Work Injury Lawyers in Hobbs, NM

• Bone fractures
• Joint dislocations
• Herniated discs
• Spinal cord injuries
• Paralysis
• Crushed digits or limbs
• Amputation
• Nerve damage
• Traumatic brain injury (TBI)
• Hypoxic or anoxic brain injury
• Respiratory injuries
• Vision loss
• Hearing loss
• Internal organ damage

Your priority should be receiving the best medical care possible. Do not hesitate to go to the emergency room. You may hesitate to go to the doctor for a minor or moderate injury, but we encourage you to do so.

Medical care is essential for you to heal to the greatest extent possible. Going to a doctor also starts a paper trail for your work-related injuries, which can help you during a workers’ comp claim or third-party liability lawsuit.

Medical records also are critical to determining the true value of your claim. Documenting the type and severity of the injury is relevant to the values of your economic and non-economic damages.

The more severe your injuries and the more long-term consequences you have to deal with, the more your claim might be worth.

Fatal Work Injuries

If your loved one suffered fatal injuries in a workplace accident, it is even more important for you to talk with an experienced workplace accident attorney. Depending on the circumstances, your family may be entitled to death, funeral, and income benefits through workers’ compensation and through wrongful death compensation under New Mexico law.

Who is Liable in Workplace Accidents?

One of the most important reasons to call a work injury lawyer is to have an experienced investigator analyze the evidence and determine who is responsible. You may have a good idea of what happened, but the accident may have come out of nowhere.

Whatever your experience, we will vigorously investigate, gather all of the evidence available, and analyze fault and liability.

While workers’ compensation is a no-fault insurance policy, identifying the liable party is an important step in determining whether you have a valid third-party liability claim. To determine who was at fault for your workplace accident, we will take steps to collect all of the evidence, including any accident and police reports, photos, videos, and eyewitness accounts.

We will investigate your employer’s history of accidents and health and safety violations and the background of any third party involved. We also will recommend filing a lawsuit. Through the discovery phase of litigation, we can gather additional evidence that may support your case.

Work Injury Compensation

When the law entitles you to file a third-party liability lawsuit, our workplace injury attorneys are here to help you obtain the maximum compensation possible.

Through a personal injury lawsuit, you can demand compensation for your past and future:

• Medical Expenses
• Lost Wages
• Pain and Suffering
• Emotional Distress
• Scarring and Disfigurement
• Disability
• Reduced Earning Capacity
• Lower Quality of Life

You are not automatically entitled to compensation for each of these damages. You must prove the damages and establish their value. Doing so requires evidence regarding the type and severity of your injuries and their long-term repercussions.

To establish your economic injuries, we will use your bills, receipts, pay stubs, tax returns, and other documentation of your expenses and losses. We also may hire one or more experts to establish your future medical expenses and reduced earning capacity.

However, we realize that economic damages are not the only kinds of losses that injury victims experience. Accident victims suffer non-economic damages as well, like pain and suffering. However, unlike economic losses, non-economic damages do not show up on receipts or bills, and so they can be more challenging to establish.

Proving your non-economic damages can be more complicated. We may ask you to take pictures of your visible injuries each day while you recover and to keep a daily journal regarding your pain and discomfort levels and the other consequences of your work-related injury.

If we take your case to trial, we want to be able to show the jury how all of this impacted you and your family’s daily lives- now and in the future.

New Mexico Work Accident Statistics

In 2017, New Mexico’s fatal work incident rate was 4.7 out of 100 full-time workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In 2018, there were 3.1 recordable non-fatal work injuries and illnesses for every 100 full-time equivalent workers. In private industries alone, there were 2.8 recordable cases for every 100 full-time equivalent workers.

Rates among various sectors vary widely. For example, transit and grand passenger transportation has a rate of 11.9; Whereas, many professional and business sectors have incident rates below 3.0 out of every 100 full-time equivalent workers.

Certain industries are well-known for being riskier than others. Transportation, manufacturing, warehousing, construction, mineral mining, and other industries that require physical labor contain numerous hazards to workers’ health and safety.

New Mexico Work Accident Claims

Negligence in a work accident is the breach of a duty of care that causes another person harm. Workers and other individuals are required to act like reasonably prudent people would under the same or similar circumstances.

Failing to act like a reasonably prudent person—in other words, failing to act carefully—is considered negligence. The negligent party in your situation may be a coworker, someone from another business working on the same site, a private individual, or a product manufacturer.

Whoever is at fault for your injuries, you need to work with a work injury lawyer to recover compensation.

If you are covered by workers’ compensation insurance, you need to notify your employer of the injury or diagnosis within 15 days of the incident. Your employer should provide you with a signed and dated copy of your Notice of Accident form and then notify the workers’ compensation insurance provider within 72 hours of receiving notice.

A claims adjuster then verifies your workers’ comp claim, reviews and pays your medical bills, and determines the benefits you are entitled to. A claims administrator should connect with you within 10 days.

How a Hobbs Work Injury Lawyer Can Help

Overall, a work-related injury attorney from Kemmy Law Firm will guide you through the entire work accident claim process, including:

• Investigating the accident;
• Analyzing fault and liability;
• Referring you to a workers’ compensation lawyer, if applicable;
• Filing a third-party liability lawsuit, if applicable;
• Helping you obtain all necessary medical care;
• Calculating the value of your damages;
• Hiring any necessary expert witnesses;
• Communicating with the insurer(s);
• Aggressively negotiating a full and fair settlement for your injuries, including a workers’ comp settlement and third-party liability settlement; and
• Resolving your claim or taking the liable party to trial.