Biloxi Forklift & Crane Accident Lawyer
The goal after a forklift tip-over or a crane failure is simple to state and hard to reach: your surgeries covered, your weekly checks flowing, and a clear answer on who pays for what the comp system will not. Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC is a workers’ compensation law firm that represents injured workers across Mississippi and Louisiana, including Biloxi and the rest of Harrison County, and it handles forklift and crane injury claims from the first denial letter through hearings and appeals.
A Biloxi forklift & crane accident lawyer has real work to do in these cases because the injuries are rarely minor. Forklifts crush feet, pin torsos against racks, and send operators off loading docks. Cranes drop loads, strike riggers, and fail at the boom, the cable, or the outrigger. Biloxi’s mix of casino and resort construction, shipyard and marine fabrication, port and warehouse operations, and Gulf Coast storm-recovery building keeps heavy equipment moving every day, and when something goes wrong the insurer’s first move is usually to question how it happened.
These claims often involve more than one source of recovery. The comp claim against your employer is only the starting point. If a rental company, equipment maker, general contractor, or crane service outside your employer contributed to the accident, a separate injury claim may exist beside it.
Why Choose Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe for a Forklift or Crane Injury Claim
Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC represents injured workers throughout Mississippi and Louisiana, serving Harrison County and Biloxi along with the Gulf Coast, Hattiesburg, Jackson, the Delta, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and communities beyond. The firm’s attorneys bring over 75 years of combined experience, 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 benefits or a settlement are recovered. Phones are answered 24 hours a day, and Spanish-speaking clients can work with the team in their own language.
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 for Workers’ Compensation Law, Claimants, in Jackson. Andrew Rueff has tried dozens of jury and bench trials to verdict and regularly appears before the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission. Keaton Belk and Erin Heimlicher complete the attorney team.
The results matter here because equipment injuries tend to be orthopedic and severe. The firm obtained $385,000 for a project manager with back injuries after being struck in his work vehicle, $221,000 for a land-based oil rig worker with severe burns, $685,000 for a surgical tech with a lower back injury, and $600,000 for a construction worker with a complex back injury. Clients describe attorneys who listened, stayed responsive, and stood up to the insurance company at every step.
Forklift and Crane Injuries We See in Gulf Coast Claims
- Forklift Tip-Overs and Operator Crush Injuries: Sharp turns with a raised load, uneven yard surfaces, and loading-dock edges can roll a forklift onto its operator. The resulting hip, pelvic, leg, and spinal injuries often require specialist surgery and long recovery.
- Pedestrian Strikes in Warehouses and Yards: Workers on foot are pinned between a lift truck and a rack, wall, or trailer. Blind corners and missing spotters are common factors, and they matter when an insurer disputes what happened.
- Falling Loads and Pallet Failures: Unsecured stacks, damaged pallets, and overloaded forks drop material on workers below. Head, neck, shoulder, and crush injuries follow, and fault may reach whoever packed or rigged the load.
- Crane Boom Collapse and Load Drops: Mobile and tower cranes on construction sites and at marine and industrial facilities can fail through overloading, ground instability, worn cable, or poor rigging. Riggers, signal workers, and nearby trades take the worst of it.
- Struck-By and Caught-Between Injuries: Swinging counterweights, shifting loads, and moving equipment pin workers against structures. These produce fractures, amputations, and catastrophic injuries.
- Back, Neck, and Spine Injuries: Herniated lumbar and cervical discs from impact or violent jarring are the most common serious outcome. Insurers often point to degenerative disc disease, so medical evidence tying the injury to the incident is central.
- Shoulder, Knee, and Lower Extremity Injuries: Rotator cuff and SLAP tears, meniscus and ACL tears, and foot and ankle fractures are frequent, and employers sometimes call them old sports injuries.
- Electrical and Burn Injuries: Booms and masts that contact energized lines cause burns and cardiac injuries, which can rise to catastrophic claims.
What to Do After a Forklift or Crane Accident in Biloxi
Get medical care first, and tell the provider exactly how the injury happened, including every body part that hurts, even if one injury seems worse than the rest. Gaps and omissions in early records become the insurer’s best argument later.
Report the injury to your employer promptly. In both Mississippi and Louisiana you must give notice within 30 days of the accident, and written notice is safer than a verbal mention to a supervisor. In Mississippi, you generally have two years from the injury, or from the last compensation payment, to file a Petition to Controvert with the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission. In Louisiana, a formal claim generally must be filed within one year of the accident, with a possible extension to three years from the last payment if benefits were paid.
Preserve evidence while it still exists. Photograph the equipment, the load, the floor or ground, and any warning labels. Write down the names of coworkers who saw it. Note the equipment make, unit number, and the company that owned or rented it, because a third party may be responsible. Ask whether the operator was certified and whether the machine had been inspected. Keep your own copies of incident reports, medical records, and anything the insurer sends you.
Be careful with the adjuster. A recorded statement is not required to start your claim, and offhand answers about prior injuries, hobbies, or how the accident unfolded can be used to deny benefits. Do not return to work before your doctor clears you, and do not accept a settlement without knowing what your future medical care will cost.
If the claim is contested in Mississippi, it is heard by an Administrative Judge of the Commission, with review by the Full Commission on the existing record and then appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which may assign the case to the Mississippi Court of Appeals. A final Commission award can be appealed within 30 days of filing and notice to the parties. If your claim is governed by Louisiana law, it goes before a workers’ compensation judge at the Office of Workers’ Compensation Administration. Louisiana judgments are appealed to the circuit court of appeal within 30 days when suspending the judgment and 60 days when not.
