What you may need to know about collecting Texas workers’ compensation when your Texas City employer labels you as a contractor
Texas City work accident lawyers point out that under Texas workers’ compensation laws, your employer isn’t responsible for ensuring safe working conditions for contractors. The law basically assumes that an independent contractor is in the best position to ensure his own safe working conditions. So a contractor injured at work can’t obtain financial compensation from the employer through workers’ compensation insurance.
But if other third parties contributed to causing an independent contractor’s accident and injuries, the contractor can file civil lawsuits against them to claim financial recompense for the costs of his injuries caused by their negligence. Some of the third parties who could be liable for causing the on-the-job accident include:
- Fellow workers,
- Vendors,
- Suppliers,
- Equipment manufacturers, and
- Property owners or managers.
In cases where the employer actively contributed to causing the accident that injured the independent contractor, the contractor could sue that employer just like any other negligent third party. You would need an astute Texas City work accident lawyer to thoroughly investigate your accident in order to identify all of the liable parties, their roles in causing your injury, and their shares of the fault in the matter.
Texas employers often will attempt to characterize injured employees as contractors because Texas law lets employers off the liability hook in the case of injured independent contractors. A lot of employers try to label their workers as contractors from the moment of hiring. But the actual conditions and circumstances of your job determine your legal status as an employee or a contractor. Job titles and contracts are not enough to establish contractor status. A Texas City work accident attorney familiar with contractor-related work injury claims could help you determine your true employment status. In order to be eligible for benefits from the employer under the workers’ comp system (or to file a lawsuit against an employer that doesn’t carry workers’ comp insurance), you would need to prove the existence of a valid employer-employee relationship.
The issue of the true employment status of injured workers has been litigated over and over again in Texas. So Texas case law has developed a long list of criteria the courts and workers and their attorneys can use to figure out your true employment status. Some of the working conditions that separate actual employees from contractors include:
- Employees are salaried or paid by the hour; contractors are paid by the job.
- Employers withhold taxes and Social Security from the paycheck of an employee, but not from the paycheck of a contractor.
- Employers set working hours of their employees, but not of their contractors.
- Employers provide tools, materials, and equipment for their employees to use on the job; the contractor must provide his own.
- Employees are hired for an indefinite amount of time; contractors are hired for specific projects.
- Employers manage and supervise their employees; they check the work of a contractor upon completion of a job and provide feedback then.
- Employees often must sign documents that limit their legal rights (such as non-compete or confidentiality agreements); contractors do not.
- Employees sometimes must undergo mandatory drug tests; contractors do not.
An experienced Texas City work accident lawyer will be familiar with the criteria used to establish an employer-employee relationship. He could examine the facts and circumstances of your working relationship and help you determine your true employment status and eligibility for workers’ compensation for your injury. Contact the able Texas City work accident lawyers at Denena & Points today for your free and confidential legal consultation.
Operating errors can cause massive injuries on roller coasters
Tuesday morning at the Van Huong Mai amusement park in Vietnam, 5 unfortunate riders went into a terrifying free fall of more than 50 feet when the operating system of the roller coaster they were riding experienced a technical error. The error caused the platform they were on to go into the sudden free fall while they were being lifted up. 4 of the 5 roller coaster accident victims are hospitalized in stable condition. One victim is in very serious condition with possible spinal fractures.
Our roller coaster accident attorneys have mentioned before that roller coaster accidents remain fairly rare. But when they occur, they often result in horrific accidents and injuries like this one in Vietnam. And while rare, roller coaster accidents do cause more injuries and fatalities per passenger mile than passenger bus, train, or plane accidents.
Many modern roller coasters rely on sophisticated computer operating systems to keep them running smoothly. And as those of you who use computers on a regular basis well know, a seemingly smoothly running computer application can suddenly run into glitches or crash for no apparent reason.
Other roller coasters have fairly simple manual operator controls. But these controls often consist of simple buttons, levers, or switches on exposed panels that curious children or mischief makers find readily accessible. A deadly ride accident at last year’s Louisiana State Fair resulted when a young child accessed just such a control.
Victims of these ride accidents, and surviving family of those wrongfully killed by roller coaster accidents, can seek financial compensation for the harm they’ve suffered through the legal process. But proving cause and effect in a ride accident is a technically complex matter. And ride owners and operators will often assert as a defense that the riders disobeyed safety rules or caused their own injuries through horseplay.
