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As an employee, your employer must provide you with a safe work environment. In some situations, a careless manufacturer puts workers at risk.

Every day, equipment malfunctions place many individuals at risk for severe machine injuries.

If injured due to an equipment malfunction, it is crucial to promptly speak to a work injury attorney and discuss your rights. You may have a right to seek workers’ compensation benefits for your injuries. 

What Is the Most Common Injury Caused by Working Machines Unsafely?

Various injuries may result from equipment malfunction at work. Some of these accidents may result in severe and permanent injuries affecting your ability to work in the future.

Some common machine injuries caused by equipment malfunction include the following:

  • One of the most common injuries caused by working with machines unsafely is lacerations. When individuals operate machines without adhering to safety protocols and procedures, they are at a heightened risk of accidents that can result in severe cuts or lacerations to various parts of their bodies.
  • Crush Hazards. When two heavy objects move toward each other, they create a crush hazard. In some accidents caused by this type of machinery, the machine injuries occur when a body part comes into contact with the moving parts.
  • Shear Hazards. Shearing machines cut and punch heavy-duty materials. Many workers suffer severe injuries when a body part comes into contact with the blade or other part of the shearing machine.
  • Nip Hazards. Conveyor belts represent a common type of machine causing nip hazards. When one or more rotating parts come into contact with a body part, this may result in devastating injuries. 

People operating heavy machinery suffer severe injuries every year, including amputation, lacerations, abrasions, and crushing injuries. Fatalities may also occur as a result of equipment malfunction.

Many machine injuries render workers unable to work and provide for their families.

An experienced workers’ compensation attorney works to obtain the benefits you deserve, so you may continue to provide for your family.

Additionally, these benefits enable you to focus on your recovery, so you can get back to work.

What Is Workers’ Compensation? 

Workers’ compensation provides workers with multiple benefits when rendered unable to work due to injury or illness. These benefits include the following. 

Wage-Loss Benefits

Wage-loss benefits serve to compensate an injured worker for lost income due to a work-related injury. These benefits typically pay a percentage of a worker’s total wage without tax consequences.

Many also refer to these benefits as disability benefits. The severity of your injuries determines what benefits you receive and for how long.

Medical Benefits 

Medical benefits simply serve to reimburse a person for medical bills expended due to their work-related injury. Medical benefits include coverage for the following expenses:

  • Medications, 
  • Nursing home care, 
  • Hospitalizations, and
  • Medical equipment.

The medical benefits available depend on the length of care required due to your injuries.

Vocational Rehabilitation

Vocational rehabilitation includes work retraining, employment services, career counseling, and tuition for work-related continued education.

You may be able to claim these benefits in situations where your injuries prevent you from returning to your previous employment. 

Permanent Disability Benefits 

Permanent partial and permanent total disability benefits serve to pay for the loss of your future earning ability due to your work-related injury.

These may also benefit a person suffering the permanent loss or use of a body part. Benefit payments are based on a disability rating assigned to you by your doctor.

Disputes arising as a result of permanent disability benefits commonly occur. Therefore, retaining a qualified workers’ comp attorney can help ensure you receive the benefits needed to assist you in moving on with your life. 

Every workers’ compensation case includes a unique set of facts. However, many people receive a denial of their workers’ compensation claims.

Without these benefits, you and your family may be left without support. Even in cases where your employer and workers’ compensation insurance company admit liability due to your machinery injuries, you may not receive the benefits you require.

Disputes may arise over your entitlement to medical care, wage loss benefits, rehabilitation benefits, or permanent benefits.  

Contact Us

After a severe and traumatic injury due to an equipment malfunction, it is vital to contact a workman’s injury lawyer.

For over twenty years, the attorneys at Arechigo & Stokka have strived to provide the highest caliber legal representation to clients in their time of need.

We work to understand each client’s circumstances and analyze the unique facts surrounding their case.

Over the years, our firm has earned the trust of hundreds of clients. The attorneys at Arechigo and Stokka receive many new clients through past client referrals.

Contact us today for a free consultation! Let us get to work to assist you in receiving benefits after an equipment malfunction.

Author Photo Joshua R. Stokka

Josh has been representing injured workers for over 10 years. Josh was born and raised in Fargo, North Dakota, and attended the University of Minnesota-Duluth where he earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Criminology. Mr. Stokka alson received his law degree from the Hamline University School of Law. During law school, Josh clerked at a Minnesota law firm specializing in personal injury and workers’ compensation. Prior to practicing in the area of workers’ compensation, Josh clerked for a judge in the 7th Judicial District in Minnesota. This valuable experience gave him insight into how judges think, do their jobs behind the scene, and how to frame a case in order to obtain a favorable result.  Now, he focuses 100% of his practice on defending injured workers in Minnesota.