SCUBA, LASER and LCD are all acronyms.  Acronyms are meant to help us reduce long, well known (but hard to manage) names like Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to something memorable and simple, like HIPAA. (Oh yeah, that form I sign at the doctor...)

If you get hurt in a train yard in Kentucky can a lawyer in New York represent you? He sure can. And in fact, the best lawyer for a rail worker’s injury is likely out-of-state.

You probably know that your carrier pays workers that were injured on the job as a result of the carrier’s negligence. But what if the accident or injury was a little bit your fault?

Today we’ll explore why workers can still recover for their injuries, even when their own action was partly to blame.

If you’ve been following the blog, you know that as soon as you get hurt at work, the company springs to life to mitigate your claim, and may even do some tricky things behind your back.

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:

Am I covered by FELA or workers’ comp?

I get that question all time and the answer is: Railroad workers aren’t covered by workers’ compensation and here’s why you should be glad.

Last week three new clients told me that they wish they were covered by worker’s compensation instead of FELA. When I asked each of them why, the answer was, “I’d get paid faster and probably just as much.” I had to tell they were wrong. Since the questions about FELA vs workers comp come up so frequently, and because the workers are so misinformed by the company, I figured it was worth writing about here.

The good news is that though railroad workers don’t get workers comp, FELA offers better coverage 90% of the time.