Workplace Injury Articles

Is There a Difference Between Accident Lawyers & Injury Lawyers?

If you are seeking the services of a lawyer, it may be confusing when you see lawyers who call themselves accident lawyers or injury lawyers, and you may wonder how they differentiate between the two. In my opinion, there really is no difference and although lawyers may state they specialize in specific areas, what really counts is their experience. You need to ask how many injury cases they have tried to a jury; or if they claim they are an accident lawyer, then exactly how many cases have they investigated, filed and resolved, either by mitigation, settlement or winning a case in a trial. If they tell you that you will be their first one – run! For example, if you were in need of a doctor to perform a procedure, you would definitely want to know if they are experienced with that procedure, and it’s no different with lawyers, because your lawyer needs to be experienced with your specific type of case. In the state of West Virginia, a lawyer cannot call himself a specialist; they can tell you their level of experience and the types of cases they have filed, discovered and tried, but they cannot tell you […]

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Rights of a Family Member in a Coal Mining Death

When you or your family have suffered the death of a family member due to a coal mining accident, there are two very important questions that your lawyer should obtain answers for on your behalf. First, and foremost, you deserve to know what exactly caused the death of your husband or your son or your family member. Fortunately, in West Virginia both federal and state investigators have a duty to the family to answer this question and help you understand why this tragedy occurred. The Segal Law Firm has found through its years of experience that both federal and state investigators are very, very good at trying to find an answer to this question for you and your family. However, sometimes this question requires a little patience before it can be accurately answered. There may be dozens and dozens of witnesses to interview; machinery and equipment maintenance records need to be examined as well as mine maps and detailed engineering drawings. However, my experience in these cases has shown that federal and state investigators are every bit as concerned as you and your family to uncover the truth. You and your family should be aware that under recent West Virginia

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Common Problems Encountered with Coal Mining Safety in West Virginia

In the coal mining industry, safety hazards are prevalent and unfortunately, the number one problem encountered is when employers and contractors make the mistake of putting production ahead of safety. When their mindset dictates that the mining of coal must be performed in a manner where they can get as much as they can on every single shift, that’s when their regard for safety of all employees takes a backseat and this disregard for safety precautions can arise in both surface and deep coal mines. Out-by work is critically important in deep mines as it is a lifeline for each and every miner. This includes rock dusting, adequate ventilation and proper equipment maintenance. We here at the Segal Law Firm have seen far too many instances where equipment has undergone improper maintenance or has been rebuilt in such a way that it no longer complies with manufacturer’s standards. Safety devices may be altered, jack leg parts may be used and in some cases, safety devices are simply welded off completely. We have seen cases where roof bolters literally hang and kill their operators or where blast shields crushed the heads of maintenance people. We have also seen roofs fall as

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Coal Mining Regulations- Crucial to Winning Your Case

We’ve all seen tragic mine stories on the news. What you don’t get to see is what happens to the widows and children of these lost miners after cameras turn off.  My job at The Segal Law Firm is to provide protection for the miners’ families and I do that by delving into the state and federal regulations that set the safety guidelines for the coal mines. Often times, these regulations have been broken in some way or another and you need an attorney that understands the rules, so they know where to start looking for answers. What Type of Mine? The first thing I’m going to do when I find out a coal miner has been killed in an accident is determine if it happened in a deep mine or a surface mine. The answer to that question is going to affect which state and federal laws were in place to protect them while they were at work. You have to know where it happened so you can begin to look at the very complex set of regulations that are in place to protect the miners. Training and Licensing Let’s say it was a deep mine. Well, deep miners

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Out of State Workers’ Injuries – the ABCs

Since the gas boom began here in West Virginia, we’ve seen more welding trucks out of Alabama and Texas and Mississippi and Georgia than we do from West Virginia. And of course, those folks have no idea what their legal rights are if they get hurt while working here. When someone is burned or injured on a gas or oil rig, as soon as you know the reason, you can pretty quickly answer the question, “Can I sue?” First, we want to know that worker’s relationship to the company that caused the explosion or caused the fire. Who was their boss? Who was their foreman? Was there an independent contractor or another company doing something that caused the explosion? We can walk the worker and/or their family through the technicalities of the case and pretty quickly explain to them their rights and remedies under the laws of West Virginia. It’s important that they contact an experienced lawyer in the area of explosions and burn injuries – especially if they are from out of state. Feel free to call us here. There is no charge and we are happy to talk about the case and look into it and tell them

