Jacksonville Workers’ Compensation Lawyer
Working in America used to be much more dangerous half a century ago. In fact, 14,000 people died annually before the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). While we have come a long way since, there are well over 4,000 fatalities every year. In fact, in 2014 there were almost 90 deaths per week, every week, due to workplace accidents, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In Florida, 221 people lost their lives on the job in 2014. And, hundreds of thousands more U.S. workers are severely and permanently injured on the job every year.
The BLS reports that in 2014, a total of 1,157,410 people missed work due to serious injuries and illnesses. If you have been injured on the job or come down with a serious illness that occurred due to being exposed to hazardous chemicals while on the job, you may be able to collect compensation to help cover your expenses. Recovering these funds may require extensive paperwork and unfair denials from your employer or employer’s insurance provider, which is why working with an experienced lawyer is crucial to any workplace injury claim. To find out more, contact a Jacksonville workers’ compensation lawyer today.
The Most Dangerous Occupations
It may come as little surprise to learn that the most dangerous civilian occupations are those that involve manual labor, such as construction and roofing. In fact, the most dangerous occupations in terms of fatalities per 100,000 workers are as such in numerical order, according to the BLS:
- Logging (109.5 fatalities per 100,000 workers);
- Fishing (80.8 fatalities per 100,000 workers);
- Aircraft pilots and flight engineers (63.2 fatalities per 100,000 workers);
- Refuse and recyclable materials collecting (35.8 fatalities per 100,000 workers);
- Roofers (46.2 fatalities per 100,000 workers);
- Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers (26.0 fatalities per 100,000 workers);
- Structural iron and steel workers (25.2 fatalities per 100,000 workers);
- Driver/sales workers and truck drivers (23.4 fatalities per 100,000 workers);
- Electrical power-line installers and repairers (19.2 fatalities per 100,000 workers); and
- First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers (17.9 fatalities per 100,000 workers).
Overall, construction workers (roofers, carpenters, backhoe operators, etc.) have the greatest total number of death, with vehicular accidents being the leading cause of fatality. However, accidents can and do happen in any type of work, whether it is manual labor or not. If a company employs more than four people, it is mandatory for that company to cover its employees with no fault worker’s compensation. This means that determining negligence should not even occur in a work-related injury. Yet, many employers attempt to deny their employees their rightful financial compensation, blame the employee for the injury, drag their feet, or lie and claim that the employee was not injured at all or was injured off the job site.
Contact our Experienced Jacksonville Workers’ Compensation Lawyers Today
When dealing with a difficult employer, it is best to hire an experienced Jacksonville workers’ compensation lawyer to ensure that you receive the full finances that you deserve. Call The Pendas Law Firm today at 1-844-200-0000 to discuss the matter with an experienced Jacksonville workers’ compensation lawyer.