EP 38: Legal Recourse Following a Catastrophic Event with Jeff Watson (Part 1)

Welcome to the catastrophic comeback podcast with American Injury Lawyer Clark speaks, helping you find hope, purpose and joy after a catastrophic injury.

Hi, and welcome to catastrophic comeback. I'm happy to have Jeff Watson, senior managing attorney at Speex law firm here joining us today. And Jeff and I are going to talk to you about the litigation process and what might be involved in legal recovery for catastrophic injuries. Welcome, Jeff, thank you for being here.

Thanks. Thanks for having me.

Okay. Well, Jeff, the first thing I want to talk to you about is, you know, not everyone who has, has had a catastrophic event in their lives is necessarily entitled to legal recovery. You know, talk to me about who might be in a position to recovery, financially recover, make a legal claim for monetary damages after a catastrophic, you know, injury, sure,

you bad things happen, and to good people. And sometimes, there isn't a way to recover. For example, if I'm, you know, using the chainsaw in my backyard cutting up some wood, and it pops back and, and cuts my arm off or something like that, then there's nobody else responsible for that. That's just me. I mean, I did that on my own, there's no case to be made against somebody else. For that type of situation. You know, sometimes people get diseases or, you know, catastrophic things that just, you know, are terrible. But there's nobody else responsible for that, you know, a cancer diagnosis or heart disease or things like that somebody

falls at their own house. Yeah, exactly. They're on somebody's mind. It's a wild animal that attacks them, you know, there's a, they're, you know, they have some kind of they're driving a car, and it's their fault, and they have a collision, and they, you know, under those circumstances, there might not be a recovery.

I mean, what we're looking for it, you know, to be able to help people or situations where someone else is responsible for their injury, someone else hits them in a car wreck. You know, someone else has, you know, a pitbull that they don't have chained up, and they come next door and attack somebody's children, we see all these types of situations. Now, it's a little different with workers comp. Because workers compensation cases, it may not, there may not be a case where somebody else is responsible, it may just be that this person gets hurt at work while they're doing their job. And if that, if that happens, they would have a case, a workers compensation case against their employer. So there's third party cases where someone else is responsible. And then there's work injuries where maybe nobody else is responsible. It just an injury at work. And then sometimes there's both, you know, where people get injured at work, and somebody else is responsible.

So essentially, there are there there are two main sources of recovery for people who've had suffered catastrophic injuries. One would be workers comp, where people are injured on the job. And another would be third party third party liability. That's traditional tort law, which is negligence, somebody somebody, you know, duty breach of duty causation damages. Talk to me a little about bit about what that means for duty breach of duty causation damages, and how that applies in this situation.

Well, you know, duty is obviously somebody's got some duty to to you, and they don't do what they're supposed to do. Either they do something that they weren't supposed to do, or they don't do something that they were supposed to do. Give me a couple examples, please. Well, so if I'm driving my car, and somebody runs a red light and hits my car, they've got a duty to stop it, that red light, and they they didn't do that they ran through that that's a duty. That's a breach of duty. That wreck caused my injuries. That's the causation part of it. And then the damages are, how was I injured and medical bills and other things? What's

another example of a breach of duty maybe in a, in a dog bite case for some somebody slips in is hurt seriously at a business? Well,

it could be that, you know, if, you know, you have somebody that slips in a restaurant, for example, they're walking by the kitchen door and there's grease on the floor. They slipped on that floor. And there was no mat down there. You know, and there are standards that say, in these type situations, you're supposed to have a mat you know, are you supposed to clean them there's different duties that you would have there as a restaurant to ensure the safety of your patrons and if they They aren't doing those duties and that failure causes an injury, then, then that's a case that that person could get recovery from the restaurant for not doing the things they're supposed to do. What

about an in a situation of an animal attack, something like that. It would be a situation

where somebody is hasn't chained up an animal they're supposed to, and or sticking to adequate precaution somehow secured them or whatever. Yeah, and that animal gets loose. And, you know, we've had cases where, you know, I remember one case where a guy was working in his garage, fixing his car, and he's got his garage door open, and he, he looks up and there's three Dobermans, standing at the entryway of the, of the thing. And, you know, he's, he can't get out, he's trapped, and they just come after him. You know, there's situations like that we see it with children get bitten. Now, it's different, you know, if, if you have a dog, and it bites you, no one else is responsible for that, you know, but if, if, if you have a dog and it goes by somebody else, because it wasn't properly secured, that that's a case of somebody being at fault, because they haven't done the duties they're supposed to do.

