A personal injury sustained by men and women in the workplace is not uncommon. And, although most cases are not serious enough to require litigation, there are certain instances where judicial review is necessary.
These types of cases present a number of legal hurdles to maneuver, however—especially when the accident results in serious injury or wrongful death.
Large companies, especially oil and gas companies, tend to have teams of lawyers, a dedicated law firm, or even personal injury attorneys on retainer and an endless amount of money to fight court cases for expanded amounts of time.
The sad truth is that these obstacles are often seen as so impossible to overcome that some people who have suffered a serious workplace injury such as a burn injury due to a gas explosion or related oil field accident simply don’t bother taking their case to court because they believe they won’t win. Taking this route of inaction will undoubtedly cause a person to think about whether or not they made the right choice and these thoughts can often lead to feelings of regret.
Not Taking Legal Action
For those who want to avoid the unhappy thoughts brought forward by the regret of not having pursued legal action against their employers when a workplace injury has occurred and ended up with astronomical medical bills to deal with catastrophic injuries, it’s important to know which types of accidents and personal injury commonly result in workers’ compensation being awarded. This may not be necessary for some occupations, but for the more dangerous and risky jobs, the more you know about the types of injuries incurred can not only help you to avoid them but also give you a foundation to fight for compensation if they happen.
This article will explain some of the more frequent types of accidents of one such dangerous occupational field, which has seen a relatively steep rise in workplace injuries over the past several years, the oil and gas industry. Knowing this information will not only help you to understand the causes of many types of oil and gas related injuries but also give you enough facts to seek out experienced oil and gas injury lawyers or personal injury lawyers who will fight for you.
If you’re wondering how knowledge of the causes of oil and natural gas-related injuries will help you in a court of law, the answer is that it’s simply a matter of seeking out who or what was responsible for the accident and whether or not it could have been avoided by some sort of intervention by the employing company. Sorting this out can become rather convoluted depending on the circumstances, but if you have been involved in an any of the types of accidents explained in this article, or work in the oil and gas industry, it’s definitely in your best interest to know as much as you can.
Heavy Equipment, Serious Injuries
One of the more numerous causes of workplace accidents oil and gas injury lawyers fight for is when there is a heavy equipment failure resulting in a person getting hurt.
These cases are often taken to court because the matter of who or what is responsible is not always clear. Equipment can fail for any number of reasons, but it’s the company’s responsibility to ensure that this equipment is safe to operate by ensuring that adequate maintenance is given to the machine and also that those using it receive appropriate safety and operational training.
A good oil and gas injury lawyer will help you in these types of cases by providing proof of responsibility that either the company or the machine’s manufacturer was at fault. Whether it was because of the reasons mentioned above or by another less common cause, an oil and gas lawyer will know the various nuances surrounding these cases and will help prove you were not at fault.
You can’t talk about oil and gas workplace injuries without mentioning the rather high risk of fires, explosions, and well blowouts this job creates. Due to the fact that most—if not all—equipment used in the oil and gas industry is run on highly combustible fuels, fires and explosions are bound to occur.
Seeking out who is responsible when a fire or explosion causes significant injury is again not always obvious, but a good oil and gas injury lawyer will have the expertise to deduct responsibility from your case information and help prove what they found in court.
The same can be said when the drilling process causes the uncontrolled release of oil and gas during a well blowout. When this happens, the company is typically at fault, but even when the responsible party is fairly obvious these cases can take years to be resolved. Having a good oil and gas injury lawyer can usually help speed up the process and get you the compensation you deserve.
Fracking for Oil
The rise of hydraulic fracking in many countries has brought with it many dangerous and risky situations that have resulted in injury over the past several years.
Fracking for oil and gas involves drilling a deep hole in the earth where oil and gas reside in the cracks of rocks and then attempting to extract it by injecting water or other fluids into the cracks to bring the fuel to the surface This process is risky and dangerous because of the pressure involved in both the drilling and extraction process. Spills of toxic materials and explosions can occur and injuries are usually the result.
The final injury type to discuss is that of the many slips, trips and falls oil and gas workers suffer every year. These are some of the more frequent types of cases that go to court because deeming who was responsible can be contentious.
The reason for this is that many workers in this industry just accept that the slip, fall, or trip resulting in injury was their own fault for some reason or another. Though this can be true in some cases, there are many instances where unsafe environments, wobbly walkways, or fatigue from working long hours are the primary cause of a slip, trip, or fall injury.
Explaining the circumstances behind your accident of this nature to an oil and gas injury lawyer could prove someone other than yourself was at fault and help you get the compensation you deserve.
Final Thoughts
There are obviously many other types of oil- and gas-related workplace injury cases but no matter what the cause is, it’s still in your best interest to at the very least explain the circumstances to a lawyer. From there, they can determine whether or not your injury case was preventable or the fault of someone other than yourself.
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