Were you or a loved one seriously injured on an Oklahoma job site? Contact a Stillwater construction accident attorney at Murray Law Firm.
Construction Accident Injury
There is a lot of construction in Oklahoma right now. We’re kind of in a boom area, and so there’s a lot of construction workers, and sub-contractors working throughout the state. There are occasions where you have many sub-contractors on the job at one time and they don’t always pay attention to what they’re doing, and sometimes one sub-contractor can hurt another sub-contractor. They could hurt them with dropping something on someone. They could cause something to give way and they fall. They could drop something from scaffolding and hit somebody on the head. There are a lot of ways things can happen. What do you do if you’re on a construction site and you’re injured? You have a workers’ comp claim, but you also have a claim against that third-party, another sub-contractor, for negligence and not conducting their business in a prudent and ordinary fashion. If they violate the safety rules that are on the job site and in the profession, then you have a claim against them. Seek an attorney to determine if there is a claim. They are not always clear cut; there are a lot of nuances that go into a construction injury case in Oklahoma.
Mistakes to Avoid After a Construction Accident
The common mistakes I have found that people make when they’re injured in a construction case are that they seem to believe everybody that tells them they’re going to take care of them. They believe their employer; they believe their sub-contractor. They believe their insurance adjuster – “Oh, don’t worry. We’ll take care of your medical bills,” or “Don’t worry, we’re going to compensate you for your lost wages.” More often than not, they don’t, and two months down the road you’re sitting there with a bunch of bills because you haven’t been able to work and a bunch of medical bills haven’t been paid.
Seek an attorney immediately. They can help you navigate through this very difficult time. They’ll give you your rights. They’ll give you information. They’ll give you power. The only good decision is a well-informed decision. A poor decision is when you make it with no knowledge other than what’s been told for you by insurance companies. The second problem I see in construction cases in mistakes people make is that they don’t follow doctor’s orders. Doctors ask you to stay off of your feet, don’t use your arm, stay in bed for a week, and what happens is people think they know more than the doctors and they go back to work too early, and then the problem makes itself more difficult to deal with and it’s worse than it was when you first had it. Follow your doctor’s orders. If you don’t, the insurance companies will use that against you when you try to settle your claim. The other most common mistake is that people just don’t believe they’re hurt and they keep working despite the fact they have pain. They work, they think it’s going to go away, and it doesn’t go away. Spend the two or three hundred dollars to be checked out immediately after an injury on the job or in construction to make sure you’re not hurt, to make sure you’ve done all you can to detect and diagnose any problem you may have. The best advice I can give you is to contact an attorney who’s experienced in this area, so they can help navigate you, get you the right doctors that will see you, the doctors that will give you good reports, so you’ll know what you can and can’t do.
Choosing a Construction Accident Lawyer
When you’re involved in a construction injury case, one of the questions you have to ask yourself very quickly is, how do I choose the lawyer to represent me in this case and help me get a fair and full settlement with the insurance company? Well, that’s a good question. You have to look for one. You have to find an attorney that has experience in trials in construction accidents. You have to find an attorney who has experience handling injury cases. You need to find an attorney who is not afraid to take on the insurance company and is willing to put in the time and effort to do that. You need to find an attorney who will help you and prepare you for your deposition so there’s no surprises. You need to find an attorney that will make sure you have no surprises. You need to find an attorney who does focus groups, who will be able to tell you what the average juror will say about your case. There are a lot of lawyers who say they have experience, but a lot of lawyers just want your case to settle. Make sure you hire a lawyer who will handle your case and not pass it off to an associate. Make sure the attorney you hire is a person who genuinely cares about you and understands your situation because if you can’t work, you don’t make any money, and cases can take a while. You need to hire a lawyer you feel comfortable with.