Key Points

• Texas is the only state that does not require private employers to carry workers’ compensation insurance, according to the Texas Department of Insurance. 
• Workers who suffer a traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury on the job may be able to file a personal injury lawsuit against a nonsubscribing employer, a contractor, a property owner, or an equipment manufacturer. 
• Texas law generally allows two years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury lawsuit, and evidence at an industrial jobsite can disappear long before that deadline. 

Why It Matters

A traumatic brain injury or a spinal cord injury does not end when the hospital stay ends. These injuries often require surgery, months of rehabilitation, in-home attendant care, mobility equipment, and home modifications, and many workers never return to the job they held before the accident. Workers’ compensation benefits in Texas are calculated by formula and are capped by statute. A personal injury lawsuit is not. When an employer has opted out of the workers’ compensation system, or when a party other than the employer caused the accident, an injured worker may be able to recover the full cost of lifetime care along with lost earning capacity, physical impairment, and pain and suffering.

Contact Our Lawyers to Find Out If You Qualify

Workers across Texas suffer catastrophic injuries on the job that can cause traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries every year in falls from height, struck-by object accidents, machinery failures, explosions, and confined space incidents. Unlike a broken arm or a strained back, these injuries frequently produce permanent disability.  

A spinal cord injury can cause paraplegia, meaning paralysis of the lower body, or quadriplegia, meaning paralysis affecting all four limbs. A severe head injury can leave a worker in a coma, or with lasting brain damage that affects memory, speech, judgment, and the ability to work. 

If you or a loved one sustained a traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury in a workplace accident, you may be eligible to file a lawsuit and receive compensation. Our law firm, Hissey Mulderig & Friend, represents Texas workers who suffered brain damage, paralysis, and other permanent injuries on the job. 

For a free legal consultation to find out if you qualify, contact Hissey Mulderig & Friend by calling our office toll-free at at 1-866-806-8117, or submit your information online using the free contact form on the right side of this page. 

Traumatic Brain Injuries on Texas Jobsites

A traumatic brain injury, commonly shortened to TBI, means damage to the brain caused by an external force. On industrial sites, the most frequent causes are falls from scaffolding, ladders, and elevated platforms, along with falling tools and materials, swinging loads, and equipment strikes. 

Not every workplace brain injury involves a visible wound. A skull fracture is often accompanied by bleeding or swelling inside the skull that develops over hours. An anoxic brain injury involves no impact at all. It occurs when the brain is deprived of oxygen, which can happen during a confined space entry, a chemical release, an electrocution, a crush injury to the chest, or a hydrogen sulfide exposure at a well site. Workers who survive these events may remain in a coma for days or weeks, and some are left with cognitive deficits that prevent any return to skilled work. 

Documentation matters in these claims. Emergency imaging, neurological evaluations, and neuropsychological testing establish the extent of the damage, and accounts from coworkers and supervisors establish how the accident happened. 

Spinal Cord Injuries, Broken Necks, and Paralysis

The spinal cord carries signals between the brain and the rest of the body. When it is bruised, compressed, or severed, those signals stop below the level of the injury. A broken neck involving the cervical vertebrae can result in quadriplegia, affecting the arms, legs, and often breathing. Injuries lower on the spine can result in paraplegia. 

Common causes on Texas worksites include falls, trench and structural collapses, forklift and heavy equipment accidents, caught-between incidents, and loads that shift or drop. Some spinal injuries are complete, meaning no function remains below the injury. Others are incomplete, leaving partial sensation or movement. Both categories typically require attendant care and home modification for life, and the lifetime cost of that care regularly reaches into the millions of dollars. 

Texas Jobs Where Brain & Spinal Injuries Happen Most Often

Some workplaces carry far more risk than others. Four Texas industries account for a large share of these injuries, and the Texas Department of Insurance recorded 557 fatal occupational injuries statewide in 2024 concentrated in the same kinds of work. 

