An explosion at a well site, a dropped load on a drilling rig or a wreck on a lease road can change a worker’s life in an instant. Our trial lawyers help oilfield workers and their families hold the right companies accountable.
How Our Texas Oilfield Injury Lawyers Can Help
Oilfield work is heavy, fast and often remote. Crews work around high-pressure lines, spinning equipment, suspended loads and flammable gas, frequently on long shifts far from the nearest hospital. When an accident occurs, oilfield injuries tend to be serious injuries: burns, crush injuries, amputations, and brain and spinal cord injuries that can end a career.
Oilfield injuries are also complicated in ways most injury cases aren’t. A single well site can involve the operator, a drilling contractor, well service and frac companies, equipment rental outfits, trucking companies and the manufacturers of the tools on location. Each of them may carry its own insurance and its own lawyers, and the records that explain the accident are spread among all of them. Whether you can sue your own employer depends on whether it carries workers’ compensation, which in Texas is optional for most private employers.
Our job is to sort that out and build the case. As an oilfield injury lawyer Texas workers and families can reach 24 hours a day, we start investigating right away, identify every company whose conduct played a part, and pursue full compensation from each one, in negotiation or in front of a jury. The first consultation is a free consultation with an attorney, not an intake form.
Where Oilfield Accidents Happen in Texas
Texas has been at the center of American oil production since the 1901 Spindletop gusher near Beaumont, and the oil and gas industry now reaches much of the state. The Permian Basin in West Texas, the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas and the fields of East Texas all keep crews, rigs and heavy trucks moving around the clock, and they account for many of the oilfield injuries we see in Texas.
Oil and gas work isn’t only a West Texas story for families in North Texas, either. The Barnett Shale, which the Railroad Commission describes as one of the largest onshore natural gas fields in the United States, stretches west and south from Dallas and includes Tarrant County. Gas wells, compressor stations and pipelines sit close to neighborhoods, roads and job sites across the Fort Worth area.
Common Oilfield Accidents and Injuries
According to OSHA, 489 oil and gas extraction workers were killed on the job from 2013 to 2017, and the hazards it identifies include:
- Vehicle crashes, including wrecks involving oilfield trucks on rural highways and lease roads (see our page on truck accidents)
- Struck-by and caught-in accidents involving pipe, tongs, cables, rotating equipment and suspended loads
- Explosions and fires from well blowouts, gas releases and ignition sources on location
- Falls from rigs, derricks, catwalks and tank batteries
- Confined spaces, such as tanks and pits, where workers can be overcome
- Chemical exposures, including hydrogen sulfide and other hazardous substances
Many of these accidents come down to decisions made before the shift started: equipment that wasn’t maintained, a crew pushed to keep a schedule, a worker who hadn’t been trained on the job he was given, or a known hazard left in place. Those decisions are what an oilfield injury claim has to prove, and they’re why so many oilfield injuries are preventable.
Workers’ Compensation and Oilfield Injury Claims
In Texas, most private employers can choose whether to carry workers’ compensation insurance, and that choice shapes an injured oilfield worker’s options.
If your employer carries workers’ compensation, benefits are generally your exclusive remedy against that employer. Those benefits cover medical care and part of your lost income, but they don’t pay for pain and suffering, and for a serious injury they often fall well short. There is also an exception when a worker is killed because of the employer’s intentional act or gross negligence: the surviving spouse or children may pursue exemplary damages.
If your employer does not carry workers’ compensation, you can generally sue it for negligence, and Texas law takes away several of its usual defenses. It can’t argue that you were partly at fault, that you assumed the risk, or that a co-worker caused the accident, though you still have to prove the employer was negligent.
Either way, claims against other companies stay open. Workers’ compensation protects only your own employer. On a typical well site, the operator, other contractors and equipment manufacturers are separate companies, and a personal injury lawsuit against them can go forward alongside your benefits. If you are covered by workers’ compensation, remember that Texas law requires you to notify your employer within 30 days of the injury.
Who Can Be Held Responsible for an Oilfield Accident?
Depending on the facts, responsibility for an oilfield accident can reach:
- The operator, which often controls the site, the schedule and the safety program
- Drilling contractors and well service companies whose crews or procedures created the hazard
- Equipment manufacturers, when a blowout preventer, valve, hose, crane or tool failed because of a defect (see our page on defective products)
- Trucking and transport companies that haul water, sand, equipment and crude to and from the site
- Pipeline operators, when a line fails or leaks
Oil and gas companies can also be responsible to people who never worked on the site. Oil field workers aren’t the only ones at risk. Neighbors, drivers and passersby hurt in a pipeline explosion, a well fire or an oilfield truck crash, and property owners whose land or homes are damaged, may have claims of their own.
