Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
In recent class action lawsuit news, federal railroad employees are filing legal action against their employers after suffering injuries while on the job. The Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) grants injured railroad workers the right to file FELA lawsuits against their respective railroad companies for workplace accident negligence in either state or federal court.
By filing FELA lawsuits, railroad employees can seek personal injury compensation for any lost wages, future wage loss, medical expenses, pain and suffering, and partial or permanent disability. In contrast to a workers compensation claim, which only provides a limited benefit amount to the claimant, FELA lawsuits allows injured railroad employees to claim up to 100 percent recovery of damages for railroad injuries that were caused by the negligence of the railroad company.
Filing FELA Lawsuits
If a railroad employee is injured on the job and is seeking to file a FELA lawsuit, experts advise potential plaintiffs to follow the advice of their personal injury attorney, and should file the FELA lawsuit as soon as possible.
FELA covers a variety of railroad employees, including: freight train workers, National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) workers, and commuter railroad employees. Essentially any injured railroad employee is eligible to file a FELA lawsuit, even if their job does not involve directly working on the trains.
Furthermore, the families of railroad workers who were killed in a workplace accident can also recover losses, but only if they can prove that their loved one’s death was in direct result of a railroad injury at work.
FELA lawsuits charges typically involve comparative negligence that is common in many workplace accident cases, meaning that an injured worker’s total damage award is only reduced by the extent that the lawyer can prove it was caused by the railroad company. In other words, FELA policy does not require an employer’s negligence to be the proximate injury cause, but experts state that it definitely makes the case stronger.
The injuries often named in FELA lawsuits include:
- Amputation
- Back and spinal cord injuries
- Brain injuries
- Burn injuries
- Crushing injuries
- Electrocution
- Fractures
- Repetitive Motion Injuries
- Slip and Fall injuries
- Solvent Exposure Injuries
- Whole Body Vibration (WBV) Injuries
Overview of Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA)
FELA was passed by the United States Congress in 1908, after receiving numerous reports of railroad accidents and the number of workers who were either injured or killed in result of such accidents. Before the Federal Employers Liability Act was passed, there were very few railroad employees who received any compensation for any railroad injuries that they acquired, leaving families of deceased railroad employees with a difficult time of attempting to collect compensation.
Additionally, if it was found that the injury was caused by the railroad worker’s own negligence in any way, they were not entitled to any compensation from their employer.
In 1939, Congress revised the Federal Employers Liability Act by eliminating the company’s ability to use the assumption of risk as a viable defense in FELA lawsuits. This revision also made it illegal for railroad companies to intimidate railroad employees from explaining the entire situation to investigators.
The federal act was updated once again sometime in the 1950s, after a series of decisions made by the United States Supreme Court had allowed for a more flexible approach for defining “cause” to make the litigation easier on the railroad employee.
Currently, railroad companies are held to a much stricter liability standard for the safety of their employees in order to insure a lesser likelihood of injury. For this reason, legal experts encourage injured railroad employees to purse FELA lawsuits against their railroad company, as there is a system in place for these situations.
Obtain a Free Railroad Injury Case Evaluation
If you or a loved one suffered a railroad injury on the job, you may be eligible to take legal action against the employer and seek compensation for your injuries.
One thought on Injured Railroad Employees Can Fight Back in FELA Lawsuits
I was wondering if I have a case