Workplace Product Liability
In this country you would think the laws would be clear, if you kill, cripple or dismember someone you should expect to go to jail. Unfortunately, if that person works for you then the duties and laws are not as certain.
Unlike the laws that govern ordinary people, the laws regarding workplace safety offer unfair protections to businesses that expose employees to unnecessary and preventable dangers. In fact, workers compensation laws often act to restrict the types of lawsuits that can be brought for workplace injury and in many cases prevent the injured employee or his family from being able to sue at all.
In addition to the risks associated with mismanaged and poorly-supervised worksites, all too often a defective product also plays a role in a workplace injury or death. Over the years, we have represented individuals who have been severely injured by a work injury or a defective product used in a workplace.
If a supervisor removes a guard from a saw and an employee is later injured, the supervisor and the company may be liable for that removal. Additionally, if the removal of the guard was foreseeable to the manufacturer, the product may be considered defective under Texas Law.
Examples of cases involving defective products that can caused workplace injuries include: woodworking machinery that lacked anti-kick back teeth to prevent violent ejection of wood pieces into a nearby worker, a tractor mounted posthole digger that lacked a guard to prevent a worker from being exposed entangled in an exposed rotating bolt, an excavator quick coupler that failed and allowed the excavator bucket to fall onto a worker, a horizontal boring machine that lacked proper torque control and operating presence technology to prevent the machine from overturning and crushing a worker, ungrounded electrical equipment, many more instances of workplace injury and death caused by defective products.
Unlike the laws that govern ordinary people, the laws regarding workplace safety offer unfair protections to businesses that expose employees to unnecessary and preventable dangers. In fact, workers compensation laws often act to restrict the types of lawsuits that can be brought for workplace injury and in many cases prevent the injured employee or his family from being able to sue at all.
In addition to the risks associated with mismanaged and poorly-supervised worksites, all too often a defective product also plays a role in a workplace injury or death. Over the years, we have represented individuals who have been severely injured by a work injury or a defective product used in a workplace.
If a supervisor removes a guard from a saw and an employee is later injured, the supervisor and the company may be liable for that removal. Additionally, if the removal of the guard was foreseeable to the manufacturer, the product may be considered defective under Texas Law.
Examples of cases involving defective products that can caused workplace injuries include: woodworking machinery that lacked anti-kick back teeth to prevent violent ejection of wood pieces into a nearby worker, a tractor mounted posthole digger that lacked a guard to prevent a worker from being exposed entangled in an exposed rotating bolt, an excavator quick coupler that failed and allowed the excavator bucket to fall onto a worker, a horizontal boring machine that lacked proper torque control and operating presence technology to prevent the machine from overturning and crushing a worker, ungrounded electrical equipment, many more instances of workplace injury and death caused by defective products.