How do I calculate the value of my case? How much is my back injury worth? How much can I get for my knee injury?

They're all valid questions I get from railroad workers who get hurt on the job. Unfortunately there isn't one answer. Every injury, every worker, every situation is different. From the severity of your injury to your degree of fault, there are a thousand of variables that will impact the value of your case.

Last month, Joe*, a signal foreman with Amtrak, received almost $3 million from a jury verdict in his lawsuit against Amtrak after he was hit by a LIRR train on a jobsite.

Joe was supervising the installation of trough along the right-of -way of the busiest interlocking in the U.S. at 3:30 in the morning when he was hit by a train he never saw coming.

The jobsite, located east of the East River in New York was inside a ditch six feet from the center line of a live adjacent track. Joe didn’t know it, but at the moment he turned to step out of the ditch, an LIRR train was approaching at 30 mph. Because the watchman never blew his horn, Joe stepped up out of the ditch and into the side of the train.

The impact left him with a mild traumatic brain injury and a spinal injury requiring fusions. It also ended his career as a signal foreman with the railroad. He had 15 years to go to retirement.

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:

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?