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An electrical injury is often more serious than it looks. Current passes through tissue that a surface burn does not show, and the lasting harm is often to the nerves and the brain. Your claim has to account for injuries that may not appear for weeks.
The records that show how the current reached you are made on the job and changed or discarded on the job. Lockout records, permits, the pre-job briefing and the equipment itself can disappear in days. Ask for the records before the site is cleaned up and the equipment is back in service. Call 713-521-0059.
Contact with an energized conductor, an arc flash, or a boom or ladder touching an overhead line produces injury along the path of the current. That can mean cardiac effects, deep tissue damage, and neurological and cognitive symptoms that appear or worsen in the weeks afterward.
The entry and exit wounds can be small. Because of that, these injuries are often underestimated in the emergency department. An insurer may value the claim on the size of the burn. Your claim needs a medical record that follows the current, not just the skin.
In the first weeks you may notice memory lapses, trouble concentrating, headaches, numbness, tingling, poor sleep or changes in mood. Some people notice ringing in the ears, vision changes or a racing heart. Write each one down with the date it started. Those notes help your doctors, and they help show when the symptoms began.
It depends on who controlled the hazard. A utility responsible for line clearance, a general contractor responsible for site coordination, an electrical subcontractor responsible for de-energizing, and an equipment owner can each bear a share.
Energy control and lockout documentation, permits, and the pre-job briefing are where that question gets answered. Those papers show who was supposed to shut the power off, who was supposed to confirm it was off, and who approved the work before it began.
Texas divides fault by percentage under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. You generally may not recover if you are found more than 50 percent responsible. Otherwise your recovery is reduced by your own percentage. Finding every party that had a hand in the hazard can change how that fault is shared.
Under Section 406.002 of the Texas Labor Code, most private employers can choose whether to carry workers’ compensation insurance. If yours does not, Section 406.033 of the Texas Labor Code bars it from arguing contributory negligence, assumption of the risk, or the negligence of a fellow employee. Our page on non-subscriber work injury claims goes through what that means.
If your employer does carry it, Section 408.001 of the Texas Labor Code generally makes workers’ compensation benefits your exclusive remedy against that employer. The statute preserves one exception, for a worker’s death. Where the employer’s intentional act or omission or gross negligence caused the death, the surviving spouse or heirs of the body may recover exemplary damages. That rule protects your employer and its agents and employees. A claim against a company other than your employer, such as the utility, the property owner or the equipment owner, can be separate from workers’ compensation. A general contractor can be different. Under Section 406.123, a general contractor that has agreed in writing to provide workers’ compensation coverage to a subcontractor’s employees may be treated as their employer for workers’ compensation purposes.
Tell every treating provider that the injury was electrical and describe the path of the current. Say where it entered, where it left, and how long you were in contact, if you know. Cognitive and memory complaints after an electrical injury are often blamed on stress unless the mechanism is in the chart from the beginning.
Keep every follow-up visit, even when you feel better. If a doctor refers you to a neurologist, a cardiologist or a specialist in memory and thinking, go. Gaps in treatment are what an insurer points to when it argues the symptoms came from something else.
A great deal of evidence exists on the day of the injury. The job’s permit and work order, the lockout and tagout log, the pre-job briefing sheet, and the names of everyone on the crew are all created before the work starts. The breaker, the meter, the tool and the line itself are physical evidence.
Much of it does not last. Equipment is repaired and returned to service. Lines are re-energized. Rental equipment goes back to the rental company. Photos taken by the crew sit on personal phones. You or your family can help by writing down the names of coworkers and supervisors and keeping any photos or texts you have.
A Texas personal injury claim generally must be filed within two years after the day the claim accrues, which is usually the date of the injury. That rule is in Section 16.003 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Evidence in an industrial setting moves faster than that.
If the injury was fatal, the surviving spouse, children and parents may bring a wrongful death action under Section 71.004 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Section 71.021 allows a survival action for the injured person’s own claim. For a death claim, Section 16.003(b) generally runs the two years from the date of death. Our page on wrongful death claims explains both actions.
Every statute and case linked above was read at its primary source. Texas statutes change every legislative session and case law is constantly changing.
This page is general information about Texas law. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Most of this is in the hands of the employer, the contractors or the utility. Some of it is gone within days. A letter asking them to keep it is usually the first step.
We start by asking the companies involved to keep the equipment, the lockout records and the site photos. Then we identify each party that controlled the hazard, and we make sure your medical record reflects an electrical injury from the start.
Schiffer Law Firm is a Houston personal injury firm with 50 plus years of combined experience representing injured people across Texas.
There is no charge to talk, and no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery.
Written by Jacob Schiffer, Attorney, Schiffer Law Firm. State Bar of Texas No. 24105175.
Call 713-521-0059.
Yes. Current can damage the heart, the muscles and the nerves along its path while leaving small entry and exit wounds. Tell every provider the injury was electrical so the record follows the current.
It may be. Cognitive and memory symptoms can appear or worsen in the weeks after an electrical injury. They are often blamed on stress unless the mechanism is in your chart from the start.
It depends on who controlled the hazard. A utility, a general contractor, an electrical subcontractor and an equipment owner can each bear a share, and the lockout and permit records usually show who.
That depends on whether it carries workers' compensation. A non-subscribing employer can be sued and may not use the defenses listed in Section 406.033 of the Texas Labor Code. A subscribing employer is generally protected by Section 408.001, with a limited exception for exemplary damages in a death case.
Under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, you generally may still recover if you are not more than 50 percent responsible. Your recovery is reduced by your share.
In most cases, two years after the day the claim accrues, which is usually the date of the injury, under Section 16.003 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. The records you need can be gone long before that, so call early.