Ladder injuries are injuries sustained when a person falls off a ladder. In some cases, these can involve very serious injuries. Falling off a ladder can even prove to be fatal, especially for falls from very high up on a ladder. Ladder injuries are sadly common as ladders are used in a wide variety of settings, such as:
- At home for a wide variety of projects and repairs;
- At work, often in connection with construction, painting, or the warehousing of products.
People can fall from all types of ladders, including the following:
- Wooden ladders;
- Metal ladders;
- Retractable/extendable ladders;
- Rope ladders;
- Step ladders;
- Rolling ladders in warehouses.
Ladder falls and resulting injuries and death are a serious issue in the U.S. Every year, over 500,000 people receive treatment for injuries sustained in falls from ladders. More than 300 people sustain injuries that prove fatal in falls from ladders. Experts estimate that ladder injuries cost the U.S. $24 billion every year in lost days of work and medical and legal costs.
For example, in 2011 alone, work-related injuries sustained in falls from ladders in the U.S. led to 113 fatalities and an estimated 15,460 injuries that were not fatal.
What Are Some Common Ladder Injuries?
As mentioned above, ladder injuries can be quite serious, even deadly. Since there is usually no landing area or catch net for the majority of ladders, especially for ladders used in quick “do-it-yourself” projects in or around the home, most ladder injuries are sustained in falls.
Among the injuries suffered by victims are the following:
Another common ladder injury is electrocution. Electrocution is especially a risk with metal ladders. However, there is a risk with any kind of ladder when a person is working on a ladder around electrical wires, lines, or other components of electrical systems. Finally, ladder injuries can also result in injuries to people on the ground. For instance, a person on the ground can be struck by a falling item or another person falling from a ladder or from the ladder itself falling on them.
Are There Any Legal Issues Associated With Ladder Injuries?
Ladder accident lawyers tell us that ladder injuries may be attributed to a number of causes and can also involve a number of different legal issues. Some legal issues associated with ladder injuries include:
- Strict Product Liability: If a ladder is defective and the defect causes injury to a user of the ladder, the manufacturer and distributor can be liable under a theory of strict product liability;
- Negligence: If it can be shown that someone acted negligently in some way in connection with the use of a ladder and someone is injured as a result, the person whose negligence caused the injury can be legally liable;
- Workers’ Compensation: If a person is injured in a fall from a ladder that they used in the course and scope of their employment, they would need to turn to their state’s workers’ compensation system for a remedy;
- Wrongful Death: If a person dies in a fall from a ladder when they are on the job, again, their family members would need to turn to their state’s workers’ compensation system to obtain a death benefit. Assume the person experiences a fatal fall from a ladder when they are not at work. In that case, they might be able to pin liability on the manufacturer and distributor of the ladder for strict product liability or on some other person for negligence.
Many ladder injuries can lead to either a civil lawsuit or a workers’ compensation claim. These can result in the liable party or an employer’s workers’ compensation insurance policy paying a damages award to the injured party. The award should compensate the person for the losses they suffer as a result of their injury.
What Are the Legal Remedies for Ladder Accident Claims?
In negligence and strict product liability cases, the victim could win an award of money damages. The damages award would reimburse the victim for their economic and non-economic losses. Economic losses include the following:
- Medical Care: the costs of all medical expenses that the victim needed to restore them to good health;
- Lost Wages;
- Loss of Earning Capacity;
- Rehabilitation;
- Physical therapy.
In addition to economic losses, a victim should recover an award of money damages to reimburse them for their non-economic losses. These would be the pain, suffering, and the mental and emotional anguish they experience in connection with their physical injuries.
In a workers’ compensation claim, the damages that a worker can expect to recover are economic damages. The losses reimbursed by economic damages in a workers’ compensation case are as follows:
- Medical Expenses: Damages would cover the cost of all necessary medical treatment that the worker needed to be restored to health. This could encompass doctor visits, stays in the hospital, surgeries, medications, physical therapy, and any other necessary medical treatment;
- Lost Wages: If the worker’s injury and/or the treatment for it leads them to miss work, they should be entitled to reimbursement for lost wages. This would be for past lost wages and wages that the worker can expect to lose in the future. The worker may be unable to resume their previous employment and may have to transition to a lower-paying position;
- Rehabilitation Costs: An injured worker may need vocational rehabilitation, i.e., job retraining or career counseling, to help them return to the workforce in a capacity that is different from the one they were in before their injury or illness. They may need to find future employment in an entirely new type of work.
- Economic damages should compensate for the cost of these rehabilitation services;
- Disability Payments: If an injured or ill worker has a permanent or long-term disability because of their injury or illness, they may be able to obtain disability payments. These payments can be temporary or permanent, depending on the worker’s situation. If their disability is permanent, then the payments would continue permanently.
- If the disability is temporary, then the payments would be temporary.
Punitive damages are a possibility in very few cases. Punitive damages can be recovered in a case for negligence, strict product liability, or even in workers’ compensation cases.
For example, assume that a worker who suffers a serious or fatal injury because of their employer’s intentional failure to provide workers with fall protection equipment, e.g., safety harnesses, and make them use it when they work on ladders. In that case, that individual may win an award of punitive damages. Generally, if an employer’s conduct is intentional or malicious, winning an award of punitive damages is a possibility.
The fact is that safety equipment and safe practices can greatly reduce the risk of ladder falls. A person has a right to file a confidential complaint about a workplace health or safety hazard with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) if their employer is not respecting OSHA standards. A person should file the complaint right away after they notice the problem. A person can request an inspection of their workplace by an OSHA investigator.
Family members who pursue a wrongful death case in a court of law can expect to recover money damages to compensate them for the following:
- Medical expenses incurred before the family member passed away;
- Expenses for burial and funeral;
- Wages the deceased person lost before passing;
- Loss of the care of the deceased person; and
- Other losses including the pain and suffering the deceased experienced before passing away.
Do I Need the Help of a Lawyer for My Ladder Injury Claim?
If you have been injured in a fall from a ladder, LegalMatch.com can connect you to an experienced personal injury lawyer. Your lawyer can analyze the facts of your case and decide what kind of claim you might have, whether it is for negligence or strict product liability.
If a family member has suffered a fatal fall from a ladder, your personal injury lawyer can file a wrongful death claim on your behalf.
If you know that you were injured in a ladder fall while at work, LegalMatch.com can connect you to a workers’ compensation lawyer who can guide you through the claims process for your state’s workers’ compensation system.
