Houston Work Injury Lawyer

Put a Houston Work Injury Attorney On the Job for You!

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A work injury lawyer helps you recover from injuries that happen on the job but are NOT covered by workers’ compensation. The injury may result from a wreck in a company car, the negligent acts of an independent contractor, or even the negligence of your own employer (or coworker) in situations where your employer did not bother to purchase worker’s compensation to protect you. Whether you were injured in a fall accident, at a construction site, driving a commercial vehicle, while working offshore, or in another type of work accident in Texas, call a Houston work injury attorney you can trust. Simmons and Fletcher, P.C., Injury & Accident Lawyers have been trusted by Texans since 1979! Call 800-298-0111 today!

Why Hire Us?

Navigating the murky waters of on-the-job injury law can be difficult and challenging. Failing to properly document your claim can result in your claim being lost forever. Here are some specific reasons to select Simmons and Fletcher, P.C., Injury & Accident Lawyers as the lawyers you trust for your work injury:

We recovered 11.9 million dollars on a difficult electrocution work injury case as detailed in the case results in the right-hand column on this page.
Our firm has been trusted by Texans in the Houston and Katy area since 1979.
Paul H. Cannon is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 2005.
We have the experience and the resources to handle your case professionally.

Schedule a Free Case Consultation

You don't pay unless we win

Client Review

Review: 5/5 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “I cannot recommend this firm enough. Chris Fletcher represented me and my experience was great from start to finish. Chris was honest, accessible, and easy to talk to. His paralegal, Stephanie Quinn, was also incredibly helpful along the way, making sure to stay in contact with me and keeping me updated on all the details I needed to know, even though I can sometimes be difficult to get in touch with. I felt like they always had my best interest in mind and that my case was in good hands. The outcome of my case ended up being even better than I expected. These are great people who are great at what they do. If you choose Simmons & Fletcher, you will not regret it.” – Rebecca S., an actual client

What Should I Do if I am Injured at My Job?

If you are on the job at your place of work when the injury occurs, you need to file a worker’s compensation Initial Report of Injury immediately. Failure to file one of these within 24-48 hours could result in your loss of the right to pursue compensation. If your employer does not have worker’s compensation, you need to check with your employer, your employee handbook, and/or the human resources department to see what type of injury report you are required to file. Many employers provide alternative accident injury policies that can provide you with medical benefits but you must comply with their specific reporting requirements.

What Should I Do if I Was Injured in Houston While Driving On the Job?

If you are in an automobile accident while on the clock for your employer, you need to take several steps to protect yourself:

Call the police and file a police report.
Call your employer and report the collision.
Seek appropriate medical attention.
Find out what type of insurance your employer provides and comply with the reporting requirements.

What Should I Do if I Was Injured on Third-Party Property?

If you are on a third-party commercial property such as a grocery store, job site, gym, office, or any other place of business owned by someone other than your employer, they will likely have a process for documenting incidents. Contact a manager and file a report as soon as it is safe to do so. The sooner a store gets notice of the incident, the more likely they are to preserve any video evidence.

Timely filing an Initial Report of Injury is critical to a worker’s compensation claim.

Second, notify your employer and file an Initial Report of Injury if they are a worker’s compensation carrier. You still need to do this even if you filed a notice with the responsible third party. Otherwise, you could lose the right to claim wage-replacement benefits, medical benefits, and other benefits.

Third, talk to a personal injury lawyer about your potential third-party claim. If you were injured due to the negligence of someone other than your employer, you have the right to pursue a third-party claim against them. Call us for a free consultation at (800) 298-0111 to speak to a work injury attorney regarding your rights.

Should I Seek Medical Attention if Injured on My Job?

Regardless of where you are injured, seeking appropriate medical care for your injuries should be the first thing on your mind. Call an ambulance if necessary. The more you delay in seeking appropriate care, the more likely worker’s compensation adjusters, health insurance adjusters, liability adjusters and any other insurance adjusters involved are to deny or lowball your claim.

Insurance adjusters are looking for an excuse to deny your claim. Here are some of the medical care mistakes they commonly deduct from your offer for:

Not calling an ambulance
Not going to a hospital from the scene
Delays in seeking the initial medical care
Delays in following up after the initial medical care
Not following the doctor’s orders
Missing scheduled appointments
Gaps in your medical care
Not filling prescriptions
Seeking alternative, holistic, or experimental types of medical care.

