Construction site accidents are a common occurrence. Each year, these workers endure injuries from unsafe scaffolding, falling objects, and exposed electrical wires. While some injuries are relatively minor, many have a long-standing impact on a worker. The expenses related to medical treatment are often compounded by missing out on multiple paychecks. A workers’ compensation claim could provide you with the benefits you need while recovering from a construction accident.
Navigating the Lima workers’ compensation system is never easy on your own.
Thankfully, a skilled workers’ compensation attorney could assist you in evaluating your case, filing a claim, and even appeal a denial. With the help of a Lima construction accident lawyer, you might be able to maximize your benefits following a successful claim.
The Nature of Construction Accidents
While injuries could occur at any workplace, they are especially common at a construction site. Unlike some jobs, there are inherent risks with construction work that are unavoidable.
Due to the incomplete nature of a building under construction, there are far more opportunities for serious falls, exposure to harmful chemicals, or machinery accidents. Some of the facts that commonly lead to construction accidents include:
- Falls from a great height
- Electrocution
- Falling objects
- Heavy machinery accidents
- Vehicle accidents
- Trips and falls
- Exposure to hazardous chemicals
While these are common hazards on a construction site, any dangerous condition could potentially result in a workers’ compensation claim. An experienced attorney could advise a Lima construction accident victim like yourself on whether their injury qualifies for a claim for benefits.
Fatal Construction Accidents by the Numbers
According to data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), about one of every five work-related fatalities in the year 2021 happened to someone who worked in the construction industry. Since BLS data shows that 5,190 fatal work injuries occurred in that same year across all industries combined, that equates to about a thousand total deaths per year in the construction industry alone—as much proof as you could ever need that construction work can be uniquely dangerous.
According to that same data, accidental falls are by far the most common cause of fatal work injuries on construction sites, as they represent 37 percent of all fatal injuries stemming from construction work. Almost all of those fatal falls were from a high height onto a lower surface, but falls at ground level can also result in serious and even life-threatening injuries, as experienced Lima construction accident attorneys know all too well.
Other statistically significant causes of both fatal and non-fatal construction injuries include electrocutions and object strikes, both of which each accounted for eight percent of total construction work fatalities, as well as crushing accidents and other injuries involving contact with moving machinery or vehicles, which caused five percent of the total work-related deaths on construction sites. Whether you were injured by one of these so-called “Fatal Four” accidents or any other type of dangerous situation on a construction site, you may have multiple options for seeking financial restitution, which a skilled Lima attorney from Charles E. Boyk Law Offices could help you take advantage of.
What Kinds of Injuries Are Common in Construction Work?
Of course, not every accident that happens on a construction site is bound to have fatal consequences—in fact, the vast majority of them do not. That said, OSHA data does show that tens of thousands of non-fatal injuries happen on construction sites every single year, with 2023 alone seeing more than 150,000 people suffer non-fatal injuries while performing this type of work.
Depending on the circumstances under which you were injured as well as the conditions you usually work under, what constitutes a “common” injury for someone in your line of work may be very different from what another person might experience even while working on the same site. With that said, examples of construction injuries that are typically severe enough to warrant a workers’ compensation claim, a third-party lawsuit, or potentially both at once include:
- “Acute” soft-tissue injuries, meaning injuries like muscle tears and ligament sprains that happen all at once due to a single traumatic accident,
- “Chronic” soft-tissue injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome and joint bursitis that build up over time due to repetitive motion or stress,
- Bone fractures, particularly in the hands, feet, and skull,
- Ear or eye damage stemming from a lack of proper protective equipment or from accidents like machinery malfunctions,
- Spinal cord trauma resulting in permanent paralysis,
- Brain damage from a traumatic blow to the head, potentially resulting in short-term or long-term loss of bodily function,
- Loss/amputation of limb caused by a crushing, pinching, or explosive accident, and/or
- Post-traumatic stress disorder from being involved in a traumatic workplace accident or even from just being near one when it happened.
A seasoned Lima construction injury attorney can discuss your recovery options with you in detail over the course of a free and confidential consultation.
Benefits in a Workers’ Compensation Claim
There are two primary categories of benefits available through a workers’ compensation claim. You could recover disability payments to compensate yourself for time away from work. Additionally, medical benefits are also available.
Disability
Disability benefits are monetary payments made to compensate you while you are unable to return to the job. These benefits typically pay a portion of your normal weekly wage.
Disability benefits come in two types: permanent disability and temporary disability. Permanent disability payments are available when you permanently lose the ability to use a specific body part or organ. If a Lima construction worker’s injury is so severe that you are unable to work again, an attorney could help you recover benefits for the rest of your life.
Temporary disability also involves weekly payments, but only for injuries that will eventually heal. These benefits are only available until you are able to return to the job. In cases where you return to work in a limited capacity, you could still receive a portion of your benefits to compensate for the difference in pay.
Medical Benefits
These benefits also cover all necessary medical treatment resulting from a construction site accident. These benefits could cover the cost of emergency room visits, physical therapy, occupational therapy, surgery, and prescription drugs. There is no time limit on medical benefits; a successful claim would pay these benefits for as long as they are medically necessary.
