Articles Posted in Construction Accidents

Construction work in Maryland often involves long hours, hard labor, modest wages, and job security that’s entirely dependent on the season, the market, and the employer. As experienced Baltimore, Maryland Construction accident attorneys, we’ve represented many clients over the years who were injured while performing their construction jobs. One question we get asked all the time is…

“Can I file a claim under Maryland Workers’ Compensation and a lawsuit against the at-fault party (or parties) at the same time?”

The answer is YES. However, as with most things legal, there are many factors to consider.

A career site’s list of the best and worst jobs for 2010 reveals something Baltimore County work accident attorneys have known right along: The physically most demanding jobs are also the most dangerous and can lead to serious personal injury, lifelong medical problems, and even death.

Recognizing the risk to life and limb when construction accidents occur, job search site CareerCast.com ranked construction as the no. 8 worst job to pursue this year. The no. 1 worst job was “roustabout,” which includes oil rig and pipeline workers, followed by lumber jack and iron worker. The site considered the following factors while conducting research to rank the jobs: Environment, Income, Outlook, Stress and Physical Demands.

Construction Worker made the list due to the physical demands, higher rates of injury, and low median income, though the hiring outlook is “moderate.” And Maryland, while our stevedores (dock workers) weren’t in the bottom 10 jobs, they weren’t far behind — stevedores ranked 185 out of 200 jobs analyzed, with a hiring outlook of “poor” (besides the challenging work conditions if you can get a job as a dock worker on the Baltimore and Maryland waterfront).

People get hurt at work in the course of performing their jobs, whether it’s unloading cargo on the docks at the Port of Baltimore, working on a factory floor, or performing white collar jobs in downtown Baltimore office buildings. As Maryland Workers Comp lawyers who’ve served the people of Baltimore County and neighboring communities for decades, we’ve seen a wide spectrum of work-injury cases as a result of everything from heavy lifting to heavy typing.

Fact of the matter is, while certain occupations — construction, for example — are more hazardous than others, you don’t have to fall off scaffolding or have an accident as such to suffer injury as a result of your work. We can break down types of work related injuries into two broad categories: Accidents and Occupational Disease. We’ve discussed what to do if you are injured in an accident at work (see our Workers Compensation webpage for more, as well as our Work Comp blog archive). Let’s discuss occupational disease here.

Maryland Law & Occupational Disease / Work Related Injuries

In our work as Maryland Workers Comp attorneys, we hear this all the time: People who are hurt on the job will say, “My employer said that I don’t need to file for workers’ compensation because we have disability insurance.” Or, “They said they would pay me under the table while I take time off to recuperate.” Or, “They said they would continue to pay me legitimately (i.e., on the books) while I’m off.”

Those are the BIG 3 EXCUSES we hear employers using to discourage injured workers from filing Maryland Workers Comp cases. What happens in those scenarios, inevitably, is the employee gets paid for the time that they’re off, but they really get shorted on the two most important things:

1. They don’t get compensated for any permanent physical problems they’re having.