Nashville Construction Accident Lawyer

Construction accidents deal with either multiple deaths or a serious injury that has resulted from either an unintentional mishap at a construction site or near a construction site. It usually involves a violation of work safety laws called OSHA (“Occupational Safety and Health Administration”).

Construction sites have a lot of heavy, dangerous equipment around. If someone gets hurt on a site, they tend to be seriously injured. If you are interested in seeking compensation for harm suffered, contact a Nashville construction accident lawyer before filing a claim. Speaking with a distinguished premises liability attorney can give you peace of mind regarding your recovery.

Common Accident Scenarios

Most construction accident cases involve construction workers. However, Nashville is a great example of victims of construction accident cases that are not in the construction industry. There are 15 cranes and building sites all through the city. Tourists and people who work downtown that have to walk by those every day.

People that have gotten hit by falling debris or hit by a construction truck or a cement truck delivering items to the construction site. Couriers delivering small items to a delivery site have gotten injured while at the site. They had nothing to do with the actual construction site or the construction of a building.

Common Construction Injuries

Most often cases involving traumatic brain injuries (whether that be a mild injury or a severe injury), even when wearing a helmet. Fall cases causing broken bones, back injury, or some type of paralysis. Injuries at construction sites can be serious injuries.

Injuries sustained at a construction site differentiate these from other types of premises liability cases tend to be more severe. When somebody has a fall or trips over something, they may break ribs, a hip, a knee, or an ankle.

Liability for Employee Injury Cases

If an employee on the site is injured, they are likely to have a Workers’ Compensation claim available to them. If a person is hurt by a co-employee, the only case the injured person will have is a Workers’ Compensation case; and that is an exclusive remedy in Tennessee.

If an individual is injured by a construction worker that was there working for a separate and different company, the injured person may also have a third party liability case against that other company. That will not have the same limitations that the Workers’ Compensation case has, so the injured person could potentially have two lawsuits following the incident. That is a very important thing to find out early in the investigation.

Non-Employees

The injured person will not have the good part of the worker’s benefits; will not have the automatic medical care or the paycheck while they are out of work. However, on the flip side, the injured person will also not have the limitation of Workers’ Compensation. Workers’ Compensation cases are very limited as to how much money an individual can recover for an injury.

If the person was injured as a result of a construction accident against one of the construction companies, the injured person does not have the same financial limits. The only financial limits for the injured person would be under the Court Reform Act here in Tennessee.

Comparative Negligence in Nashville

Nashville is comparative negligence, which means that it is a comparative negligence jurisdiction. Comparative negligence can impact the damages a person could be awarded in their construction accident case. In comparative negligence, a jury can look at everybody’s fault.

In other words, this construction worker was hurt because the scaffolding was not put together correctly, but they should have been wearing a safety harness. In that scenario, the jury might decide that the construction company was 80% at fault and the construction worker, the victim, was 20% at fault.

Whatever portion of fault they put on a victim, their damages will be reduced in any court settlement. If the construction company was 80% at fault and the construction worker 20% at fault, the damages would be reduced by 20%.

Calculating Compensatory Damages

The injured person could get reimbursement for pain and suffering, depending on how serious the injury was. The injured person’s medical bills will be a factor in determining damages and whether or not future medical bills will be expected.

Lost wages will also be a reimbursed loss as the person was there working when they are hurt, and it will take the injured person awhile to get back to work, and sometimes they never go back to work at the same construction job as before. In those cases, the injured person is going to have a lot of future wages.

Cases Involving Punitive Damages

Tennessee has “Tort Reform Act,” which states the cap on punitive damages in Nashville is either two times the total amount or $500,000, whichever one is greater.

If the accident was caused by an OSHA violation, a look at the company’s own safety rules would show if the rules were intentionally or recklessly disregarded. That disregard could have put the injured person and other construction workers in peril. Speak with a Nashville construction accident lawyer if whether you are justified in seeking damages for your injuries.

Important Aspects of a Nashville Construction Accident Case

It is important to move quickly following a Nashville construction accident. Once again, construction accidents are often dependent on what it was like at the time of the injury, so the injured person needs to get someone out there to take pictures or a video of the site before it is changed. It is difficult to prove who is responsible if construction companies point fingers at each other. It can be very difficult and very expensive to get to the truth after the fact, and without documentation.

An experienced attorney will front the money pertaining to the investigation, expert witnesses, etcetera until a settlement is reached. Construction accident cases require a lot of experts, including experts regarding OSHA violations. If you have been involved in a construction accident and sustained injuries, as a result, get in touch with a Nashville construction accident lawyer who can advocate for you.