Construction sites have heavy machinery and dozens of workers who need to be properly trained to complete their tasks. But if another employee or the construction company engages in negligent actions, you have the legal right to hold them accountable, and our construction accident lawyers can help you.
At Heninger Garrison Davis, our personal injury lawyers can help you recover the losses you’ve suffered. We offer a free case evaluation to determine if you have a valid claim.
What Are the Common Causes of Construction Injuries in Alabama?
Construction sites are hazardous places despite all the regulations they have. One instance of negligence can lead to accidents such as:
- Falls: Falling from ladders, scaffolds, and rooftops is a frequent cause of injuries like fractures and head trauma.
- Struck by objects: Being hit by falling objects, swinging rebars, heavy equipment, tools, or materials is common. Proper safety gear and designated work zones are important.
- Overexertion: Lifting heavy loads, pushing, pulling, or twisting without assistance can cause muscle strains, hernias, and back or spine issues.
- Contact with objects and equipment: Coming into contact with powered tools, sharp edges, electricity, pinch points, and excavation cave-ins can lead to lacerations, amputations, and electrical injuries.
- Environmental and weather Factors: Alabama’s heat, humidity, and storms increase risks like heat stroke, lightning strikes, and respiratory issues from toxic chemical exposure when proper safety protocols aren’t followed.
- Insufficient safety protocols: Not wearing PPE like hard hats, safety glasses, and harnessing up overhead exposes workers to preventable injuries through omissions in safety training and oversight.
For a free legal consultation, call (205) 326-3336
How Much Time do You Have to File a Construction Injury Claim in Alabama?
According to Ala. Code § 6-5-221, you have two years from the accident date to file a personal injury claim. If you wait too long to file, you won’t be eligible for compensation. One of our construction injury attorneys can help determine exactly how long you have to file a claim.
However, different factors could affect your deadline. For example, if the party you’re suing is a government agency, your deadline to file could be as short as six months. But if the party you’re suing doesn’t cooperate with the law, you could have a longer time to file.
Damages Our Construction Injury Lawyers Can Help You Recover
Construction injury costs can be overwhelming. A construction injury lawyer from Heninger Garrison Davis can help you recover all the losses and damages you’ve suffered. Our law firm can help you recover losses such as:
- Medical expenses: All costs associated with medical treatment for injuries sustained in the accident. This includes hospital bills, doctor visits, surgeries, rehabilitation, prescription drugs, medical devices, and more.
- Lost wages: The amount of pay lost while an injured worker cannot work due to disabilities or recovery from injuries. This includes lost time at their regular wage or salary.
- Decreased earning capacity: How much an injury may decrease what the worker can earn over their lifetime. Injuries may limit future jobs or promotions they can hold, leading to long-term lost income potential.
- Pain and suffering: Compensation for physical and mental pain you experienced as a result of injuries sustained. This includes undergoing medical procedures, long-term aches, and mobility limitations, traumatic memories, and nightmares.
- Emotional distress: Mental health impacts like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress from the trauma of an accident, and the recovery process. Therapy costs would be included.
- Wrongful death: Punitive damages can be pursued if the injuries resulted in the loss of life.
- Traumatic brain injuries: Traumatic brain injuries can cause life-long impairments to cognitive functions, behavior, emotions, and movement. Long-term medical supervision, therapies, and lost income potential could result.
- Spinal cord injuries: Paralysis and mobility issues from damage to the spinal cord are permanently disabling conditions requiring costly lifetime support, from wheelchairs to in-home healthcare. Vocational impacts considered.
How do Construction Injury Lawyers Prove Negligence?
There are four elements that your construction injury attorney uses to prove negligence in a construction accident case. The four elements include:
Duty of Care
The first element that must be proven is that the defendant had a legal obligation to act carefully toward you. To prove the element of duty, a construction injury lawyer will focus on establishing the standard of care that was owed based on OSHA regulations, job site policies, and industry best practices.
We will obtain manuals, training records, and safety plans and interview witnesses to understand the duties and responsibilities of the various parties involved, like the general contractor, subcontractors, and project managers. Depositions of the defendants and managers will be key to getting their understanding of the duties they were required to fulfill. The lawyer will then use expert testimony from construction safety experts to clearly define what was reasonably expected in terms of compliance with the standards.
Breach of Duty
This element requires showing the defendant’s actions or failures to act violated their duty of care. To show the breach, your lawyer will conduct a thorough investigation of the events leading up to the incident. Witness testimony from coworkers helps understand the situation.
Inspections and photos of the site and equipment records, like maintenance logs, will be valuable evidence. We will question the liable parties about why safety protocols were not followed as expected.
Construction and equipment experts may evaluate if the breach contributed to the injuries. Our attorneys will compare the actual practices to the standards of care to highlight the deviations and deficiencies that constituted a breach.
Causation
This element involves demonstrating the defendant’s breach directly resulted in your injuries. Our construction injury attorney works with medical experts to tie the breach of duty to the specific harm. Doctors will examine records and either evaluate the plaintiff or view medical diagrams and images to understand the relationship between the injuries and the incident.
Damages
This final element requires quantifying the monetary losses and harms caused by the negligent acts. Proving long-term costs from the injuries incurred, our lawyer will obtain detailed past and future medical expenses. Economic analysts calculate lost wages, reduced work-life, and earnings using work history documents.
Affidavits from vocational counselors establish the debilitating impact. Together, this quantifies all the losses you’ve suffered and how your injuries affect your daily life.
Contact a Construction Injury Attorney for Legal Help
At Heninger Garrison Davis, our team of construction injury attorneys can help you figure out your legal options after you are injured at a construction site. We have over 17 years of experience helping injured people like you.
Contact us today for a free case consultation.