FELA, or the Federal Employment Liability Act assures railroad employees a safe work place and gives them and their families the right to recover compensation if injured in a railroad related accident. Under FELA, injured employees can seek compensation for wage loss, future wage loss, medical expenses and treatments, pain and suffering, and for partial or permanent disability. All railroad solvent exposure lawsuits have been filed under FELA.
Worker's Compensation always pays. FELA? Sometimes.
As the railroad industry began to boom, FELA, or the Federal Employer Liability Act, was passed by Congress into law in 1908. The FELA is the railroad's answer to the question of a worker's compensation system, and has remained virtually unchanged for the last hundred years. That is not to say that interested parties do not wish to see revisions made to the FELA system. In fact, for decades several bills have been introduced to Congress which would change the way that injured railroad worker's sought compensation for their damages.
When the FELA was first enacted, it was considered a progressive law designed to protect the rights of workers employed in a dangerous industry. The FELA was also intended as a force that would impel the railroad industry to adopt strict safety policies to protect their workers. The FELA's tort system requires that injured railroad employees prove that their damages were suffered, in part, as a result of railroad company negligence. Injured railroad workers have the right to sue their employers through the court system, and rewards are to be determined by a jury if a settlement cannot be reached out of court. An injured employee has the right to seek trial in any jurisdiction where the railroad company conducts business, and does not require that a trial take place in the same jurisdiction where the injury occurred.
This FELA system stands in stark contrast to the no-fault worker's compensation laws that protect the bulk of American workers. Employers in other industries are required by state law to possess worker's compensation insurance. When an employee is injured in these industries, they are compensated through insurance. Fault is not an issue that must be proven in a legal sense and employees do not have the right to sue their employer for damages in a court of law.
This is the system that critics of the FELA wish to see enacted for the railroad industry. This is the system that is proposed to Congress again and again when a new FELA repeal bill is put on the table. The railroad industry criticizes the FELA because they claim it places an employee in an adversarial relationship with their employer. They also claim that FELA actually does harm to railroad workers, because while other worker's compensation systems always pay off, FELA does not guarantee that an injured worker will receive compensation if they are unable to prove employer negligence. These critics claim that twenty to thirty percent of FELA cases favor the defense and that employees suffer as a result.
Advocates of the FELA, including many railroad labor unions and interest groups, members of the government, and legal professionals feel that the railroad industry is looking for a way to avoid compensating injured victims by taking away their right to a jury judgment. They also claim that changes to the FELA would result in reduced safety incentives for the railroad industry in terms of protecting railroad workers. Advocates of the FELA often recognize that the current system may not be perfect, though they are reluctant to entertain the option of switching to a no-fault system of compensation. This battle rages on as members of both sides of this debate espouse legitimate claims to support their perspective on the current state of the FELA and all of its repercussions.For more information on FELA, please contact us to confer with a personal injury lawyer.