Houston Work Injury Lawyer

Houston is an industrial powerhouse. Refinery workers in Baytown, Pasadena, Deer Park, and Texas City. Port of Houston longshoremen and dock workers. Offshore crews working out of Galveston and Port Fourchon support bases. Construction crews on Medical Center, Downtown, Galleria, and Energy Corridor projects. Warehouse workers in the explosive logistics economy along Beltway 8. Manufacturing workers across Harris County industrial parks. When any of these workers are injured on the job, Texas’s unique workers’ compensation framework — and the non-subscriber and third-party claims that layer on top of it — determines the path to recovery. A Houston work injury lawyer at McFarlane Law guides injured Houston workers through every option to maximize total recovery.

Texas Workers’ Comp: Subscribers vs. Non-Subscribers

Texas is the only state where private employers can decline to carry workers’ compensation insurance. Subscriber employers carry comp and the injured worker is generally limited to comp benefits for an injury caused by the employer (medical treatment; temporary income benefits at ~70% of average weekly wage up to the state cap; impairment income benefits after maximum medical improvement; and, in catastrophic cases, supplemental or lifetime income benefits). Comp does NOT pay pain, mental anguish, full lost wages, or punitive damages. Non-subscriber employers — common in Houston construction, hospitality, retail, and trucking — opt out of comp and can be sued directly in civil court for negligence. Critically, Texas law bars non-subscribers from asserting contributory negligence, assumption of risk, and fellow-servant defenses (Texas Labor Code Chapter 406). That means if the employer was 1% negligent and the worker was injured on the job, the employer owes full civil damages including pain/mental anguish/exemplary damages. Non-subscriber recoveries routinely exceed workers’ comp recoveries by 5–20×.

Third-Party Claims Are Always Available

Regardless of whether your Houston employer is a subscriber or non-subscriber, third-party claims against other parties whose negligence contributed are always available. In a typical Houston industrial workplace, that might include: equipment manufacturers (whose defective tools, machinery, or safety equipment caused the injury); general contractors (who failed to enforce site safety); other subcontractors (whose crews caused the hazard); property owners (who concealed dangerous conditions); utility companies (who failed to de-energize lines); service companies (Halliburton, Schlumberger, BJ Services, etc.); and transportation providers (whose vehicles caused the injury). Third-party recoveries are on top of workers’ comp benefits and include full Texas civil damages. Workers’ comp carriers have subrogation claims against third-party recoveries, but those liens are negotiable — McFarlane Law routinely reduces workers’ comp subrogation by 30–60% in Houston cases.

Federal Maritime & Longshore Coverage

Many Houston workers are covered by federal worker-protection regimes rather than Texas workers’ comp. The Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) covers longshoremen, dock workers, ship repair workers, and others in maritime employment on or adjacent to navigable waters — including the Port of Houston and Houston Ship Channel. The Jones Act covers seamen assigned to vessels. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) covers workers on fixed offshore platforms. Each regime has different procedural rules, different damages available, and different third-party opportunities. McFarlane Law represents Houston workers under all three regimes and maintains detailed practice pages on each. See Texas Jones Act lawyer, Texas LHWCA lawyer, and OCSLA claims lawyer.

Common Houston Work Injury Case Types

Our Houston work injury practice covers construction falls and struck-by incidents; refinery and plant explosions, fires, and chemical exposures (Houston’s petrochemical corridor remains the single largest source of catastrophic worker injuries in Texas); forklift and warehouse incidents in the logistics economy; electrocutions from industrial electrical work; trench collapses on infrastructure projects; machine-guarding failures in manufacturing; repetitive-stress and cumulative trauma injuries; and wrongful death arising from any of the above. We also handle the overlapping issues of OSHA investigation cooperation, non-subscriber election disputes, multi-employer worksite liability, and the classic subrogation war between workers’ comp carriers and injured workers’ counsel. Each Houston work-injury case we take is evaluated for every available path to recovery — and the path chosen is the one that maximizes net dollars in our client’s pocket.

Related Practice Areas

Related Houston subpages: Houston construction accident lawyer, Houston truck accident lawyer. Statewide: Texas workplace injury lawyer, Texas oilfield accident lawyer, Texas plant explosion lawyer, Texas maritime injury lawyer, Texas offshore injury lawyer. Hub: Houston personal injury lawyer.

Talk to a Houston Injury Lawyer Today

Texas work injury law is complex. McFarlane Law finds every possible path to recovery — workers’ comp, non-subscriber, third-party, and federal. Free consult. (512) 222-4900 / (432) 803-5000.