You need to be prepared to counter their assertions through a knowledgeable roller coaster accident attorney experienced in the intricate mechanical, evidentiary, and liability issues of ride accidents to win your claim. If you have questions about a ride accident that injured you or your family member, contact our experience ride accident attorneys today for your free consultation. We could help you find your way to a full financial recovery.
What Happens During a DWI Investigation by Houston, TX Police?
Houston injury lawyers know that police departments generally follow guidelines promulgated by the NHTSA in conducting their DWI investigations. The NHTSA DWI investigation guidelines intend to help make law enforcement officers better able to determine when a driver is intoxicated. The guidelines also govern the administration of SFSTs (Standardized Field Sobriety Tests).
The NHTSA DWI investigation guidelines categorize a DWI investigation by three main phases:
The vehicle in motion phase,
The personal contact phase, and
The pre-arrest screening phase.
When police are called out to an accident site after a car crash has already occurred, the vehicle in motion phase of the DWI investigation might rely on evidence like witness accounts, accident reconstruction, physical evidence like skid marks, and black box data.
During a usual vehicle in motion phase, an officer that observes the signs of alcohol-impaired driving could decide to pull over the driver. Some of the driving behaviors consistent with DWI include:
Erratic driving,
Driving with the lights off at night,
Weaving or swerving, and
Driving on the wrong side of the road.
After the officer has pulled over the DWI suspect, the personal contact phase of the DWI investigation begins. The officer uses close observation of the individual to help determine whether the driver is intoxicated. The officer might base his judgment on the driver’s smell of alcohol, slurred speech, appearance, behavior, coordination, balance, and statements made.
If the personal contact phase of the DWI investigation leads the officer to conclude that the driver is intoxicated, he might move into phase three and administer an SFST. The three SFSTs available under NHTSA DWI investigation guidelines are the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, the walk and turn test, and the one-leg standing test.
Based upon the results of the SFST, the officer might take the driver into custody. If the driver refuses the test, the officer also might take the individual into custody and obtain a warrant for a forced blood draw to test the alcohol content.
Drunk drivers present heightened dangers of crashes involving severe injuries and fatalities to others using the roads. Officers’ diligence in identifying DWI crimes and taking drunken drivers off our roads is greatly appreciated. The costs of the injuries and wrongful deaths generated by drunk driving crashes each year run into the billions of dollars.
Your safety on the roads is important. If a drunken driver has injured you or if you’ve lost a loved one to a DWI crash, kindly contact our experienced Houston injury lawyers for your free accident consultation. Our Board Certified Houston injury lawyers would be happy to discuss your case with you, and help you understand your legal options and your chances of making a full financial recovery for your losses. We’ve helped many victims of drunken drivers to become financially whole again after their undeserved injuries so that they could move forward with their lives again. Our able Houston injury lawyers could help you too.
Some difficulties you could encounter when your car suffers a recall
Lake Jackson product defect lawyers understand that manufacturers and the government announce product recalls frequently throughout the year. Owners of products affected by the recalls may believe that they’ll receive an immediate remedy to their defective product. But there are actually several situations where you might find your attempt to seek a remedy for a product defect to be delayed or denied.
For instance, for you to receive the free remedies that auto makes usually offer in he event an auto defect’s discovered, your vehicle can’t be more than 10 years old on the date the defect is officially determined. The age is calculated based on the date of sale to the first purchaser of the vehicle, rather than on the date it rolled off the assembly line.
The automaker can challenge the NHTSA’s finding of a safety defect. As long as the case is still in court, the manufacturer has no obligation to remedy the possible defects. Concerned vehicle owners might have the possible safety defect remedied at heir own expense while the challenge is still pending in court. These owners might be able to obtain reimbursement for the reasonable costs of the repair if the court rules against the automaker’s challenge and upholds the NHTSA’s decision. The vehicle owners would need to present their receipts and paperwork on the repair remedy in order to be eligible for reimbursement.
When the defect recall related to a tire, the tire can’t be more than 5 years old on the date of the defect determination. And owners only have 60 days from the date of receiving the recall notification letter to bring in their defective tires for replacement.
