Have you been injured in a construction accident caused by negligence?
You may have legal options for pursuing compensation for the damages you suffered. This includes the medical bills that have piled up for your treatment, lost wages for missed time at work, and pain and suffering. However, building a strong case is complicated and takes extensive legal knowledge. The Vancouver construction site accident lawyers at Rizk Law understand this and know how to navigate the legal process on your behalf. We will aggressively pursue compensation if a third party is responsible for your injuries and damages. We know how important compensation can be as you try to recover from an injury, get back to work and get on with the rest of your life. If you cannot return to work, you need compensation to make up for the loss of income so you can continue to support yourself and your family.
Our work accident attorneys in Vancouver take cases involving a variety of construction accidents at various locations throughout the Vancouver area. Your consultation is 100 percent free and comes with no obligation to pursue legal action unless you want. You will not be billed for legal fees unless you are compensated at the end of the legal process.
Fill out a Free Case Evaluation form or call us at 503.245.5677.
What Kinds of Cases Do You Take?
The construction accident lawyers in Vancouver at Rizk Law are prepared to take on construction accident cases involving a wide variety of injuries and situations that led to injuries. This includes:
Car Accidents
These often occur on road construction sites. Drivers who are passing by or through the site are not careful and they crash into workers or things on the site and this causes a chain reaction that results in a worker getting hurt or killed. There are also accidents that occur with motor vehicles on non-road construction sites. Since there are so many people on a construction site, drivers have to be careful to avoid crashing into people.
Defective Machinery Accidents
Some machinery that is used on a construction site becomes defective or malfunctions because it is old or has not been properly maintained. The manufacturer of this equipment could be held responsible for any injuries that occur. If the entity responsible for maintaining the equipment did not do what it was supposed to do, it could be sued, as long as the entity is not your employer.
Electrocution
Workers who are around exposed wiring, power lines or high-voltage equipment could potentially get shocked and suffer burn injuries and other damage. Sometime these accidents are a result of lack of safety precautions by contractors or others in charge of a part of a construction site.
Slip and Fall Accidents
These can be caused by slipping on water, oil or other slick substances that should have been cleaned up. Sometimes these accidents occur at great heights, such as when workers are constructing a building. If a worker falls from high up he or she could suffer a spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury or even death.
Exposure Accidents
Sometimes workers are around harsh chemicals and risk breathing them or getting them on their skin. This can cause lung problems, skin issues and various other injuries and side effects. Exposure is often due to a lack of safety precautions from the entity in charge. There may also be a lack of safety equipment.
No matter what type of injury you suffered, and what type of situation occurred, if you think a third party is responsible, you may want to meet with a construction accident lawyer in Vancouver for a free consultation to determine your legal options.
The consultation with the attorneys at Rizk Law is 100 percent free and comes with no obligation to move forward with a third-party lawsuit. You only do that if you want to.
The workers’ compensation system in Washington provides benefits to employees who suffer work-related injuries. It is a no-fault system, meaning you can be compensated even if your injury was not a result of negligence. When you file a claim, you simply need proof your injury was related to your job. You do not need proof negligence occurred. The attorneys at Rizk Law do not take on workers’ compensation claims, and we do not take a fee from that portion of the process. If you would like legal assistance with your workers’ compensation claim, we can put you in touch with other attorneys who can guide you through the process.
Fill out a Free Case Evaluation form today to get started.
Recovering Compensation After an Injury
The trade-off with having a workers’ compensation system is that workers are not allowed to sue their employers for an on-the-job injury. However, if a third-party was involved, you may be able to sue them to recover compensation.
Third parties involved in construction sites could include:
- General contractors
- Subcontractors
- Product manufacturers
- Product designers
- Drivers
- Architects
- Engineers
- Property owner
When you receive treatment for your construction site injury, the doctor may note whether a third party was involved. When this happens, the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) will send you a “Third Party Election Form” with instructions on how to proceed.