Texas personal injury law weighs the fault of every party. You can recover compensation as long as you are not more than 50 percent at fault, and your recovery is reduced by your share of the blame.
How We Build an Oilfield Injury Case
Well sites change quickly. Equipment gets repaired or moved and crews rotate out, so evidence has to be secured early. We identify witnesses, document the accident and injuries, photograph the site and the equipment, and request the records that show who was responsible for what: contracts between the operator and its contractors, safety plans and job safety analyses, daily drilling and service reports, maintenance and inspection records, and training files. Employers must report a work-related death to OSHA within 8 hours and a hospitalization, amputation or eye loss within 24 hours, so a federal investigation file may exist as well. Texas oil and gas operations are regulated by the Railroad Commission of Texas, whose records can matter too.
When the case calls for it, our oilfield accident attorneys work with engineers and industry safety professionals who can explain to a jury how the accident happened and how it could have been prevented. Compensation for oilfield injuries can include medical bills, future medical expenses and care, lost wages and lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, mental anguish, physical impairment and disfigurement. When a worker is killed, the family may bring a wrongful death claim.
Why Work With Laird & McCloskey
Each partner is board certified in Personal Injury Trial Law through the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and in Truck Accident Law through the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Steve Laird and Seth McCloskey bring more than 60 years of combined experience to every case, and our law firm takes a limited number of cases so each one gets a full investigation. Oilfield cases often involve the same things we deal with in commercial truck cases: several companies, layers of insurance, federal safety rules and records that only the other side holds.
Serving Fort Worth, the Barnett Shale and Oilfields Across Texas
Our office is at 1119 Pennsylvania Ave. in Fort Worth, which sits over the Barnett Shale, and we represent injured oilfield workers and families from across Texas, including the Permian Basin and other producing regions. Where your case is filed depends on where the accident happened and where the companies involved are based, and we go where the case and the court are. If you need an oilfield accident lawyer after a crash on a lease road or a blowout on location, we can talk through your options by phone. To learn more about the firm, visit the home page of our injury law firm based in Fort Worth.
Oilfield Injury FAQs
Can I sue my employer after an oilfield accident?
It depends on whether your employer carries workers’ compensation. If it does, benefits are usually your only remedy against the employer, except in some fatal cases involving gross negligence. If it doesn’t, you can generally sue the employer for negligence, and it loses several common defenses. In both situations, you may have claims against the operator, other contractors or an equipment manufacturer.
Can I file a lawsuit against a third party if I’ve already accepted workers’ compensation benefits?
Usually, yes. Accepting benefits from your employer’s carrier doesn’t prevent a personal injury lawsuit against other companies that caused the accident, and a personal injury attorney can pursue that claim while your benefits continue. The workers’ compensation carrier may have a right to be repaid from that recovery, which is something to plan for from the start.
Why hire an oil field accident lawyer instead of relying on workers’ compensation?
Because workers’ compensation covers only part of what a serious injury costs, and it never pays for pain and suffering. An experienced oilfield injury attorney looks at every company on the site and every source of insurance, which is often where most of the recovery comes from.
How long do I have to file an oilfield injury lawsuit in Texas?
Generally two years from the date of the injury, or from the date of death in a wrongful death case. Workers’ compensation has shorter notice requirements, and claims involving an old piece of equipment can run into other time limits, so it’s worth getting advice early.
What should I do after an oilfield accident?
Get medical care and make sure the injury is documented as work-related. Report it to your employer in writing. If you can, write down the names of the crew and supervisors on location and photograph the equipment involved. Don’t sign a statement or release for any company or insurer before you’ve talked with an attorney about what an oilfield worker in your position can recover.
What are the most common oilfield injuries?
Burns from fires and explosions, crush injuries, amputations, broken bones, and traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries are among the most serious. Chemical exposures, including hydrogen sulfide, can also cause lasting harm. Many oil field workers need months of treatment, and some can’t return to the work they did before.
How much does it cost to hire an oilfield injury attorney?
Nothing up front. We handle oilfield injury cases on a contingency basis, with no fee unless we win, and your first consultation is a free consultation with an attorney.