Electrical injuries are graded by what they leave behind on the surface, which is exactly the wrong measure. Current entering at the hand and leaving at the foot passes through everything between, and people discharged with a dressed burn later present with cardiac arrhythmia, deep tissue necrosis, chronic nerve pain and cognitive symptoms.
We handle these for construction and trades workers, tenants injured by faulty wiring, and people hurt by defective equipment.
How electrical injuries happen
- Contact with overhead power lines, particularly by ladders, scaffolding, cranes and lifts on construction sites
- Live circuits during work, where lockout and tagout was not followed or a circuit was wrongly reported as dead
- Faulty wiring in rental housing, including ungrounded outlets, missing GFCI protection in kitchens and bathrooms, and unsafe repairs by a landlord
- Defective tools and appliances with insulation or grounding faults
- Water and electricity together, in pools, marinas and flooded basements
- Utility and pole equipment, including downed lines after storms
What electrical current actually does
- Cardiac effects, including arrhythmia and arrest, which can appear after the person seems fine
- Deep tissue and muscle damage along the current path, far exceeding the surface burn, sometimes leading to amputation
- [Nerve damage](/personal-injury-lawyer/nerve-damage-lawyer/), including chronic pain and CRPS
- Burns at entry and exit, and arc flash burns, which are treated with our burn injury work
- Neurological and cognitive effects, including memory, concentration and mood changes that are often dismissed early
- Falls caused by the shock, which frequently produce the most serious immediate injury on a job site
Anyone who has taken a significant shock should be assessed for cardiac and internal injury even if they feel able to carry on, and that assessment is also what documents the claim.
Who is responsible
- General contractors and site controllers responsible for site safety and for the clearance around live lines
- Electrical contractors whose work left a circuit live or unsafe
- Property owners and landlords who knew about faulty wiring, particularly where tenants reported it
- Equipment manufacturers, where a tool or appliance was defective
- Utilities, in some circumstances involving line placement, maintenance or downed conductors
On a job site this matters enormously: your employer is covered by workers' compensation, but the other companies on that site are not, and a claim against them is not subject to the same limits.
Evidence to preserve
- The equipment or appliance itself, kept as it was rather than repaired or discarded
- OSHA involvement and any resulting citations, where a workplace investigation followed
- Site records: lockout procedures, permits, toolbox talks and who declared the circuit dead
- Photographs of the scene, the clearance and the equipment before anything is changed
- Maintenance and complaint history in a rental property, which often shows the fault was reported
- Complete medical records, including cardiac monitoring, because the internal injury is the part that gets missed
