Nationwide FELA representation for railroaders

Important Cases in FELA History

Norfolk & Western Railway Co. V. Freeman Ayers et al (2002)

Fear of Cancer as Grounds for Pain and Suffering

Decision: In a 5 to 4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a decision by a lower court that the fear of cancer due to exposure to asbestos and the contraction of the occupational disease asbestosis is legitimate grounds for pain and suffering. The plaintiffs in the case were railroad workers who had worked in a railroad yard where engines were stripped of asbestos-laden fibers used for insulation. During three months of employment in the rail yard, workers were exposed to high concentrations of asbestos, and later contracted asbestosis. The plaintiffs sought and obtained compensation for pain and suffering through the Federal Employers Liability Act. Jurors in the case were instructed to grant additional pain and suffering compensation to the railroad workers for the added stress of living with the higher risk of cancer.

Impact: The ruling was important because it confirmed that employers have no right to expose workers to harmful conditions, even if workers never contract terminal illnesses that often follow exposure to such conditions. This is particularly important in the railroad industry, where railroad workers have historically been exposed to asbestos and other dangerous substances. The ruling also upheld the power of FELA, and the unique rights that railroad workers have to hold their employers fully and solely accountable when injuries occur on the job.

FELA Attorney Joseph Perez

Virginia railroaders all over, including railroaders residing in Norfolk, Newport News, Chesapeake, Hampton, Virginia Beach, the Eastern Shore and other areas of Virginia's Tidewater region, who suffer serious personal injuries as a result of their employers' negligence have special rights they can invoke when pursuing compensation for their injuries. Through the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA), Virginia FELA attorney Joseph Perez has helped railroaders mount successful cases against many of the largest railroad companies based in the country. Joe has represented injured railroad workers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and Alabama. If you've been injured while working on the railroad, contact Joe Perez today. You'll feel alot better!

Railroads, Technology and the diminishing concern for the safety of Railroad Workers

More than any other sector of the American workforce, railroad workers understand the good news and the bad news that technology has brought to the railroad industry. It is through technology that a once struggling industry is again playing a pre-eminent role in U.S. shipping and freight. Billions of tons of goods and supplies are moved across the United States every year by train, outweighing all other modes of shipping – including shipping by air, highway and water – combined. Technology, along with the hard work and dedication of railroad workers, has brought greater safety, speed and efficiency to our railways, and once again made the railroad industry a crucial component of our nation's economic prosperity.

But the bad news is that, year after year, the railroad industry is steadily replacing the men and women who've worked in railroad transportation all their lives as engineers, firers, conductors, yardmasters, brake, signal and switch operators, and loaders with these new machines and technology. While railroad companies concentrate on integrating new technology, many of the 115,000 employees working in railroads today are seeing a noticeable neglect for their futures, their welfare, and their safety.

Railroaders face higher risks of on-the-job injuries

This is particularly true when railroad workers incur injuries on the job – such as back injuries, neck injuries, leg injuries, arm injuries, hand injuries, foot injuries, burn injuries, or even brain injuries and spinal cord injuries. Working on the railroad is tough, dangerous work, often requiring strength, balance and endurance, and working outside around heavy and powerful machinery. Bodily injuries in these types of work environments are more common than usual. And when they happen it affects their lives and the lives of their family. But frequently, railroad workers fail to take full advantage of the special rights and protections they are afforded under the law because they are discouraged to do so by their employers. Many railroad workers believe that by cooperating with the railroad company and its claims department will help them through the injury. And so too often injured railroad workers go along with the misleading guidance and self-serving advice of their employers, who have a far more vested interest in the profit margin of the company than restoring an injured railroad worker's long-term health and livelihood. They're interested in the cheapest solution to your injury, not the best. You need someone who fights for your interests.

What a surprising number of railroad workers don't know is that it doesn't have to be this way. Injured railroad workers have special protections under a federal law called the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA). With the right attorney to help them exercise the rights FELA affords them, injured railroad workers can receive the compensation they need and deserve to make a full recovery from the harmful negligence and carelessness of their employers.

Since 1908, American railroad workers injured on the job have been protected under FELA. FELA was enacted by Congress to respond to the extremely high rate of on-the-job deaths and severe injuries that were occurring in the railroad industry at the beginning of the 20th century. As one Supreme Court justice pointed out, the FELA was “designed to put on the railroad industry some of the costs for legs, eyes, arms and lives which it consumed in its operations.” By subjecting railroad companies and their insurers to the potential for stiff penalties in cases of negligence or inadequate safety measures, the government hoped to force the railroad industry to take the safety of their workers more seriously.

Under FELA legislation, there is no fixed limit to what an injured railroad worker can receive in compensation. The right attorney can help you recover damages not only for wage loss, but for future wage loss, medical expenses and treatments, pain and suffering, and for partial or permanent disability. In wrongful death cases, the worker's family is entitled to recover damages they've incurred.

Experience in FELA Law: the Decisive Factor in Your FELA Claim

Getting all that you deserve following an injury is next to impossible without an experienced FELA attorney to assist you. Railroad companies and their insurance companies have lobbied successfully during the past 100 years to turn what was once a fairly straightforward law into a legal maze full of traps and pitfalls designed to wear down the will of injured workers, and coerce them into the lowest settlement possible. Because the amount of damages is often determined in FELA cases by the degree of negligence on the part of the employer, railroad claim agents and attorneys will do all they can to convince a judge and jury that an injury is entirely the fault of the injured worker.

But their chances of success are greatly diminished when your attorney is Joseph J. Perez. Joe has always been there to offer respect, honesty, courtesy and invaluable legal guidance for injured railroad workers from New York to Alabama and in Norfolk, Newport News, Hampton, Virginia Beach, Accomac, Cape Charles and throughout the South, Northeast, and the East Coast, helping injured railroaders exercise their rights under FELA legislation for more than twenty years. He's an experienced and seasoned FELA trial attorney who knows that the many injuries and deaths occurring in railroad work are often the direct result of company cost-cuts, layoffs, mergers, poor equipment, and a general lack of concern for providing railroad workers with safe working conditions. If you or a loved one has been injured working for a railroad company, and you feel you're being led away from your best solution in the aftermath of the injury, you're suspicions may be well founded. Only an experienced FELA attorney will tell you the truth about your legal rights and help you fully exercise them. Joseph Perez is here for you today.