Houma Forklift & Crane Accident Lawyer
Workers in Houma who have been hurt by a forklift tipping, a load dropping from a crane, or a rigging failure on a yard or dock are usually asking the same thing: who pays for my care while I can’t work? Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC is a workers’ compensation law firm that represents injured workers across Mississippi and South Louisiana, including Terrebonne Parish and the surrounding bayou communities. A Houma forklift and crane accident lawyer can answer that question and, when it applies, the next one: whether someone besides your employer is also responsible.
Houma’s economy puts a lot of heavy equipment in motion. Fabrication yards, marine supply operations, oilfield service companies, shipyards along the bayous, warehouses, and construction sites all depend on forklifts, overhead cranes, truck-mounted cranes, and hoists. When something goes wrong with a machine carrying thousands of pounds, the injuries tend to be crushing injuries, fractures, spinal damage, and amputations, and the claims that follow tend to be contested.
Most of these cases start as workers’ compensation claims, and many have a second track running beside them.
Why Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe Handles Equipment Injury Claims for Houma Workers
Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC represents injured workers throughout Terrebonne Parish, Lafourche Parish, and the rest of South Louisiana, as well as across Mississippi. Our attorneys bring over 75 years of combined experience to claims that have been denied, delayed, or cut off, and the firm has recovered more than $100 million in settlements for clients. Consultations are free, the firm advances the costs of the case, and there is no fee unless we recover benefits or a settlement. Phones are answered 24 hours a day, and Spanish-speaking clients can work with the team in their own language.
The people behind that work matter. Rob Lunsford, Founding Partner, has spent his entire legal career representing injured workers. Partners Brad Baskin and Jennifer Priebe have been recognized by Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and The National Trial Lawyers, and the firm was ranked by Best Law Firms in 2026 for Workers’ Compensation Law, Claimants, in Jackson. Andrew Rueff has tried dozens of jury and bench trials to verdict, which matters when a forklift or crane case includes a third-party lawsuit against an equipment owner, contractor, or manufacturer. Keaton Belk and Erin Heimlicher round out the attorney team.
Results give a sense of what serious injuries have been worth in practice: $685,000 for a surgical tech with a lower back injury, $600,000 for a construction worker with a complex back injury, $385,000 for a project manager injured when his work vehicle was struck, and $221,000 for a land-based oil rig worker with severe burns. Back, shoulder, and lower-extremity injuries, the kind forklift and crane incidents produce, make up much of the firm’s record. Past results do not guarantee any particular outcome, since every claim turns on its own medical evidence and facts.
Common Forklift and Crane Injury Scenarios in Terrebonne Parish Workplaces
- Forklift Tip-Overs and Rollovers: A forklift turning too fast with a raised load, crossing uneven yard surfaces, or carrying an unbalanced pallet can roll. Operators are often pinned or thrown, producing leg, hip, pelvic, and spinal injuries.
- Pedestrian Strikes in Warehouses and Yards: Workers on foot get hit or pinned against racks, trailers, and loading docks, especially where traffic lanes are poorly marked or visibility is blocked by the load.
- Falling Loads and Dropped Pallets: Improperly stacked or secured loads can slide off forks or fall from elevated racking, causing head, neck, shoulder, and crushing injuries.
- Crane Load Drops and Rigging Failures: Worn slings, bad shackles, overloaded hooks, and faulty hitches release suspended loads onto workers below. Fabrication and marine yards around Houma use this kind of lifting daily.
- Boom Contact and Electrocution: Mobile and truck-mounted cranes working near energized power lines can cause electrical burns and cardiac injuries.
- Crane Tip-Overs and Outrigger Failures: Soft ground, improper setup, or exceeding capacity can topple a crane, endangering the operator, the riggers, and anyone nearby.
- Struck-By and Caught-Between Injuries: Swinging loads, moving counterweights, and equipment closing in tight spaces cause fractures, amputations, and severe soft tissue damage.
- Repetitive and Cumulative Spine Injuries: Operators who spend years on vibrating equipment can develop disc herniations, and insurers frequently call these degenerative rather than work-related.
How These Claims Typically Unfold After a Houma Equipment Accident
The first stretch after an accident is about medical care and notice. Get treated, and report the injury to your employer promptly. In Louisiana, notice should go to the employer within 30 days of the injury, and a formal claim generally must be filed within one year of the accident, though that period can stretch to three years from the last compensation payment if payments have been made. Do not count on the extension; file early.
