How an On-the-Job Injury Attorney Helps You in Texas
How an On-the-Job Injury Attorney Helps You in Texas
Getting hurt at work is disorienting enough without also having to figure out an unusual legal system. Texas is the only state where private employers can legally skip workers’ compensation insurance — which means the first thing an on-the-job injury attorney actually does isn’t paperwork. It’s figuring out which of two very different legal tracks applies to your case.
Common Workplace Hazards
- Slip, trip, and fall accidents — wet floors, uneven surfaces, cluttered workspaces
- Equipment malfunctions — faulty machinery or inadequate training
- Overexertion and repetitive strain injuries — heavy lifting or repetitive tasks
- Exposure to toxic substances — hazardous chemicals or polluted work environments
- Workplace violence — which employers have a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent
First: Is Your Employer a Workers’ Comp Subscriber?
This question shapes everything that follows. Subscribing employers require you to go through the workers’ comp system, generally as your exclusive remedy against them. Non-subscribing employers — who are required to post notice of their status and tell new hires, though many don’t make this obvious — leave you with no comp claim, but open the door to a direct negligence lawsuit with real advantages: under Texas Labor Code § 406.033, they can’t argue you were partly at fault, assumed the risk, or that a coworker caused the accident.
How an On-the-Job Injury Attorney Actually Helps
Determine which legal path applies
Before anything else, your attorney confirms your employer’s subscriber status and identifies every potentially liable party — your employer, a subcontractor, an equipment manufacturer — to ensure you pursue every available avenue to compensation.
Gather evidence and documentation
Medical records, witness statements, incident reports, and, for a non-subscriber case, evidence of the employer’s negligence — safety violations, inadequate training, ignored hazard reports — all need to be collected and preserved quickly.
Handle paperwork and deadlines
A workers’ comp claim and a non-subscriber lawsuit run on entirely different procedures and deadlines — comp claims go through the Division of Workers’ Compensation, while a non-subscriber negligence claim follows Texas’s standard two-year statute of limitations (Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003). Your attorney ensures the right paperwork goes to the right place, on time.
Negotiate or litigate for full value
Workers’ comp benefits are capped and never include pain and suffering. A non-subscriber negligence claim, properly proven, can recover full lost wages, complete medical costs, and pain and suffering — a meaningfully larger recovery when the facts support it. Your attorney negotiates from that full valuation, and litigates if a fair resolution isn’t offered.
Protect Yourself, Know Your Rights
Workplace injuries can be life-altering, and in Texas specifically, generic “file a workers’ comp claim” advice can be actively wrong if your employer never carried coverage. Knowing which system actually applies to you — and getting an attorney who understands both — makes a real difference in what you recover.
Injured on the job?
Schedule a free consultation with the Traub Law Office. Call (512) 246-9191 or contact us online to find out exactly what your case is worth and which path gets you there.
About Andrew Traub