• Oilfield, drilling, and well site work: Roughnecks, floorhands, and derrickhands in the Permian Basin, the Eagle Ford Shale, and the Barnett Shale are struck by falling drill pipe, thrown by blowouts and tank battery explosions, and injured in falls from the derrick. Hydrogen sulfide exposure can cause unconsciousness within seconds, and an anoxic brain injury when it does. 

• Refinery and petrochemical plants: Operators, pipefitters, boilermakers, and contract workers along the Gulf Coast corridor from Houston and Baytown through Port Arthur, Beaumont, and Corpus Christi face vapor cloud explosions and unit turnaround accidents that produce blast trauma to the head and spine. 

• Factories, plants, and manufacturing: Steel mills, foundries, grain elevators, food processing plants, and cement plants expose workers to unguarded machinery, forklifts, confined space asphyxiation, and falls from elevated platforms are some of the factory and plant accident types that may qualify to file a lawsuit.

• Construction and heavy industrial sites: In Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston, and El Paso, the four causes OSHA identifies behind most construction deaths are falls from height, struck-by object accidents, caught-in or caught-between accidents, and electrocutions. Crane collapses, scaffolding failures, trench collapses, and boom lift accidents account for much of the remainder of serious construction site accidents.

Claims That Fall Outside Workers’ Compensation

The State of Texas is unusual in how it handles workplace injury claims, including brain and spinal injury cases.  

According to the Texas Department of Insurance, private employers in the state may choose whether to carry workers’ compensation coverage. Employers that opt out are called nonsubscribers, and they must post a notice of no coverage in the workplace and give written notice to new hires.  

A worker injured while employed by a nonsubscriber is generally not limited to workers’ compensation benefits and may instead file a negligence lawsuit directly against the employer. 

Two situations commonly allow an injured Texas worker to file a lawsuit rather than accept capped benefits. 

The first involves nonsubscribing employers. When an employer has opted out of workers’ compensation, it loses several traditional defenses in a negligence suit, including the argument that the worker was partly at fault or assumed the risk of the job. 

The second involves third parties. Large industrial sites are staffed by general contractors, subcontractors, staffing agencies, equipment manufacturers, property owners, and maintenance contractors. When a scaffold collapses, a machine guard is missing, a lift fails, or a contractor ignores a known hazard, responsibility may rest with a company other than the injured worker’s direct employer.  

Contract and temporary workers in particular are often injured by the conduct of a company that never employed them. A third-party claim can proceed even when the worker is also receiving workers’ compensation benefits. 

Who May Be Eligible to File a Lawsuit

Injured workers and their families may be eligible to file a lawsuit and receive compensation if they meet the following case criteria: 

1. The worker sustained a traumatic brain injury, anoxic brain injury, skull fracture, or other severe head injury in a workplace accident in Texas. 

2. The worker sustained a spinal cord injury, broken neck, or back injury resulting in partial or total paralysis, including paraplegia or quadriplegia. 

3. The accident occurred at a construction site, factory, plant, refinery, oilfield, warehouse, or other industrial workplace, and was caused at least in part by the negligence of an employer, property owner, contractor, equipment manufacturer, or other party. 

4. The claim is brought within the applicable Texas statute of limitations, which is generally two years from the date of the accident or death. 

Families of workers who were killed, including the surviving spouse, children, and parents, may bring a wrongful death action, and the worker’s estate may bring a survival action for the losses the worker suffered before death. 

Filing a Catastrophic Workplace Injury Lawsuit

If you or a loved one suffered a traumatic brain injury, brain damage, or a spinal cord injury while working in Texas, you may qualify to file a lawsuit and receive compensation for medical care, lost income, and permanent disability. Families of workers who were left in a coma, paralyzed, or killed on the job may also qualify to take legal action. 

Our law firm, Hissey Mulderig & Friend, is currently accepting claims involving Texas workers who suffered brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, or other catastrophic workplace injuries. There is no cost to speak with an attorney to find out if you qualify, and there are no legal fees or other costs unless we recover damages in your case. 

Find out whether you qualify or start the process of filing a claim today by contacting the lawyers at Hissey Mulderig & Friend toll-free at 1-866-806-8117, or send us a message using the free case evaluation form at the top of this page to talk with one of our attorneys about your claim.