Construction remains one of the most dangerous industries in Texas. According to the Texas Department of Insurance’s 2024 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, construction accounted for 125 worker deaths in Texas in 2024 — roughly 24% of all private-sector workplace fatalities in the state. Nationally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded 1,032 fatalities among construction and extraction workers in 2024.

Behind every one of those numbers is a family trying to work out what happens next. If that is your situation right now, this page explains how Texas construction injury claims actually work — including the parts most firms leave out. When you are ready to talk it through with someone, The Moudgil Law Firm offers free and confidential consultations at (832) 481-7159, and we serve Houston’s Spanish-speaking construction workforce.

What Is a Construction Accident Claim in Texas?

A construction accident claim is a legal action seeking compensation for injuries suffered on a job site. In Texas, it may take the form of a workers’ compensation claim, a negligence lawsuit against a non-subscriber employer, a third-party lawsuit against another contractor or property owner, or a combination of these.

Most people assume a work injury means one thing: workers’ comp. In Texas, that assumption costs injured construction workers a great deal of money.

Texas is the only state where private employers can legally opt out of the workers’ compensation system, and construction is one of the industries where opting out is most common. That single fact changes everything about how your claim should be handled, and it is the first thing we check.

Our Houston workplace injury attorneys handle the full range of on-the-job injury claims. Construction cases are among the most legally complex because so many separate companies share one site, each with its own insurance, its own safety obligations, and its own incentive to point at someone else.

The Two Paths to Compensation After a Houston Construction Accident

Almost every Texas construction injury claim runs down one of two roads. Which road you are on depends on a single question: did your employer buy workers’ compensation insurance?

Path One: Workers’ Compensation for Subscriber Employers

If your employer carries workers’ comp, you can receive medical care and a portion of your lost wages regardless of who was at fault. You do not have to prove anyone was negligent, which is a genuine benefit when fault is unclear or when you contributed to the accident.

The tradeoff is significant. Under Texas Labor Code § 408.001, workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy against your employer. You generally cannot sue your employer for pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, or full loss of earning capacity — the damages that typically make up the largest part of a serious injury recovery.

Two deadlines control this path, both set by Chapter 409 of the Texas Labor Code. You must report the injury to your employer within 30 days of the injury, or of learning it was work-related. You must then file your claim with the Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation within one year, using DWC Form-041. The Texas Department of Insurance explains these reporting requirements and coverage exceptions in plain language.

Path Two: A Negligence Lawsuit

This is where construction cases become valuable, and where they require a lawyer who knows what to look for.

You may be able to file a personal injury lawsuit if your employer is a non-subscriber with no workers’ comp coverage, or if a third party other than your employer contributed to the accident. Frequently both are true at once.

A negligence lawsuit can recover pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, physical impairment, full past and future lost earning capacity, and, in cases of gross negligence, exemplary damages. Workers’ compensation covers none of that.

How to Find Out Which Path Applies to You

Do not rely on what a supervisor tells you. Employers sometimes describe a benefit plan as “workers’ comp” when it is actually an unregulated occupational injury policy with far weaker protections and a much shorter list of covered benefits.

The Texas Department of Insurance maintains coverage verification resources for injured employees, and we verify subscriber status independently in every case we take. It is a short check that can change the entire shape of a claim.

Why Texas Non-Subscriber Law Is a Powerful Tool for Construction Workers

Many Houston subcontractors and specialty trade companies are non-subscribers. If yours is one of them, Texas law hands you a genuine strategic advantage that most injured workers never learn about.

Under Texas Labor Code § 406.033, a non-subscribing employer cannot defend a work injury lawsuit by arguing that you were contributorily negligent, that you assumed the risk of the job, or that a coworker’s negligence caused the injury under the fellow servant rule.

Strip those three defenses away and the case narrows to one question: was the employer negligent? For an injured worker, that is a dramatically better starting position than the one most injury plaintiffs face.

The employer keeps only two narrow defenses under § 406.033(c) — that you intentionally caused your own injury, or that you were intoxicated at the time. Both are difficult to prove and both are frequently asserted anyway, which is why documenting the facts early matters so much.

