There are few places as dangerous as construction sites. Between the power tools and the unstable supports, there are dozens of ways for even an experienced professional to end up hurt. When you add negligence to the equation, one person’s actions may spell disaster for the entire team.
If you fall victim to an accident caused by someone else’s negligence, it may take months or years to recover. Fortunately, you can work with a Crawfordsville, IN, construction accident lawyer to hold a negligent party accountable for their misconduct. Vaughan & Vaughan can stand with you as you fight for the compensation you need to address the cost of your recovery.
Construction Accident Lawyers Fight for Your Rights
If you’re injured on a construction site, your first instinct may be to file a workers’ compensation claim. Unfortunately, not every team in Indiana has workers’ compensation to protect them, or it often is not enough to fully compensate you for your injuries. Even then, employers may deny independent contractors this protection or refuse to take your claim seriously.
That’s why discussing a construction accident with an experienced attorney is often in your best interest. Construction accident attorneys in Crawfordsville can help you avoid the pitfalls of workers’ compensation claims in favor of filing a personal injury claim.
A personal injury claim gives you the right to non-economic damages alongside economic ones while also forcing your employer, or another liable party, to take your losses seriously. Moreover, everyone from an independent contractor to a full-time employee holds the right to a personal injury claim in the face of dangerous workplace negligence.
When to Call a Construction Accident Lawyer
It’s best to contact a construction accident lawyer as soon as you can after your initial accident. When you have an attorney on standby, you can prevent your supervisor or another party responsible for your accident from misrepresenting your condition. You can also more effectively communicate with police officers and emergency responders.
What’s more, if you want to bring a lawsuit against the party responsible for your accident, you have to do so on a deadline. The sooner you contact an attorney, the easier it may be for you to stay on top of that deadline.
Indiana Code §34-11-2-4 specifically limits your actionable time to two years from the anniversary of your accident. Our team can make the most of that two-year filing deadline by opening an investigation into your losses shortly after you bring your case to our attention.
Your Case Will Get
The Attention It Deserves
Presenting Evidence of Liability in a Construction Accident Claim
If you’re injured on a construction site, you should follow the evidence to determine who to hold liable for your losses. If, for example, one of your coworkers behaved inappropriately and put you in harm’s way, you can claim that your coworker violated your duty of care.
Similarly, you can hold a construction company accountable for any failure to invest in team training. Even the companies that manufacture your equipment may be liable for your losses should that equipment prove faulty or dangerous.
Be prepared to defend your claims with quantifiable evidence regardless of who you think contributed to your losses. When asserting fault after a construction accident, you can present a court with:
- Video, audio, and/or photo footage of the negligence that led to your losses
- Statements from your coworkers and other bystanders
- Expert witness opinions
- Physical signs of negligence or reckless behavior
There is no fee
unless you win
Presenting an Estimate of Your Case’s Value
Your construction accident case has inherent value. That value, however, is tied up in the individual losses that you experienced as a result of someone else’s negligence. You need to find the sum of your losses, both economic and non-economic, if you want to request the damages you need to recover.
Negligence-based construction accidents resulting in serious injury can entitle you to:
- Medical coverage
- Property repair and replacement
- Lost wages
- Emotional distress
- Pain and suffering
If someone you love dies as a result of a construction accident, Indiana law may entitle you to legal action on that person’s behalf. You, in turn, may have the right to request that a liable party compensate you for your loved one’s wrongful death as well as their funeral expenses, lost wages, and related non-economic losses.
Our Team Represents You During Settlement Negotiations
Construction companies who recognize that they may be held liable for your accident losses may reach out to you with a settlement offer while you’re still recovering. These offers can seem generous at first glance. In reality, though, they can come with a lot of fine print that limits your right to legal action, should you accept.
Moreover, a company’s settlement offer may not acknowledge the full breadth of your losses. That’s why you should bring a construction accident settlement offer to the attention of an attending construction accident attorney in Crawfordsville.
When we first take on your case, we estimate the total value of your economic and non-economic losses. If it looks like a construction company or insurance provider has overlooked some of those expenses, we can negotiate for appropriate coverage on your behalf.
Filing Your Construction Accident Claim
Once you’ve gathered all of the information relevant to your construction accident claim, you can submit it to a civil judge. The judge’s staff can consider the information you’ve brought forward and then decide whether or not you have the right to demand damages in private negotiations or in a traditional trial.
Provided that your construction accident case does move forward, you can choose which of these paths you’d prefer to pursue. If the liable party seems to understand the severity of your losses, negotiations may see you receive the compensation you need to pay your bills much faster than a trial would.
Trials, comparatively, are often best for cases involving a belligerent or deliberately evasive defendant. If your supervisor refuses to recognize the severity of your losses or stonewalls your attempts to recover, you can request that our team initiate discovery and prepare your case’s opening statement.
Vaughan & Vaughan Defends Indiana’s Construction Workers
When you step onto a construction site, you want to know that you and your colleagues will be safe. Site managers, corporations, or even your peers who put your safety at risk deserve to be held liable for their actions in civil court. You can connect with a Crawfordsville construction accident lawyer following an accident to start your case.
Vaughan & Vaughan operates on contingency to make your pursuit of civil justice as stress-free as possible. For information about our contingency fees or to schedule an initial case consultation with one of our attorneys, reach out today. You can contact us online or by calling our office.