If you do not want to get treated unfairly, your best bet is to seek medical care promptly and follow the doctor’s orders.

What Evidence Should I Document After a Work Injury in Houston?

If you are physically able and it is safe to do so, you should document the condition that caused your injury and the accident scene with photos. Get photos of the vehicles if it is a car accident. These photos are invaluable for proving exactly what happened.

Photographing your injuries and medical care can be very helpful in proving your case, so document everything as quickly as possible. This includes documenting your injury’s healing process frequently. Take many photos over the first few days and then document the process weekly.

Save all of your receipts for medical care, including:

Prescription costs
Medical supplies
Medical bills
Copays and deductibles
Explanations of benefits
Parking expenses
Travel expenses
Toll fees.

What is the Difference Between A Work Injury Lawyer and a Worker’s Compensation Attorney?

A worker’s compensation attorney helps you apply for benefits that are available under a worker’s compensation insurance policy that your employer purchased to cover you, whereas, a work injury lawyer helps you bring claims that you have a right to pursue outside of a worker’s compensation insurance policy.

Workers’ compensation has an “exclusive remedy” clause that prohibits you from making claims against your employer who provided the policy except in cases of gross negligence. However, you can bring a third party that causes you an injury while you are on the job. These are known as “third-party comp claims.”

What is a Worker’s Compensation Third-Party Claim?

When an injury is caused by someone who is not your employer or co-worker, you are still entitled to recover all of the damages you have suffered from the work accident from that individual or company (third-party) and also collect your worker’s compensation benefits. This may also include work injuries caused by a defective piece of equipment at your workplace. It further applies even when you have recovered worker’s compensation benefits from your employer for the same injury.A common example of this is when multiple contractors are working on the same job site and a contractor from one company negligently causes injury to a contractor from another company. The injured person may be entitled to both workers’ compensation benefits from his employer, as well as compensation from the employer of the contractor who caused the injuries.

Who May Be a Third Party in a Third-Party Comp Claim?

A third party may consist of one or more of the following:

another driver who hits you while you are working
an employee of another company who negligently injures you
the maker of a product or piece of equipment that malfunctions and injures you while working
the owner of a piece of real property containing a defect upon which you are injured while on the job
the owner of an animal that injures you while you are working.

Texas Worker’s Compensation Insurance vs. Fake Comp

Texas Workers’ Compensation insurance provides extensive benefits for injured employees so long as their employer is a subscriber to the Texas Workers’ Compensation System and the sustained injury qualifies as an “on-the-job injury.” If you have suffered an on-the-job injury and your employer carries no worker’s compensation insurance or fake worker’s compensation insurance, you have the right to sue them directly for all of your pain and suffering/medical bills and other damages caused by their negligence. Fake comp plans may contain provisions requiring that you seek justice in alternate ways such as arbitration or mediation. Some may even seek to force employees to waive their common law rights entirely.

However, any such provision or plan that fails to provide a worker with substantially the same benefits as worker’s compensation and requires a total waiver of civil liability rights is void against public policy in Texas. Don’t just accept what they tell you, have a work accident lawyer look over your policy and explain your rights to you under the law.

If you have suffered a work injury and you are not sure if your employer is carrying real Texas Worker’s Compensation Insurance call us today for a free consultation with a Houston work injury lawyer about your case.

What if My Employer Fails to Provide Worker’s Compensation in Texas?

If you are injured on the job and your employer fails to provide worker’s compensation, you may be able to file a claim against your employer for negligence, a fake comp claim, or a third-party claim. Talk to one of our work injury attorneys to better understand your options.

Can I Be Fired for Hiring a Work Injury Attorney?

The Texas Labor Code section 451.001 specifically prohibits an employer from firing an employee for hiring an attorney to pursue a work injury claim. This statute protects employees who are filing worker’s compensation claims on their own or hiring an attorney to pursue a claim.

Hire a Work Injury Attorney

Our work injury attorneys at Simmons and Fletcher, P.C., have proven experience in representing persons who have suffered from a workplace injury. With combined professional experience of more than 100 years of practicing law, Simmons and Fletcher, P.C., is a law firm you can trust to provide you with comprehensive legal representation.

Because our work injury lawyers understand how challenging life can be in the aftermath of an on-the-job accident, Simmons and Fletcher, P.C., charges no fee for our services unless a recovery is made. Contact us to schedule a free initial consultation regarding your workplace injury by calling: (713) 932-0777.