So you're out of work on an injury. You go back-and-forth to the doctor’s offices. You go back and forth to the pharmacy. But there are lots of hours when you either sit at home or try and live as much of a normal life as you can. Did you ever consider that the railroad had someone following you and videotaping your every move? Because it happens more often than you realize. Eavesdropping and surveillance of employees by the railroad is common practice.

At first blush, it feels like a complete invasion of your privacy. But when you understand that the railroad begins from a position of distrust, you come to understand why they do it.  The railroad is trying to collect proof of you doing something which you or your doctors have said you cannot do.

If you've been hurt, you already know what money you're out of pocket.

You know those bills you couldn't pay. You probably know how to put together a wage loss claim for past wages.  (If not, here is a link to a wage loss calculator that takes the work out of coming up with your wage loss. It even allows you to include lost overtime.)

But if your injury is going to keep you out of work into the future, and you either want to settle your case now, or you’ll never return to work, then you have something called future wage loss.  Figuring out how much you will lose in the future can be a little more speculative, but if you take the right factors into consideration, you can have a solid basis to make a claim for the money that you’ll lose down the road. 

In this blog I’ll explain how to calculate future wage loss with an example from a recent trial that I brought to verdict.

Close to three years ago, John*, 34, was an assistant signalman with three years on the job with LIRR.

One morning while running innerduct under a platform, a large piece of concrete debris – a leftover from an old platform – broke off pinching his right wrist and trapping him under the platform. A coworker had to lift the concrete off his wrist. What he thought at the time was an injury he could work through and recover from, turned out to be career ending.

John reported his injury and was temporarily removed from service pending a visit to an orthopedist the next day. That began 22 months of referrals to specialists and four separate EMG studies, because John developed clawing of his ring and pinky fingers. With that also came 50% loss grip strength in his right, dominant, hand. The railroad medically disqualified him from his job 10 months later.

This month a jury ordered LIRR to pay John more than $3 million for his injury after it was revealed that the railroad knew about the old hazardous concrete but didn’t make any effort to remove it. What is remarkable about this case is how the verdict numbers break down:

You get hurt on the railroad. You request immediate medical attention. You get to the medical facility, hospital or otherwise. You want to focus on the doctor. You want to discuss your symptoms, your prior medical history and your family medical history.

But your boss is like a gnat in the room.

Tell him to leave because he’s already violated federal regulation.

The Federal Railroad Administration has long said it is a violation of federal anti-harassment regulations to enter the examination room of an injured employee except in two limited instances. But I am astounded how often it continues to happen and how many employees think they have to put up with it.

In this post I explain how the law prohibts this kind of supervisor action and what you should do if you experience it after a railroad injury.

Do you need a lawyer to file a FELA claim? Not necessarily. In this blog we’ll discuss specific instances when it’s better to handle the claim yourself. 

I'm in the business of suing the railroad, it’s true. But I'm NOT in the business of taking money from hard-working railroad employees unnecessarily.

Frankly, there are plenty of situations where you don't need a lawyer.  Either on your own or with the help of a union representative, you are completely capable of negotiating a settlement of your FELA injury claim in the following scenarios if, and this is the crux of the FELA law, you can prove the railroad is at fault and the injuries are related to that railroad screw up. 

Armed with this information, you get a resolution that is satisfying both financially and personally. Who doesn't like being able to say they took care of business?

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:

When a client asks me, ‘When does the railroad have to pay after trial?” I have to say, “It depends, because the fight isn’t over after the verdict.”

You’ve probably seen this yourself. You hear your buddy won a couple of million suing the railroad, but he hasn’t seen a dime yet. Most think that once the jury has spoken, the railroad has to pay up. Wrong. In fact, that is where the railroads really excel, because they enter into a starvation mode, where their financial resources come to bear in an effort to starve you out.

Here’s how:

There are generally two additional bites at the apple after a successful verdict. Take my client with a devastating eye injury. He was awarded $3.75 million dollars and hasn’t seen a penny.

Portland, Maine -- A New England railroad worker was awarded $400,000 in June when a federal jury ruled that the railroad had fired him illegally after he voiced safety concerns at a jobsite.

Twitter is awash this morning in retweet's of the MTA's post regarding negotiations with LIRR unions, tagged #strikeadeal.

What commuters and members of the public don't know is that the MTA doesn't want a deal. If it did it would have made one years ago. Or perhaps just this spring when the Whitehouse intervened for the second time to tell the MTA: What unions are asking for is reasonable.

The gist of what the unions are asking for, and what the specially organized Presidential Executive Board (PEB) deemed reasonable, was a legit raise for the first time in more than a decade. A decade. 

By letting negotiations falter again and again, the MTA forced the PEB to get involved and spend a bucket of taxpayer money to do it. That's taxes paid for by you and me. By riders and union members alike. Even by those at the helm of the transit authority.

LIRR workers, they haven't been so direct as to say it to your face, but the MTA thinks you are ignorant and stupid. How else could they could they ignore PEB 244 and PEB 245?

We are entering the final throes of negotiation between the LIRR and its union workers, just days away from a strike, and I am appalled at how the MTA thinks the public has the memory and comprehension of a gnat. The MTA continues to beat the party drum, saying “When the union workers are ready to compromise and talk, we are here.” That is ridiculous. It is also untrue, because the unions have followed the rules, agreed to compromise and been rebuffed at every attempt. I am reminded of my nine year old demanding dessert when that was conditioned on eating dinner – which still sits on the plate in front of him.