Okay, so you talked about liability. Talk to me a little bit about the work, work injuries and how and how those might be compensable.

Yeah, so you know, Anytime somebody's injured at work, they theoretically would have a workers compensation claim. Not all of those claims are, you know, necessarily worth hiring a lawyer, they may be very small things that, you know, it just isn't worth the time to engage a lawyer. And a lawyer will tell you that you want to take those to learn how to examine those things and tell you whether they think this is something you can handle on your own, or something you need a lawyer for. It can get complicated. So a lot of those cases where people are seriously injured at work, they need to get a lawyer involved. All

right, Jeff, talk to me please about about the combination case, a case where it was where it's both a workers compensation case, and a what types of scenarios might those arise, and a workers compensation case and an ordinary third party liability case,

we see two types of situations a lot. One is where someone's working in a factory. They're doing their job, and they get injured, that injury occurs while they're at work. So there's a workers compensation claim, but it also occurs because of the fault of somebody else. I'm working in a factory, and someone's operating a bulldozer and they drop something off the bulldozer onto my foot, and, you know, break multiple bones in my foot. That's the fault of whoever was operating that. You know, that forklift that bulldozer? Typically, workers compensation if you're injured, and it's the fault of your own employer, there's your recoveries, generally just workers compensation. There are a couple of exceptions to that. But generally, you can't sue your employer, if you've got workers compensation. That's kind of your exclusive remedy, as a general rule, but you'd want to consult a lawyer to see if there's, if those exceptions apply. But if you're working in a factory, and let's say there's some other company, a subcontractor that's operating that bulldozer, and they they hurt me, then we've got somebody that's not my employer, that's at fault. So I've had an injury at work, it's a workers compensation claim. I've got a third party, not my employer, who has injured me. Now I have a case against that third party. That's a liability claim that's duty, breach of duty, causation, and damages. The other scenario we see is in automobiles. I'm working as a salesperson, I'm driving my car to a sales appointment, someone rents a red light and hits me, I'm working. I'm in my car, but I'm working. So that's a workers compensation claim. But yet I have a third party who's caused that injury. Now we've got a claim against that third party as well. So

let's talk about that for a second. So So in a case where a person is injured in a wreck, you know, and it's somebody else's fault. There's always a ordinary negligence, personal injury law, negligence tort, that's a that's a source of possible source of recovery. People have car insurance, you know, so if you've got, if you've got a injury and and fault and an insurance policy, then you've got a case, right, right. And that's, that's a third party that you're talking about. That's right. And then there's worker's comp, where if you're working at the time of that wreck of that automobile accident, then you may have another one source of recovery against or with your employer, you know. So So I think that's an important distinction. The reason it's called a third party is because generally the relationship is between you and your employer. And if there's somebody else at fault, that's a third party and outside of this primary relationship, is that right?

That's correct. And, you know, there, there are nuances, this, they get complicated where you'd want to consult a lawyer. You know, if I'm on lunch break, I'm not working, I'm just driving to a restaurant to get something to eat and someone runs a red light and hits me, that may not be a worker's comp case, because I'm not working at the time, you know, if I'm going to work or I'm coming from work, or when have I clocked out, there's, you know, there's a lot of nuances there that gets complicated and you want to make sure you're consulting an attorney, that can tell you the difference in those things. Thanks,

Jeff. I appreciate that. In the next episode, we're going to talk about specific examples of cases that involve both workers compensation and third party liability. Thank you for joining us, and we'll see you next time.

