Maison Law of California stands ready to help Agricultural Inspectors injured while on the job. Workers’ compensation support helps those hurt at work, but not every victim is treated fairly, and not everyone receives the same amount of support. We want to make sure inspectors left with injuries have 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 Suffering an Injury While Inspecting Farms or Facilities?
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, accidents caused by hazards at farms, logging facilities, packing plants, and other locations often result in serious and long-term injuries.
When your injury is more severe, like a broken arm or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), medical bills will be higher and the fight to prove who was to blame becomes more complex. The state department victims work for or the owners of operations that are being inspected can deny responsibility for unsafe work assignments and working conditions.
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 also contact a lawyer if you feel you might have to file a lawsuit against the State of California or a company in order to hold them accountable beyond what workers’ compensation will cover.
Your lawyer also offers the best chance to maximize your workers’ compensation. Calculating how much you’ll lose personally and professionally due to a major injury shouldn’t be left up to court. You can walk away from a workers’ comp hearing with much less than you need to recover physically and financially and have no way to demand more.
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.
Work Dangers for California Agricultural Inspectors
Normal workers go to one place or site each day and face a predictable set of hazards each day. That’s what makes the duties of an Agricultural Inspector so dangerous. They visit all types of workplaces in the course of a week or over a month. They can be exposed to hazards from many different types of industries and businesses.
Inspectors may be around heavy farm equipment on a farm or orchard. They could have to inspect areas containing fast-moving blades and stacks of wood at a logging operation. Inspectors might have to be around forklifts and packing machines, and inspect items up several stories in a manufacturing facility or warehouse.
These duties and others place agricultural inspectors in constant danger. These are just a few of the risks inspectors may face:
- Working in close proximity to tractors and other large farm and ranch vehicles
- Pedestrian accidents in factories caused by forklifts and outside by big rigs and produce trucks
- Inspecting around dangerous machinery in fields, at logging sites, and in factories
- Collapse accidents with stacked up fruits and vegetable boxes
- Broken pallet accidents
- Overhead hazards
- Fall from great height risks in silos and warehouses
- Drowning hazards while inspecting watercraft
- Exposure to dangerous chemicals like pesticides and developing illnesses over time
- Exposure to natural elements out in the field
- Shock hazards
These and other dangers could all leave an agricultural inspector with painful injuries and unable to return to work for weeks or months. Workers’ Compensation is designed to help injured workers in the aftermath of an accident, but employers can deny that your injury happened on the job. California’s Division of Workers’ Compensation may claim that your injury is healed before your doctor feels it is. They can cut off support early to victims in pain.
A Maison Law attorney helps you get your full story across to a workers’ compensation judge. The judge will hear about every hardship you’ve been through, with each damage backed up with documentation and evidence. Judges can make mistakes, but they’ll be much more likely to extend a fair offer to you if they know the full details of an accident, the employer’s negligence, and the true extent of your injuries.
Support for Union Workers Hurt on the Job
Winning Compensation for Injured Workplace Accident Victims
Your attorney takes action against employers and the state when they don’t want to provide the compensation you’ll need to fully rebuild your life and career.
Your lawyer submits a workers comp claim. It must include every medical bill you have now and those anticipated for the care expected to be needed in the future. 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 accident. The money needed to cover any care in the future with a long-term 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 warehouse. They may face chronic pain for years to come.
Your lawyer helps you decide if a lawsuit should be filed against an employer (including a state agency) 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can an employer be held responsible if a loved one dies in a fatal accident at work?
Yes, in certain instances. Workers’ compensation provides death benefits to families left behind, but an employer could also be sued for contributing to a fatal accident in some cases. A California Wrongful Death Attorney would explore the family’s options to hold an employer financially responsible for the tragic loss of life.
What if I can’t afford to pay a California workers’ compensation lawyer?
You can always afford the help of a skilled Maison Law attorney. We work on a contingency fee basis. It means we cover all upfront costs and you owe us nothing unless we win your case for you. Then our fee comes out of the workers’ compensation check you receive.
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.
Contact a California Agricultural Inspector Accident 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 require 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. Maison Law can help untangle this mess while giving you the peace of mind to focus on healing.
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, no-obligation consultation. We want to hear about what happened to you and then help you determine the best course of action for your family.
