What to Do if a Loved One Dies in an Industrial Work Accident

Industrial jobs come with high risk. Workers perform demanding physical labor in often dangerous environments. Tragically, industrial work accidents can produce fatal outcomes, leaving families grieving the loss of their loved one’s life.

Along with their grief, families also feel the financial strain–and the injustice–of the terrible loss, but a New Orleans wrongful death lawyer can help. If you are wondering what to do if a loved one dies in an industrial work accident, contacting a lawyer is among the first steps.

Causes of Industrial Accidents

A variety of work environments or scenarios can prompt a deadly industrial accident. Sometimes, accidents can cause sudden death. Other times, a worker may be injured and later succumb to injuries.

Causes of industrial accidents can include:

• Falls, especially from high places, such as construction-site scaffolding lifts or roofs. However, even a “minor” slip or fall event can cause fatal head or brain trauma.
• Exposure to toxic chemicals. Inhalation can damage the respiratory system or other internal organs.
• Injuries from heavy machinery. Some jobs involve working with heavy or bladed machinery. Improper use of equipment–possibly resulting from inadequate training or another party’s carelessness–or equipment malfunctions can lead to fatal accidents.
• Severe burns from chemicals, flames, or electrocution.
• Motor-vehicle crashes. Construction or other industrial workers using vehicles to carry out their jobs can sustain fatal injuries from a motor vehicle accident.
• Maritime injuries experienced by offshore workers, longshoremen, and seamen.

Your loved one may experience an industrial work accident and suffer a spinal cord or other serious injury that does not immediately cause their death. 

Still, victims can develop complications from that injury or succumb to the damage later. That delay does not preclude the industrial work accident from being the cause of your loved one’s death, and you may still be entitled to compensation.

Legal Options After a Loved One Dies in an Industrial Work Accident

You may be eligible for compensation through Louisiana’s workers’ compensation death benefits and from a third-party wrongful death claim. Navigating the laws governing these options is complicated and is a job best managed by a Louisiana wrongful death attorney. 

The team at Scott Vicknair Injury Lawyers has the experience and legal knowledge necessary to handle your situation successfully.

Louisiana’s Labor and Workers’ Compensation Laws

Louisiana revised statute RS 23:1231 establishes death benefits for family members whose loved one dies in an industrial work accident. The worker‘s dependents may receive weekly financial benefits. Eligible dependents include:

• The Surviving spouse, if they lived with the worker at the time of the accident and death
• Children under age 18
• Children under age 23 who are full-time students enrolled in an accredited school
• Children unable to work because of a disability
• Non-relatives who live with the worker and were financially dependent on them
• Others able to prove they were dependent on the deceased

The amount of death benefits received depends on the deceased’s pay. Beneficiaries collect a percentage of that pay based on the number of eligible dependents and on how much the beneficiary relied on the deceased for financial support. Families can also collect a sum to cover funeral costs.

A Wrongful Death Settlement or Award

Certain surviving family members can also file a third–party wrongful death action if someone else’s negligence caused their loved one’s death. A wrongful death lawyer in Louisiana can file the action and take it through the legal process. 

How a Wrongful Death Attorney in Louisiana Helps Your Wrongful Death Claim 

To collect a wrongful death settlement or win a trial award, you must prove the at-fault party’s negligence caused your loved one’s death. Scott Vicknair Injury Lawyers has the resources, know-how, and experience to investigate the fatal accident fully. Through that investigation, we will work to compile evidence to prove negligence and support your settlement demand.

For example, if your loved one worked at a construction site, our team knows what you should know about construction-related injuries and deaths.

We know what training, safety precautions, and other safety-focused regulations property owners and construction site companies and supervisors must implement to keep workers’ safe.

Our team knows the many and specific regulations established for workplaces by the Occupational Safety Health Administration (OSHA), and you can count on us to expose violations or other breaches in duty that put your loved one in danger.

Your attorney will account for both financial and emotional losses when calculating a settlement demand. You may be able to recover accident-related medical costs, your loved one’s lost income and benefits, and have your loved one’s pain and suffering financially acknowledged. You may also collect funeral expenses and compensation for your loss of relationship and consortium.

Settlement Vs. Trial Award

Your attorney will send a settlement demand to the representatives of the party who caused the industrial work accident leading to your loved one’s death. Those representatives may agree or, more likely, make a lower offer. Each side continues to make arguments and offers until reaching an out-of-court settlement agreement.

Sometimes, the other side will not negotiate in good faith or offer victims’ families true financial justice. Should this happen in your case, your attorney will discuss your options with you. If it is in your best interests to fight for fair compensation at trial, the team at Scott Vicknair Injury Lawyers will be primed and ready for that legal battle.

Dedicated to Clients and Committed to Justice

Scott Vicknair Injury Lawyers has built a reputation of respect and results throughout Louisiana. You can trust our promise to put all of our experience, energy, and resources into your case. Even more, you can trust testimonials from our clients. 

We recognize your pain and will treat you with compassion as we work to deliver justice, financial peace, and stability to your future.