Some people are not cut out for desk jobs. There is an allure of working with your hands or not being chained to a desk. However, certain manual labor jobs are more dangerous than the average office job. FELA, or Federal Employers Liability Act, was designed to protect railroad workers and to give them recourse, if they suffer an injury on the job.
To even begin explaining how one could be injured working for a railroad is a long list of items. Many of which, may not account for a variety of “mystery factors” that could impact or cause a railroad accident workplace injury. FELA was established over a century ago and continues to provide a system for legal recovery for injured railroad workers and their families.
Nearly all injuries suffered as a railroad employee can and will be protected under FELA if the employee is injured on the job. This includes those workers in which their primary duties are not performed in or around trains. Claims under FELA can be made directly to the believed responsible employer or railroad company, and can even be brought as an injury suit in federal or state court, if necessary. The difference between FELA-protected workers and the average worker is that fault does not need to be proven.
Instead, one will need to show that the defendant (such as a railroad, its employees or an equipment manufacturer) was somehow negligent and this caused the worker’s injuries. The goal of this FELA claim is to show that the defendant in some way failed to provide a railroad worker with a reasonably safe place to work, and it then resulted in an injury to the railroad worker. This is a lower threshold of proof in comparison to the average worker and their work-related injury, outside of FELA.