Kaufman & Stigger, PLLC can help you when you’re injured in a scaffolding accident on a construction site in Louisville. You won’t find scaffolding at every jobsite in Louisville, but when there is, injuries aren’t far behind. Whether you work high above the ground or down below, things can go wrong. That’s where workers’ compensation benefits can help, and so can we. Set up a free consultation today.
When Does It Make Sense to Talk to a Lawyer?
No matter how careful you are or how seriously your company takes safety standards, scaffolding is still dangerous. That can mean accidents that leave you dealing with some pretty serious injuries. That’s why workers’ comp benefits are there, but that’s not always a straightforward process.
And the more hurt you are, the more help you need. That’s when talking to our lawyers makes more sense. Our team at Kaufman & Stigger can step in to:
- Explaining what benefits may be available to you and what to expect
- Making sure forms, deadlines, and reports don’t fall through the cracks
- Gathering medical records and other evidence to support your claim
- Handling the back-and-forth with your employer and the insurance company
- Stepping in if your payments are delayed or your claim is denied
- Looking at whether you have other legal options
Getting hurt on the job is never ideal, and it’s even less so when you’re hurt on a scaffold. Unfortunately, the injury itself is only the start of the questions and issues that can come up. With our team, you can focus on healing and getting back to work while we handle the claims side of things.
What Usually Causes Scaffolding Injuries on the Job?
When you think about a “scaffolding accident”, it’s not all that difficult to understand how injuries can happen. But it doesn’t take a full collapse to leave you with injuries, and in fact, even a seemingly minor mishap on a scaffold can result in something serious. Even more troubling is the fact that these types of accidents happen because of things you’ll find on virtually every jobsite across the city, like:
- Poor maintenance that leaves loose bolts, worn-out planks, or weakened supports.
- Skipping safety inspections or failing to catch problems before workers get on the scaffold.
- Unsafe working conditions, like making you go up in bad weather, on unstable surfaces, or nearby power lines or electrical hazards.
- Using scaffolding that is damaged, defective, or simply not safe to use.
Obviously, these types of things make an already dangerous job a lot more problematic. And even if you do everything right, you can’t really account for conditions that are above your pay grade. Yet, that’s exactly what causes your injuries. At that point, it’s about getting good information that can help you later.
What Information Helps After a Scaffolding Accident in Louisville?
If you’re like most workers, you don’t climb onto a scaffold expecting to wonder whether it’s safe. You trust that the people in charge have done their job and made sure everything is ready.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen, and when someone cuts corners with scaffolding, accidents aren’t far behind. When that happens, your first priority should be:
- Reporting the accident to someone in charge and getting medical help.
Everything else flows from this step, because it alerts your bosses that something has happened and that you need medical attention. Then, as long as you’re under your own power and have gotten first aid, it’s a good chance to get a few basics that’ll set the stage for later. That usually means:
- Pictures or videos of the scaffold, the area where the accident happened, damaged equipment, unsafe conditions, and any visible injuries.
- Names and contact information for coworkers or anyone else who saw what happened.
As long as you have these things in one form or another, you have the basic building blocks of a claim. Most of the time, scaffolding injuries are serious enough that you might not be able to even do anything except wait for an ambulance. So don’t panic if you yourself can’t take pictures or notes about who was there. We can help fill in those gaps.
More to the point, as things settle down in the coming days and weeks, other important information is going to start coming in. Things like:
- The incident report from your employer explaining how the accident happened
- Information about the scaffold, tools, equipment, or materials involved in the accident
- Pictures of broken planks, loose parts, missing guardrails, or other problems with the scaffold
- Progress pictures of your injuries
- Surveillance or other video of the accident itself
- Medical records and bills showing the treatment you’ve received
- Work restrictions or other instructions from your doctor
- Pay stubs or other records showing the income you’ve lost
- Emails, notes from calls, or messages with your employer or the insurance company
- Notes about how your injuries and recovery are going
Even though you might think your injuries speak for themselves, that’s not necessarily how an insurance company will look at it. So the more information you have, the stronger your claim will be when it comes time to actually go forward.
What Are Your Options After a Scaffolding Injury?
Whenever you work on a scaffold day in and day out, you’re pretty aware of the risk. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have options when something goes wrong and you get hurt. And it also doesn’t mean that you have to pay for someone else’s negligence. Once you decide to go forward, you have two main options:
- Going through workers’ compensation. This is usually the first step after a workplace injury. Workers’ comp is just a form of insurance that every employer in Kentucky has to carry. So when you get hurt, it provides certain benefits that relate to:
- Medical treatment for your injuries
- Temporary disability payments while you’re unable to work
- Permanent disability benefits if you’re left with lasting problems
- Job retraining if you can’t return to the same type of work
The good thing is that you don’t need to actually prove fault with workers’ comp, but that doesn’t mean the insurance company will just accept your story. They still try to question your medical treatment, can delay payments as they investigate, or look for other ways to reduce what they have to pay. And no matter how strong your claim is, workers’ comp benefits don’t last forever.
- Filing a personal injury If your benefits run out or your injuries are to the point where you need more financial help, you do have another option: filing an injury claim. Now, there’s an important point here: with an injury claim, you have to show negligence. That could mean:
- The scaffold wasn’t put together correctly or properly secured.
- The company used damaged or defective parts that shouldn’t have been on the jobsite.
- Safety inspections were skipped, or someone noticed a problem and didn’t fix it.
- The scaffold didn’t have the proper guardrails or other safety equipment in place.
- Someone knew the scaffold wasn’t safe but let workers use it anyway.
Once that hurdle is cleared, the claims process works the same way as it would if you were injured outside of work. You can either file:
- An insurance claim outside of court
- A personal injury lawsuit
And these two options give you a chance at fuller financial help for your injuries, like:
- Full medical expenses, both now and in the future
- Current lost income or reduced future earning capacity
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Loss of quality of life
- Wrongful death losses in fatal accidents
With either option, remember, comes deadlines. In Kentucky, you have one year to file an injury claim and two years to file for workers’ comp. But one way or another, your options won’t be around forever. That’s why our team will be with you from the beginning, to make sure nothing gets missed.
Kaufman & Stigger Can Help You After a Scaffolding Accident in Louisville
Getting hurt in a scaffolding accident can leave you dealing with a lot at once. Between the injuries, missed work, medical bills, and workers’ comp paperwork, it can be hard to know what to do next. That’s where we can help.
At Kaufman & Stigger, PLLC, we can help you understand your workers’ comp options, look into whether you have a personal injury claim, and deal with the insurance company along the way. Set up a free consultation today to get started.
