Maison Law stands ready to help anyone injured in a work accident across California. While workers’ compensation helps those hurt on the job, including in accidents involving conveyor belts, not every victim is treated fairly, and not everyone receives the same amount of support. We want to make sure every victim has the money to pay every medical bill and support their families.
Contact us today for a free consultation to learn more about your options that may go beyond standard workers’ comp benefits.
Do I Need a Lawyer After an Injury Caused by a Conveyor Belt?
If you receive only a minor injury and only miss a few days of work, you may not require the help of a lawyer to get fair treatment through workers’ compensation. However, an accident involving a powerful machine like a conveyor belt often results in more serious injuries.
When your injury is more severe, like a broken wrist or a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), medical bills will be higher and the fight to prove who was to blame becomes more complex.
The guidebook provided by The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) explains that you should consider hiring a lawyer in these and other situations:
- You believe your employer or the claims administrator is treating you unfairly or withholding benefits; or
- You have a permanent impairment/disability that limits you or causes pain; or
- You’re not sure how to proceed with your case, and no one else will help.
You should contact a lawyer if you feel you might have to file a lawsuit against your company in order to hold them accountable beyond what workers’ compensation will cover.
You should consult with an attorney if you feel that by handling your case yourself, you won’t secure enough in compensation to cover all of your recovery expenses. Your lawyer offers the best chance to maximize your workers’ compensation settlement check.
Your Maison Law California Workers’ Compensation Lawyer fights to get 100% of medical expenses, lost wages, and rehab covered if you’re hurt at work.
Conveyor Belt Accident Dangers in California
Conveyor belts are used on many California worksites to make moving and packaging products, goods, and produce much easier. But conveyor belts are kept moving by power engines that sometimes don’t stop when someone is pulled into a belt or gets caught up in a pulley.
Safety devices should be in place to shut down these machines before someone can get hurt. However, employers can neglect the duty to provide safe machines and to maintain them properly to reduce risks. When workers suffer injuries due to unsafe working conditions, the owners and operators of worksites can be held liable through California’s Division of Workers’ Compensation.
These are just some of the places California workers will be exposed to risk around conveyor belts:
- Manufacturing Plants.
- Agricultural Industry. On farms and orchards, especially during harvesting, in greenhouses, and on ranches to move livestock. Conveyor belts used to move feed. Conveyors used in grain elevators.
- Packing Plants.
- Packaging Plants.
- Construction Sites.
- Mining Operations.
- Food Processing.
- Scrap Material Processing and Recycling.
- Pharmaceutical Companies.
Common Workplace Accidents Involving Conveyor Belts
These industries depend on workers moving quickly and providing conveyor belts with a constant flow of materials and goods. The opportunity for accidents is always present and they can cause anything from broken bones to crush injuries, to head trauma. The potential for life-threatening injuries is a tragic possibility as well.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) categorizes these tragic deaths under “accidents in confined spaces.” In a single year, 56 fatalities were blamed on accidents involving running machinery. In 21 of those cases, the death was caused by a powered conveyor machine.
These are just a few of the common types of accidents around conveyor belts that can lead to injury or death.
- Employees caught and dragged by conveyor belt (in some cases hair or loose clothing is caught)
- Employees caught and pulled between the conveyor belt and pulley
- Employees caught and pulled into cutting instruments, saw blades, mixing containers, or other machinery at the end of conveyor belt
- Employees hurt by a collapsing conveyor belt
- Employees hurt by debris falling from belt
- Dangerous falls while working on a conveyor belt or standing on one
Many victims suffer amputated fingers when getting their hands caught under a belt. Employees can be crushed when pulled between a belt and a pulley.
These are just a few of the most common injuries suffered by those working around unsafe conveyor belts. Unfortunately, some victims don’t survive. This would leave families in need of immediate support and help in the future. Maison Law’s California Wrongful Death Attorneys stand ready to help families seek that support through workers’ compensation and a wrongful death claim.
How Can a Lawyer Help Me Earn More for a Workers’ Compensation Claim?
Workers’ Compensation protects all workers in California, but not all workers will receive the same level of support. The amount on a settlement check you receive can vary greatly depending on the evidence you collect, the manner in which you file your claim, and your ability to explain and prove the hardships you’ve been through to a workers’ compensation judge.
Allowing a skilled attorney to handle this process can often help you walk away with much more for your injury. A California Conveyor Belt Injury Lawyer won’t let you miss out on benefits that you may not have been informed of. Your lawyer also acts when your employer’s lawyers try to blame you for an accident or question how badly you are hurt.
These are only a few of the attorney’s duties:
- Protects the victim’s rights
- Investigate and collect evidence to support the victim’s claim
- Keep track of deadlines
- Files the victim’s claim correctly and list all hardships to be compensated
- Represent the victim before a workers’ compensation judge
- Negotiate for the maximum support available based on similar past cases
- Makes sure victims receive every benefit available
- Protects victims from retaliation
- Protects victims if they are fired unjustly after an injury
- Handles this entire frustrating process while the victim is allowed to focus on healing
Can I Sue My Employer After Suffering an Injury On The Job?
