The questions on this page were answered by our team of Virginia Beach & Norfolk personal injury attorneys. The questions are categorized by practice area such as car accidents, medical malpractice, wrongful death, etc. If you have specific questions about your situation, contact our firm to set up a free consultation with an actual attorney.

 

• Use all safety gear the railroad provides
• Only do tasks in the yard you are trained to do.
• Do not modify any tools you use
• Use ladders, handholds and stairs
• Always participate in safety briefings
• Never walk under suspended loads
• Make note of any damage to trains or locomotives and report this information to your supervisor

Yes. Showing railroad workers as indifferent to safety allows the rail company to avoid paying for worker injuries, even if the company engaged in bad safety practices. Railroad workers can protect themselves from having their FELA claim rejected by following basic rail yard safety tip?

Our Virginia railroad injury attorneys have learned that rail corporations will try nearly any method to convince the jury that you inflicted harm on yourself by breaking safety rules. Major railroads such as Amtrak, CSX and Norfolk Southern know they only can be held liable under the Federal Employers Liability Act or FELA, if evidence is shown the company acted negligently.

Of course not.  First of all a lawyer must present a written agreement in order to become your attorney and it sets forth the legal fee, which is typically a percentage of the recovery-so the worker is not paying out of  pocket unless there is a recovery.  What the railroads never tell you, is they are having their lawyers figure out ways to defeat your claim while you deal with the claim agent, and vital evidence that you own lawyer would acquire is not being acquired on your behalf.  But, if you have permanent injuries not hiring a lawyer is even worse.  The railroad claims agent will never get reports from your doctors about the permanent injuries you have suffered in order to decide to pay you MORE for permanent consequences of your injury.  The claim agent will totally ignore the future consequences.  And, the claim agent will never tell you whether the railroad is aware that it violated a safety regulation or was negligent, which is a condition that you must prove in order to recover under the governing FELA law.  You should seek a free confidential consultation from an experienced railroad attorney at our firm if you have any concerns after reading this.

Three years from when the worker knew or should have known that their injury or disease arose from work at the railroad.  In disease cases, the key is when the 3 year timeframe begins is the tricky issue, so consult with one of our experienced Virginia railroad worker injury attorneys on this issue.

It's definitely not too late because the federal law governing worker claims for on‑the‑job injuries does not require an accident report ever have been filed.  Also, a railroad cannot fire you for simply making a report at the point where your problem manifests into a serious injury.  Consult with an experienced railroad accident injury attorney at our firm if this is a situation you find yourself in.

The federal law governing worker claims against their railroad employer is called the Federal Employers Liability Act.  There is no mandatory requirement for any written accident report.  Consult with an experienced Virginia railroad worker injury attorney as to whether you should demand that one be filed for a disease that does not have a clear original date it began.

No, the federal law that governs railroad worker injury claims on the job, has no requirement that an accident report ever have been filed. There is a three-year statute of limitations for worker injury claims against railroads.  While you can suffer some adverse work consequences with a late filing, there is no accident report filing necessary in order to present a valid claim.  If your injury is significant, ask to file the accident report, since a railroad is not permitted to retaliate against a worker for exercising rights under the FELA (Federal Employer’s Liability Act).

 

            The FELA is the general law which protects railroad workers who are hurt while working for a railroad.  The Locomotive Inspection Act (LIA) and Safety Appliance Act (SAA) are amendments to the FELA.  Those regulations provide generally a railroad is strictly liable to an employee injured by a defective part or condition on a locomotive or railcar.  This means if an employee establishes that such a defect caused his or her injury, any contributory negligence or lack of reasonable care on the part of the railroad are not essential to the claim.  The claim focuses solely on the defective part or condition.  There are two methods for an employee to establish a part of a locomotive or railcar was "defective" for LIA or SAA coverage.  The first is through evidence of the cause of the defect in the equipment, such as a missing pin in a coupler.  The second is through evidence the equipment did not "operate as intended" at the time of the injury, such a brake wheel which unexpectedly catches or releases.  The employee's description of the failure of equipment may be enough to establish a case under these circumstances, but the more supporting evidence the better, particularly testimony from eyewitnesses to the failure of the equipment.

The FELA is not a workers' compensation law which automatically covers employees that are injured while working for a railroad.  It is a "negligence" based law which means the employee must prove some type of negligence on the part of the railroad contributed in any way, "even in the slightest", to the injury suffered by the employee.  Although the FELA does not provide automatic coverage to employees injured while working for the railroad, the U.S. Supreme Court has directed courts handling FELA cases to keep in mind the Congressional intent of the stature, protection of railroad employees and to apply the protection of the laws liberally.  With this direction in mind, courts have interpreted the FELA to require a railroad to provide employees with a reasonably safe place to work, reasonably safe and suitable tools, and well as adequate assistance.  These general protections of railroad workers are in addition to safety regulations such as the Locomotive Inspection Act and Safety Appliance Act.