New Orleans Toxic Chemical Exposure Lawyer
Toxic exposure claims rarely start with an accident. They start with a cough that will not clear, a rash that keeps returning, or a diagnosis that arrives years after the work that caused it. That timing is what makes a New Orleans toxic chemical exposure lawyer necessary, because the insurer’s first move is usually to say the illness came from somewhere else. Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC is a workers’ compensation firm that represents injured and sick workers across Louisiana and Mississippi, including New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, and Shreveport.
New Orleans sits in the middle of one of the most chemically intensive corridors in the country. Refineries and petrochemical plants line the river parishes upriver and downriver, the Port of New Orleans handles bulk cargo and industrial products, and shipyards, welding shops, and industrial cleaning crews run throughout the region. Workers in those settings handle solvents, benzene, asbestos-containing materials, welding fumes, acids, and fuel vapors. Some exposures cause immediate injury, like a chemical burn or a lungful of gas. Others build quietly over years.
The legal question in both cases is the same: can you connect your condition to your work, and can you do it with evidence an insurer and a workers’ compensation judge will accept? That is the part of the case we focus on.
Why Choose Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe for a Chemical Exposure Claim
Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC is built around workers’ compensation. Most lawyers who take comp cases are personal injury attorneys who see a work injury only when one walks in. The firm has recovered more than $100 million in settlements for its clients. Consultations are free, the firm advances case costs, and you pay 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 Keaton Belk and Erin Heimlicher round out the attorney team.
Results matter most on the kinds of claims that mirror exposure cases, where the insurer argues about causation. The firm secured $221,000 for a land-based oil rig worker with severe burns to the lower extremities, $685,000 for a surgical tech with a lower back injury, $600,000 for a construction worker with a complex back injury, and $385,000 for a project manager injured when his work vehicle was struck. Clients consistently describe a team that listens, communicates, and stands up to the insurance company. Our Louisiana claims go before workers’ compensation judges at the Office of Workers’ Compensation Administration, with appeals taken to the Louisiana courts of appeal when a ruling needs to be challenged.
Chemical Exposure Situations We See in Louisiana Workplaces
- Acute chemical burns: Acid splashes, caustic cleaners, and hot process fluids injure workers at plants, tank farms, and industrial job sites. Burns and catastrophic injuries on rigs and in plants are a core part of our caseload, and they often require skin grafts, long recovery, and permanent scarring.
- Inhalation injuries: Gas releases, solvent vapors, welding fumes, and confined-space atmospheres can damage the lungs in a single event or through repeated low-level exposure. Reactive airways problems and chronic lung conditions are often disputed as asthma or smoking-related illness.
- Occupational disease from long-term exposure: Conditions such as cancer, lung disease, and neurological problems can develop years after the work that caused them. The insurer will point to age, lifestyle, or prior employers, so work history and medical opinion carry the case.
- Firefighter and first responder claims: Smoke, burning plastics, and hazardous material calls expose responders to carcinogens. We handle claims for cancer, heart and lung disease, hypertension, hepatitis, hearing loss, and posttraumatic stress tied to the job.
- Skin and eye exposure: Dermatitis, chemical sensitization, and eye damage often start as minor complaints that workers ignore. Early documentation matters because these conditions are easy for insurers to dismiss as unrelated.
- Industrial and maintenance trades: Welders, pipefitters, ironworkers, painters, mechanics, and cleaning crews work around coatings, degreasers, and fuels daily. Exposure here is routine, which makes the insurer’s “it could have happened anywhere” argument especially common.
- Healthcare and laboratory settings: Nurses, surgical techs, and lab staff face disinfectants, sterilants, and drugs that can cause respiratory and skin conditions.
What to Do After a Chemical Exposure at Work
Get medical care first, and tell the provider plainly that you were exposed at work and to what, if you know. Medical records created close to the exposure are the strongest evidence you will have. If you do not know the chemical, ask your employer for the safety data sheet. Employers that handle hazardous products are expected to keep them, and the name of the substance often decides which specialist you need and how causation is argued.
Report the exposure to your employer promptly, and do it in writing. 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 date of injury. If compensation payments have been made, that deadline can stretch to three years from the last payment. Mississippi also requires notice within 30 days, and a claim with the Workers’ Compensation Commission is generally due within two years. Occupational illnesses complicate the clock, because the date of injury is not always obvious, so do not wait to sort it out on your own.
Write down what you remember while it is fresh: the product, the task, the location, how long you were exposed, who else was there, and whether ventilation or protective equipment was provided. Coworkers who were exposed alongside you are valuable witnesses. Keep copies of pay stubs, job assignments, and any incident report. Do not give a recorded statement to the adjuster before speaking with a lawyer, and do not let the insurer steer you to a doctor who minimizes the connection to work.
A denial of a specific treatment goes through a separate utilization review process with a short window: you have 15 calendar days after receiving written notice of the denial to file Form 1009, and the medical director then has 30 days to decide. If you disagree with that decision, you have 45 days from the date it was issued to file Form 1008. A final judgment from a workers’ compensation judge can be appealed to the Louisiana court of appeal, and for New Orleans cases that is the Fourth Circuit, which covers Orleans, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard parishes. Missing these windows can end a claim that was otherwise strong, which is why early legal help matters.
Proving That Your Job Caused the Illness
Causation is where chemical exposure cases are won or lost. A broken leg has a date and a witness. A lung condition has a history, and insurers use that history against you. Common defenses include blaming smoking, pointing to a pre-existing condition, arguing the exposure level was too low to matter, or claiming the illness came from a prior job.
