Industrial Accidents
We’re trial lawyers. Our core competency – above everything else – is trying cases to juries. And we specialize in beating giants.
Minneapolis Industrial Accident Lawyer
Those who work in industrial fields may be more likely to sustain serious injuries when they’re hurt on the job. The results can be devastating. Extensive bills from severe injuries, a long recovery time, and uncertainty about the future are all things that an injured worker may have to deal with, but they shouldn’t have to do this on their own. A Minneapolis industrial accident lawyer from Madia Law LLC can help you get justice. We’ll fight for you to hold negligent people responsible for their actions that harmed you.
The Dangers of Industrial Jobs
While injuries can happen at any job, industrial work tends to have higher worker fatalities. According to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, agriculture, forestry, and fishing had the highest worker fatalities in 2019. There were 23.
The next highest fatal industries include transportation and warehousing, which had 13 cases. Construction and wholesale trade both saw decreases from 2018, but still had worker fatalities as well.
These areas of work may be more dangerous than others, but many injuries that happen can be prevented with proper safety precautions. However, when others don’t prioritize safety, accidents can occur. Some industrial accidents include:
- Toxic Chemical Exposure. This could refer to workers unknowingly working in a dangerous worksite without the equipment or information about the hazardous conditions they’re in. There’s also the chance of a chemical spill occurring. Chemical spills can cause burns and explosions, but can also seep into the environment and affect others in the area, like if a spill happened near a residential area.
- Equipment Overturns. If there is faulty equipment or someone doesn’t know how to properly handle equipment, there can be issues with equipment rolling over or falling over. Anyone caught near the equipment can sustain injuries if they’re hit or operating the equipment.
- Being Caught in Machinery. Loose clothing, hair, or other improper ways of using heavy machinery can result in accidents where someone is caught in the machinery.
- Being Hit with Equipment. Industrial worksites are often full of moving equipment and machinery. If someone acts recklessly or isn’t paying attention, they could hit others with the equipment. Contact with equipment caused 14 fatalities in 2019.
- Falls. This accident, along with slips and trips, accounted for 15 fatalities in 2019. Falling from heights and falling debris can all cause life-threatening injuries.
When a Minneapolis industrial accident lawyer from our law firm is working on your case, we’ll look into the accident that harmed you. Often, these accidents occurred because of the negligent actions of another. With our lawyer on your side, you can rest assured that we’ll find the cause of your accident and injuries.
Examples of Industrial Site Negligence
You may be asking yourself how the accident that hurt you could have happened in the first place. Our lawyers have seen many examples of negligence that caused injuries and damages to those who worked there. Industrial accidents can occur in a number of ways, but there are common reasons that these accidents occur. It’s possible one of the following examples of negligence is the reason why you were injured:
- Defective Equipment. If there’s equipment on the site that malfunctions, it may not be because of the person using it. There’s a chance it was defective and would have broken down or failed to work properly no matter who was operating it. In this case, the company that provided the equipment may be held responsible for your injuries.
- Lack of Equipment Maintenance. The machinery used on industrial worksites need to be properly maintained to make sure they will run smoothly and safely. If the machines aren’t checked or maintained, they could have an issue that causes a dangerous accident that could have been prevented.
- Lack of Safety Equipment. Workers need safety equipment to protect themselves. If they aren’t provided with this equipment or those in charge aren’t enforcing the rules that they need to use the equipment, then there may be grounds for an industrial accident lawsuit.
- Employees Aren’t Fully Trained. When we’re investigating your case, we may look into the hiring process of the company you work for. They may have a history of hiring unqualified workers or not properly training employees to use the equipment and machinery required of them. If they’re knowingly putting unskilled employees in charge of heavy machinery, they may be held accountable for the injuries and damages you sustained in the accident.
- Fatigue. Workers need to have breaks and time to rest. If they’re overworked like constantly pulling double shifts or are working excessive overtime, then they’re likely not going to be sharp when they’re on the job. This could lead to mistakes and oversights. Workers may also be held to an impossibly high standard where they’re supposed to do their work at an unsafe speed. While the company is prioritizing time saved, this is making workers rush and cannot focus on safety.
When negligence is the reason you were hurt, your industrial accident lawyer will find out why it happened. Madia Law LLC will fight for you to get the recovery you deserve.
Consequences of Industrial Accidents
The consequences of these accidents are often catastrophic injuries. This can include brain damage, loss of limb, spinal cord injuries, crush injuries, burns—all injuries that can permanently affect you for the rest of your life. While these injuries can heal up to a point, they will not fully recover. The treatment required for these injuries can include surgery, medication, medical equipment, and continued physical therapy.