Next comes the insurer’s response. Compensation benefits in Louisiana include reasonable and necessary medical treatment and wage replacement while you cannot work. If you return to work but earn less because of the injury, supplemental earnings benefits can make up part of the difference; they are calculated at two-thirds of the gap between your pre-injury wages and what you earn or are able to earn, when you cannot earn at least 90 percent of your old pay. Those benefits run until you are released to full duty, you are earning your old wages again, or you reach the 520-week maximum, with temporary total disability weeks counting toward that total. The weekly rate ceiling is set by the date of your accident and is not adjusted afterward.
Disputes arrive quickly in equipment cases. Insurers argue the operator was untrained or careless, that a back condition was already there, or that the recommended surgery is not necessary. When treatment is denied through utilization review, the clock is short: Form 1009 must be filed with the Office of Workers’ Compensation within 15 calendar days of receiving written notice of the denial, and the OWC medical director then has 30 calendar days to decide. A party who disagrees with that decision has 45 days from its issuance to file Form 1008. Missing these windows can cost you the treatment itself.
If the dispute goes to hearing, Houma has one of Louisiana’s district workers’ compensation courts, and the claimant chooses where to file among the parish where the injury happened, the parish of residence at the time, or the parish of the employer’s principal place of business. A workers’ compensation judge decides the case. Appeals from a final judgment go to the Louisiana court of appeal, generally within 30 days of notice of judgment, and since Terrebonne Parish falls in the First Circuit, that is where those appeals are heard. A further writ application to the Louisiana Supreme Court is due within 30 days of notice of the judgment. Many claims resolve by settlement long before that point, but only after the medical picture is clear enough to value the claim honestly.
What to Do in the Days After a Forklift or Crane Accident
Get medical attention first, and tell the provider the injury happened at work and how. Vague histories become the insurer’s best exhibit later. If you are hurt too badly to do anything else, that is the only task that matters.
Report the accident to your supervisor and ask that it be recorded. Do it in writing if you can, even a short text or email, so the date is fixed. Then write down what you remember while it is fresh: the equipment involved, its condition, who was operating it, who was nearby, what the load was, and whether any warning, alarm, or safety device failed. Photograph the scene, the machine, and your injuries if it is safe to do so. Names and phone numbers of coworkers who saw it are worth more than most people realize, because crews change and memories fade.
Be careful with the adjuster. A recorded statement given early, before your diagnosis is clear, often gets used to narrow the claim. You are entitled to speak with a lawyer before giving one. Be equally careful about returning to work before your doctor clears you, and about letting a company-chosen provider decide your restrictions without your input.
Preserve evidence that may disappear. Equipment gets repaired, sold, or taken out of service after an accident, and maintenance logs, operator certifications, and inspection records can vanish. If a third party may be involved, a prompt written request to preserve that evidence is often something a lawyer can send quickly. For serious injuries, an OSHA complaint or report may also exist, and the records it generates can help.
When Someone Other Than Your Employer Is Responsible
Workers’ compensation generally prevents you from suing your own employer for a workplace accident, but it does not shield everyone else. A forklift or crane injury often involves a separate party: a manufacturer whose defective brake, mast, or load limiter failed; an equipment rental company that supplied a poorly maintained machine; a general contractor or site owner who controlled an unsafe yard; a rigging or inspection contractor who certified a lift they should not have; or a negligent driver if the accident involved a vehicle.
A third-party claim can recover categories that compensation does not, such as pain and suffering, and it is governed by different rules. In Louisiana, the time limit for most injury lawsuits is two years from the day the injury was sustained for injuries on or after July 1, 2024, while earlier injuries remain under the older one-year period. Louisiana also now bars recovery for a claimant found 51 percent or more at fault for causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026, with lower fault reducing the award proportionally, so how fault is argued matters more than it used to. A family that has lost a worker should know that wrongful death claims run one year from the death or two years from the injury, whichever is longer.
Because your compensation insurer will usually have a reimbursement interest in any third-party recovery, the two claims have to be handled together. Settling one carelessly can damage the other. That coordination is a regular part of the firm’s work for injured workers who also have personal injury and wrongful death claims.
Houma Forklift and Crane Accident Questions Answered
Do I need a lawyer after a forklift accident at work?
