A Factory Injury Lawyer Can Help You Get Compensation
Factories and industrial buildings present multiple hazards to those working and visiting the facilities. Accidents with machinery and machine guarding, with electrical components and equipment, and from powered industrial trucks and forklifts can result in catastrophic accidents, which may even lead to death.
If you or a loved one has been injured or someone has died from being injured in a factory accident in Pennsylvania, you may be entitled to compensation through workers’ compensation or a personal injury lawsuit. However, Pennsylvania injury laws are complicated, and insurance companies will try to deny your claim or get you to settle for the lowest amount possible. Factory owners and their insurance companies have powerful attorneys on their side working against you, so it makes sense for you to have an attorney who can aggressively fight for your rights.
The Philadelphia factory accident and Philadelphia personal injury attorneys at Wapner Newman are fully prepared to take the burden off you by handling all investigations, negotiations, and legal hurdles involved with getting you the compensation you deserve. Our attorneys know the law, the system, and how to combat the tactics insurance companies use. We can determine whether you can go beyond workers’ comp and file a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit that can greatly increase the compensation you receive.
At this difficult time, when you are trying to recover from your injuries, let us handle all aspects of getting you the best settlement possible. We serve clients throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey and offer a free consultation to discuss the facts of your individual situation and determine the best way to help.
What Our Factory Accident Attorney Can do for You
Our Attorneys Work to Build Your Case from the Start
When you retain Wapner Newman, we will go after all possible sources of compensation and make sure everything is done properly to ensure optimal results. We will:
- Meet with you to hear your version of what happened, determine who the at-fault parties may be, and what type of settlement to pursue
- See that you get proper medical care and that your injuries are documented
- Investigate the accident scene and gather evidence such as eyewitness reports, surveillance camera photos and videos, police and medical records, and previous accidents in the factory
- File all required forms and paperwork in a timely manner
- Hire expert witnesses to reconstruct the accident and testify how your injuries negatively impact your life and what your future care and expenses may be
- Deal and negotiate aggressively with insurance companies and their attorneys for a fair settlement
- Take your case to court if necessary and argue on your behalf in front of a judge and jury.
We will be there for you throughout the entire process, answering your questions and addressing your concerns.
Workers’ Compensation or a Factory Injury Lawsuit?
After a factory accident, you may be confused as to whether you can be compensated through workers’ compensation or through a factory injury lawsuit. Our Wapner Newman lawyers will analyze your situation and help you determine which is the best approach for you.
Workers’ compensation—Workers’ comp is insurance, with premiums paid by employers, and it is mandatory for most employers under Pennsylvania law. If your employer participates in workers’ comp, this insurance should pay for reasonable and necessary medical treatment and provide partial wage replacement if you miss time from work or disability payments if your injuries leave you partially or totally disabled, and our workers’ comp attorneys can help make sure you get these benefits. In return, workers’ compensation generally protects employers from direct lawsuits by employees.
While workers’ comp insurance in Pennsylvannia is intended to provide medical, rehabilitation and income benefits for workplace-related injuries, employers and their insurance companies will often dispute or deny your claims because their premiums go up when benefits are paid out. Also, workers’ comp does not fully compensate you for all your lost wages, and it will not pay for non-monetary damages such as pain and suffering. That’s one reason why you need an experienced personal injury lawyer on your side.
Factory Injury Lawsuit — While workers’ compensation law will prevent negligence lawsuits against an employer in most cases, the law doesn’t apply to other parties. If your employer does not have workers’ comp, or if a third party was at fault for your injuries, our attorneys may be able to pursue a lawsuit for your injuries. A successful lawsuit can provide coverage for all your lost wages, costs, and expenses, and also bring additional compensation for non-economic damages like pain and suffering or lost quality of life.
Examples of third parties who may be held liable if their negligence led to your accident include:
- Factory owners and managers
- Maintenance and repair personnel
- Co-workers, outside workers, or vendors
- Product and equipment manufacturers of faulty equipment.
In some cases, there may be multiple parties who contributed to the accident, and our attorneys would seek to identify them all, as they al may have assets or insurance that can go toward a settlement.
Damage Awards Our Philadelphia Factory Accident Lawyers May Recover
Damages is the term used for the losses and injuries you received from the accident and for the awards you receive in compensation. Receiving compensation is particularly important if your injury means you cannot work and bring in an income. In a successful Pennsylvania lawsuit, our lawyers can help you win the following types of damages:
Economic damages for your monetary losses and costs such as:
- Medical and rehabilitation expenses
- Continuing care
- Lost wages and future earning potential if unable to return to work
- Property damaged by the accident.
Non-economic damages for damages that do not have a specific dollar value, but negatively impact your life such as:
- Disfigurement
- Disability
- Emotional distress
- Physical pain and suffering
- Loss of quality of life
- Loss of consortium and companionship.