Another industrial accident injury that can occur is degloving, where the skin and tissue are severed from the muscle and tissue beneath. This injury is also known as an avulsion and can be extremely dangerous. This type of injury may require multiple surgeries and physical therapy.
Some injuries may not be apparent until years later, when they present as an illness. If you were in an unsafe environment and were breathing in dangerous chemicals, you may receive a diagnosis later in life. Depending on when the illness is caught, your care may be focused on slowing down the illness or treating the painful symptoms it can cause.
While there are many different kinds of injuries that can occur, they will likely result in the following:
- High Medical Bills
- Inability to Work/Return to Work
- Loss of Enjoyment of Life
- Emotional Distress
That’s where our lawyers step in. We’ll seek full and fair compensation that fully covers your economic and noneconomic damages. You’ll be able to get the medical care you need, recover the wages you’ve missed or will continue to miss, and to recover damages for the emotional losses the accident has caused you. With us on your side, we’ll represent your best interests so you can get the recovery you deserve.
Seek Legal Representation Today
Madia Law LLC will stand up for your rights when you’ve been wrongfully injured. While you may feel overwhelmed at the outcome of the accident and the costs of your case, we’re here to help. We’ll handle the legal responsibilities so you can work on healing. Our lawyers will make sure your voice is heard.
THE MADIA LAW WAY
We have a process that works in getting exceptional results for our clients.
We are trial lawyers who prepare every case for trial from Day 1. Investigation and legal research are the first things we do, and we spend a lot of time on them. Because we haven’t filed the case yet, we have complete control – the defendant has no say and we want to use this time wisely. We interview witnesses that can help us prove the case. We’ll ask you for all relevant documents in your possession and review those carefully as well. We also will spend some time conducting legal research about unique issues in the case. We pull the jury instructions that the judge will ultimately charge the jury with after closing arguments at trial.
Our next step is typically to send a demand letter to the defendant. In the letter, we thoroughly lay out: the facts surrounding the defendant’s misconduct; the applicable law (including statutory and case citations) that make clear that the defendant broke the law; an analysis of your damages and the defendant’s monetary exposure; a demand for a monetary amount to settle the claim; and an instruction to preserve all relevant evidence, including electronic evidence. The point of this letter is to give the defendant a chance to do the right thing and pay a fair amount before litigation, and to give the defendant an opportunity to present any defenses or evidence it wants us to consider before moving forward. Sometimes we skip the demand letter if there are strategic reasons to move straight to filing, but we typically give defendants a chance to do the right thing.
If early negotiations fail, great – we file a Complaint and serve the defendant with it. A Complaint is a legal document that states the facts of what happened and alleges how the defendant broke the law. It formally starts the lawsuit. Many lawyers draft complaints in a general and relatively vague way, just to get it done and filed – because that’s all that’s really required. We take a different view. We view the Complaint as our first chance to tell your story to the judge, and we take it seriously. So we draft detailed complaints and include legal citations to statutory and judicial authority on unique points. Sometimes we’ll include a number of exhibits, diagrams, or other demonstrative aids to help the Court understand our claims. A secondary benefit of this approach is that defense lawyers reading the Complaint can become educated on the problems of their case and the state of the law – sometimes this leads them to reach out to us shortly after service of the Complaint to re-initiate settlement negotiations. Of course, by that time, the price for settlement has gone up.
Some lawyers view written discovery as a necessary evil – something to get done and out of the way before depositions. Not us. Written discovery is a gift and an opportunity. We spend a great deal of time crafting requests for documents and interrogatories (questions for the defendant to answer in writing) that are specific, detailed, and tailored to get what we need to prove our case. Many lawyers – even great ones – think written discovery is a waste of time because defense lawyers typically answer them on behalf of their clients and can try to stonewall with legalese and objections. We view this as a wonderful opportunity. In our experience, most defense lawyers can’t help themselves when answering discovery: they over-state their defenses and make assertions that their clients will not be able to support in testimony. So we get to commit the defendant to defenses that they can’t back up, leading to contradictions, confusion, and chaos in their depositions later on. We also use Requests for Admission – which many lawyers don’t. The Federal Rules and Minnesota Rules of Civil Procedure allow us to ask defendants to “admit” certain facts. We send them RFAs that are very difficult for them to deny. Of course, they do it anyway, but that sets them up later for cost and fee-shifting, which the Rules mandate for defendants that deny RFAs that are later proven true. And usually, we can get the defendants’ own witnesses to admit facts that their defense lawyers denied in RFA. That’s a great situation that leads to more chaos and confusion on the defense side.