Not every claim requires one, but if benefits have been denied, delayed, reduced, or cut off, or if your injury will keep you out of work for a long time, a lawyer can make a major difference. Equipment accidents often involve serious injuries and disputed fault, and the insurer has adjusters and attorneys working for its side.
How much does it cost to hire the firm?
Nothing up front. Consultations are free, the firm advances the costs of the case, and fees are paid only if benefits or a settlement are recovered. Attorney fees in workers’ compensation cases are also limited and approved under state law.
How long do I have to report a crane or forklift injury?
Report it to your employer right away, and in Louisiana within 30 days at the latest. A formal claim generally must be filed within one year of the accident, with a possible extension to three years from the last compensation payment if payments were made. Waiting almost always makes the claim harder.
Can I still get benefits if I was operating the equipment and made a mistake?
Generally yes. Workers’ compensation is not a fault-based system, so your own error does not ordinarily defeat the claim. Fault becomes important in a separate lawsuit against a third party, where Louisiana’s 51 percent bar and proportional reduction apply to newer causes of action.
What if the insurer says my back or spine problem was already there?
A pre-existing condition does not automatically end a claim. If the accident or your work caused, worsened, or accelerated the condition, benefits may still be owed. Strong medical evidence tying the incident to the change in your condition is the usual answer to this argument.
Can I be fired for filing a workers’ compensation claim?
Louisiana protects workers from being fired in retaliation for filing a comp claim. If you were let go or punished after reporting an injury, tell your attorney so the circumstances can be reviewed.
What happens if the company’s doctor releases me before I’m ready?
A release to work can end wage benefits quickly, so it should not be ignored. You may be able to dispute treatment decisions, and in Louisiana the formal route for contesting a treatment denial runs through the OWC medical director with strict deadlines. Getting your own medical documentation matters.
Can I sue the crane or forklift manufacturer?
Possibly, if a defect in design, manufacture, or warnings contributed to the accident. This is a separate lawsuit from your comp claim, and the equipment itself is the key evidence, so it should not be repaired or discarded before it can be examined.
How long will my claim take?
It depends on how quickly you reach maximum medical improvement and whether the insurer disputes treatment or disability. Straightforward claims can settle once treatment stabilizes, while contested ones may require a hearing before a workers’ compensation judge and an appeal. Settling too early, before the long-term effects of surgery or a permanent restriction are known, is a common and costly mistake.
Will my health insurance cover treatment while my claim is pending?
Treatment for a work injury is meant to be paid through workers’ compensation, and health insurers often refuse or seek reimbursement when the injury is work-related. If the comp insurer is denying care, a lawyer can work to get the denial resolved rather than leaving you paying out of pocket.
What if a coworker or a contractor’s employee caused the accident?
Your claim against your employer’s comp insurer still stands, and the person or company responsible may face a separate injury claim. Whether a coworker can be sued is limited under compensation law, but a contractor or equipment company is a different matter, so the specific relationships involved need review.
My family member died in a crane or forklift accident. What can we do?
Dependents may be entitled to death benefits under workers’ compensation, and a wrongful death claim against a third party may also exist. Wrongful death claims run one year from the death or two years from the injury, whichever is longer, so timing deserves attention early.
Serving Houma and the Surrounding Terrebonne Parish Communities
Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe represents injured workers in Houma and throughout Terrebonne Parish, including Gray, Bourg, Schriever, Chauvin, Montegut, Dulac, Cocodrie, Theriot, Gibson, and Bayou Cane. We also serve workers in neighboring Lafourche Parish, from Thibodaux to Raceland and Larose, and in nearby Assumption, St. Mary, and Jefferson Parish communities.
Across South Louisiana, the firm helps injured workers in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles, as well as clients in north Louisiana and Shreveport. In Mississippi, the firm represents workers in Jackson, Madison, the Gulf Coast, Hattiesburg, Southaven, the Delta, and north Mississippi. Wherever the accident happened, the same questions apply: what the machine was, who controlled it, and who is responsible for the injury.
Talk to a Houma Forklift and Crane Accident Attorney Today
If a forklift or crane injured you on the job, you do not have to sort out the claim alone. A Houma forklift and crane accident attorney at Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe can review what happened, explain which deadlines apply to you, and identify whether a second claim exists beyond workers’ compensation. Phones are answered 24 hours a day, consultations are free, and you pay no fee unless we recover benefits for you. Call the firm today to talk through your injury and your options.