In most cases, you could only seek support from California’s Workers’ Compensation program. However, there are a few circumstances that would allow you to file a lawsuit against your employer or some other at-fault party.
You could file a lawsuit if…
- your employer knowingly put you in danger without telling you
- your employer intentionally put you at risk
- your employer was grossly negligent in keeping you safe
- your employer forced you to use or work around harmful substances and you got sick
- the manufacturer of the machinery was guilty of providing equipment with a design flaw or manufacturing defect
- the manufacturer built a conveyor belt with inadequate safety devices and sensors
Your attorney would be prepared to file claims against any individual or company that contributed to your injury. Workers’ Compensation sometimes runs out before victims are fully healed. Taking an employer to court may be the only way to see that all of the consequences of a workplace accident are covered. These factors shouldn’t be left in the victim’s lap.
How Much Does My California Workers’ Compensation Attorney Get Paid?
Most California workers’ compensation lawyers work on a contingency basis. It means they don’t get paid unless they win the case for an injured worker. If successful, the lawyer would usually receive between 9% and 15% of the award the client received.
The fee would depend on the complexity of the case and how much work went into building the case. A workers’ compensation judge also examines the lawyer’s fee and makes sure the attorney isn’t taking too much of the award. The judge must approve the fee.
Always make sure you know what your attorney charges. If you aren’t sure, ask that it be explained clearly to you until you understand. If you still aren’t clear on how much and when your attorney gets paid, it may be a sign you need to look for a different lawyer.
The idea is that your lawyer will have a good chance of earning you much more than you could earn if you handled your workers’ compensation claim yourself. This additional money should be enough to pay your lawyer and allow you to take home much more than you might have otherwise.
How long can I wait to file a California Workers’ Compensation injury claim?
Injured workers usually have one year from the date of the accident to file a claim. In some cases, the one-year deadline counts down from the day the worker learns of an injury or illness. The deadline could be extended if the victim is under the age of 18.
Winning Compensation for Injured Conveyor Belt Accident Victims
Your lawyer would file a workers comp claim that included every medical bill you had now and those expected for the care expected to be needed in the future. Getting this total and estimates on care right would involve your attorney consulting with your doctors and other medical experts.
Your attorney would be negotiating for the maximum in support so that you could pay all of the medical bills that had piled up since the workplace accident. The money needed to cover any care in the future with a longterm or permanent injury would also have to be included.
The DIR Injured Worker’s Handbook goes over all the different types of support available through a claim. This is a look at some of the support victims could receive:
- Medical Care. Paid for by your employer, to help you recover from an injury or illness caused by work. This includes doctor visits and other treatment services, tests, medicines, equipment, and travel costs reasonably necessary to treat your injury.
- Temporary Disability Benefits. Payments if you lose wages because your injury prevents you from doing your usual job while recovering.
- Permanent Disability Benefits. Payments if you don’t recover completely and your injury causes a permanent loss of physical or mental function that a doctor can measure.
- Death Benefits. Payments to your spouse, children, or other dependents if you die from a job injury or illness.
- Supplemental Job Displacement Benefit. A voucher to help pay for retraining or skill enhancement if you are eligible to receive permanent disability benefits, your employer doesn’t offer you work, and you don’t return to work for your employer. This benefit is available for workers injured in 2004 or later. If your injury also occurred in 2013 or later and you received a Supplemental Job Displacement Benefit, you may also be eligible for an additional, one-time payment under the Return-to-Work Supplement Program.
In general, workers’ compensation doesn’t cover the physical pain and the emotional trauma victims of violent accidents must often cope with. Victims may deal with PTSD symptoms after a frightening collision or collapse accident in a factory or in a field. They may face chronic pain for years to come.
Your lawyer can help you decide if a lawsuit should be filed against an employer to seek additional compensation for these very real hardships caused by a workplace injury. You and your lawyer may have to go beyond workers’ compensation to seek additional support for your mental health and to help seek additional support from an employer through a workplace injury lawsuit.
Contact a California Conveyor Belt Injury Workers’ Compensation Lawyer
The most important outcome is that the injured and those who lose their ability to support their families get the full support they need for as long as necessary. Deciding which legal option is right for your situation can be difficult, but you don’t have to make the decision alone.
There’s an easy way to find out which path offers you the fastest route to the support you and your family desperately need. Speak to Maison Law in a free consultation. We want to hear about what happened to you and then help you determine the best course of action for your family.
Maison Law’s California Workers’ Compensation Lawyer works on a contingency basis. We don’t get paid unless we win your case for you. There’s zero upfront cost. Then our attorney’s fee comes out of the award you receive.