One last point on written discovery – we send multiple waves of it throughout discovery. We typically send 3 or 4 sets of written discovery requests to defendants throughout discovery. This compounds the problems for them, because the defense lawyers continue to overstate their defenses, but now run into contradictions from not just the defendant witnesses’ deposition testimony, but also their own previous discovery responses. This makes for a great record that we can present to the judge at dispositive motions, and use for impeachment at trial.
This is our chance to question relevant witnesses, on the record with a court reporter (we typically videotape important depositions as well). We get to confront the defense witnesses with all of the evidence we’ve developed through written discovery and document production. By this time, the defendant put its witnesses in an impossible position through its written defenses, which are often untrue and indefensible. So the witness has to either lie to support the defense, or admit it’s not true. That’s a dilemma that works for our clients either way, no matter which option the witness takes. We use depositions to expose contradictions, create a record for dispositive motions, lock witnesses into their stories so that we can impeach them later at trial, and sometimes, to show defense lawyers how hopeless their case is. We often calls from defense counsel shortly after depositions of their clients, seeking to re-start settlement negotiations.
The defendant will usually make a motion for summary judgment after discovery, asking the Court to throw out the case without having a jury trial. Because we’ve hit discovery so hard – both through written discovery and depositions – this is a tough motion for defense counsel to write in our cases. We draft our response for the Court and now get to bring everything together: the admissions, contradictions, nonsense, and obvious fact disputes that we’ve uncovered through discovery. We tell a compelling story that wraps everything together for the Court and makes clear that the defense motion has to be denied, and the defendant needs to face a jury for its conduct.
Sometimes, we’ll even make an affirmative motion for summary judgment, asking the Court to grant judgment in favor of our client without a trial. These motions are generally rare for plaintiffs to make, because the defendant can usually point to some fact dispute on its intent or some other factor that necessitates a trial. But we make affirmative summary judgment motions significantly more than is typical for plaintiffs, and that’s because the work we put in during discovery helps build a fantastic record to do so.
After the Court denies the defense motion for summary judgment, the defendant has only 2 options: 1) do the right thing and pay you a fair amount to our client to settle your claim (usually much, much more at this point than the defendant could have paid at the beginning of the case to settle); or 2) face a jury for its conduct and risk an enormous verdict. This is the dilemma that we have been creating and forcing the defendant into for the entire case. We’ll engage in settlement negotiations at this point from a position of extreme strength, mainly because most defendants are (rightly) terrified of facing a jury to defend their conduct.
This is, candidly, our favorite part of the case – why we went to law school: to hold the powerful accountable before juries. We prepare heavily for trial, including: detailed witness preparation, focus groups, and mock trials. At this point, the potential outcomes and consequences for the defendant are much more severe than if it simply did the right thing at the beginning of the case and paid a fair amount to compensate our client for its misconduct. As we advocate to the jury for our client, we’re also mindful of protecting the record so that defendants will be unsuccessful in attacking the verdict in post-trial motions or appeal.
What Our Clients Say
Madia Law delivers!
Competence, I demand competence. Ashwin and Zane digested all the elements of my case, a complex case with a plethora of moving parts yet distilled it down to its essence. Don't be a victim, stand strong, keep your nose clean and give Sara a call at Madia Law.
If you’re reading this, it’s awful that you are in a position right now where you are online searching for an attorney. I searched online as you are perhaps doing now, read some reviews and settled on an attorney after doing some research. I’ll never forget how blown away I was after my first meeting with Ashwin Madia. I was fortunate to have this man represent me. . I am eternally grateful.
No need to search any longer. You’ve found the right lawyer.
I was referred to Ashwin Madia when it became evident that my case was going to jury trial. He is definitely an expert as a trial lawyer. I found him to be very straightforward, no nonsense, a clear communicator, and I was pleased with the outcome he brought at trial. I would recommend him, and I would go to him again to represent me if the need ever arises.
I would encourage you to spend some time reading Mr. Madia's impressive bio. If that doesn't have you convinced, I will tell you that as someone who spent over 19 years in law enforcement, I have never seen a better trial lawyer than Ashwin. His passion, expertise, ethical commitment, and his incredible memory of the facts, were some of the major reasons I prevailed in my discrimination lawsuit against my employer.Thanks again!
I was referred to Ashwin Madia by a friend, who is also a lawyer. Mr. Madia and his partners dove into my case and prepared for trial in three weeks. Madia Law Firm markets itself as a "trial" driven law firm, and it did not disappoint. Mr. Madia overwhelmed opposing counsel, and after 5 days of trial, the jury ruled in my favor.
My wife, who has been a trial attorney for over 20 years, described Madia's trial work as "amazing," and described his closing argument as one of the best she had ever seen. I highly recommend Madia Law.