The answer is evidence assembled deliberately. That usually means treating physician opinions linking the condition to the workplace, exposure records and safety data sheets, air monitoring data when it exists, coworker accounts, and a detailed work history showing how long and how often you were around the substance. A pre-existing condition does not end a claim. If work caused, worsened, or accelerated the condition, benefits can still be owed, and building that medical proof is central to how we handle these cases.
Benefits Available and the Third-Party Claim Option
Louisiana workers’ compensation covers reasonable and necessary medical treatment, wage replacement while you cannot work, and supplemental earnings benefits if you return at reduced pay. Supplemental earnings benefits apply when you cannot earn at least 90 percent of your pre-injury wages, and they are limited to 520 weeks, with temporary total disability weeks counting toward that total. Additional benefits are available for permanent disability, catastrophic injury, and death. Weekly benefit limits are set each year by the state and are fixed by the date of your accident.
Comp is not always the only source of recovery. Many chemical exposures involve a manufacturer, a supplier, or a contractor other than your employer, such as a company that made a defective product or a general contractor that controlled an unsafe site. Workers’ compensation generally bars suits against your own employer, but a claim against these outside parties can proceed alongside it and may reach damages comp does not cover. Louisiana now allows two years to bring most injury lawsuits for injuries on or after July 1, 2024, while earlier injuries remain under the old one-year period. A newer rule also bars recovery for a plaintiff found 51 percent or more at fault for causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026. We coordinate the comp claim and any injury claim so one does not undercut the other.
Questions About Toxic Chemical Exposure Claims in New Orleans
Do I need a lawyer for a chemical exposure claim?
If your benefits have been denied, delayed, or cut off, or if your condition will keep you out of work, a lawyer can make a major difference. Exposure claims turn on medical causation, and insurers staff these disputes with adjusters and lawyers.
How much does it cost to hire your firm?
Nothing up front. Consultations are free, we advance case costs, and we are paid only if we recover benefits or a settlement. Attorney fees in workers’ compensation cases are limited and approved under state law.
How long do I have to report a chemical exposure in Louisiana?
Report it to your employer as soon as you can, and within 30 days at the latest. A formal claim generally must be filed within one year of the date of injury, with an extension to three years from the last payment if compensation has already been paid.
What if I did not know I was sick until years later?
Occupational diseases often surface long after exposure, and the timing of your diagnosis can affect how deadlines are measured. Do not assume the claim is lost. Speak with an attorney quickly so the dates can be analyzed against your medical records and work history.
Can I get workers’ compensation for a long-term illness, not just an accident?
Yes. Louisiana workers’ compensation covers illnesses that result from your work or work environment, not only sudden accidents. The challenge is proving the connection, which is why medical evidence and exposure history are so important.
The insurance company says my illness is from smoking. Is the claim over?
No. Insurers raise lifestyle and pre-existing conditions routinely. If your job caused, worsened, or sped up the condition, you may still be entitled to benefits, and a strong medical opinion can answer that argument directly.
What if my employer never told me what chemicals I was working with?
You are generally entitled to ask for the safety data sheets for products used at your job. If the employer will not provide them, tell your attorney. The identity of the substance often shapes the medical case, and there are other ways to establish it through coworkers, purchasing records, and job documents.
Can I sue the chemical manufacturer in addition to claiming comp?
Possibly. You generally cannot sue your own employer outside the comp system, but a manufacturer, supplier, or outside contractor may be a separate liable party. That claim can run alongside your workers’ compensation case, and the two should be managed together.
Can I be fired for filing a claim after an exposure?
Both Louisiana and Mississippi protect workers from retaliation for filing a comp claim. If you were let go or punished after reporting an exposure, tell us during your consultation so we can review your options.
Will my medical treatment be paid while the claim is pending?
If the claim is accepted, reasonable and necessary treatment is covered. If treatment is denied, a utilization review process with firm deadlines lets you challenge the denial, and we can file those disputes on your behalf.
What if a family member died from a work-related exposure?
Death benefits may be available through workers’ compensation, and a wrongful death claim may exist against a third party. Louisiana generally allows the longer of one year from the death or two years from the injury for wrongful death actions, so the timeline deserves prompt attention.
Serving Toxic Exposure Clients Across New Orleans and South Louisiana
We represent workers throughout New Orleans, from the Central Business District, the Warehouse District, and the Garden District to Uptown, Mid-City, Gentilly, New Orleans East, the Lower Ninth Ward, Algiers, and Lakeview. Industrial and port workers in the area often live across the river and in the surrounding parishes, and we also serve clients in Metairie, Kenner, Harahan, Gretna, Marrero, Harvey, Chalmette, Arabi, and Slidell. Our work reaches the river parishes and plant communities along the corridor toward Baton Rouge, as well as Houma and Thibodaux in the bayou region.
Across the rest of the state, we help injured and sick workers in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, and Shreveport, and in communities throughout south and north Louisiana. We also represent workers in Mississippi, from Jackson and Madison to Hattiesburg, Southaven, the Gulf Coast, and the Delta. Wherever the exposure happened, the same questions apply: what were you exposed to, how can it be proven, and what benefits does the law require.
Talk to a New Orleans Toxic Exposure Attorney Today
If you were exposed to chemicals at work and your health, your paycheck, or your claim is in question, a New Orleans toxic exposure attorney at Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe can review what happened and tell you where you stand. Call us any time, day or night. Consultations are free, and you pay no fee unless we recover benefits for you. Let us deal with the insurer while you focus on getting well.