Chapter 95 and Your Right to Sue the Property Owner

This is the single most important Texas construction statute that competing pages routinely skip, and it can quietly end a case that looks strong on the surface.

Chapter 95 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code shields commercial property owners from liability when a contractor or subcontractor’s employee is hurt while constructing, repairing, renovating, or modifying an improvement on the property — unless two conditions are both met.

The Two-Part Control and Knowledge Test

Under § 95.003, a property owner is liable only if the owner exercised or retained some control over how the work was performed, meaning more than simply telling the crew when to start or stop or inspecting progress, and the owner had actual knowledge of the dangerous condition and failed to adequately warn.

Both elements are required. Missing either one defeats the claim against the owner entirely.

Why Evidence of Control Disappears Quickly

What this means in practice is that evidence of control matters enormously. Daily safety directives, site-specific work instructions, owner-run toolbox talks, contract clauses reserving safety authority, and owner personnel directing means and methods can all establish control.

That evidence has a short life. Site logs get overwritten. Crews rotate off the job and scatter to other projects. Text messages get deleted. Surveillance footage cycles automatically. The window to preserve it is measured in weeks, not years.

Why the Identity of Every Defendant Matters

Chapter 95 is also why identifying every entity on the site matters so much. A general contractor, a construction manager, or a staffing agency may face ordinary negligence standards where a property owner is protected by the statute.

Sorting out which defendant is subject to which standard is core legal work, and it drives case value more than almost anything else. Our Houston premises liability page explains the general Texas rules for dangerous property conditions that apply outside the Chapter 95 context.

Who Can Be Held Liable for a Houston Construction Accident

A single Houston job site can involve a dozen separate companies, and any of them may share responsibility for what happened to you.

General contractors control site safety, sequencing, and coordination between trades. Subcontractors create hazards that affect crews from other trades working nearby. Commercial property owners may be liable subject to the Chapter 95 test described above. Construction managers and safety consultants are sometimes hired specifically to oversee compliance, which creates its own duty.

Equipment manufacturers and rental companies can be responsible when a defective lift, crane, saw, or scaffold component fails, which may support a product liability claim. Staffing and labor-supply agencies that placed you on the site may carry separate coverage. Engineers and architects can be liable where design or specification errors created the hazard. Delivery and trucking companies operating on or around the site raise the issues covered on our Houston truck accident practice page.

Identifying every potentially responsible party early is not a formality. Each one carries separate insurance, and each additional viable defendant expands the pool of available coverage. This is the heart of a third-party negligence claim, and it is the difference between a modest workers’ comp file and a fully developed injury case.

Construction Accidents We Handle in Houston

OSHA identifies four hazard categories, known as the Construction Focus Four, that are responsible for the majority of construction deaths. We handle all four, along with the industrial hazards specific to the Houston Ship Channel corridor.

Falls from Heights

Falls are the leading cause of construction fatalities nationwide. OSHA standard 29 CFR 1926.501 requires fall protection for construction workers exposed to falls of six feet or more to a lower level.

Missing guardrails, unsecured harnesses, absent anchor points, unguarded floor and skylight openings, and improperly erected scaffolding are recurring violations we investigate. Many of these cases also involve the ground-level hazards covered on our slip, trip, and fall workplace injury page.

Struck-By Accidents

Falling tools, swinging crane loads, dropped materials, backing equipment, and nail-gun discharges cause severe head, spine, and crush injuries. These are among the most common non-fatal construction injuries and among the easiest to prevent with basic hazard controls. See our page on struck-by object and equipment injuries.

Caught-In and Caught-Between Accidents

Trench and excavation collapses, unguarded machinery, equipment rollovers, and workers pinned between a fixed object and moving equipment fall into this category. Trench cave-ins are frequently fatal and almost always preventable through proper sloping, shoring, or shielding.

Electrocution

Contact with overhead power lines, energized panels, damaged cords, and failures to lock out and tag out equipment cause electrical injuries every year on Houston sites. These injuries often cause internal damage far more serious than the visible wound suggests, which makes early and thorough medical documentation essential.

Fires, Explosions, and Chemical Exposure

Houston’s refinery and petrochemical construction work carries hazards most cities never see. We handle plant and refinery explosion injuries, severe burn injuries, and claims involving exposure to harmful substances.

