Accidents can and do happen on the job. Each year, thousands of workers are seriously hurt and killed in mishaps at mines, factories, agricultural operations, construction sites and at various other workplaces.

Among the most common causes of serious work injuries are accidents involving falling objects, workers falling from elevated equipment or structures, highway accidents and those involving cars, trucks, forklifts, factory machinery and other devices. Other causes include electrocution, carbon monoxide poisoning and trench cave-ins.

Kline & Specter, PC, attorneys have represented clients who suffered severe work injuries in Philadelphia and throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. If you or someone you know suffered a severe injury or death in a work-related accident, you may want to contact a work injury lawyer for a free evaluation of your case.

Schedule a Consultation Today

Most recently, the firm in July 2019 obtained a nearly $10.6 million settlement for a truck driver whose legs were crushed when a 5,000-pound steel pipe rolled off his truck during unloading at the Dura-Bond Coating Inc. pipe yard facility in Duquesne, Pa. (Read article) Only a few months earlier it won a $9.2 million jury verdict for a Reading sanitation worker whose leg was amputated in a screw conveyor at a meat processing plant when the device suddenly activated. In 2018, Kline & Specter achieved a $30 million settlement with AT&T and other companies for a worker who suffered catastrophic injuries in a nearly 50-foot fall from an improperly designed and maintained cell tower. (Read article)  

In an earlier case, Kline & Specter won a $46.5 million jury verdict against a security company for the families of two women employees who were shot to death by a fired worker at the Kraft Foods plant in Northeast Philadelphia. The award was for compensatory and punitive damages. (See the Brown/Wilson Case)

In 2014, Shanin Specter and David Williams settled a wrongful death case involving a worker at a Philadelphia-area refinery for $10 million
 
And in the prior year, Kline & Specter obtained one of the largest settlements for an undocumented worker in negotiating a $5 million award for a man crushed to death by a collapsing excavation site. (Arana)

Workplace injuries range from broken limbs to those involving more severe brain injuries and spinal cord injuries, even death. Among Kline & Specter's legal victories for working men and women are several with spectacular settlements or jury verdicts. They are:

  • A lawsuit in which the firm won a $36.4 million settlement for a worker killed in an explosion at a Delaware oil refinery (see Davis/Motiva) The settlement, announced in September 2003, is considered the largest for a single-victim fatality ever reported in the United States.
  • Two months later, in a case that spanned seven years and several appeals, an Allegheny County jury handed down a verdict of nearly $7.9 million for a Pittsburgh worker seriously injured in a fall from a forklift. (Drum)
  • On Jan. 21, 2004, a jury in Luzerne County handed down a $19.1 million verdict for a woman who was struck and seriously injured by a van as she worked on a roadside construction job. (McManamon).
  • In September 2008, Tom Kline won a $5.5 million jury verdict for the family of an 18-year-old man who was fatally shot while working as a parking lot attendant at Hahnemann University Hospital. The hospital had failed to improve safety and security after an armed robbery at the same booth only 12 days earlier. (Palmer)

In 2007, the firm won an $8 million settlement for a worker killed when he fell into a high-temperature pulping pit at a Manayunk paper mill. The case involved a lengthy dispute over which corporations were responsible. (Green.)

The firm also won two major cases for ironworkers. In November 2006, a jury awarded $3 million to a Philadelphia ironworker who sustained neck and shoulder injuries in a fall down a stairwell after temporary lighting failed at a construction site. (See McCormick 1 | 2) In December 2006, Kline & Specter negotiated a $1.7 million settlement for a Lehigh County ironworker severely injured in a fall at a cold storage facility. (Broadbent.)

In an earlier case, the family of a man crushed to death in a crane accident settled a suit against the manufacturer, seller and installer of the crane's control system. The settlement, reached in November 2002, was for $4.4 million. (Yankosky).

A workplace injury case was among one of Kline & Specter’s first victories as the firm secured settlements totaling $1.25 million in 1995 for Demetrius Atwood, a Philadelphia hotel employee injured by a malfunctioning elevator.

Learn more about the Workplace Accident Lawyers at Kline & Specter, PC

Click here to contact a work injury lawyer for a free evaluation of your case.

Click here to see Tom Kline interviewed about "cancer clusters" on Good Day Philadelphia on Fox TV, 3/8/07