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How can a lawyer help if you are injured in your Louisiana workplace?

It happens all too often that Louisiana workers are injured while performing their jobs or contract occupational illnesses from the environment of their workplaces. When this happens, legal counsel can be invaluable in helping to sort out what legal recourse is available to help with the financial and personal fallout.

Louisiana workers’ compensation

Of course, the first thought after a work injury or work-related sickness is whether workers’ compensation will be available. In almost every case, the answer is yes.

The idea behind workers’ compensation is that the employer must obtain insurance coverage to pay claims when a worker is hurt or sickened from work – no matter who was at fault for the harm. In exchange, the employer normally has immunity from suit.

Workers’ compensation benefits may include medical coverage, wage replacement, permanent disability benefits and payments for loss of use of particular bodily functions or limbs. These benefits are especially important to Louisiana workers hurt in dangerous professions like those in construction, industrial settings, trucking or the oil and gas industry.

A lawyer can be tremendous help in helping with the initial claim or in advocating for denied claims that should be appealed. They can also negotiate with the employer and its insurer for potential settlement.

Third-party lawsuits

While normally the employee may not sue the employer for work-related harm, there may be third parties with legal liability based on negligent or reckless behavior. Lawsuits against responsible third parties may result in damages not available through workers’ compensation such as those for pain and suffering. Examples of such potential defendants include:

  • Landlords, property owners or management companies who rent, manage or lease dangerous workplaces or poorly maintained property
  • Manufacturers or sellers of defectively designed, inherently dangerous or poorly manufactured equipment, machinery, vehicles when the product contributed to the injury or illness
  • Contractors, subcontractors or service providers whose negligent or reckless behavior in the workplace contributed to the injury or sickness
  • Companies who provide shoddy maintenance or repair to equipment, machinery or vehicles used by the employer

An attorney who regularly represents injured employees will comprehensively investigate the incident that caused an injury or the work environment that caused an industrial illness to determine potentially responsible third parties.

The lawyers at The Townsley Law Firm in Lake Charles represent injured and ill workers in the Lake Charles area and the surrounding parishes in workers’ compensation claims and third-party lawsuits.