By: Russell Keener  —  December 18, 2011
 

Did you know that elec­tro­cu­tions hap­pen almost every day?  Although “elec­tro­cu­tion” actu­ally refers to the shock to a human body that results in death, today, the word is com­monly used to mean any­one who has been severely shocked and received injury from it, whether or not they survive.

Although minor shocks can result in min­i­mal dis­com­fort that’s tem­po­rary, major shocks can mean per­ma­nent dis­abil­ity or death. If the elec­tro­cu­tion is caused by another party, the vic­tim and/or the victim’s fam­ily deserves com­pen­sa­tion for the pain and suf­fer­ing involved, and/or for the loss of a loved one through death from that electrocution.

What types of elec­tro­cu­tion injuries can occur?

On the job injuries

Con­struc­tion injuries can hap­pen when a con­struc­tion worker is work­ing on a job and acci­den­tally comes across a live wire that should have had power cut to it, but hasn’t. Sim­i­larly, util­ity pole repair injuries can hap­pen when a worker is com­plet­ing repairs on a util­ity pole that should have had its elec­tri­cal cur­rent shut off, but hasn’t.

In this case, at the very least, a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion claim can be filed with the employer; the employer’s work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion insur­ance pays the expenses and com­pen­sa­tion is required, includ­ing but not lim­ited to med­ical expenses, lost wages and reha­bil­i­ta­tion for rel­a­tively sim­ple injuries; if injuries are more severe, the employer may also pay for ongo­ing reha­bil­i­ta­tion expenses, per­ma­nent dis­abil­ity income if the worker is unable to return to work, and com­pen­sa­tion for pain and suf­fer­ing. Your work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion attor­ney in Decatur can help you file for work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion, and can also man­age most of the nego­ti­at­ing for you; if you’re recov­er­ing from injuries, the last thing you need to do is to be fight­ing with the insur­ance com­pany about your settlement.

In the worst case sce­nario, wrong­ful death result­ing from elec­tro­cu­tion can also be com­pen­sated at least some­what by work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion claims. In this case, the fam­ily is com­pen­sated for actual expenses like med­ical and funeral, and also for the ongo­ing “cost” of los­ing the loved one’s com­pan­ion­ship, emo­tional and finan­cial sup­port, loss of parental guid­ance to minor chil­dren, and so on. Let a Mari­etta injury attor­ney take care of the details, so that you can take care of your family.

A final note about this is that if the injuries have been caused by a third party, your attor­ney may also pur­sue this as an acci­dent, since fil­ing an acci­dent suit against the third party to recover dam­ages may result in even greater compensation.·

Prod­uct injuries

Unfor­tu­nately, faulty prod­ucts elec­tro­cute unsus­pect­ing con­sumers every day, result­ing in seri­ous injury or death. Elec­tro­cu­tion can be caused by a design defect, which means that all prod­ucts in a par­tic­u­lar prod­uct series are dan­ger­ous, a man­u­fac­tur­ing defect, which means that only select prod­ucts are dan­ger­ous, and/or by mar­ket­ing errors, whereby the adver­tis­ing and pack­ag­ing doesn’t pro­vide appro­pri­ate warn­ings or direc­tions for the con­sumer such that elec­tro­cu­tion results.

Because strict lia­bil­ity laws exist in the United States, any­one respon­si­ble for the prod­uct dur­ing any time of the product’s pre-consumer life is liable for its func­tion and there­fore for any mal­func­tion injuries that could result, includ­ing elec­tro­cu­tion. If that’s the case, con­tact a Geor­gia per­sonal injury attor­ney to review your sit­u­a­tion; he or she can file suit against the respon­si­ble par­ties so that you receive com­pen­sa­tion for your injuries, includ­ing pain and suf­fer­ing, and money to pay med­ical bills and sup­port in the event you or your loved one are dis­abled and unable to work. If death of a loved one results from the elec­tro­cu­tion, your attor­ney will work to see to it that at least, you receive some com­pen­sa­tion for your pain and suf­fer­ing, loss of sup­port, etc.

Premises lia­bil­ity injuries

Premises lia­bil­ity injuries can hap­pen if you’re a cus­tomer at a busi­ness or a vis­i­tor to someone’s prop­erty. If you have been injured or a loved one has been injured or killed by elec­tro­cu­tion on some­one else’s prop­erty, you may receive com­pen­sa­tion for that. Dis­cuss your case with an expe­ri­enced Geor­gia per­sonal injury attor­ney who can deter­mine what type of com­pen­sa­tion and how much you may be eli­gi­ble for.