Here’s why your client might need more than a workers’ comp lawyer

HAMPTON, S.C. – Your client got hurt on the job and needs some help, and has engaged the services of a workers’ compensation attorney. That’s a smart move.

But there might be more to your case than a simple workers’ comp situation. Maybe you should talk with League Creech of Parker Law Group.

League knows workers’ comp. But she along with members of her firm also practice in the area of product liability and other matters that go into more than whether your client’s employer is at fault for the injury.

For instance, the client may have been hurt by a defective piece of machinery, or lost control of a company vehicle because of a defect in the roadway or a vehicle defect.

“Single-car accidents could involve a roadway defect,” says League. “Our firm has handled a lot of roadway defect cases – unsafe conditions that the DOT or a roadway construction company created or failed to properly fix.”  It is the responsibility of the DOT, and contractors performing work on our roadways, to keep our roads free of hazardous conditions.

And if the machinery that caused the injury did so due to a defect in its design and/or manufacture, the employer wouldn’t be the only business to blame. The manufacturer should be held  accountable.

Taking the case beyond workers’ compensation could mean receiving a great deal more in compensation if product liability is involved, because relief is not as strictly delineated as with workers’ comp. So make sure you consider every aspect, because it can make a great difference in the amount of help your client receives.

“That may go missed in the course of the claim, and often is,” she says. “It’s hard to see these things if that’s not what you’re used to dealing with.”

She estimates that “Up to maybe 25 percent of the time,” workers’ comp cases involve something beyond that narrow definition.

Your case may lie among that percentage, or it may not. League Creech can help you determine that.