Maison Law stands ready to help anyone injured in an accident while at work across California. While workers’ compensation helps those hurt on the job, including in accidents involving forklifts, not every victim is treated fairly, and not everyone receives the same amount of support. Our skilled attorneys fight to get injured workers the full compensation they need to recover physically and financially.
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 Forklift?
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 forklift, often results in more serious injuries.
When your injury is more severe, like a broken ankle or a head or back injury, 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 also 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.
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.
Forklift Accident Dangers in California
The tools we depend on to do our jobs and the vehicles we travel in at work can put us at risk of accidents and injuries. A forklift is a powerful tool and vehicle that can cause devastating impacts for those at the wheel and for pedestrians nearby.
The National Safety Council (NSC) reports across the nation there were 7,740 Forklift accidents involving non-fatal injuries in 2022. Those accidents led to a median of 18 lost work days for patients. In heartbreaking news, at least 73 people lost their lives to forklift-involved accidents in 2022.
The NSC found that 65% of the accidents were in the Service Providing Industries. That can include transportation businesses, home construction, and healthcare. 33% of the accidents recorded occurred in the Transportation and Warehousing industries. This would include trucking companies, packing plants, and delivery companies like Amazon and FedEx. Goods-producing industries like agriculture and manufacturing were also the sites for many forklift accidents.
These industries and services depend on moving heavy loads and storing goods at great heights. 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 always there and Maison Law stands ready to help families seek support through workers’ compensation and a wrongful death claim.
These are some of the factors that can lead to scary forklift accidents:
- Speeding forklift
- Unsafe turn and tip over
- Unbalanced load
- Overloaded forklift
- Collapsing stack of goods
- Broken pallet
- Distracted driver hitting object or pedestrian
- Stressed or exhausted driver making an error in judgment
- Improperly trained driver
- Improper maintenance on forklift
- A forklift manufacturing flaw
These and other factors can all be considered lapses in judgment by a driver and an employer. The employer is required to provide a lift truck operator with a safe vehicle and a safe environment to work in. The driver is required to stay focused on safety as they move about a warehouse or yard where defenseless people will be crossing on foot.
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 story of the accident, the employer’s negligence, and the true extent of your injuries.
How Can a Lawyer Help Me Earn More for a Workers’ Compensation Claim?
There are several safeguards a skilled attorney provides during the workers’ compensation process. Demanding the most for your lift truck injury is just one way a lawyer can help. Victims can also need protection from their employers when they start acting unfairly and illegally.
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 Division of Workers’ Compensation. However, there are a few circumstances that would allow you to file a lawsuit against your employer or another 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 (such as exposure to forklift exhaust) and you got sick
- the manufacturer of the forklift was guilty of providing equipment with a design flaw or manufacturing defect
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.
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 pay would be more or less depending 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.
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. Reputable lawyers won’t take cases unless they feel they can greatly increase the support a victim takes home.
Winning Compensation for Injured Forklift 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. 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 forklift 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 warehouse. 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 Forklift 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.
