Electrocutions are often deadly.  Contacting electricity causes neuropathy, the failure of nerve cells to function properly, including brain nerve cells; it causes heart fibrillation, fluttery muscular contractions that disrupt the heart’s natural rhythm, causing cardiac arrest; and it causes severe burns to both deep muscle and the body surface.  These effects can quickly be fatal.  Those who survive electric shock may suffer other serious medical conditions, many permanent, including:

• Brain and other nerve damage
• Loss of memory
• Loss of cognitive abilities
• Changes in personality or temperament
• Seizure disorders
• Permanent heart muscle damage
• Heart arrhythmias
• Damage to other internal organs
• Broken bones/injured joints
• Cataracts/Vision loss
• Hearing loss

Survivors may endure a lengthy, painful road toward uncertain medical recovery, overwhelming medical expenses, lost work income, or permanent disability.  Families that lose loved ones have funeral expenses, the absence of their family member’s financial contribution, and grief over a death that might have been prevented.  Questions linger:  How did this happen?  Who is responsible?  What can be done to get help with the costs and find justice for the pain and loss?

How does Electrocution Happen?

Electrocution in the workplace frequently results from poor safety practices, like working on metal scaffolding built too close to uninsulated overhead power lines.  Workers are also electrocuted by malfunctioning or defective machinery or tools, and sometimes by hidden, dangerous conditions encountered while on someone else’s property in the course of employment.

Electrocutions in the home often result from malfunctioning or defective products, like appliances, power tools, or even medical devices, like mechanical pacemakers and heart catheters.  Electric radios cause poolside electrocutions.  Children are electrocuted after failure of child-safety products.  In addition, workers like construction contractors may perform faulty installations or repairs that could electrocute residents.

Electrocutions on someone else’s property can happen when workers, business visitors, or social visitors are exposed to dangerous electricity in unexpected places, without warning from the owner.  A victim might contact faulty electrical wiring in a light switch or electricity from high-voltage sources like power lines can arc and flash to metal equipment.

Who is Responsible?

Laws that may help a victim of electrocution obtain compensation include:

• Negligence laws, which hold a person responsible where he had some control over the cause of electrocution, knew or should have known of danger posed to the victim, and failed to exercise reasonable care to prevent the electrocution injury or death from occurring.
  
  
• Workers’ Compensation laws, which guarantee some compensation, including medical expenses, lost wages, and funeral expenses, for the victim’s electrocution while working, without need to prove the employer’s negligence. 
  
  
• Products Liability laws, used to hold product manufacturers legally responsible for electrocutions caused by a defective or malfunctioning product. 
  
  
• Premises Liability laws, which require property owners to maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition for visitors, or to warn them of non-obvious hazards.

Money received from Workers’ Compensation is usually less than your actual out-of-pocket expenses, and Workers’ Comp awards no punitive damages (money assessed against the responsible person or company, to deter similar future conduct).  However, workers injured by electric shock from malfunctioning or defective machines or tools can both collect Workers’ Comp benefits and also pursue claims for products liability against the tool manufacturers.  Likewise, workers electrocuted by dangerous conditions while on someone else’s property in the course of their employment may sue the property owners under the laws of premises liability, while collecting Workers’ Comp benefits.

Being able to sue these third parties, even though the injury happened while working, may allow the injured person to escape the financial limitations of Workers’ Comp and collect the full extent of all monetary damages, including current and future medical expenses, present and future pain and suffering, emotional distress, actual lost wages and future lost earnings, attorneys fees, and court costs.  A spouse can seek damages for loss of spousal consortium (the lost ability to engage in a normal marital relationship), and some states allow children to file claims for loss of parental consortium.  The lawsuits might also include an award of punitive damages.

Compensation and Justice

As soon as possible, you should consult an electrocution accident attorney, to learn your legal rights and decide what you want to do.  Electrocution injuries are subject to a statute of limitations, a law giving you a limited amount of time to elect to pursue your legal rights.

Attorney Robert A. Brenner is an experienced electrocution accident attorney, with the expertise and resources necessary to hold responsible parties accountable, whether your case involves a products liability claim against a manufacturer or a negligence claim against an individual.  Brenner understands your need for real answers and he knows how to get them.  Brenner works hard for those who have suffered the devastating consequences of an electrocution accident, helping victims and their families quiet those lingering questions and obtain compensation to help rebuild their lives.

Contact Attorney Robert A. Brenner, and get answers today.