THE FELA
and your rights.
 

Railroad litigation is a unique and specialized area of law. When a railroad worker is injured on the job, he or she doesn’t have the same workers’ compensation protection as most other workers. Instead, the right to compensation is governed by the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, commonly called FELA.

Enacted by Congress in 1908, FELA is one of the most important pieces of social legislation of the early Twentieth Century, protecting the rights of tens of thousands of railroad workers injured or killed in the great westward expansion of rail service. Before FELA, if a worker was 10% at fault for an accident and the railroad was 90% responsible, the worker recovered nothing. With the passage of FELA, if the railroad has been at all negligent it must bear some of the responsibility for financial damages, in proportion to the percentage of responsibility it bears for the injury or accident.


 

Compensation under FELA can be considerably greater than under the state workers’ compensation system. While state workers’ compensation claims are capped, often at extremely low levels depending on the state, the federal FELA law allows recovery of the following damages:

+ Past and future lost wages and benefits
+ Past and future medical expenses
+ Past and future pain, suffering and mental distress

If a railroad worker is killed, his or her spouse and children may be entitled to compensation, including the amount of income the deceased worker would have contributed to the family during his or her life, plus comfort and counseling for minor children.

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