Turnaround and shutdown work at oilfield and energy sites compresses hazardous tasks into extremely tight schedules, and that schedule pressure is itself a recurring cause of serious injury.

Equipment, Crane, and Vehicle Accidents

Crane collapses, forklift and telehandler incidents, aerial lift tip-overs, and work-related motor vehicle accidents involving crew transport or material delivery round out the cases we see most often. Where a negligent motorist strikes a worker in a work zone, the claim overlaps with a standard Houston car accident case and may involve an entirely separate auto policy. We also represent workers hurt in industrial and manufacturing settings adjacent to active construction.

Injuries Common to Houston Construction Sites

Construction injuries tend toward the catastrophic end of the spectrum. We regularly handle traumatic brain injuries and skull fractures, spinal cord injuries and paralysis, amputations and crush injuries, third-degree burns and inhalation injuries, multiple orthopedic fractures, internal organ damage, vision and hearing loss, and complex regional pain syndrome.

These injuries often mean permanent impairment, a forced career change, or a lifetime of care. Valuing them correctly requires medical and vocational evidence, not a quick insurance estimate produced in the first few weeks while you are still in treatment. You can see the broader range of workplace injury types we handle across Houston industries.

What a Construction Accident Claim May Cover

The damages available depend entirely on which path your case follows.

Workers’ compensation provides medical benefits and statutorily limited income benefits. It does not pay for pain and suffering, and its wage benefits replace only a portion of what you earned.

A negligence lawsuit may seek past and future medical expenses including surgeries, rehabilitation, and assistive equipment; past and future lost wages and lost earning capacity; physical pain and mental anguish; physical impairment and disfigurement; out-of-pocket costs and home or vehicle modifications; loss of household services; and exemplary damages where gross negligence is proven.

No attorney can promise a specific outcome or dollar amount. Case value depends on liability evidence, injury severity, available insurance coverage, and the specific facts of your case.

Deadlines That Can End Your Construction Case

Missing a deadline is the fastest way to lose an otherwise strong claim, and several deadlines run simultaneously on a construction case.

A personal injury lawsuit must be filed within two years of the injury under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003. A wrongful death lawsuit carries the same two-year limit, running from the date of death. Notice to your employer for a workers’ compensation claim is due within 30 days, and the DWC claim filing is due within one year of the injury.

Claims against a governmental entity are far shorter. Work on a city, county, school district, or state project can trigger notice requirements measured in months, sometimes as little as 90 days under a municipal charter. These deadlines are unforgiving and are missed more often than any other.

Evidence has its own, shorter clock. Site conditions change within days. Equipment is repaired, returned, or destroyed. Surveillance video is overwritten on a rolling cycle. The practical deadline for building a strong case is almost always far sooner than the legal one, which is why calling early costs you nothing and protects a great deal.

How Shared Fault Affects Your Texas Construction Claim

Texas applies proportionate responsibility under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, and if you are found more than 50% responsible, you recover nothing at all.

This is why defense teams work so hard to build a careless worker narrative. You were not wearing your harness. You ignored a posted sign. You took a shortcut to finish on schedule. Countering that story requires documented proof of what the employer or contractor failed to provide: no anchor points, no functioning equipment, relentless production pressure, no training, no site-specific safety plan.

There is an important interaction with non-subscriber law here. Under § 406.033, a non-subscribing employer cannot argue your contributory negligence at all, though Texas courts have held that non-subscribers may still designate responsible third parties under Chapter 33 to shift blame elsewhere.

Workers’ Compensation Liens and Third-Party Recoveries

If you receive workers’ compensation benefits and also recover from a third party, the comp carrier has a right to reimbursement out of that recovery. This subrogation right comes from Chapter 417 of the Texas Labor Code.

Separately, § 95.004 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code directs the trial court, in certain construction cases, to deduct workers’ compensation benefits already paid from the damages awarded.

Most injured workers never hear about either rule until it reduces their check. Negotiating and resolving the lien is part of the case, and it is one of the practical reasons the net result of a claim depends on far more than the headline settlement number.

