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Incidents the firm has represented
Falls. Equipment failures and accidents. Scaffold accidents and ladder accidents. Trench accidents. Electrocution. Archway, shaftway and elevator accidents. Fires, explosions and toxic exposure.
Indiana construction site injury lawyers
OSHA puts construction among the highest accident rates of any industry in the country, and the consequences on a site are rarely mild.
Workers' compensation is often not the end of the answer.
It is where most injured workers stop, because it is what the employer mentions. But a site carries general contractors, subcontractors, property owners, equipment manufacturers and maintenance companies, and where one of those was negligent there may be a claim outside the compensation system entirely. That matters, because compensation does not pay for what an injury did to the rest of a life.
What the work actually is
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Why they happen
Falls from height where fall protection was not in place. Tools, materials and debris dropped from elevation onto people below. Contact with exposed wiring, power lines or malfunctioning electrical equipment. Cranes, forklifts and heavy machinery used improperly or left unmaintained. And the ordinary things - poor lighting, cluttered work areas, and safety regulations that existed on paper and nowhere else.
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What these injuries do
Traumatic brain injuries from falls and from being struck by objects. Spinal cord injuries producing partial or complete paralysis. Fractures from being pinned, crushed or dropped. Burns from explosions, electrical exposure and chemical contact. Amputations from machinery. Hearing loss from prolonged exposure to equipment or a single explosion. The firm has particular experience with brain and spinal cord injuries, paraplegia, quadriplegia, amputation injuries and wrongful death arising on Indiana sites.
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What the investigation looks for
Whether safety measures were followed. Whether workers were warned about known hazards. Whether equipment was maintained properly. And which, among everyone with a presence on that site, actually held responsibility for the thing that failed.
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Who this is for
Workers, and also people who are not workers - visitors, passers-by and neighbours hurt by what happens on a site. Free consultation on 765-340-2776.
How it runs
The same order every time, because most of the costly mistakes in injury work come from doing step four before step two.
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Tell us what happened
A phone call, in your own words, in whatever order it comes out. You do not need the police report in front of you and you do not need to have it organised. If the answer is that you probably do not need a lawyer, you get told that on the first call, and it still costs nothing.
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We look before we take it
The firm's published standard is that you should only hire it if it can put you in a better position than you would be in on your own. That is why the first conversation is a conversation rather than a sales call, and why some of them end with a recommendation to do nothing.
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We do the collecting
Records, bills, wage information, photographs, witness accounts, and whatever the other side has already put in writing. Meanwhile the firm helps process health and auto medical-payment benefits at no charge, which is usually the part quietly bleeding money while everyone waits.
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We deal with the insurer
Every offer is passed to you as it arrives, with a straight assessment of whether it is fair and reasonable. Nothing settles without your permission. If the number will not move, the file gets prepared for trial rather than argued about indefinitely.
Construction accidents, answered plainly
I am already getting workers' compensation. Can I still have a claim?
Possibly, and this is the single most valuable question on the page. Compensation generally covers the employment relationship; a negligent third party on the site is a separate matter. Having both assessed is worth one phone call.
I am worried about my job.
A common and entirely understandable fear, and worth raising directly on the first call so somebody can talk through how these matters usually proceed rather than leaving you to guess.
The site has already been cleared.
It happens fast and it is not fatal. Photographs taken by anybody on the day, incident reports, inspection and maintenance records, equipment histories and witness accounts all survive a site being tidied up.
I am not an employee - I was a subcontractor.
That frequently changes which routes are open to you, sometimes in your favour. It is one of the first things worth establishing.
How long do I have?
Indiana sets time limits varying by claim and by defendant, and site cases can involve several. No number is printed here on purpose. Call early.
What people usually pair this with
Personal injury
Personal injury is not one of the things this firm does. Since 1974 it has been the only thing it does, which means nobody here is fitting your claim in between a house closing and a divorce.
Brain & spinal cord injuries
These are the cases where the settlement has to be right the first time, because the consequences keep arriving for decades after the file closes.
Wrongful death
There is no sufficient remedy for a life taken by somebody's mistake. What is available is an answer about what happened, and a recovery that stops the loss from also becoming a financial collapse.
The rest of the practice is on the practice areas index. If you would rather not take any of this on description alone, the admissions and memberships are all checkable against their sources, and the questions people actually ask cover the process before you speak to anyone.
Talk to an attorney about construction accidents
The first conversation is free and puts you under no obligation. Bring the report, the photographs, the letter from the insurer, or nothing at all.
Contacting Cooke Law Firm or Cooke Law Firm does not create an attorney-client relationship, and nothing on this site is legal advice. Please do not send confidential information until a written engagement is in place. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.