Electrical Injury Accidents

Electrical shock injuries commonly happen in workplaces and construction sites. Contact with electricity can cause catastrophic burn injuries, internal organ damage, cardiac arrest, and permanent injuries to muscles and nerves. Serious injury or death can also result from contact with even a small amount of electric current.

Workers who have been injured on the job as a result of an electrical shock can seek compensation for their injuries and damages. The Nashville personal injury lawyers at DRS Law have been helping injured workers and their families obtain justice and compensation for over 30 years.

Our team of dedicated electrical injury lawyers handles only a select few number of serious personal injury cases. If we take your case, we will give it the time and attention you deserve and will do everything within our power to obtain the best possible result.

Causes of Electrical Injuries

The common causes of electrical injuries in the workplace or at construction sites include:

• Direct contact with live electrical wires
• Indirect contact, where electricity “jumps” from an electrical source and makes contact with a worker or his equipment
• Contact with fault electrical equipment
• Contact with lightning
• Electrocution from water

Tennessee Electrocution Injury Lawsuits

In Tennessee, property owners and general contractors generally have a duty to ensure that workers are provided a reasonably safe work area. This duty includes the responsibility of removing or repairing potentially dangerous electrical conditions or helping employees avoid injury by warning them of the existence of unreasonable electrocution risks.

Unfortunately, construction workers are routinely forced to work on job sites with dangerous electrical conditions. Workers, for example, may be required to operate aerial work platform (AWP) equipment, such as cranes or boom lifts, in dangerous proximity to power lines or other electrical sources. Workers may also be asked to work on electrical equipment that is not properly grounded or that contains inaccurate or misleading warnings.

If the general contractor or property owner fails to provide a reasonably safe workplace, a worker may be entitled to recover compensation for his electrical injuries and related damages.

In electrocution and electrical injury cases, the experienced Nashville construction accident lawyers at DRS Law often will use OSHA regulations and industry standards to establish that the property owner failed to protect the worker from electrical injuries. OSHA regulations and industry standards, for example, prohibit the operation of AWP equipment within a “minimum approach distance” unless extra safety measures are in place. These regulations also require property owners to have adequate safety warnings. If a property owner failed to have such measures in place, they may be liable for a worker’s electrical injury and damages.

What if the Risk of Electrical Injury was “Obvious”?

In Tennessee, an obvious danger – such as an electrical power line – does not automatically result in a finding of no liability to the property owner or contractor. Instead, a property owner may have a duty to protect workers from electrical injuries if the occurrence of an electrocution accident was foreseeable. Basically, if it was apparent to anyone visiting the property that activities were being conducted in an unreasonably dangerous manner, the worker likely be able to recover damages stemming from the electrocution accident.

What Should I Do After An Electrocution Accident?

If you or a loved one has been involved in a workplace electrocution accident, you may be entitled to bring an electrocution injury lawsuit. Such cases are a specific kind of personal injury case and are typically filed against general contractors, employers, or property owners on theory that those parties failed to protect a worker from the foreseeable risk of an electrocution injury.

In Tennessee, workers generally have one year from the date of the injury to file an electrocution injury lawsuit. This is known as the statute of limitations for a Tennessee electrocution injury case.

As part of an electrical injury lawsuit, workers may seek economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages include medical bills, lost wages, and other losses. Damages of this kind are not capped under Tennessee law. Non-economic damages consist of the plaintiff’s pain and suffering. Tennessee has a non-economic damages cap of $750,000; however, in some electrocution cases involving burn injuries the damages cap is $1,000,000.

Contact the Nashville electrical injury lawyers at DRS Law today

We are here to help you get the compensation you deserve. Contact DRS Law today.

We are available to meet with you Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.