Our Vancouver construction accident attorneys have detailed knowledge of this process and can guide you through every step. We want you to be able to focus on treating your injuries and recovering, not navigating through the legal process.
Your attorney must build a case that proves negligence occurred to be able to obtain compensation. If we are successful, we will receive reasonable compensation for our fees and costs and you will be paid 25 percent of the net recovery. L&I will be reimbursed for the workers’ compensation benefits it paid out to you and anything remaining will be paid to you.
This process is very difficult to navigate on your own. Proving negligence occurred is very complicated and you need to know how to thoroughly investigate the accident. You can let our Vancouver construction site accident attorneys handle this aspect of the process for you. We know what it takes to be successful and will keep you informed the whole way.
Fill out a Free Case Evaluation form or call us at 503.245.5677.
What is Negligence?
There are many forms of negligence that could contribute to construction accidents. For example, product manufacturers could be negligent when designing a product and cause it to have defects that cause you injury. There could also be situations where the product did not have proper instructions or warnings to prevent users from hurting themselves when using the product as intended.
Other forms of negligence that could lead to constructions accidents could include reckless driving, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, careless operation of machinery, failure to clean up spills that lead to slip and fall accidents, and poor maintenance of equipment.
However, in order to recover compensation, you must establish that the situation in question had four elements present:
- Duty of care – This duty obligates another party to take reasonable action to prevent others from suffering an injury. For example, it is reasonable to expect drivers to operate their vehicles safely. It is reasonable to expect products to be safe and for other workers to be careful when doing their jobs so they will not hurt others on the construction site.
- Breached duty of care – Once our Vancouver construction accident lawyers establish that there was a duty of care in the situation in question, we need to prove that it was breached in some way. If there was no breach of duty of care, there is no negligence. Sometimes a breach of duty of care is about specific actions taken by the at-fault party. There are other times when the at-fault party failed to act and this caused injury.
- Direct link to your injuries – This is the aspect of negligence that connects your injuries to the actions of the at-fault party. You must be able to show that you would not have suffered an injury without the breach of duty of care. In other words, nothing else caused your injury except the breach of duty of care.
- Your injuries created damages – If you suffered an injury, you will likely have medical bills and may miss time from work, which will result in lost wages. Other damages could include mental anguish and physical pain, among others. You will need to establish the value of these damages to pursue them in a third-party injury claim.
The main difference between a third-party claim and a workers’ compensation claim is that you must prove negligence in a third-party claim. In a workers’ compensation case, negligence does not matter. You simply need to show you suffered an injury at work to recover compensation.
Another difference between these two types of claims is that you can only recover certain kinds of compensation in a workers’ compensation claim, such as medical bills and disability benefits. However, in a third-party claim, you can recover other forms of compensation such as pain and suffering.
Our Vancouver construction accident attorneys know what it takes to prove negligence occurred at a construction site. We have the resources to thoroughly investigate and determine what happened, and how it contributed to you suffering an injury that entitles you to compensation.
Fill out a Free Case Evaluation form today or call us at 503.245.5677.
Contact a Vancouver Construction Accident Attorney Today
When a work accident occurs, the injuries could be life-changing, from spinal cord injuries to traumatic brain injuries. You may not be able to work or you may have to change careers. This is why you need compensation when the injury was caused by the negligence of a third party, such as a product manufacturer, general contractor or subcontractor.
Our Vancouver construction accident lawyers know how to pursue fair compensation for these injuries. We will thoroughly investigate the situation to find out what happened, who is at fault, and the link between your injuries and the action or inaction of the third party that is at fault in the case.
The consultation with our experienced Vancouver personal injury attorneys is 100 percent free and comes with no legal obligations. That means you take legal action if you want to, and you will not be billed for attorney fees unless you are compensated first.
Schedule your free legal consultation right now by calling 503.245.5677 or completing a Free Case Evaluation form.