Provident Legal funding uses tried and true criteria to evaluate your FELA lawsuit claims and appraise your lawsuit conservatively and accurately.
We pride ourselves on being able to quickly estimate the amount you need and work with you to ensure you get the money you need quickly and without any hassle.
If you’re a federal railroad employee and have been injured on the job, then you may be eligible for compensation in a FELA lawsuit.
“FELA” stands for Federal Employer Liability Act, and it covers rail workers across America who work dangerous and risky jobs every day.
Passed in 1908 in the midst of a massive railway boom in America, FELA was passed to compensate rail workers who were injured on the job.
Under FELA, employers are responsible for
- Adequately preparing, training, and supervising employees
- Providing a safe work environment, including ensuring proper maintenance of equipment and machinery
- Ensuring workers environments are free and clear of hazards
- Enforcing safety rules and regulations
- Maintain a reasonable work quota
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FELA Lawsuit Loans Qualifications
Qualifying for lawsuit funding on your FELA claim is easy. If you meet the below criteria, your case may be eligible for funding:
- An attorney is working on your FELA claim on a contingency basis
- You have a valid legal claim for injuries sustained while working for or with a railroad company
- Your attorney controls settlement proceeds in a trust account
- You are over the age of 18
FELA legal funding and FELA lawsuit loans can borrow against your upcoming settlement check in order to help you pay for expenses that stack up during your prolonged legal battle.
Provident Lawsuit Loans provides lawsuit loans and FELA legal funding for medical bills, car payments, rent payments, and any other expenses piling up while you’re recovering.
Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) Lawsuit Overview
Because railroad work is typically very risky, the federal government passed FELA in 1908 to protect railroad workers by providing them with rights. Specifically, FELA endows plaintiffs with the right to file a FELA lawsuit for compensation of medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
FELA not only entitles rail workers to compensation for injuries sustained while on the job, it also forces railway companies to comply with certain safety regulations, provide adequate training and safety supervision, and refrain from making inane demands.
If railroad employers violate their duty to provide a reasonably safe workplace then they may be found liable for any worker injuries. There is some debate, though, about the meaning of “reasonably safe.”
A railroad employer can be said to have been acting negligently if they failed to provide adequate safety training of supervision, set too-ambitious deadlines, overworked employees, exposed employees to toxins, allowed employees to work around fires and explosions, or provided faulty or unsafe tools.
Common injuries which may be the basis of a FELA lawsuit include electrocution, falling from moving vehicles, being struck by moving trains or vehicles, or being struck by objects during repair. These can result in fractures, broken bones, back and spinal injuries, neck injuries, and even death.
Family members may also file wrongful death FELA lawsuits on behalf of relatives killed while working as railway employees. These lawsuits are also eligible for FELA legal funding from Provident Lawsuit Loans.
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How Much Funding Can I Get?
The main benefit that FELA lawsuits provide to plaintiffs is that plaintiffs are permitted to seek damages for pain and suffering. This is not the case with regular workers’ compensation.
The inclusion of this type of damages is generally only in personal injury lawsuits; however, to incentivize proper railway safety by railroad employers, FELA lawsuits entitle plaintiffs to these valuable damage claims.
FELA lawsuit awards, though, are still dependent on the portion of the employer’s liability as well as the nature and severity of the injury.
Under comparative negligence in a FELA lawsuit, the more an employer can be said to have violated the safety requirements of FELA, the more a judge or jury would award to the plaintiff in damages.
Provident can provide FELA lawsuit funding up to 15% of the expected case value. There is no hard limit on funding, the amount we can approve just depends on the estimated value and stage of your FELA claim.
FELA lawsuits are known to have very high average settlement values. Characteristics of some of the largest FELA settlements are as follows:
- The injury is severe and long-lasting
- Disability as a result of the injury (disability is defined as physical difference from before the injury)
- Disfigurement (scarring or other appearance-altering changes)
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Pain and suffering is past as well as future
- Large future medical bills related to the injury
- There are past and future wage loss
What’s So Special About FELA Claims?
Because railroads carry large insurance policies or are self-insured, FELA lawsuits typically boil down to a question of liability and damages. Liability is basically responsibility. Damages are monetary awards given by the court to an injured or wronged party.
This is because many states operate using a “no-fault” doctrine for their workers’ compensation laws, whereby plaintiffs must prove that they were in no way even partially responsible for their injuries.
FELA lawsuits, on the other hand, operate under the doctrine of comparative negligence. This means that establishing that the employer was liable is as easy as proving that they contributed in any way, shape, or form to the injury.
The damages associated with comparative negligence in FELA lawsuits are proportional to the percentage of negligence for which the employer is found to be liable. For example, if you are owed $100,000 based on your injuries, but your employer is only found to be 10% liable for the accident, then you would be awarded $10,000.
Even if the employer’s liability is found to be a small percentage of your injuries, the tendency for railway accidents to produce harsh injuries means that damages may still be very high.
For example, one Illinois jury awarded a $22.5 million verdict for an injured railroader. Another Illinois case won a record $33 million for an injured plaintiff.
While this is a record-setting verdict, such a degree of damages is permissible under FELA and was reasonable given the plaintiff’s catastrophic and life-changing injuries sustained on the job.