Workplace Accidents

McLario, Helm & Bertling - Wisconsin Work Injury Lawyers

The personal injury and workers' compensation attorneys of McLario, Helm & Bertling represent workers who have been hurt on the job. In some cases, your means of recovery will be a workers' comp claim for lost income and medical treatment. In other cases, we can represent you in a personal injury lawsuit against a defendant other than your employer for a much broader range of allowable damages.

Our workplace accident lawyers will often be able to pursue both workers' comp benefits and personal injury damages for the same incident, whether it occurred at a factory, a construction site, or a warehouse. For a free consultation and experienced advice about your specific legal rights, call the Milwaukee work injury lawyers at McLario, Helm & Bertling in Menomonee Falls.

Workers' compensation is intended to serve as the exclusive means of recovery against an employer for injuries suffered on the job. Its advantage to the injured worker is its relative speed and simplicity as compared to personal injury litigation. Its disadvantage is the relatively narrow range of benefits that it covers.

An injured worker generally needs to prove that he or she was injured at work or in the course of employment. There is no need to prove that the employer or anyone else was negligent. The contested issues in workers' comp cases usually involve the nature and extent of the injury, whether it was suffered in the course of employment, whether the injury was actually a preexisting condition, or whether the worker is fit to resume his or her duties.

In many workplace injury accidents, the negligence of a property owner, equipment manufacturer, or contractor from a different company can result in liability to the injured worker for not only lost income and medical expenses, but also future lost earnings and treatment, pain and suffering, and other intangible elements of loss. The damages award in such a lawsuit is likely to be substantially higher than a workers' compensation settlement will yield, but we'll need to prove the defendant's fault by negligence or otherwise.

If you're having trouble obtaining workers' compensation benefits, or if you're facing a reduction or termination of benefits, contact one of our experienced workers' compensation attorneys. In your free consultation, we can also examine the possibility of a negligence lawsuit against any other defendant responsible for your injuries.