Wyoming Construction Accident Lawyer

Here in Wyoming we have a situation often in construction cases where people make mistakes early on in the case, and then we have to do something about that. Common mistakes that clients make in construction cases are, first of all, giving statements. There is usually some kind of OSHA report or some kind of investigation that takes place in serious injuries. The clients will give information while they’re in the hospital or not feeling well. Those kinds of things can be a problem. They’re not unsolvable. People understand that those are problems for people that have just been injured. The other side of things are not getting any statement and not cooperating at the beginning. That can be a problem in a construction case, unlike a car crash case, which you shouldn’t give a statement to the insurance company.

You should try and be complete. You should try and be honest. We can work with that. There won’t be any mistakes as long as you’re honest, and you don’t try and fake injuries. Of course, we don’t want cases that involve fake injuries. We want cases that people are honest, direct, and forward. With those kinds of cases, we can make it work, and we can help you. Please feel free to call my office if you have more questions.

Determining damages in every case is a big question, and it’s not something you do instantaneously. There’s a lot of work to doing that. What drives damages in construction case in my mind is how bad was the system failure that took place? What caused this? How egregious was it? What did the main office know, and when did they know? How did they cut corners in safety? That’s where they usually cut corners— in safety. Knowing those things, you’re able to make a determination as to the value of the case. The more egregious whatever the defendant, the construction company, or the general contractor did, is important in evaluating the value of a case and the injuries. All of that is a weighing process that takes place.

Every case is unique. Every case has a different value. Every case is what a jury ultimately thinks the case is worth. You have to have an attorney that knows that and knows the driving factors and also understands insurance companies on the other side. If there’s a position that an insurance company can be in, it’s called insurance bad faith. The policy limit is suddenly irrelevant because they have improperly handled the case, and you can push hard for a better settlement. We’ve done that in the past, and we’ve also tried cases and broken the policy limits and collected more than the policy limits in those cases. Keep that in mind, and if you have other questions, feel free to call my office.

Construction cases take time to resolve. There’s either federal court or state court. We’ve had quite a bit of success in construction cases in federal court because many of these construction companies are from out of state, and they allow us to do a thing called diversity jurisdiction. In other words, we can sue an out of state company for doing business in Wyoming, and we can sue them in federal court. That’s usually beneficial because it speeds up the process. Federal courts are very streamlined in their handling of discover. Defense attorneys don’t like it because the cases move fast. You get a trial date right away.

State court’s a little bit harder when it comes to these kinds of cases. The reason that it’s harder in the state court is because you don’t get a trial right away in many of the state courts. The trial date is what really drives a case. If you don’t have a trial date that’s solid in granite for the defense, they’re going to stall the case every bit that they can. The question is how long does it take to resolve? It’s going to take 9 to 12 months in federal court and 12 months to 2 or 3 years in state court. My preference, of course, is the federal court, but that’s something that is unique to every case. It won’t work in every case, but it’s something you need an attorney that understands so they get you the fastest track you can get for resolution of your case.

We’re often asked about incidents on a worksite where there’s an injury because equipment fails. Actually, that’s a pretty common kind of injury here in Wyoming, and one of the most prominent cases in Wyoming of this kind was against Caterpillar Tractor for a bad design of Caterpillar Tractor. It didn’t have a roll cage on it many years after Caterpillar knew roll cages are very important to keep people from being injured. The Caterpillar Tractor rolled over and killed this man, and his family sued for the loss of his life in a wrongful death action. It was a products liability case against Caterpillar Tractor, not the employer, and it was a very successful case, with a very good verdict. We have a good law in the state of Wyoming that allows us to recover against products manufacturing. Incidentally, I’m a referring attorney for products cases in Wyoming from the Edge Group, which is the largest group of claims attorneys in the state that work together on cases just like this in the construction area and products liability. This is actually mixed between products liability and construction, and we are able to help with those kinds of cases. If you have other questions like this, call my office in Cheyenne.

Sometimes, I’m asked if it’s a good idea to talk your boss and management about the injury that you received on the construction site. Of course, it is. It’s not only something that you should do, it’s something that you’re required by law if you’re covered by workers’ compensation. You are required to notify management within 24 hours if you’ve been seriously injured, and you need to do that right away. You need to notify them in order to recover on your workers’ compensation. Now that means, for example, if you are injured by a subcontractor, we might have a claim independent of your employer against that subcontractor or any other third-party, for that matter, or if you are a contract employee of some kind with the general contractor, we can sue that contractor also. Your contract employer is the party of workers’ compensation. We can get around the workers’ compensation.