The law allows manufacturers a “reasonable” amount of time from the date the defect is determined to supply a remedy to the defect. Depending on the nature of the defect, the time delay between announcement of a recall and the date a remedy is available to you might be a few weeks, more than a month, or longer. The “reasonable” period of time lets manufacturers identify owners affected by the recall, send notification letters out to them, develop remedies for the defect, provide instructions to their dealers on how to remedy the defects, and obtain and distribute the parts necessary to remedy the problem. Legally, the automaker is not obliged to remedy your vehicle defect until the reasonable amount of time provided by the law has elapsed.
If a defective product injured you, other legal remedies might be available to you. You might be eligible for financial compensation from the manufacturer for the needless harm you’ve suffered. Contact our experienced Lake Jackson product defect lawyers for a free consultation. We could explain your legal options for financial recovery after your injury.
Important Information on Red Light Running Accidents in Coastal Texas
Insurers and their actuaries keep tabs on the frequency and types of accidents that occur to help them properly valuate insurance rates. Our Pearland, TX accident lawyers learn from them that about 1,000 deaths and more than 200,000 injuries occur each year because of drivers who run red lights at intersections. Approximately 15% of collisions caused by red light runners result in either fatal or incapacitating injuries.
Over half of the collision fatalities result from innocent pedestrians and occupants of other vehicles being hit by the vehicle running the red light. Slightly under half of the fatalities occur in the vehicles running the red lights.
Pearland, TX accident lawyers find that studies made over the course of almost a decade revealed that collision fatalities at traffic lights had increased almost 20%. This increase was more than three times the 6% rate of increase for other types of fatal crashes, and a large part of it resulted from red light runners.
In an attempt to combat the growing problem of drivers running the red lights, communities have turned to photo enforcement of traffic laws. The red light cameras, as they’re commonly known, have cropped up in just about every major city and in many smaller communities as well.
The IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) has found that photo enforcement programs tend to reduce the incidence of red light running by about 40%. But photo enforcement does nothing to stop the problem of the drunken drivers who so often barrel through red lights to collide with innocent victims.
If you’ve suffered harm because of someone who ran a red light, obtaining proper financial compensation for your injuries and losses might prove to be more of a challenge than you expected. You need the specialized services of an adept Pearland, TX accident lawyer who can help you collect and preserve the relevant evidence you’ll need to prove your personal injury or wrongful death claim.
Contact the experienced Pearland, TX accident lawyers at Denena & Points for a free consultation about your accident. We’d be glad to discuss the specific facts and circumstances of the accident with you and provide the legal advice you need to make informed choices following the accident. We’ve been helping injured victims and victims’ families to make successful financial recoveries for over a decade. We could help you too.
The Catastrophic Injury Potential from Pearland, TX Motorcycle Crashes
If you ride a motorcycle, and you’ve ever had a wreck, you probably already know the potential for severe injury from such accidents. Even with a good helmet, and all the best safety gear and clothing you can put on, a Pearland, TX motorcycle wreck presents a sudden, violent, and terrible event that can change, or even end, your life.
Even at a slow speed, a motorcycle wreck is dangerous because the rider is exposed directly to all the hazards of the violent impact. Occupants of enclosed vehicles at least have the protection of the shell of the vehicle itself. And the designs of the anchored, bucket seats inside a car provide some measure of protection too.
Pearland Motorcycle Accidents
Our Pearland motorcycle lawyers provide an example of what can happen in a high-speed motorcycle wreck. Bill Warner, a professional motorcycle rider who has more experience and knowledge about motorcycle accident hazards and how to handle them than many riders, suffered this particular high-speed crash.
Bill Warner was traveling at 238 mph on his turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa trying to break one of his numerous land speed records. He lost control of the bike and crashed. Miraculously, he survived. But not without some severe injuries. Bill Warner received 4 broken ribs, a lacerated liver, a collapsed lung, a broken hand, a damaged tendon, and numerous lacerations and bruises from his crash. After some weeks spent in the hospital bed, he is finally able to leave the bed.
He’s one of the lucky survivors of a high-speed motorcycle wreck. Most high-speed motorcycle crashes result in fatalities. Even at ordinary speeds, a high proportion of motorcycle wrecks end with fatal injuries. Many of the others permanently disable their riders.
