should you suffer harm or injury in the workplace, the first thing you must do is seek immediate medical attention. Your health, your quality of life, and your ability to provide for your loved ones are at stake. Ignoring your health can negatively affect your recovery. Seeking medical attention is important to your lawsuit or claim since you will need official medical diagnoses and documentation. You shouldn’t worry about the price-tag for your treatment, it is likely your medical care will be covered by the compensation you are requesting. In many instances, we can help you find medical attention from a large association of medical professionals we’ve met over time. You shouldn’t worry about your financial situation here either. They will consider your unique circumstances and finances. Sometimes we may be able to help you find medical treatment with no up-front cost to you. Moreover, we can teach you how your time off from work to seek and receive medical care may be covered by workers’ comp or your employer’s insurance carrier. After you’ve received the necessary medical care, we can then begin to discuss the actions essential to finding the party or parties who are responsible for your injuries and losses.

A Word About Workers’ Compensation

If your employer has workers’ comp, you will need to inform your company immediately after the workplace incident. By law, you have thirty days to report the accident and your injury, but if you delay many employers will try to deny or minimize your benefits. It is in your best interest to report your medical care as soon as you can. Texas law protects subscribers to workers’ compensation by giving them immunity, with strict exceptions, to lawsuits by employees who’ve suffered an injury or loss in the workplace. Employees who’ve been injured due to outrageous carelessness or gross negligence are able to file a personal injury claim. If the accident was fatal, the immediate family members of the deceased can file a wrongful death claim. Also, in many workplace accidents a third party, such as a contractor, vendor, or supplier may have partial or complete liability for the mishap that caused your injury or loss. The attorneys at our Dallas Law Office can help you untangle the liability of two or more parties that are responsible for your pain and suffering.

What if My Employer Doesn’t Carry Workers’ Compensation and is a Nonsubscriber?

Non-subscribers are those employers who do not buy state-supported Workmans’ compensation insurance. The procedures for seeking relief and filing claims is vitally different from seeking compensation and filing claims under workers’ comp. When you deal with an employer not covered by workman’s comp, you are in for an experience that can be very expensive, time-consuming, and completely frustrating.

The main difference between the subscriber and nonsubscriber claims is that a nonsubscriber employee who has been injured in a workplace accident has much more legal freedom to initiate a lawsuit against his or her careless or negligent employer for his or her injuries and losses. With subscriber claims, most injured employees deal with workers’ compensation administrative bureaucracies and bureaucrats, and as a result, they are dealing with the force of state government. With nonsubscriber claims, however, most injured or harmed workers find themselves dealing with the Texas judicial system and Texas civil law. Because these claims tend to find their way to the courts, it is easier for victims of workplace injuries to seek relief since they are not fighting against government-supported employers, but instead, they are up against negligent employers who’ve failed to provide safe and secure workplaces. Nevertheless, a lawsuit against a nonsubscriber employer is an extremely difficult undertaking.

Though an injured worker of a nonsubscriber employer has more workplace rights than the others, it doesn’t mean they should try to represent themselves when pursuing legal action or a settlement. The law and regulatory regime in place are far too complicated to understand for those who have no experience with it and who do not work with it on a daily basis. It is necessary to secure the services of our Dallas attorneys to help you navigate your way through the dangerous shoals of nonsubscriber workplace injury law. The nonsubscriber specialist attorneys at our Dallas Law Office can help you seek, negotiate, and win the full and fair compensation that is rightfully yours.

If your employer is not enrolled in workers’ comp, you can bring a personal injury claim to seek compensation for your injuries and losses for:

• Lost wages while recuperating from your injuries while hospitalized or otherwise on leave due to doctor’s orders.
• Loss of future wages and earning potential due to your accident and long-term disability
• Reimbursement for medical bills and expenses
• Property loss due to the workplace incident
• Pain, suffering, and emotional distress

Texas law grants nonsubscriber employers only one real defense against liability for their negligence, and this legal defense is known as proximate cause. In order to prove proximate cause, your employer must demonstrate that you are solely and wholly responsible for your workplace accident. After your worksite mishap, your employer’s legal defense team will immediately begin to build a case against you in order to prove that you were in fact the negligent party and relieve your employer of any liability. For instance, if you have injuries that resulted from crushing your hand, your employer will try to show that you should have been wearing work gloves for protection and the accident is your fault alone. Our Dallas Law Office nonsubscriber attorneys have the skill and experience to show a relationship between your blameless actions and any harm by demonstrating that your employer did not exercise due care in providing you the right safety training and equipment necessary for you to perform your job with the utmost care. We can also show that other third parties may be negligent in providing for workplace safety, and we will accordingly hold them accountable for their carelessness and recklessness.

In order to prove a nonsubscriber liable for your workplace injury and loss, it can only be done by engaging in difficult and complex legal work in which only the most experienced personal injury or wrongful death attorneys can be successful. We know how to establish to a judge and jury that your employer was careless in providing a safe work environment and that your injury is a result of employer negligence, and that you are truly innocent. We are dedicated to aggressively aiding you in receiving the compensation you deserve, regardless of whether your employer subscribes to workers’ comp or not.

