Result: $526,000 settlement secured on behalf of a warehouse order picker who suffered a career-ending spine injury while performing an untrained lifting task for a distribution company that had opted out of the Texas workers' compensation system.
No training. No assistance. No safe way to do the job she was assigned.
The Situation
Our client worked as an order picker in a warehouse, tasked with retrieving items from high-bay shelving while operating a pick forklift. To reach items stored on the bottom shelf, she had to bend down, crouch over the gap between the forklift platform and the shelving, reach out to grab the item, pull it back across the gap, and then stand back up while holding it, all from an awkward, unsupported position several feet off the ground.
While performing this exact motion to retrieve a box weighing an estimated 35 pounds, she felt a sharp, sudden pain shoot through her lower back. She reported the incident to her supervisor immediately, and it was properly documented by her employer. There was never any dispute that it happened.
The Injuries
Imaging soon confirmed what she already felt: bilateral spinal stenosis and a disc protrusion in her lower back, compressing nerve structures and causing significant pain. Months of conservative treatment, including physical therapy, medication, and epidural steroid injections, failed to resolve her symptoms.
She ultimately required lumbar spine surgery. When adjacent segments of her spine began to break down as a result of that first fusion, she needed a second, more extensive fusion procedure, this time with rods, screws, and hardware spanning multiple levels of her spine. A third surgery was later required just to remove that hardware after it caused ongoing site pain.
In total, she underwent three spine surgeries and now lives with a permanently fused lower back. A once hardworking, physically active woman, she now spends much of her day sitting or lying down simply to manage her pain.
The Legal Strategy
Texas law requires an employer to provide a safe workplace, including properly training employees for the specific tasks they're assigned. The employer had given general lifting training, but never trained our client on how to safely retrieve and lift heavy items from a bottom shelf while balanced on a moving forklift, a fundamentally different and more hazardous task than lifting from open ground.
To prove it, we retained a workplace safety engineer who applied recognized federal (NIOSH) lifting-safety standards to the exact task our client performed. His analysis showed the lift she was assigned to perform exceeded the recommended safe lifting weight by more than double, and that the employer had never conducted a hazard analysis or ergonomic evaluation for the job. As a non-subscriber to the Texas workers' compensation system, the employer had no contributory negligence or assumption-of-risk defense to fall back on.
What We Demanded
Our demand was built on three things the employer could not answer:
- Expert engineering testimony applying federal lifting-safety standards to show the exact task exceeded safe limits by more than double.
- Proof that the employer's general lifting training never addressed the specific, more hazardous task of lifting from a forklift platform.
- A well-documented medical record showing three spine surgeries and a permanent fusion directly tied to the incident.
The Result
Facing expert testimony establishing a clear training and safety failure, along with a well-documented and severe injury requiring three separate surgeries, the employer agreed to resolve the non-subscriber work injury claim for $526,000, delivering meaningful compensation for our client's surgeries, medical care, and the permanent impact on her spine and her life.
Why It Matters
Employers can't assign a hazardous task and call the job done with generic training that never addresses the actual risk. This case shows why it matters to bring in the right experts to translate a dangerous job task into hard numbers a jury, or a claims adjuster, can't ignore.
If you've been hurt performing a task your employer never properly trained you for, you may have more options than you realize. Our Dallas work injury lawyer can explain how a non-subscriber claim works and what your case may be worth.
Contact Us for a Free Consultation
For a free consultation about your workplace injury case, call our Dallas office at (214) 932-1288 or complete our online contact form. You pay nothing unless we win your case.
This summary reflects a real case handled by our firm. Case details have been adapted to protect client confidentiality, and the parties' names have been omitted. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee similar outcomes in future matters.