The true causes behind a Pearland, TX motorcycle wreck often require diligent investigation by an experienced Pearland motorcycle accident lawyer. Brake and tire defects lead to many accidents. Road conditions and spilled truck cargo lead to other accidents. And drivers of larger vehicles who overlook the smaller vehicle profile of a motorcycle in their path cause a multitude of motorcycle wrecks involving catastrophic injuries and fatalities.
Do I Need a Pearland Motorcycle Lawyer?
If you’re suffering because of a motorcycle wreck, contact the experienced Pearland motorcycle accident lawyers at Denena & Points. We provide a free initial consultation to discuss your accident, injuries, and possible case outcomes. We provide practical legal counsel to help you make informed choices in the aftermath of your motorcycle wreck. We’ve been helping injured bikers to obtain fair financial recoveries on their accident claims for more than 12 years. We’d be glad to help you too in your quest to obtain just compensation for your injuries. Call us today at (713) 807-9500 or fill out our online contact form for more information. You can also check out any of our free downloadable reports for more information.
School Bus Safety: Why Don’t More Katy, TX School Buses Have Seatbelts?
1. Katy, TX injury lawyers note that modern Katy, TX school buses are actually very safe, and have special seats designed to reduce the dangers of injury from a crash impact. The thickly padded, container-type seats are positioned closely together to help absorb the impact of a wreck and cushion the child from potential injuries. A number of studies show that school buses actually provide the safest form of ground transportation. About 24 million school children ride more than 4 billion miles a year to and from school on school buses, but only about 6 children die per year in school bus accidents. By contrast, more than 800 children die each year on their way to school using other forms of transportation (parent-driven cars, bikes, or their own two feet).
2. Studies have shown that school children suffer greater dangers of severe injury from misusing seatbelts than from not using seatbelts at all. Katy, TX injury lawyers caution that most seatbelt restraint systems aren’t really designed for the size and weight of a school child, but for an average-sized adult.
3. The cost is prohibitive. Installing seatbelts adds about $8,000 to $15,000 to the cost of a new school bus. Multiply that number by the number of buses in a school district’s fleet, and you might begin to see the problem. School districts and education programs already suffer from cash-strapped conditions. And when studies all seem to point to a negligible increase in safety and a possible increase in certain types of severe neck and abdominal injuries from seatbelts, schools can’t justify the cost.
4. School bus drivers would not be able to enforce proper seat belt use at all times (especially while actively driving the school bus), and these drivers and their employer school districts fear potential liability because of it. Katy, TX injury lawyers remind you that most accident injuries have more than one cause. And injured parties can indeed sue all of those at fault for their share in causing the injury.
5. Federal law does not require seatbelts in buses over 10,000 pounds. The large, yellow school buses that you may be accustomed to seeing around Katy, TX are all over 10,000 pounds. Those school buses that weigh in at less than 10,000 pounds are the tiny ones that typically seat about 6 to 10 passengers.
6. Texas has not fully funded the legislative measure that requires each new school bus to have 3-point seatbelts. So the State school Board has interpreted the new requirement as a voluntary one.
Where’s the Houston, TX Police Dept. BATmobile this Halloween Weekend?
Galveston injury lawyer reminds readers that back on Halloween night in 2008, the Houston, TX Police Department introduced a mobile van, dubbed the BATmobile. The mobile van’s purpose intended to allow HPD to take a more direct and efficient role in combating dangerous DWI crimes by taking the blood alcohol content testing equipment to the streets where it was needed.
The BAT (blood alcohol testing) mobile allowed direct communication with judges to obtain warrants for forces blood draws. The Houston PD BATmobile could save time and allow blood alcohol content to be tested more quickly after a suspect was stopped by police.
But this Galveston injury lawyer was disheartened to see that the BATmobile has come under fire from critics for possible failure to maintain standards that would ensure accurate blood alcohol testing results. Amanda Culbertson, a technical specialist with the Houston PD crime lab, is asserting that the mobile DWI crime lab hasn’t been keeping to standards that would ensure accurate DWI testing results. A grand jury has met to consider her allegations. Apparently, the grand jury wouldn’t allow prosecutors from DA Pat Lykos’ office into the room where they were hearing the case.