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Cutting Corners: Oil and Gas Rig Explosions on the Rise

There is a large rush to tap into the Marcellus Shale gas reserve here in West Virginia, as well as other states. A lot of people don’t realize it, but drilling and getting natural gas out of the earth is not just drilling a hole in the ground and capturing the gas that comes out. These are complex rigs that have complex safety rules. You’ve got to be very careful extracting natural gas from the earth. You have to be very careful about how you capture it and pipeline it. You are reading about these incidents because people are rushing to get to these sources of natural gas and mistakes are being made. Proper safety precautions are not being taken to protect workers and people around the area from escaping gas catching fire, or by-products catching fire and explosions. Management and the people at the site who are responsible for safety, need to understand that these steps are paramount and profit is secondary. If you take the shortcut, do the job in a quick but not safe way – people are going to get hurt. What you are reading about in your newspapers and hearing about on your news when

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Everyday Accident Prevention – Slow Down and Use Common Sense

In your everyday life it’s important to use precautions that are available and are there to help protect you. Take your seatbelt, for example. Nobody should be driving, even to the store, without being sure that their seatbelt and those of their children are being properly used. Kids should not be allowed to put the shoulder harness behind their back. They need to keep their seatback straight up, as should you as an adult. Obviously, staying off your cell phone, not texting and doing other things that will distract you is also important. I don’t know how many times I’ve had clients come in where the person who hit them was adjusting the radio. Or doing something inside the car that diverted their attention from the road. The Speed limit is the limit. That is the most you should drive. But there are a thousand reasons to drive slower. Exercise common sense and slow down rather than drive the speed limit when there’s too much traffic, it’s raining, it’s foggy, it’s snowing or there are kids in the area. The law in West Virginia says adults must anticipate that children will act childishly. So if you see kids in the

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Dangerous Occupations

There are many dangerous occupations in West Virginia. In 30 years practicing law here, I’ve seen more than my share of accidents. I’ve handled cases from injuries in the timber and logging industry, coal mining (both surface mining accidents and deep coal mining accidents). Oil and gas occupations have their share of injury accidents – whether on drilling rigs, building pipelines, maintaining the rigs, maintaining the pipelines – all can be dangerous jobs. With the advent of Marcellus Shale production, we’re seeing quite a few more burns and severe injuries in that field as well. West Virginians also work in a variety of major industrial facilities – power houses, chemical plants, manufacturing facilities – and each of those provides their own unique dangerous situations. We see quite a few electrical injuries resulting in severe burns or even death in these facilities. I once handled a case for a welder who had been told a particular vessel he was to weld had been cleaned and he had gotten a welding ticket, which means he was allowed to be there. No sooner did he light his torch than the whole thing exploded on him. Generally speaking, any time maintenance or construction is

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Back injuries in the workplace and how they handled legally

The back injury situation, with regard to workplace injuries, is a complicated one. First of all, if they suffer a back injury while they are working for their employer and it is no one else’s fault, it is a workers compensation case. Now on the other hand, if you hurt your back working at a power plant, a chemical plant or an industrial facility while working for your employer, you may have a different type of lawsuit. It’s important that you call early, tell us what happened, who you were working for and see if we can’t figure out a way to help. A lot of times people hurt their backs in a situation where they are either being required to lift too much or lift something in a confined space where they can’t possibly do it safely. Other times it can be a falling situation where the worker is unaware. A young West Virginia boy actually fell through the floor of an industrial facility in Alabama because the workers on the night shift didn’t cover up a hole in the floor. The kid broke his back. One part of back injuries is an injury to the spinal cord. Your

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What legal recourse does a brain injury victim have?

I can’t tell you how many different ways people manage to get brain injuries in the workplace. There are literally thousands of different ways. Falling objects, equipment that someone else is operating where they run into an employee because they are operating the equipment improperly or there’s a blind side where they don’t see them. There are also tripping hazards where people fall and hit their head. You can also have very difficult work environment where people are in a confined space and they strike their head on an object. You may even be in a wearing a hard hat but get whacked on the noggin good enough to suffer a brain injury. There are also horrible head-crushing injuries where a human beings skull is actually crushed causing a brain injury. Those are very serious cases, which require a very experienced lawyer with well-qualified experts. It’s important to talk about the range of brain injuries. Some brain injuries can actually be photographed, not with a camera but with an x-ray or CAT scan. We also have devices now known as MRI, which are magnetic resonance imaging machines, and we also have something called PET Scanners. They can demonstrate where parts

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