Welcome to the catastrophic comeback podcast with American Injury Lawyer Clark speaks, helping you find hope, purpose and joy after a catastrophic injury.

Hi, and welcome to catastrophic comeback. I'm happy to have Jeff Watson, senior managing attorney at Speex law firm here joining us today. And Jeff and I are going to talk to you about the litigation process and what might be involved in legal recovery for catastrophic injuries. Welcome, Jeff, thank you for being here.

Thanks. Thanks for having me.

Okay. Well, Jeff, the first thing I want to talk to you about is, you know, not everyone who has, has had a catastrophic event in their lives is necessarily entitled to legal recovery. You know, talk to me about who might be in a position to recovery, financially recover, make a legal claim for monetary damages after a catastrophic, you know, injury, sure,

you bad things happen, and to good people. And sometimes, there isn't a way to recover. For example, if I'm, you know, using the chainsaw in my backyard cutting up some wood, and it pops back and, and cuts my arm off or something like that, then there's nobody else responsible for that. That's just me. I mean, I did that on my own, there's no case to be made against somebody else. For that type of situation. You know, sometimes people get diseases or, you know, catastrophic things that just, you know, are terrible. But there's nobody else responsible for that, you know, a cancer diagnosis or heart disease or things like that somebody

falls at their own house. Yeah, exactly. They're on somebody's mind. It's a wild animal that attacks them, you know, there's a, they're, you know, they have some kind of they're driving a car, and it's their fault, and they have a collision, and they, you know, under those circumstances, there might not be a recovery.

I mean, what we're looking for it, you know, to be able to help people or situations where someone else is responsible for their injury, someone else hits them in a car wreck. You know, someone else has, you know, a pitbull that they don't have chained up, and they come next door and attack somebody's children, we see all these types of situations. Now, it's a little different with workers comp. Because workers compensation cases, it may not, there may not be a case where somebody else is responsible, it may just be that this person gets hurt at work while they're doing their job. And if that, if that happens, they would have a case, a workers compensation case against their employer. So there's third party cases where someone else is responsible. And then there's work injuries where maybe nobody else is responsible. It just an injury at work. And then sometimes there's both, you know, where people get injured at work, and somebody else is responsible.

So essentially, there are there there are two main sources of recovery for people who've had suffered catastrophic injuries. One would be workers comp, where people are injured on the job. And another would be third party third party liability. That's traditional tort law, which is negligence, somebody somebody, you know, duty breach of duty causation damages. Talk to me a little about bit about what that means for duty breach of duty causation damages, and how that applies in this situation.

Well, you know, duty is obviously somebody's got some duty to to you, and they don't do what they're supposed to do. Either they do something that they weren't supposed to do, or they don't do something that they were supposed to do. Give me a couple examples, please. Well, so if I'm driving my car, and somebody runs a red light and hits my car, they've got a duty to stop it, that red light, and they they didn't do that they ran through that that's a duty. That's a breach of duty. That wreck caused my injuries. That's the causation part of it. And then the damages are, how was I injured and medical bills and other things? What's

another example of a breach of duty maybe in a, in a dog bite case for some somebody slips in is hurt seriously at a business? Well,

it could be that, you know, if, you know, you have somebody that slips in a restaurant, for example, they're walking by the kitchen door and there's grease on the floor. They slipped on that floor. And there was no mat down there. You know, and there are standards that say, in these type situations, you're supposed to have a mat you know, are you supposed to clean them there's different duties that you would have there as a restaurant to ensure the safety of your patrons and if they They aren't doing those duties and that failure causes an injury, then, then that's a case that that person could get recovery from the restaurant for not doing the things they're supposed to do. What

about an in a situation of an animal attack, something like that. It would be a situation

where somebody is hasn't chained up an animal they're supposed to, and or sticking to adequate precaution somehow secured them or whatever. Yeah, and that animal gets loose. And, you know, we've had cases where, you know, I remember one case where a guy was working in his garage, fixing his car, and he's got his garage door open, and he, he looks up and there's three Dobermans, standing at the entryway of the, of the thing. And, you know, he's, he can't get out, he's trapped, and they just come after him. You know, there's situations like that we see it with children get bitten. Now, it's different, you know, if, if you have a dog, and it bites you, no one else is responsible for that, you know, but if, if, if you have a dog and it goes by somebody else, because it wasn't properly secured, that that's a case of somebody being at fault, because they haven't done the duties they're supposed to do.

