There is a growing exodus of NFL players who are suing the National Football League (NFL) for failing to inform them of the long-term effects and damage of multiple concussions incurred during their NFL careers. ESPN reports that the number of players and their families has reached at least 3,000. How is it that the players have a case against the NFL? Because all employers have the responsibility to ensure that their employees are informed, trained, and protected with regard to potential injuries that their work duties or work environment could cause. Practically any personal injury lawyer in Philadelphia would no doubt be able to cite numerous cases of personal injury to employees that could have been avoided had such measures and information been offered.
For instance, if you worked in a factory where there is a great risk of amputating a finger or a hand due to working with machinery, the company is responsible for providing training and safety information to do its best to ensure that type of injury doesn’t happen. Another example would be an animal control officer—if a municipality failed to provide proper training of its animal control officers with regard to handling fractious animals and an injury occurred due to that lack of training, then responsibility lies with the employer. If the employer has provided all appropriate safety measures and education and the employee disregards those measures and consequently suffers an injury, then the employee may be solely responsible. Each side has a responsibility to uphold, but when an injury occurs, the lines that separate those sides may sometimes become blurred. An experienced personal injury lawyer in Philadelphia can investigate precisely what happened and bring clarity to those blurry lines so that injured workers may be compensated when it is appropriate and employers won’t be held responsible when they are not at fault.
While each case will vary, the bottom line is that any worker, whether a professional football player, a janitorial assistant, a police officer, or even a fry cook will encounter risks on the job. If an employer negates to inform the employee of the risks and fails to provide appropriate safety training, the employer will be at fault should the employee suffer an injury that he could not have anticipated without that information and training.
Though injured employees should be covered by workers’ compensation, that is not always the case. Sometimes, employers intentionally make sure that obtaining workers compensation benefits is a difficult process, in hopes that the employee will give up their claim. Other times, the employer may be 100 percent cooperative, but perhaps there are other parties that are responsible for providing remuneration, too. To ensure that your injury is appropriately compensated, consult with a personal injury lawyer in Philadelphia to review what has occurred and help you determine what your rightful claim should be.
