The railroads are historically acknowledged as one of the most dangerous places to work. Between employer carelessness and the inherent dangers of the job, many more workers are injured here than in other professions. If an employer’s negligence caused an injury, there is a federal law that may allow you to sue your employer for full financial compensation. Contact Sarphie Law to learn more about your legal options for compensation.
Over a century old, the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA) applies specifically to railroad employees. FELA was passed in 1908 in response to the large number of railroad deaths and the critical needs of injured workers. Thousands of workers were dying each year, and tens of thousands more were injured. The inherent dangers and financial difficulties that workers faced after an injury prevented people from choosing to work on the railroads. Congress passed FELA to give employers both an incentive to focus on safety and to better protect workers.
FELA allows an injured worker to sue a railroad in a negligence-based personal injury lawsuit. Generally, you cannot sue an employer in a personal injury lawsuit. The law rewards employers for purchasing workers’ compensation insurance and gives them immunity from nearly every type of injury lawsuit filed by their employees. While workers’ compensation does give workers a safety net, there are some limitations.
Related: What Are FELA Claims and How Do They Protect Railroad Workers?
Under “standard” workers’ compensation insurance, you are unable to recover any non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering. You are also paid for part of your lost wages (usually two-thirds of your wages, subject to a statutory cap). Personal injury lawsuit settlements and awards tend to be higher than the benefits from workers’ compensation. This is why attorneys often look for a third party to sue in a negligence-based lawsuit – you get paid more if you win.
The Federal Employers’ Liability Act states that “Every common carrier by railroad engaging in commerce between any of the several states shall be liable in damages to any person suffering injury while he is employed by such carrier in such commerce for such injury or death resulting in whole or in part from the negligence of any of the officers, agents, or employees of such carrier, or by reason of any defect or insufficiency due to its negligence, in its cars, engines, appliances, machinery, track, roadbed, works, boats, wharves or other equipment.”
In order to be compensated under FELA, you will have to prove that your employer was negligent and that they neglected to provide a safe workplace for you, which in turn caused you to be injured. You may also file a claim for any occupational diseases that you develop on the job. The statute of limitations on these cases is three years from the date in which you suffered the injury or illness.
Every lawsuit is different, and it is hard to know how much a case is worth until we know the facts. It is important to understand more about your injuries and how they have affected you. If you are hurt as a result of your employer’s negligence, you could be eligible for a significant amount of financial compensation.
Your FELA compensation could include the following:
If a loved one died in a railroad work injury, your family can file a wrongful death case against the employer, receiving much more than the standard workers’ compensation death benefit.
There are several steps you should take if you have been injured at your railroad job:
Proceed as if you intend to file a workers’ compensation claim. There are very tight deadlines, and you do not want to lose the opportunity if your attorney eventually determines that you are unable to file a personal injury lawsuit. Workers’ compensation could be your only option.
After you suffer a railroad work injury, contact an experienced attorney to investigate what happened. Your lawyer can determine whether someone was negligent and can be sued or if you should file a standard workers’ compensation claim.
If someone was negligent, you could file a personal injury lawsuit against them. Your case would follow the same path as any other lawsuit in the court system: You file your complaint in federal court, your employer responds, and your case proceeds through the discovery process, where both you and your employer gather evidence and information from each other.
In some cases, your attorney reaches a settlement agreement on your behalf. If your employer does not settle the claim on reasonable terms, you always have the right to go to trial.
Because a FELA lawsuit is a personal injury case, your employer has the right to use their own defenses to protect themselves from liability. The most obvious defense is that your employer was not negligent. In many cases, your employer may attempt to blame you for what happened. In a standard workers’ compensation claim, this is not an issue because workers’ comp is a no-fault system. However, when negligence is an issue, you can be accused of the same conduct yourself, and your financial recovery could be reduced by the percentage of blame that you are found to bear for the accident.
This is referred to as comparative negligence and is a very common defense used by railroad employers. They will try to argue that your own negligence played a part in the accident and therefore you are partially responsible for your injuries. In this case, the jury would have to decide what percentage of blame each party deserves, which could impact the amount of damages awarded to you.
If you are a railroad worker who has been injured on the job, always speak to an experienced FELA lawyer to learn how you can most effectively pursue a settlement or award for your injuries. Daren Sarphie has spent his entire career fighting for workers injured on the job who may feel they do not have a voice.