Okay, so you talked about liability. Talk to me a little bit about the work, work injuries and how and how those might be compensable.

Yeah, so you know, Anytime somebody's injured at work, they theoretically would have a workers compensation claim. Not all of those claims are, you know, necessarily worth hiring a lawyer, they may be very small things that, you know, it just isn't worth the time to engage a lawyer. And a lawyer will tell you that you want to take those to learn how to examine those things and tell you whether they think this is something you can handle on your own, or something you need a lawyer for. It can get complicated. So a lot of those cases where people are seriously injured at work, they need to get a lawyer involved. All

right, Jeff, talk to me please about about the combination case, a case where it was where it's both a workers compensation case, and a what types of scenarios might those arise, and a workers compensation case and an ordinary third party liability case,

we see two types of situations a lot. One is where someone's working in a factory. They're doing their job, and they get injured, that injury occurs while they're at work. So there's a workers compensation claim, but it also occurs because of the fault of somebody else. I'm working in a factory, and someone's operating a bulldozer and they drop something off the bulldozer onto my foot, and, you know, break multiple bones in my foot. That's the fault of whoever was operating that. You know, that forklift that bulldozer? Typically, workers compensation if you're injured, and it's the fault of your own employer, there's your recoveries, generally just workers compensation. There are a couple of exceptions to that. But generally, you can't sue your employer, if you've got workers compensation. That's kind of your exclusive remedy, as a general rule, but you'd want to consult a lawyer to see if there's, if those exceptions apply. But if you're working in a factory, and let's say there's some other company, a subcontractor that's operating that bulldozer, and they they hurt me, then we've got somebody that's not my employer, that's at fault. So I've had an injury at work, it's a workers compensation claim. I've got a third party, not my employer, who has injured me. Now I have a case against that third party. That's a liability claim that's duty, breach of duty, causation, and damages. The other scenario we see is in automobiles. I'm working as a salesperson, I'm driving my car to a sales appointment, someone rents a red light and hits me, I'm working. I'm in my car, but I'm working. So that's a workers compensation claim. But yet I have a third party who's caused that injury. Now we've got a claim against that third party as well. So

let's talk about that for a second. So So in a case where a person is injured in a wreck, you know, and it's somebody else's fault. There's always a ordinary negligence, personal injury law, negligence tort, that's a that's a source of possible source of recovery. People have car insurance, you know, so if you've got, if you've got a injury and and fault and an insurance policy, then you've got a case, right, right. And that's, that's a third party that you're talking about. That's right. And then there's worker's comp, where if you're working at the time of that wreck of that automobile accident, then you may have another one source of recovery against or with your employer, you know. So So I think that's an important distinction. The reason it's called a third party is because generally the relationship is between you and your employer. And if there's somebody else at fault, that's a third party and outside of this primary relationship, is that right?

That's correct. And, you know, there, there are nuances, this, they get complicated where you'd want to consult a lawyer. You know, if I'm on lunch break, I'm not working, I'm just driving to a restaurant to get something to eat and someone runs a red light and hits me, that may not be a worker's comp case, because I'm not working at the time, you know, if I'm going to work or I'm coming from work, or when have I clocked out, there's, you know, there's a lot of nuances there that gets complicated and you want to make sure you're consulting an attorney, that can tell you the difference in those things. Thanks,

Jeff. I appreciate that. In the next episode, we're going to talk about specific examples of cases that involve both workers compensation and third party liability. Thank you for joining us, and we'll see you next time.