FELA Attorney's Blog | Exploring the rights and issues of railroad workers and rail passengers

If you’re like most railroad workers, you’ve never had your deposition taken. Depositions are a key component of the legal process. This is where a lot of the surrounding facts concerning your lawsuit will be revealed.

You got hurt on the job and your fellow railroad workers are telling you to get a lawyer.

Sounds like good advice since recovering from and paying for your injury could be harder than you thought. But be careful. There are a few railroad lawyers, aka FELA attorneys, out there who don’t have your best interests in mind.

Just as there are lots of good things to look for in a railroad lawyer, there are equally as many bad traits that should make your radar go off and have you looking for the door. In more than 15 years representing injured rail workers in trials, I have seen some sketchy tactics by other attorneys and I’ve seen some of their clients suffer because of it.

Here are five traits I would watch out for when choosing a lawyer:

You’ve been injured on the job and you have never hired a railroad lawyer before. How do you choose the right one?

Carefully.

When you get hurt at work on the railroad, what the company does behind your back could be worse than your injury.

Take for example, a shoulder injury or knee injury, both common injuries for railroad workers:

You reported your injury because you were too hurt to work, not because you wanted the railroad to pay up. Reporting it was the right thing to do. The railroad will discipline you if you don’t report an injury. But from the railroad’s perspective, “paying up” is always where this road leads and it’s prepared for court before you even decide to seek a shoulder surgery settlement or sue for your knee replacement.

In this post we’ll look at what happens inside the railroad when you report an on-the-job injury.

Here are four important behind-the-scenes moves you should be on the look out for if you filed an injury claim: