Oil Field Injury Lawyer San Antonio

If you were hurt on a drilling site, well site, or oil field road: report the injury to your supervisor in writing, get medical care, and write down which companies were on location: the operator, the drilling contractor, and any service or trucking companies. Your claims depend on who employed you and who controlled the work.

Who May Be Responsible

Oil field work usually involves several companies on the same location. Depending on the facts, a claim may involve:

• The operator that controls the well site and hires the contractors.
• The drilling contractor or other contractors that direct the crew’s work. A company that controls part of another contractor’s work may be liable if it does not use reasonable care in exercising that control (Redinger v. Living, Inc., 689 S.W.2d 415 (Tex. 1985)).
• Service and equipment companies whose equipment, tools, or work caused the injury. When equipment fails, the maker or seller may be responsible. See our product injury page.
• Trucking companies. Crashes involving water haulers, sand trucks, and other commercial vehicles on oil field roads are handled like other commercial truck claims. See our 18-wheeler page.

Texas law may limit a property owner’s liability when a contractor’s employee is hurt while building, repairing, renovating, or modifying an improvement to real property. In those cases the owner is responsible only if it exercised or kept some control over how the work was done and actually knew of the danger and did not adequately warn (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§ 95.002, 95.003).

Your Own Employer and Workers’ Compensation

• If your employer carries workers’ compensation, benefits are generally the only remedy against your employer, but you may still have claims against the other companies listed above (Tex. Lab. Code § 408.001(a)). If a worker is killed by the employer’s intentional act or gross negligence, the surviving spouse or children may still seek exemplary damages (§ 408.001(b)). Notify your employer of the injury within 30 days (§ 409.001).
• If your employer does not carry workers’ compensation, you may be able to sue your employer, and it cannot defend by blaming you, a co-worker, or the risks of the job. You must still prove the employer was negligent (Tex. Lab. Code § 406.033).