In Many Cases, There Is Little Difference Between Contract and Full-time Employees

Many employers wrongly believe that if they hire contract employees, then they will not be responsible for them should they suffer workplace injuries and losses. They hold this belief because Texas law usually exempts contract employees from enjoying the complete rights that regular full-time employees enjoy, including protection from on-the-job accidents and mishaps. Be that as it may, the state of Texas does not clearly define or distinguish between the rights of contract and full-time employees. In order for you to know and understand your status and its resulting rights, you will need the services of a workers’ compensation accident attorney to help you confirm your position. Texas law is extremely clear on this one position: when it comes to determining responsibility in the workplace, the real work done with the employer defines your status and your rights.

Many fundamentals can establish an employer-employee relationship, and the most direct is a contract of employment. Another instance of this relationship is when an employee serves as an agent of the activity of his or her employer. For example, even if you don’t have a contract to work for an event company, yet you wear the uniform, drive the company truck, receive the company’s money and set up and take down the company’s inflatable slides and bounce houses, then you are a company employee, despite the nonexistence of an agreement.

In many instances, however, the distinction between an employee and a contractor is not so easy to make. In the below situations, we’ve listed a number of circumstances that may determine your relationship with your current employer:

• If the employee in question works for a number of clients: If an electrician is working on a number of assignments for several clients, he is an electrical contractor. If he works on many projects for one client, he is an employee.
• If the employee in question uses and is responsible for his or her own tools and equipment, he or she is a contractor. If he or she uses and is responsible for the employer’s tools and equipment for the employer’s work, he or she is an employee.
• If the employee in question is paid at the end of a project, the employee is a contractor. If the employee is paid hourly or paid a salary, the worker is an employee.
• If the employee in question has his or her work supervised and inspected at various stages of completion, the worker is an employee. If the employer is only concerned with the final product, the worker is a contractor.
• If the employee in question has the ability to determine how much time is spent on a project, the worker is a contractor. If the employee cannot determine the amount of work time spent on a particular task, the worker is an employee.

If you are a worker for an agency, the rules for establishing the relationship may be related, but there are significant differences. The conditions are:

• If the employee in question’s employer has the right to fire the employee at any time, the worker is considered an employee.
• If the borrowed employee is responsible for supplying his or her own tools and/or equipment, the worker is a contractor. If the employer supplies the tools and equipment for the job, the worker is an employee.
• If the borrowing employer cannot replace an employee with another employee at will, the employee in question is a contractor.
• If the borrowing employer has the employee in question for only a specified length of time, the worker is a contract employee. If the time period is indeterminate, the worker is an employee.
• If the borrowing company uses an employee due to a very specific skill. For example, if an employer borrows a legal researcher to interpret a certain contract, the worker is a contractor. If an employer borrows an employee to do work that almost anyone can do, the worker is an employee.
• If an employer is responsible for paying an employee’s Social Security and income taxes, the worker in question is an employee. If the borrowing employer is not responsible for paying Social Security and income taxes, the worker is a contractor.

Our Dallas Non-Subscriber Attorneys Can Help You With Your Situation

Our Dallas attorneys can help you receive your full and fair compensation for your work-related injuries and losses. Whether your employer has Workmans’ compensation or not, we can help you receive compensation for your injuries. We can also aid you in identifying the party or parties who may be financially liable for the injuries you’ve endured from your job-site mishap. If your employer does not carry worker’s comp, we can aid you in building a strong and substantial case against non-subscribers. If your employer uses a legal defense team, we will battle them to the end to show your innocence and prove your employer’s negligence for your workplace accident injury and loss. Before talking to your employer’s insurance company and being possibly manipulated, coerced, or otherwise persuaded to settle for compensation that is far from adequate for your needs; or before you decide to take on an aggressive, skilled, and legal defense team on your own, contact our Dallas nonsubscriber attorneys to learn about your legal alternatives and the true value of your claim and potential compensation.

Our Dallas, Texas nonsubscriber workplace accident law firm has over twenty five years of experience negotiating and litigating full and fair compensation for our clients, and we’ve taken on cases the less experienced lawyers refused to handle. We just dealt with an incident in which an employee suffered a job site accident where he had signed a contract defining him as a contract worker. More than six law firms argued it was not a good case to litigate. Our Dallas Law Office took on the negligent employer and won for our client a settlement valued at over a million dollars.

Our Dallas workers’ compensation attorneys have over two decades of experience in personal injury and wrongful death litigation. We have successfully taken on hundreds of workplace injury cases in Texas and throughout the United States. We have negotiated with or litigated against every single major insurer in the nation, and defense attorneys know and respect our reputation. They know we are dedicated, aggressive, and relentless when we fight to protect our clients’ rights and interests, and they are scared to take on our attorneys in legal action. We have a reputation as tough and fair negotiators for settlements, but we are more than willing to enter a court of law. We will do everything we can to get you fair and full compensation for your injuries and losses. Call us toll-free at 1-800-862-1260 or 972-278-9202 for a free legal consultation to discuss your settlement and legal alternatives.

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