Punitive damages. In some rare cases where there was gross or willful negligence that caused your injuries, you may also be awarded punitive damages. These are meant to punish a defendant that acted in a willful, malicious way and with a wanton disregard for the safety of others.
Amounts of Damage Awards You May Recover
While no one can predict exactly how much you will receive in a successful warehouse accident lawsuit, our attorneys can estimate what your case is worth based on past experience, previous cases, and the individual factors involved. Awards can range from the thousands to millions of dollars, depending on the circumstances of a case. Factors that are considered in determining awards include:
- the severity and permanence of your injuries and whether they are disfiguring
- costs of medical and rehabilitation treatment and whether you will need continuing care
- your age, potential earning capacity if you hadn’t been injured, and family situation
- whether you will be able to return to work and in what capacity
- how you are affected mentally and emotionally, such as if you are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and nightmares
- the type of negligence that caused the accident and who was at fault
- whether a settlement can be negotiated or your case goes to trial
- whether a wrongful death was involved
- the inclination of an individual judge and jury
- the skill and negotiating ability of your attorneys to build your case and argue it effectively.
A Philadelphia Factory Injury Attorney Must Prove Negligence
Factory owners, managers, and employers have a responsibility, a “duty of care,” to keep their workplaces safe and free of hazards that cause harm to others. In any injury lawsuit, it must be shown that another party, the defendant in the case, failed in this duty and was negligent and at fault for causing the injuries you received. Proving negligence means showing the existence of the following elements:
- Duty – The defendant owed you a duty of care not to cause harm.
- Breach – The defendant breached this duty through actions or failure to act.
- Cause – This breach caused your accident.
- Damages – You suffered damages as a result.
Our factory accident attorneys are aware that defendants’ attorneys will try to claim they were not negligent, and even attempt to shift liability and claim that you were careless and at fault for the accident. Our lawyers anticipate this and are fully prepared to combat these arguments though our investigations, testimony from expert witnesses, and producing evidence showing negligence.
Common Types of Factory Accident Injuries and Their Causes
Factories are hazardous places, and there are many ways that accidents and injuries can occur, often from failing to follow OSHA safety standards, from defective equipment and products, or from negligence of others. Some of the most common causes of warehouse accidents our attorneys deal with include:
- Slip and fall injuries caused by slippery surfaces and spills; falls from heights due to broken ladders, railings, and scaffolding
- Crushing accidents from falling items, such as unbalanced items and failures of the storage shelves, or from machines or vehicles striking or pinning people
- Mangling of limbs in heavy machinery that may result in amputation
- Forklift accidents, caused by overturned forklifts, shifting of off-balance heavy items, or inexperienced operators
- Chemical spills and toxic exposures leading to explosions, fires, or inhalation of dangerous fumes
- Failed factory infrastructure, such as faulty electric wiring, plumbing, lighting, and leaking roofs.
Common injuries suffered by factory workers include:
- Brain, head, neck and spinal cord injuries
- Burn, electrical, and chemical burn injuries
- Hearing loss and eye injuries
- Respiratory illnesses
- Overexertion and repetitive stress injuries
- Soft-tissue injuries, sprains and tears of muscles, tendons, and ligaments
- Broken bones, crushed limbs, and amputations.
Any one of these injuries can be life-changing and could mean the end of your working career. Let our Wapner Newman factory injury lawyers fight for the financial compensation you need and deserve. Call us today at (215) 569-0900.
Factory Injury Settlement Example
In some situations, especially if a death is involved, factory injuries can bring some major settlements. Consider the following example:
A lawsuit was settled for $6.58 million in the death of a Pennsylvania woman, a single mother of five children, who was burned when a furnace exploded at the Victaulic foundry in 2010. The 37-year-old was at the plant in Lower Macungie Township when molten metal mixed with water inside a furnace and exploded. The woman’s parents sued in 2011, alleging that the furnace, which had been refurbished, was not properly installed and that an Ohio company failed to make furnace bolts tight enough. Source: Lehigh Valley Live, Family reaches $6.58 million settlement after Walnutport mother killed in explosion.
Call Our Factory Accident Lawyers for Help
Being severely injured at work is a terrifying situation that brings physical and emotional suffering, financial costs, and major fears and worries. The Philadelphia factory accident injury attorneys at Wapner Newman are here to ease your burdens and handle everything necessary to fight for the settlement you deserve so you can go on to rebuild your life.
If you or a loved one has suffered a factory accident injury in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania, or anywhere in the state of New Jersey, please contact Wapner Newman to schedule a free consultation. There are no costs to you unless and until we win your case.
Do not delay; Pennsylvania has a deadline for filing a personal injury lawsuit. According to title 42, section 5524, you generally have two years to file or the courts will refuse to hear your case. Call us today at (215) 569-0900 to get started while evidence is fresh and witnesses can be found.