If you have been injured at a mine site, your life can turn upside down very quickly. Initially WorkCover may be able to help you by paying medical costs and a portion of your wages. But this isn’t enough if your condition doesn’t improve and you can’t return to work. At Denes Lawyers, we have experience in helping to claim compensation after a catastrophic injury to make sure that your future is financially secure.

Mining accidents are often very serious

Mines are extreme environments. You are far away from home, conditions are harsh, you are working with heavy machinery (sometimes with explosives) and the walls can fall in around you. When an accident happens, the consequences can be very serious.

A few examples of matters we have been involved in

A lady working at a mine site suffered catastrophic injuries when a section of the coal face collapsed and crushed her arm. Not only did she suffer devastating physical injuries, but she also developed post traumatic stress disorder. This prevented her from returning to any form of gainful employment.

In another matter, a truck driver who had transported coal on the mine site tragically lost his life while in the process of changing a flat trye. Essentially, the tyre burst (basically exploded) in what is known as a Zipper failure. This happens when the tyre is run overloaded or underinflated for an extensive period. The internal components of the tyre which support the the side wall fail from fatigue which then leads to the explosion. Unfortunately, on this occasion the force of the blast was so strong that the injured person lost his life.

In another matter, we are acting for a worker who sustained very serious injuries in a trip and fall due to the mine camp operator’s failure to ensure that the camp site was safe and free from hazards.

Special features of mining accidents that few lawyers understand

One of the things that distinguishes mining injuries from other accidents is that often we need expert evidence to figure out what caused the accident. To take the Zipper failure example above, in order to get compensation, it is first necessary to find an expert who can say what caused the tyre burst and what the employer should have done differently to prevent it. (For example, train workers to inflate a flat tyre in stages only, and to wait for a period of time after each stage).

At Denes Lawyers, we know the experts required to “connect the dots” and we have the financial resources to get the expert evidence we need.

Another special feature of mining accidents is that there may be more than one company that you can claim compensation from. For example, your employer may not be the same company that runs the mine camp site where you stay at night. Suppose your accident happens on the camp site. Now you can claim not just from your employer but also the camp operator – and your compensation is likely to be bigger.

It’s very important to identify every potential defendant to make sure that you recover maximum compensation for your injuries.

Damages

In many cases, the biggest component of your compensation/damages award is what is called “future economic loss”. It’s basically income that you might not be able to earn in the future of your injuries.

In a mining incident, part of our job is to accurately assess how much money you would have earned in the future if your accident had not happened. Several considerations come into play.

Firstly, workers in mines are on much higher wages than the average worker outside of mines.

Secondly, the mining industry is vulnerable to industry downturns – courts don’t just assume that there will forever be a mining boom that keeps wages high. This means we have to contemplate alternative scenarios: if your accident had not happened but due to an industry downturn you lost your job in the mines (sometime in the future), what would you have done and how much would you have earned then?

Thirdly, because working and living conditions in mines are very harsh, there is always an argument by defendants that people probably wouldn’t keep working there all the way up to retirement. What does this mean? Suppose you are 40 when you suffer an accident, and you can’t return to work. You would argue that you should be compensated for 27 years’ worth of wages (i.e. up to age 67). The defendant will say you would probably have left the mines by the time you are 50. Who wins the argument? It depends on things like your occupation, your general heath, your financial circumstances, whether your employer had been happy with your work, just to name a few circumstances.

I want to discuss my claim, what should I do next?

As you can probably appreciate, each mining injury claim is different. You should engage an expert lawyer who can advise you about things like: (1) is it likely that your claim will be succussful and the type of evidence needed and (2) the best ways to maximise the damages amount which you should receive.

Our first step is a face-to-face meeting with Oszkar Denes, our principal solicitor. Find out more about Oszkar here.

The meeting is completely free. We will get a bit more information from you about your injuries, and we explain the claim process.

Please contact us using the form at the bottom of this page or call us on (07) 3063 2268.

25% Cap on legal costs

In all of our personal injury compensation matters, we act on a  No Win – No Fee basis. What that means is, there’s no upfront cost to you.

In Queensland, most compensation firms will charge you 50% of your compensation amount – the maximum allowed at law. This is very expensive. Our fee is different. We will cap our fee at 25% . Remember also, these are the maximum fees we will charge. If our fee in your claim is less, then we charge the lesser amount.

Before you engage us, we will provide you a written Disclosure Notice and a Client Service Agreement. These documents set out in detail the service we provide, as well as our fees and outlays. Before you sign anything, you can take these documents home with you, and study them with your family. You can take as long as you need, there is never any pressure from us. If anything in these documents doesn’t make sense to you, we can discuss it with you and you are free to ask another lawyer to give you advice.  And remember, no win – no fee agreements come with a 5 day cooling off period for extra peace of mind.