As a Galveston injury lawyer who has seen way too much suffering from car crashes caused by DUI drivers, I find that the Houston PD BATmobile is actually a great idea for taking a more direct and forceful approach to fighting DWI crimes, endemic throughout the Houston metro area. We could wish that those in charge of the van took greater care with the technical matters that would ensure highly accurate blood alcohol test results.
We need the Houston PD to crack down hard on DWI crimes, especially on the dangerous drinking holiday that is Halloween. But unless they ensure the accurate tests and procedures that will generate credibility, their efforts, no matter how diligent otherwise, will probably go for naught. And we Galveston injury lawyers will continue to try to obtain just compensation for the innocent victims whose lives are destroyed by reckless drunk drivers.
Hanging Around Haunted Houses this Halloween may be Hazardous to Your Health
Larry Kirchner serves as President of Halloween Productions, which runs Creepyworld. Creepyworld just garnered national notice because its haunted theme park of pretend fright and horror just turned up a truly frightening horror: an employee found dangling on the end of a noose. Larry Kirchner also authored a Haunted House Safety Checklist that our theme park accident lawyers found on the Web.
The Haunted House Safety Checklist goes into some detail regarding the use of props. Specifically, Larry Kirchner forbids the use of “deadly weapons” which he lists as sticks, pipes, bats, or chains of any kind because of the hazard their wielding can pose to guests and employees alike. He apparently references an actual accident a few years back where “an actor hit a customer with a baseball bat by accident” and caused brain damage.
So we theme park accident lawyers wonder, did it take a customer case of brain damage to lead to the realization that using heavy baseball bats in a public attraction, in the dark, possibly under strobe lights, was not a good idea? Does it take an employee found dangling unconscious in a noose to lead to the realization that the use of real nooses as props is not a good idea? Our theme park accident lawyers notice that nooses were conspicuously absent form Larry Kirchner’s list of deadly weapons in his Haunted House Safety Checklist, even though nooses have been used as deadly weapons for millennia.
The Haunted House Safety Checklist also goes into some detail regarding tripping hazards and communication. We wonder if these concerns factored into the tragic accident at Creepyworld on Thursday. In any event, Larry Kirchner’s Haunted House Safety Checklist might need some additions and modifications in light of the horrific hanging accident that occurred at Creepyworld.
Houston FD Response Investigated in Incident of Mom Backing Over Child
Our Houston accident lawyers wrote recently about an accident in the 23300 block of Cumberland Oak Court. A 4-year-old girl had run directly behind the Ford Expedition that her mother was backing out of the driveway. News accounts of the accident told that the child received transport by LifeFlight to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
News updates indicate that Houston City Council member Mike Sullivan is asking questions about the emergency response to the Cumberland Oak Court driveway accident. Mr. Sullivan states, however, that whatever the emergency response to the incident had been, he believes the fatal outcome of the tragic Cumberland Oak Court driveway accident would have remained the same.
But his questions have helped to set off a chain of questions within the Houston Fire Department, which has launched its own internal investigation of the emergency response. A Fire Department spokesperson indicates that there may have been some irregularities in this emergency response, but the Department can’t elaborate while the investigation is in progress.
At issue, according to Mike Sullivan, is the practice of initially dispatching fire trucks to medical emergencies instead of ambulances. The practice apparently derives from data showing that less than 50% of emergency calls actually require an ambulance.
But Mike Sullivan contends that past data can’t be allowed to dictate future responses to accidents. He maintains that in medical emergencies, ambulances should be dispatched too, even if fire trucks are closer. Part of his concern relates to the danger of tying up fire trucks at medical calls when they might be needed for fire emergencies.
Houston accident lawyers recognize that each emergency has unique needs. Balancing safety concerns with departmental efficiencies isn’t always easy. When you or your child have been injured or when you’re facing a fire outbreak, you want the assurance that you will receive the best possible care to address the emergency.
Both fire trucks and ambulances are in limited supply in Houston as elsewhere, so tying up two vehicles on each dispatch probably does not present the best solution to the problem. Our Houston accident lawyers believe that perhaps the current internal inquiry can help refine the emergency dispatch process to better meet the safety and medical emergency response needs of everyone.