The main thing is you do need to contact management right away. Document what occurred to get that root cause analysis going. Uncover that system failure and preserve the evidence. Yes, contact management right away, and don’t let any time delay you in doing it. If you have any other questions like this, feel free to call us.

We’re often asked if you should return to work if you are injured in a construction case, and the answer to that is, if you’re able to go back to work, you should go back to work. We don’t like people that malinger in this society. People that go back to work show they’re trying, to the extent that they can, and they should go back to work. That’s very important. Jurors appreciate the candor of an individual if he’s able to go back to work and work to the extent that he or she can. That’s important.

The answer to that question is, if you can go back to work, go back to work. If you have questions in regard to this or other matters in regard to construction cases, let us know.

I’m often asked what you should do when you’ve been seriously injured at a construction site. Here’s what I think. In Wyoming, what you need to do is, first of all, get medical care. That’s the most important thing. I’ve seen situations in serious construction cases where people haven’t gone right to the doctor. I had a case where a fellow had a brain injury, and he was reluctant to go to a doctor. Also, his judgement was cloudy because he had been injured, and so therefore, he didn’t go to seek medical care right away. Of course, later on that was used against us. We were able to prevail in the case. In front of a jury, we tried that case successfully.

Of course, that was always the question. Why didn’t he go to the doctor? Why wait? Oftentimes, in construction cases, the employer will say, oh, don’t go to a doctor right away, or they’ll say go to our doctor. Don’t turn this into workers’ compensation because it affects our rate for future jobs. We don’t want that to occur. I’ve seen that happen. You want to get medical care right away. You want to get good competent medical care in the area that you were injured in. If you had a brain injury, for example, you need to see a neurologist, or nurse, or somebody that’s competent in that area. If it’s an orthopedic injury to your back, you need to see that kind of doctor.

Sometimes it’s a mix of all those things. You need to see all those kinds of doctors. I think you should turn that into workers’ compensation every time, especially if it’s a serious injury or anything that is possibly a serious injury. Sometimes, you don’t know right away. Turn that into workers’ compensation because we can work with workers’ compensation on what we have to pay them back later on. It also looks like a legitimate claim, and it’s documented if it’s with workers’ compensation. It’s honestly documented, and that’s something that we need in these kinds of cases. Don’t let an employer talk you into not turning these into workers’ compensation right away. Go to a doctor right away if you’ve got serious injuries of any kind. If you need hospitalization, certainly do that. If you have other questions like this, feel free to call my office, I’m glad to help.

We’ll get cases all the time that involve a person working for a subcontractor, who is then injured by something the general contractor did, the owner did, or both did on a construction site. Yes, you can recover from the responsible parties, the people that caused the injury. Now, some situations may involve something called comparative fault in Wyoming. Comparative fault involves comparing the fault of the subcontractor with the general contractor, and that can have an impact on the case. That’s something that we can work out and consider. Now, if it’s enough of an impact, we might not take the case, but it’s something that we have to look at carefully and determine what your rights are under the circumstances of your particular case. Don’t give up without an interview with an attorney that knows what he’s doing in this area and may be going to trial.

Here in Wyoming, it often comes up whether or not you can sue your employer if you’re covered by workers’ compensation. The answer to that is yes — if you’re actually employed by your employer you can sue. You can’t sue your employer if you’re covered by workers compensation. The question is what is an employer? Commonly, right now we can have third-party contract employees that work for some kind of a temp agency. The temp agency is actually the employer, and they contract. The temp agency contracts with the general contractor or contracts with the subcontractor, and therefore, you’re not an employee of the subcontractor under Wyoming law or the general contractor. Under Wyoming law, what counts is who pays into the workers’ compensation fund. If you pay into the workers’ compensation fund, then you’re not liable for the injury to the employee. It depends on what you consider to be employer. Just because they’re directing what occurs on the job doesn’t mean that they’re the employer.

I’ve had lots of construction site cases where we’ve been in the position where we’ve been able to sue the general contractor, the subcontractor, or both. We’ve actually been able to sue the owner of the premises, too, because they were not covered by workers’ compensation. An attorney needs to get to the bottom of that. I had a grocery store case, not a construction case, where a young man went through a window and severed his arm while on the job, and we were able to recover from the employer in that case because it was a workers’ compensation. They were not paying – that grocery store chain was not paying into the workers’ compensation fund. What matters is whether or not they’re actually paying into the fund, and that’s something we have to investigate in the case to find out the information. With that information, we can help, so feel free to call my office and ask me any other questions you may have regarding personal injury in a construction site here in Wyoming.