Learning to use the tools and heavy equipment on a construction site requires significant training, and both federal and state laws mandate regular updates to ensure safety. However, even with proper training, accidents caused by negligence or recklessness still occur. In such cases, it’s important to consult an Indianapolis construction accident lawyer to protect your rights.
As an injury victim, you have the right to bring the responsible parties to court. The experienced Indianapolis personal injury lawyers at Vaughan & Vaughan are here to stand by your side and help you pursue the compensation you deserve for your injuries and losses.
The video from Vaughan & Vaughan underscores the paramount importance of health and safety for construction workers, highlighting the myriad dangers they face daily, such as falls and electrical hazards. It emphasizes the crucial role of a strong safety culture in preventing accidents and discusses the complexities of determining fault in construction site incidents. Vaughan & Vaughan pledges to provide extensive legal and medical support to ensure injured workers are treated with dignity and receive fair compensation, emphasizing their commitment to protecting workers’ rights in Indianapolis.
Liability in the Face of a Construction Accident
It’s not always easy to know who to hold responsible for your losses after an accident. While it may look like a specific party bears the brunt of the responsibility for your losses, circumstances may change who you name as responsible for your losses when you move to take legal action.
Employees, for example, are often protected by their corporate overseers in the face of an accident. You might not name a W2 employee as the party liable for your losses after an accident but rather pursue compensation from a construction company.
If this is the case, you need an experienced Indianapolis construction accident injury attorney to help you contend with that corporation’s legal team.
Other potentially responsible parties in your claim include:
- General contractors: Oversee the entire project and are responsible for site safety
- Subcontractors: Companies contracted to perform specific work like excavation, electrical, plumbing, etc.
- Project architects/engineers: Responsible for design safety and plans/blueprints
- Equipment manufacturers: If equipment had a design or manufacturing defect
- Material suppliers: if building materials were faulty and caused or contributed to the accident
- Property owners: The entity or individuals who own the land being developed
The liable party or parties would depend on what specifically caused or contributed to the accident based on an investigation of the incident and the conditions present. Multiple parties could also share responsibility depending on the circumstances.
Fortunately, you can work with our experienced legal team to determine which parties bear the responsibility for your losses.
Your Case Will Get
The Attention It Deserves
Addressing Construction Accident Settlement Offers
If fault for your losses isn’t straightforward, a company may try to take action before you can. As such, you may receive a settlement offer from a company before you’ve had time to seek legal guidance.
It is common practice in the construction industry to offer settlements to injured parties as they wish to avoid the cost of lengthy litigation and the risk of higher liability payouts.
That said, construction companies are businesses, as are their insurance companies. Both will take steps to undervalue your accident. The settlement offer you receive may not represent the maximum compensation your construction accident case is subsequently worth.
Your Construction Accident Lawyer Can Help Maximize Your Settlement
Fortunately, our attorneys know how to recognize an insurance provider’s attempts to undersell your case. We can compare a construction company’s settlement offer against our own estimate of your case’s value. We can then negotiate aggressively for additional financial support on your behalf or take your case before a judge.
There is no fee
unless you win
Filing an Injury Claim After a Construction Accident
You need to submit a comprehensive complaint addressing your losses if you want the opportunity to fight for compensation. This means that your complaint needs to include evidence to help establish a particular party as liable for your losses.
You also need to outline what compensation to which you think you are entitled. You don’t have to build a personal injury claim alone, though. You can work with Indianapolis construction lawyers to identify the party liable for your losses and take action against them.
Our team can keep you up-to-date on the nature of your encroaching deadlines and ensure you have every opportunity to pursue the damages you deserve.
Time Is Limited
Unfortunately, you have a limited amount of time in which you may take civil action after an accident. According to Indiana Code §34-11-2-4, injury victims must bring their claims forward within two years of their accident.
Failure to submit documentation of your losses in that time can see you waive your right to legal action. Our Indianapolis construction attorneys can help preserve your right to claim.
The Economic Benefits of Your Accident Claim
Pursuing a construction accident claim allows you to do more than enact justice against the party responsible for your losses. These claims specifically help you secure the financial support you need to overcome the economic stress caused by your accident.
You have the right to demand the following damages from a liable party:
- Property repair, replacement, and/or irreplaceable losses
- Medical expenses, aids, and at-home assistance
- Lost wages and/or opportunities for alternative employment
- Emotional distress
- Mental health restoration
- Pain and suffering and/or mental anguish
- Loss of consortium and/or companionship
- Loss of income
- Wrongful death and funeral expenses
You can work with our attorneys to outline which damages you may be entitled to and how to calculate those losses’ overall value.
Taking Action as an Injured Employee at a Construction Site
There is always a chance that you may suffer an injury at the site while working under that site’s protection. Your right to pursue compensation, unfortunately, becomes more complicated if you’re working either as an employee or an independent contractor at the time of your accident.
That doesn’t mean that it isn’t possible for injured workers to secure support, though. It is in your best interest as a construction employee to pursue compensation benefits for your losses under workers’ compensation insurance.
If your employer denies your compensation claim, you can work with our construction accident attorneys in Indianapolis to file a personal injury lawsuit with Indiana’s civil courts.
Injuries in Construction Site Accidents
Some Injuries we commonly claim include:
- Broken bones
- Spinal cord injuries and paralysis
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Burn injuries
- Internal bleeding and organ damage
If you work as a contractor, the degree of protection offered to you by Indiana’s workers’ compensation laws may not be as comprehensive as you want it to be.
Our team can help you understand the nature of your employment and outline what action may be available to you should you want to pursue compensation.
Types of Construction Accident Claims We Handle
Our construction accident attorneys have extensive experience handling all types of injury claims that occur on work sites.
Examples include falls from ladders, scaffolding, or elevated work surfaces, being struck by heavy machinery or falling objects, excavation cave-ins, electrocutions, asphyxiations, and injuries caused by faulty equipment or tools.
We also represent workers who develop long-term health issues like respiratory illnesses from exposure to job site hazards without proper safety equipment or training. Our office pursues full and fair compensation for victims of all types of preventable construction accidents.
Contact an Indianapolis Construction Accident Lawyer Today
Construction workers have an obligation to protect civilians and one another from undue harm. Crews that engage in unnecessarily reckless behavior can endanger everyone around them, resulting in long-term injury.
You, however, can hold a negligent crew or related party accountable for your construction injuries.
Vaughan & Vaughan’s construction site accident lawyers in Indianapolis stand with you as you take civil action against negligence after a construction site accident. To learn more about your right to recover financial compensation for medical care and your other losses in a construction accident claim, you can contact our team.
