How a FELA lawyer in New York can help you
To give railroad workers the right to recover damages for work-related injuries, Congress passed the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA) in 1908. The FELA is designed to give railroads economic incentives to protect the health and safety of workers.
The FELA is a specialized type of compensation system for railroad workers injured on the job. FELA awards are decided by juries, and often exceed what is customary for state-run workers’ compensation. But under the FELA, the amount of damages is affected by comparative negligence, which means the percentage of negligence on the part of the employer versus the percentage of negligence by the worker.
Railroads will always look for ways to blame their workers for accidents in order to avoid paying them the full amount of their deserved compensation. This means injured workers or their surviving family members have to fight against powerful, wealthy railroad companies in order to gain their fair financial compensation.