Possible Grounds for a Construction Accident Lawsuit
The workers’ comp benefits mentioned above are all available on a no-fault basis. In a nutshell, that means you do not have to prove anyone was specifically at fault for causing your construction accident in order to file a workers’ comp claim over that accident and receive benefits. Instead, you just need to prove that the injuries you are seeking benefits for were directly work-related and that you have access to workers’ comp insurance coverage through the company you work for because you are legally classified as an “employee” of that company.
However, if you work as an “independent contractor” instead, or if your construction injury happened partially or primarily because of misconduct by someone other than your direct employer, your best bet for financial recovery may be a personal injury lawsuit based on “negligence.” In order to get a good result from this kind of lawsuit, you will need to prove that all the following conditions apply to your situation:
- The “defendant” you are suing owed you—the “plaintiff” filing the lawsuit—a “duty of care” to act responsibly in a certain way under certain circumstances,
- The defendant “breached” their duty through a specific reckless, careless, and/or illegal act,
- That act was the main and direct cause—or, in legal terms, the “proximate cause”—of your accident, and
- Your accident was itself the main and direct cause of all the damages and injuries for which you are now seeking compensation.
Notably, it is possible for more than one person and/or company to hold civil fault for a single construction accident based on their own negligence, especially when it comes to catastrophic accidents like structural collapses. Furthermore, it is possible to pursue both a workers’ comp claim and a personal injury lawsuit at the same time over the same construction injury, although it is not possible to recover twice for the exact same damages—for instance, to get paid for short-term medical bills through workers’ comp, and then to demand money for those exact same bills in an ensuing civil claim. These complex details make working with a Lima construction accident attorney even more crucial.
Recovering for Economic and Non-Economic Harm
It hardly needs to be explained how proving someone specifically at fault for causing a construction accident is often more challenging than just establishing “no-fault” grounds for a workers’ comp claim. However, all that extra effort can come with a big reward: namely, the right to seek reimbursement for a variety of losses that traditional workers’ comp does not cover.
To start with, you can demand payment through a successful construction accident lawsuit or settlement demand for every bit of wage loss and/or lost future working capacity which that accident will cause you to experience, not just a percentage of those losses in the form of disability benefits. You can also seek reimbursement for various other out-of-pocket expenses that your accident has caused and will cause you, including things like personal property damage.
Most importantly of all, you can recover for “non-economic” damages that do not have objective financial values. These are sometimes referred to as “pain and suffering” damages since physical pain and suffering is the most common non-economic loss to include in claims like this. However, you can also seek compensation to make up for emotional anguish, psychological trauma, and a decline in overall quality and enjoyment of life caused by permanent disability or disfigurement.
A construction injury lawyer in Lima will be a vital ally when it comes to naming, accurately valuing, and effectively recovering for every form of harm you can traced back to your unique accident. They can also help you understand the “caps” placed on non-economic recovery by Ohio Revised Code §2315.18, which may not apply to you if you have suffered a catastrophic injury with permanent and debilitating consequences.
What If You Are Partially to Blame for Your Own Construction Injury?
Another important role that legal counsel can play during litigation over a construction accident is in fighting allegations of “comparative fault” made against you. In brief, comparative fault is the amount of blame you hold for causing your own injuries or unnecessarily making them worse through your own irresponsible behavior—for example, by not wearing a hardhat on a worksite, or by not going to the doctor until several days after you first got hurt.
Comparative fault typically does not have much of an impact on workers’ compensation claims over construction injuries. Unless you directly caused yourself to get hurt at work by engaging in horseplay, showing up to work drunk or high, disobeying on-site safety rules that everyone else was following, or intentionally putting yourself in harm’s way, any fault you do or do not hold for causing your own work-related accident will have no effect on your eligibility to seek workers’ comp benefits.
However, comparative fault can have a huge impact on third-party lawsuits over construction accidents. In fact, under O.R.C. §2315.33, you are barred from getting any civil compensation at all if you hold more than 50 percent of the total fault for your own injuries. Furthermore, any lesser percentage of comparative fault assigned to you can then be held against you as a proportional reduction from your final damage award—so, for example, someone found 25 percent at fault for their own construction injury could only recover for 75 percent of their total damages. A Lima construction accident attorney could help maximize damages and minimize fault for an injured worker.
Filing Deadlines for Construction Accident Claims
One last thing worth mentioning about construction accident lawsuits is the time limit for them set by the “statute of limitations.” Under most circumstances, O.R.C. §2305.10 gives you a maximum of two years to file suit after initially discovering you were hurt through another person’s misconduct. If you fail to file before that deadline passes, your case will be “time-barred” and you will almost certainly be unable to get any civil compensation at all for that particular injury.
The hard deadline for filing a workers’ comp claim comes even sooner: one year after the date of the initial injury, with the understanding being that you will have reported the injury in writing to your employer as soon as possible after learning that it happened. Fortunately, working closely with a skilled Lima construction accident attorney can greatly streamline the legal process and ensure you are able to build the strongest possible claim with time to spare.
How a Lima Construction Accident Attorney Could Help
Regardless of how the accident happened, you have the right to seek benefits for your construction site injury. The Lima workers’ compensation system is designed to cover your expenses, but there is no guarantee your claim would be accepted.
To ensure your claim has the best chance of being accepted, contact a Lima construction accident lawyer to discuss your options. At your initial consultation, your attorney could consider the facts of your case and advise you on the best way to proceed.
