Call Now
713-521-0059
Often, yes. Who you can bring it against depends on whether your employer carries workers’ compensation, whether a staffing agency placed you, and who else controlled the equipment or the building. Most of these injuries trace to traffic separation and training, not to one careless operator.
The step that cannot wait is the video. Warehouse surveillance video is typically overwritten within weeks, and a damaged forklift can be repaired and back at work the same day. A written request to keep both should go out early. Call 713-521-0059.
The operator matters, but the real questions are usually about the system. Were pedestrians and powered equipment separated? Was the operator trained and evaluated? Was the racking inspected and loaded correctly? Were dock plates and restraints used, and did the floor and the lighting make a strike foreseeable?
Warehouse and distribution work produces crush injuries, falls from docks, falling stock and pedestrian strikes. Each of those usually points back to a rule someone wrote and someone else was supposed to follow. Your claim is built on that system, not only on the last person who touched the controls.
More than one company is often involved in a single warehouse injury. The building owner may control the floor, the lighting and the dock. A contractor may maintain the forklifts or install the racking. The maker of the forklift or a part may be responsible if the equipment was defective. A trucking company may control the trailer at the dock.
Each of those is a separate question with separate insurance. If one of them says you were partly at fault, that usually does not end the claim. Under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, you may not recover if you are found more than 50 percent responsible. Otherwise, your recovery is reduced by your percentage.
A staffing arrangement can create two potential defendants: the agency that placed you and the host employer that directed and controlled the work. Their insurance is separate, and their duties are not identical.
A claim against a company other than your employer can be separate from workers’ compensation. But a staffing agency that carries the coverage can be protected as the employer. Under Section 406.123 of the Texas Labor Code, a general contractor that has agreed in writing to provide workers’ compensation coverage to a subcontractor’s employees is treated as their employer for comp purposes. Keep your placement paperwork and your pay stubs. They show who employed you on paper, and that can be different from who ran your shift.
Under Section 406.002 of the Texas Labor Code, most private employers can choose whether to carry workers’ compensation insurance. If yours does not, you may be able to sue it for your injury. In that suit, 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. Those are the arguments an employer would usually use to blame you or a coworker. Our page on non-subscriber work injury claims goes through it.
Then the rules change. Under Section 408.001 of the Texas Labor Code, workers’ compensation benefits are generally your exclusive remedy against a subscribing employer and its agents and employees. The statute states one exception. Where a worker’s death was caused by an intentional act or omission of the employer or by its gross negligence, the surviving spouse or heirs of the body may recover exemplary damages.
A claim against another company, such as the building owner, a contractor or the equipment maker, may still be open. That is why the first step is to find out who employed you, whether it subscribes, and who else was involved.
The records that decide these claims belong to the company, not to you. They include operator training and evaluation records, the forklift’s daily inspection checklists and its maintenance history. They also include racking inspection reports and the facility traffic plan. Surveillance video is typically overwritten within weeks, and a rented forklift can go back to the rental company.
You can keep some things yourself. Take photos of the area and write down the names of coworkers who saw it. Keep your shoes, your clothing and any damaged gear. Report the injury to your employer in writing and keep a copy. Save every medical record and bill as it arrives.
In most cases, Section 16.003 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code requires suit within two years after the day the claim accrues, which is usually the date of the injury. The video and the machine can be gone long before that. Do not wait until the two years are nearly gone to ask.
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 sits in the company’s files, and the video is on a timer. A preservation letter asks the company to keep it before it is lost. The sooner that letter goes out, the more of the record is still there.
We start by finding out who employed you, whether that employer carries workers’ compensation, and which other companies controlled the building, the equipment and the work. Then we ask each of them in writing to keep the video, the training files and the inspection records, and we identify every insurance policy that may apply.
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.
It depends on whether your employer carries workers' compensation. If it does, Section 408.001 of the Texas Labor Code generally makes benefits your exclusive remedy against that employer, with a limited exception for exemplary damages in a death case. If it does not, you may be able to sue it, and in that suit Section 406.033 bars it from arguing contributory negligence, assumption of the risk, or the negligence of a fellow employee.
Possibly both the agency that placed you and the host employer that directed and controlled the work. Their insurance is separate, and their duties are not identical. A staffing agency that carries the workers' compensation coverage can be protected as the employer.
Against most companies, that reduces a recovery rather than ending it, unless you are found more than 50 percent responsible under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. In a suit against a non-subscribing employer, Section 406.033 bars the contributory negligence defense.
It is typically overwritten within weeks. A written request to keep it should go out as early as you can.
Possibly, if a defect in the forklift or one of its parts caused the injury. Ask that the machine not be repaired or scrapped until it has been photographed and inspected.
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. Ask about your dates early.