Rights of Undocumented Construction Workers in Texas

Immigration status does not bar a construction injury claim in Texas. Undocumented workers may pursue workers’ compensation benefits if their employer is a subscriber, and may file a personal injury lawsuit against a non-subscribing employer or a negligent third party.

Texas courts have consistently rejected the argument that federal immigration law strips injured workers of the right to compensation. In litigation, courts can also enter protective orders limiting inquiry into immigration status when it has nothing to do with how the injury happened.

Fear of retaliation keeps many Houston construction workers from reporting injuries at all, which is exactly what an unsafe employer is counting on. A confidential conversation with a lawyer costs you nothing and commits you to nothing. We take these calls in English and Spanish at (832) 481-7159.

Fatal Construction Accidents and Wrongful Death Claims

When a construction accident is fatal, Chapter 71 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code allows the surviving spouse, children, and parents to bring a wrongful death action. The estate may separately bring a survival action for the losses the worker suffered between the injury and death.

There is an important exception to the exclusive remedy rule here. Under § 408.001(b), if a worker covered by workers’ compensation dies as a result of the employer’s gross negligence or intentional act, the surviving spouse and heirs may pursue exemplary damages against the employer directly.

An employer must report a workplace fatality to OSHA within 8 hours, and any in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours. Families can also report a fatality or severe injury directly to OSHA, and the resulting investigation file often becomes important evidence in the civil case.

Our Houston wrongful death attorneys handle these claims with the care and patience they require.

What to Do After a Construction Accident in Houston

Get medical care immediately and tell the provider the injury happened at work. Gaps in treatment are the first thing an adjuster looks for and the easiest thing to use against you later.

Report the injury to your employer in writing and keep a copy for yourself. The 30-day clock is real, and verbal reports have a way of disappearing from the record.

Photograph everything you safely can, including the scene, the equipment, missing guards, and your injuries, before conditions change. Write down the names of every witness, subcontractor, and supervisor on site that day.

Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance adjuster before speaking with a lawyer, and do not sign anything described as a routine release, benefit election, or settlement. Keep every document you receive, including pay stubs, medical bills, safety meeting sign-in sheets, and incident reports.

Then call a construction accident attorney while the evidence still exists. Many of these same steps apply to any work-related injury claim in Houston, but construction sites lose evidence faster than almost any other workplace.

What Happens After You Hire The Moudgil Law Firm

Investigation

We identify every contractor and entity on the site, send preservation letters for video and equipment, obtain OSHA inspection records, and confirm whether your employer is a subscriber or a non-subscriber.

Liability Development

We analyze contracts and safety plans for evidence of retained control, gather witness statements while memories are fresh, and consult with engineering and safety experts where the facts require it.

Damages Documentation

We build the medical record, work with treating physicians on prognosis, and, in catastrophic cases, engage life care planners and vocational economists to quantify long-term losses.

Negotiation

We present a documented demand to each carrier and negotiate lien reductions in parallel, so that the net recovery is protected rather than treated as an afterthought.

Litigation

Cases in Harris County are filed in the Harris County District Courts. We prepare every case as though it will be tried, because that preparation is what drives settlement value.

Why Choose The Moudgil Law Firm

Attorney Pulkit Moudgil has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in litigation firms over the course of his career. Knowing how the defense builds a file is a practical advantage when you are trying to take one apart. You can learn more about our firm and the way we work.

Our approach is construction-specific. We treat non-subscriber status, Chapter 95 control evidence, and third-party liability as the first questions in a case rather than afterthoughts raised months into a claim.

We are local to Houston. Our office is at 3355 West Alabama St #980, Houston, TX 77098, and we serve injured workers across Harris County and the surrounding region. You will understand what is happening in your case and why, and we serve Houston’s Spanish-speaking construction workforce.

Talk to a Houston Construction Accident Lawyer Today

You do not have to work out non-subscriber status, Chapter 95, OSHA records, and lien resolution on your own while you are trying to heal. That is our job, and the sooner we start, the more evidence there is to work with.

Request a free case evaluation by calling The Moudgil Law Firm at (832) 481-7159 or by using our secure contact form. Consultations are free and confidential, and we serve Houston’s Spanish-speaking community.

The Moudgil Law Firm is located at 3355 West Alabama St #980, Houston, TX 77098.