Workers Comp Lawyer

The claimant, a local 250 union carpenter, fell because a co-worker failed to finish the process of securing a joist in a house under construction.

The co-worker of claimant failed to nail the joist. Because a co-worker’s actions were at issue, claimant could not file a lawsuit for negligence, according to Douglas Rallo, claimant’s attorney. “It is only when a third party is negligent that a claimant can have a lawsuit in addition to 41 a workers compensation case. Since no third party was at fault, the law prohibits lawsuits against the employer for negligence of the co-worker, and limits the claimant to a workers compensation case only”, said Rallo.

“In this case, we were able to obtain $560,000 in workers compensation benefits for our client: $140,000 for medical expenses, $120,000 in temporary disability, and a $300,000 lump sum settlement at the end of the case.”