Personal Injury

Although legal work is just a tiny fraction of what I do, I typically work on a couple of cases a year.  The motivation is to learn about safety and to keep my oar in the water on a wide variety of subjects.  In most cases I help the (machine builder) defendant but sometimes I refuse their inquiry if the case is not strong and occasionally will work with the plaintiff if their case is clear.

It is difficult to generalize because the world is complicated and each situation is unique.  However, it is my observation, my opinion, that one of the three parties is most often the most culpable.  The employer was usually in a better position to prevent the accident than either the operator or the machine builder.  Continuing this crude generalization, the work environment is literally an ‘accident waiting to happen.’  Careless practice is codified by everyday behavior while safe behavior is not discussed in meetings or taught as part of formal training.  True, there is the ubiquitous lock-out-tag-out and chemical safety, but those do not catch but a fraction of the ways a person can get in trouble.  It also does nothing to personalize the training to the specific machine the operator is working on.

It is quickly apparent as an outsider the level of safety consciousness a particular plant might have.  It varies by orders of magnitude.  At the low end, such as typified by single machine converting plants, I merely stroll into the plant, sometimes without so much as a wave to a guard and without escort, and begin work.  At the high end, such as typified by paper mills, I may have to take a one hour training video followed by a written test every year.  Only then am I allowed to strip of rings, watches and so on and suit up with the appropriate garb.  I am not allowed to stray far from the side of my host, not just for secrecy reasons, but also for my own protection.

So if the employer is often culpable, why don’t we sue them when we get hurt?  The simple answer is that it is difficult to the point of near impossibility.  The bar is raised so high that the plaintiff has to show intent to harm by the employer rather than mere negligence of a machine builder.  This high bar is the result of a pact with the devil that industry long ago made in return for accepting workman’s compensation and other concessions.  The bar is even higher for municipalities and government officials.  It is not just difficult, it is essentially impossible to hold them culpable for injury in a court of law.  That is why nearly every town has (aggressive) skate parks where injuries are a daily occurrence, yet no business owner in their right mind would do such a thing.