I have the utmost respect for Ashwin Madia. Ashwin is professional, knowledgeable, sharp, and genuine. After three years of litigating against my employer, I found myself financially and emotionally drained.
I was ready to give up.
Just five weeks before trial, Ashwin agreed to take on my case and did an amazing and spectacular job at trial! We won! I am so thankful there are people like Ashwin in this world. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!
After being referred to Ashwin Madia I wasn't sure what to expect. Many times in the past I felt unsure of myself. I knew I wanted justice but many times in the past I've had to just walk away. This time was different; if you have the opportunity to get Ashwin Madia to represent you, I know you will have the ammunition you need to defeat your opposition to get the justice your seeking.
This is a spectacular attorney with the understanding of the rights and feelings of others, with the willingness to protect and stand up for those that may not have a voice. I thank you so much Mr. Madia.
Joshua Newville is a brilliant and tenacious attorney. When I met with him, I was close to giving up hope that I would find a solution with my employer, which is a large company with a General Counsel. Josh said he'd take on my case. He then got my employer to agree to mediation, an avenue it had previously refused while it engaged in delaying tactics for years. The fact that Josh brought them to the table was a feat in and of itself. Josh, along with lawyers from Gender Justice, fought to obtain an equitable settlement and to ensure that the issues of wrong-doing were addressed through policy changes within the company. I am incredibly grateful to have had Josh advocate for me. He is skilled, determined, and motivated to get justice for his clients.
I would highly recommend Madia Law. My experience with attorney Joshua Newville and legal assistant Sara Ion exceeded my expectations! I had a need for employment-related legal experts, and I explored three other firms before an attorney friend recommended Madia Law. My initial consultation with Joshua was superb, and throughout the entire process I felt heard and understood. My one regret was not contacting them sooner, as one important deadline had passed. Despite that, our result was far better -- and quicker -- than any of us expected. Thank you Joshua, Sara and Madia Law!
Aswhin is an incredible trial lawyer. When we realized that a claim against our business was definitely going to a jury trial in federal court we switched counsel to Ashwin and his team. At the 11th hour they got spun up on the facts and the law (intellectual property) and delivered an amazing performance against a huge "downtown" law firm. From the beginning of his opening statement it was clear that we made the right choice.
I can't recommend Madia Law highly enough.
I worked with Madia Law for three years on multiple, complex cases. A challenging and emotional situation was handled with professionalism, tenacity and frequent communication by Mr. Newville. I can't speak highly enough about Mr. Newville's ability to quickly understand complex technical issues and synthesize them into strong arguments. I would not hesitate to contact Madia Law in the future should the need arise!
If I could give Joshua Newville with Madia Law 10 stars I would! Josh explained exactly WHAT he intended to do, and the outcome he hoped could be achieved as well as each scenario in between.
Honestly I thought it all sounded too good to be true.
Josh approached the other party in my case with civility and solutions versus aggression and hostility. I feel confident this influenced the other party’s willingness to work for a mutually agreeable solution. If you need someone to fight for your best interest in a work situation, you won't find ANYONE who will do a better job!
Joshua Newville is a bright star to watch. During the handling of our case, he was thorough and highly competent. We were extremely satisfied with the outcome of Josh’s hard work on our behalf. Josh was excellent in communicating information and always promptly responded to correspondence we initiated. Josh had an exceptional grasp of the complexities involved in our case and was current on evolving national rulings/events and resulting implications for our situation. I highly recommend Madia Law.
Ash is an amazing Lawyer! He gave us great advice but still made sure the decision at the end was ours. He was willing to fight for us and did a wonderful job. I could not be more pleased with the outcome and I recommend him highly to anyone in the need of a lawyer. Ash was so smart and did such a great job of helping us understand the process and make sense of it all. He is not only extremely good at his job but he is also a great person. He lets his guard down and by the end of the process he felt more like a friend who was fighting for what was right! I can not say enough good things about him!
Attorney Zane Umstead recently represented my family's interest in a difficult legal situation. He was quite effective and direct in dealing with the opposing party; yet to us he was very kind, thoughtful and courteous. He even generously offered to waive his entire legal fee after spending a generous amount of his time working hard on the case, if we elected not to bring the conflict to a conclusion. His integrity is exemplary and he makes his profession respectable. We highly recommend Attorney Umstead with great enthusiasm.
What can I say about Madia Law, working with Zane and Cody was a privilege, working with Ashwin was a honor. This firm shows great appreciation and care to their clients. I wish nothing but success to all of them.
The future of Madia law is bright and prosperous.
Thank you again for believing in me and showing the little guy counts.
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