Workplace Injury Articles

Oil rig accidents cause some of the most severe injuries we see at Segal & Amos, PLLC. If you or a family member has fallen victim to one of these accidents, we encourage you to call us and ask us how we handle cases like yours.   The First Meeting A case like this usually begins with a meeting between you, your family, and one of us from Segal & Amos, PLLC, typically me. Unfortunately, because of the nature of these accidents, many of these first meetings begin in burn centers. We welcome clients to come to our office to meet us and see where their case will be handled, but we are more than willing to meet you or a family member whenever it’s convenient.   Contingency Contract If you decide that I am the right lawyer for your case, we’ll write up a contingency fee contract. It’s a document that we both sign that guarantees you will only pay us attorney’s fees if we win you money. It’s really important that you get all of your agreements in writing from the very beginning.   Filing an Oil Rig Case After the federal or state authorities investigate the case, […]

There are plenty of folks who come to West Virginia from out-of-state to work. Unfortunately, sometimes accidents happen on site that cause severe injury and even death.  So what legal recourse do these workers have in our state?   In addition to worker’s compensation rights, here in West Virginia we have what are called deliberate intent cases. If you can prove the company you were working for violated a safety regulation that they knew was putting you in danger, you can sometimes bring a lawsuit against them. It’s important you explore that option as an out of state worker before assuming you have no options here.   You can also occasionally sue a third party that hurt you. For instance, you may be on the job, but get injured by someone who isn’t an employee of your company. Let’s say you’re working on a gas rig as a welder, and an equipment truck runs over you, but another service company employs them. Well, in West Virginia, you have a right to sue the third party service company that ran you over.   My advice to out of state workers who are injured on the job is to always call us

Railroad cases are handled and litigated in the court system under an entirely different set of laws than the normal laws of liability and injury. The Railroad Worker’s Act is a very specific set of federal rules and regulations that guide how a lawsuit is brought. But that doesn’t mean it’s always clear and simple. You need a lawyer that understands the complexities of the law and can tell you how and where to proceed in a court of law.   Where should I bring my case? Interestingly, although it is a federal set of rules and regulations that protects the railroad worker, the law suit can be brought in either state or federal court. If the railroad has railroad tracks within the home county of the person who comes to Segal & Amos, PLLC, we can actually file the lawsuit right in his or her backyard. You can also file in federal court or state courts and that’s part of the experience that’s going to be important to you when you talk to us here at Segal & Amos, PLLC.   What is the cause? It’s important that you have a lawyer who understands that it’s a completely different

The experience of the attorney handling an oil or gas rig case is going to be critical to the injured person and their family because of different state and federal regulations that come into play. Right now, here at Segal & Amos, PLLC, we’re actually doing all kinds of different cases because of the tractor trailers and suppliers that are rushing to get to the Marcellus Shale.   We’re seeing a lot of accidents that are due to fatigue and exhaustion. You’ve got the people operating the equipment at the site that are being overworked. You have safety rules being bent or completely ignored on the rigs in regards to how to safely keep noxious gases and explosive materials from igniting and leaking out. Because of the rush to the Marcellus Shale, we’re seeing a number or people getting hurt and it usually stems from the companies putting profits ahead of safety. They’re rushing to get the gas and they’re not being careful or protecting the safety of their workers.   We just had a case at Segal & Amos, PLLC not long ago where we got into it very early and found out that the injury hadn’t even been reported to the authorities.

Law Firms in West Virginia who predominantly represent injured workers generally work on a contingency fee basis. All that really means is that we only get paid if we win you money. But you’ve got to have that in writing. There are expenses that go into making a great case that also have to be spelled out and you’ve got to find a law firm that has the financial wherewithal to cover those, too. At Segal & Amos, PLLC, you know upfront what you’ll be paying for and when you’ll be paying for it. And it’s not until after we’ve won.   We use the contingency fee because we know that the average working man or woman simply can’t afford an experienced, big-name law firm. That’s why we say, if we win your case, you’re going to give us a percentage of that money. It might be thirty, thirty-five or forty percent, depending on the complexity of the case. There’s a law that says that as long as it’s in writing, it’s okay for a lawyer to charge the percentage of the winnings that he or she accomplishes for that family.   In addition to a percentage, there are also