Comp Benefits and Third-Party Claims After Heavy Equipment Accidents
Workers’ compensation in Mississippi covers you from your first day on the job, with no waiting period. It pays reasonable and necessary medical treatment and wage replacement of up to two-thirds of your average weekly wage, subject to a statutory weekly maximum. Temporary and permanent total disability benefits are capped at 450 weeks, and permanent partial disability in most other cases is also limited to 450 weeks. Louisiana pays comparable medical and wage benefits, plus supplemental earnings benefits if you return to work earning less than 90 percent of your pre-injury wages, available for up to 520 weeks. Weekly maximums are set by statute and adjusted periodically.
Comp does not pay for pain and suffering, which is why third-party claims matter. A forklift manufacturer whose design lacked an adequate operator restraint, a crane rental company that supplied a faulty unit, a general contractor who controlled an unsafe site, or a maintenance contractor who skipped inspections can be sued for the full range of damages comp does not cover. These cases run alongside the comp claim and must be coordinated, because a settlement in one can affect the other, including the insurer’s right to be reimbursed. Mississippi follows pure comparative negligence, so your own share of fault reduces a recovery rather than barring it. Louisiana applies a 51 percent bar to causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026, and a claimant at that level or above recovers nothing. Time limits for these injury claims differ from comp deadlines, so they should be evaluated right away.
A fatal accident changes the claim entirely. Families may be entitled to death benefits through comp and may also have a wrongful death action against a negligent third party. In Mississippi a negligence-based wrongful death action generally has a three-year limit, while Louisiana allows the longer of one year from death or two years from the injury.
Common Reasons Insurers Deny Forklift and Crane Claims
The playbook is familiar. The carrier says the operator violated a safety rule, was not certified, or was horsing around, hoping to shift blame onto you. In comp, fault generally does not defeat a claim, and an attorney’s job is to keep the dispute on what the law actually requires. Insurers also blame degenerative changes for disc and joint injuries, push light-duty work your restrictions do not allow, cut off benefits after a records review rather than an examination, and delay authorization of surgery. When treatment is denied in Louisiana, the clock is short: a Form 1009 dispute must be filed within 15 calendar days of written notice of the denial.
Answering these tactics takes treating-physician opinions that connect the mechanism of injury to the diagnosis, witness statements from coworkers, equipment records, and your work history. That is the part of the work that decides these cases.
Biloxi Forklift and Crane Accident Questions Answered
Do I need a lawyer after a forklift or crane accident?
If your injury is serious, benefits have been denied or cut off, or someone other than your employer may be responsible, yes. These cases involve medical disputes and sometimes multiple defendants, and the insurer has lawyers working for it from day one.
How much does it cost to hire the firm?
Nothing up front. Consultations are free, the firm advances case costs, and fees are collected only if benefits or a settlement are recovered. Attorney fees in workers’ compensation cases are also limited and approved under state law.
How soon must I report a forklift or crane injury?
Within 30 days of the accident in both Mississippi and Louisiana, and sooner is better. Written notice protects you.
How long do I have to file a claim?
In Mississippi, generally two years from the injury or last compensation payment. In Louisiana, generally one year from the accident, extended up to three years from the last payment if benefits have been paid.
Can I still get benefits if the accident was partly my fault?
Generally yes. Workers’ compensation is a no-fault system, so a mistake on your part does not automatically end the claim. Fault does matter in a separate lawsuit against a third party.
Can I sue my employer for a forklift injury?
Comp is usually the exclusive remedy against your own employer. Claims against outside parties, such as equipment makers, rental companies, or other contractors on site, can be pursued in addition to comp.
What if the forklift or crane was owned by another company?
That is a significant fact. Preserve the equipment details and report them to your attorney, because the owner, renter, maintainer, or manufacturer may be a liable third party in a separate injury claim.
The insurer says my back problem is degenerative. Is my claim over?
No. A pre-existing condition does not end a claim if the job caused, worsened, or accelerated it. Strong medical evidence is how that argument gets answered.
Can I be fired for filing a claim?
Both Mississippi and Louisiana protect workers from retaliation for filing a comp claim. If you were let go or punished after reporting an injury, raise it in your consultation.
Will my health insurance pay while my comp claim is pending?
Sometimes it will cover treatment the comp carrier refuses, but it may seek reimbursement later, and some plans exclude work injuries. Ask before relying on it.
What if my employer’s insurance is in Louisiana but I was hurt in Biloxi?
The applicable state law can depend on where you were hired, where the employer is based, and where the injury occurred. Sorting this out early prevents missed deadlines in the wrong state.
What happens if my accident was fatal for a family member?
Dependents may claim death benefits through comp, and a wrongful death action may also be available against a negligent third party, with separate deadlines.
Serving Forklift and Crane Injury Clients Across Biloxi and the Gulf Coast
From Biloxi and the rest of Harrison County, our team represents injured workers along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We also serve clients in Gulfport, D’Iberville, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula, Long Beach, Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis, and Waveland, and in the industrial and construction corridors that feed the coast’s ports, shipyards, and job sites. Farther north and across the state we represent workers in Hattiesburg, Jackson, Madison, Southaven, and the Delta, and in north Mississippi.
The firm’s reach extends into Louisiana as well, for workers hurt on rigs, in plants, and at facilities in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Shreveport, and the rest of South Louisiana and north Louisiana. Wherever a forklift or crane injured you, the same approach applies.
Talk With a Biloxi Forklift and Crane Accident Attorney Today
If a forklift or crane has injured you, a Biloxi forklift and crane accident attorney from Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe can review what happened, explain which claims you may have, and take over the fight with the insurer. Call to schedule a free consultation. Our phones are answered 24 hours a day, and you pay no fee unless we recover benefits for you.
