Texas Workplace Electrocution Lawyer

Electrocution is one of OSHA’s “Fatal Four” causes of construction death, and Texas leads the nation in on-the-job electrical injuries. Workers are killed and maimed every year when cranes and scissor lifts contact overhead power lines, when tools are plugged into ungrounded circuits, when lockout/tagout procedures are skipped during maintenance, and when buried utility lines are struck during excavation. A Texas workplace electrocution lawyer at McFarlane Law pursues negligent contractors, utility companies, equipment manufacturers, and premises owners whose failures caused an electrical injury. Our firm has recovered more than $100 million for injured Texans and understands the severe, progressive, and often permanent medical consequences of electrical trauma.

Common Workplace Electrocution Scenarios

Overhead power line contact is the deadliest. A crane boom, aerial lift, ladder, or piece of long pipe taps an energized line and thousands of volts travel through the equipment, the ground, and anyone in contact. OSHA requires minimum approach distances to every voltage class, but those rules are routinely violated when schedules are tight. Arc flash incidents occur when a short circuit inside an energized panel produces a plasma cloud at thousands of degrees; workers performing maintenance without proper PPE suffer catastrophic burns. Electrocution from unsafe tools and extension cords happens when ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs) are missing, when damaged cord insulation exposes conductors, or when two-prong tools are plugged into ungrounded outlets. Buried utility strikes during excavation kill excavator operators and ground crews when the contractor fails to call 811 or verify the one-call response. Each scenario has its own regulatory framework and its own liability theory.

Medical Consequences of Electrical Injuries

Electrical injuries behave differently from other trauma. The visible entry and exit wounds on the skin are often small and unimpressive, but the path of the current through the body can destroy muscle, nerves, and internal organs along the way. Cardiac arrhythmias, including sudden cardiac arrest, can occur immediately or hours after the shock. Compartment syndrome develops when deep-tissue damage causes swelling that cuts off blood flow, frequently requiring emergency fasciotomy to save a limb. Neurological damage — peripheral neuropathy, memory problems, chronic pain, and psychological sequelae such as PTSD — can persist or worsen for years. Kidney damage from myoglobin release, cataracts from the flash, and tympanic membrane rupture from the arc blast are all well documented. Because symptoms evolve over time, future medical care and lost earning capacity are the biggest damages in many Texas electrocution cases.

Who Pays for a Texas Electrocution Injury?

Texas electrical injury cases often involve multiple defendants. The general contractor or controlling employer has duties under OSHA and under Texas common law to coordinate safety, enforce lockout/tagout, and keep employees the required distance from energized equipment. The property owner or utility can be liable for failing to de-energize lines when notified of work, failing to bracket or mark underground utilities, or failing to install insulating equipment. Equipment manufacturers face product-liability claims when a piece of machinery lacks required guards, when a tool’s ground connection is defectively designed, or when warning labels are inadequate. Third-party maintenance contractors who performed inadequate electrical work may share fault. Our firm’s first task is to identify every party whose conduct contributed and to issue preservation letters so that equipment, energized-work permits, and maintenance logs are not destroyed.

Building a Winning Electrocution Case

An electrocution case is won or lost on technical detail. McFarlane Law typically retains an electrical engineer as a liability expert to reconstruct the incident, confirm voltage and current, and compare actual site conditions to applicable codes (NFPA 70, NFPA 70E, NEC, NESC). We subpoena the utility’s outage and clearance records to see whether a de-energization order was honored. We request the contractor’s energized-work permit, hot-work permit, and LOTO (lockout/tagout) logs. We pull OSHA’s investigative file, which usually contains photographs and witness interviews that the public citation does not reveal. We gather the worker’s medical records, consult with a burn surgeon, cardiologist, and life-care planner to project lifetime costs. And we develop the damages model — including future care, diminished earning capacity, and non-economic damages — that produces the most meaningful settlement or verdict.

Related Practice Areas

Related pages for Texas electrical and workplace injury victims: Texas construction accident lawyer, Texas oilfield accident lawyer, Texas OSHA violation injury lawyer, Texas workplace wrongful death lawyer, Texas personal injury lawyer. Hub page: Texas workplace injury lawyer.

Talk to a Texas Injury Lawyer Today

Electrical injuries often look minor at first and then become life-altering weeks later. Do not wait — evidence disappears quickly and insurance adjusters will try to minimize the damage. McFarlane Law offers free case evaluations, works on contingency, and handles Texas workplace electrocution cases statewide. Call Austin (512) 222-4900 or Odessa (432) 803-5000, or submit the form on this page.