Slip and Fall Accidents

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Birth Injuries - Who Can Be Sued?

If you’ve been injured in a slip and fall accident, you may be eligible for compensation depending on the circumstances in which your injury occurred and evidence gathered about the incident.

A personal injury case that falls under this category includes:

Trip and Fall – an object in the walking path creates the fall
Stump and Fall – there is an impediment on the walking surface
Step and Fall – the actual walking surface fails or has a hole
Slip and Fall – where the shoe loses contact with the floor

The property owner and the injured person can both hold different degrees of responsibility for the injury.  While the property owner must keep the property safe, the injured party should exercise reasonable caution and watch where they are going.  The term “comparative negligence” refers to the comparison of the injured party’s responsibility in comparison to the property owners’ responsibility.

In the case of permanent hazardous conditions, such as broken stairs, the property owner is more likely to be held responsible than in temporary conditions like ice on the sidewalk.  If you are injured, you should gather evidence, get information from witnesses, and fill out an accident report that can assist determine fault later.  You may be eligible for compensation including medical bills, wage loss, pain and suffering and any future medical expenses

What does your employer ask or demand that you do that they do not compensate you for?  Are you required to come in prior to your shift to do a task?  Does your employer insist that you complete tasks outside of the office without pay?  It’s possible that these companies are committing violations and owe further compensation for these requirements.  Even things that appear to be non-compensateable may fall under a category of requiring monetary payment for the time spent doing them.

For example, in one case (IBP v. Alvarez), a producer of beef, pork and other products required any employees that worked in the slaughter and processing divisions to wear a number of items prior to shift work.  These items included outer garments, hard hats, hairnets, earplugs, gloves, sleeves, aprons, leggings and boots (plus additional equipment for any employees that used knives including protective equipment for hands, arms, torsos and legs).  The company policy required that this equipment be stored in company locker rooms.  However, the compensation time only began once an employee started the shift in the division already adorned in this gear.  No pay was given for the time the employee took donning the equipment and then walking from the locker area to the production area.

In fall of 2005, the United States Supreme Court concluded that the time spent walking back and forth from the locker area and the employee workstations was fully compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The Rasansky Law Firm (call toll-free at 1.800.ATTORNEY or visit www.TexasOvertimeLawyer.com today for a free case evaluation) works for victims of compensation fraud in areas such as work provided but not paid for, overtime wages due, and non-exempt misclassifications.  Imagine an employee that works 40 hours per week that is required to come in and sweep his area 15 minutes early each day but is not paid for that sweeping time.  The employee may think that 15 minutes is a small amount and is not worth bringing up.  But, as a math exercise, let’s further imagine that the employee makes $10 per hour in his normal job.  Any work over 40 hours is considered Overtime and paid at time and a half, so we’ll figure out what extra compensation is due to this employee who has worked here for 3 years.  15 minutes per day * $15 per hour ($10 * 1.5 for time and a half) * 260 standard work days per year = $975 / year *  3 years = $2925!  What if this company required this of 10 people?  100 people?  10,000 people?

If your company requires you to perform certain actions, these actions may be payable.  Submit your information to us via our private online form for a free evaluation as to whether or not you have a case.

Find out more about the US Department of Labor: Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) at http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/flsa/index.htm

 

Did you know that a birth injury could be caused by a wide variety of sources?  Claims are not limited to just medical doctors – they can also apply to nurses, hospitals, anesthesiologists, drug (pharmaceutical) companies, and other providers of health care services.

While each person on the medical staff at a facility such as a hospital is responsible for his or her actions, the facility itself may be held liable under “corporate negligence” if they failed to adequately ensure quality patient care.  This negligence can be caused by not making reasonable inquiries into an employee’s education, training and licensing.  Perhaps the hospital fails to check out the attending physician’s credentials prior to grating him/her hospital privileges.  The hospital could even have qualified staff, but have a shortage of people on duty at critical times.  For example, an insufficient number of registered nurses on duty at all times.  Or perhaps a hospital employee fails to follow the orders of a patient’s private attending physician.  Even if an employee sees a treatment plan that is clearly incorrect for the particular patient but fails to make a reasonable inquiry, the hospital may be found liable.

Health Care Facilities are full of qualified, trained, competent people, but even still, mistakes do happen.  If a mistake happens in your life or in the life of someone you know, nothing can repair the damage.  But, as you move on, understand that there could be a responsibility that needs to be addressed, and sometimes the court system is the only way to do this

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