The Marcellus Shale is one of the fastest developing natural gas producing sites in our country and it’s developing at an astonishing rate. As a result of that, we are seeing more and more jobsite injuries and, unfortunately, a lot of them are out of state workers. We see guys from Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana and when they get hurt, their boss will tell them all the can do is go home and file for worker’s compensation. This is far from the truth and we at The Segal Law Firm want to make sure our out of state workers understand that.
If you are working here in West Virginia from out of state, you are our guest. We have laws here that protect you. If you can demonstrate certain types of misconduct, if your boss or foreman knew they were exposing you to a hazard, we might have a case on our hands. It’s our goal to get you more money for your losses. A worker who is injured in West Virginia can sometimes sue the contractor, subcontractor, or even their own employer. We’ve seen cases where it was actually an equipment failure that caused the accident and, in that case, you can go after the company that provided it.
It’s your attorney’s job to figure out who is at fault. Whether it’s a federal law, state law, or simply an industry accepted practice that’s been broken, if you’ve been exposed to a hazard that gets you injured or killed, we can sue. There’s a very specific statute created by the West Virginia legislature and it requires your employer to pay additional money, on top of worker’s compensation. Many folks think that if they file a lawsuit that their worker’s compensation will be cut off. Not so. Go ahead and file your comp claim, but make sure you give us a call at The Segal Law Firm so we can find out who is to blame and go from there.
You want to be sure if you get hurt on the Marcellus Shale, or any other gas rig in West Virginia, that you get a lawyer here who can answer the question: Who can I sue? They’re going to have to talk to you about where you were at when the accident occurred; were you near the pumps, the container vessels, the trucks, the generators, the pump houses or the pump station? Who was responsible for the equipment? What went wrong that caused your injury? These are questions that have to be answered and you need an attorney who is experienced with these types of cases, so they know where to start digging.
Unfortunately, and this really gets to me, a lot of these poor workers go home believing that worker’s compensation is the only option for them. They never pick up the phone and call us to find out that we can do so much more. You are entitled to help in West Virginia and I’d hate to see someone miss out on the compensation that they deserve. The federal and state regulations are there to protect the workers and it is critically important when you’re working in such a dangerous environment, that all the safety rules be followed by your bosses. They can’t put profit ahead of the worker’s safety. I can speak for The Segal Law Firm when I say that we will leave no stone unturned until we figure out what or who is the cause of your injury. We are here to answer your questions, so call us at 855-344-9100.