Written by Travis S. Kelley

Manufacturing work carries real risk. Press operators, welders, assembly line workers, forklift operators — these jobs involve heavy machinery, high voltages, caustic chemicals, and tight production schedules that don’t slow down when equipment starts showing signs of failure. When something goes wrong on a plant floor, the injuries are rarely minor. Crushed hands, traumatic brain injuries, chemical burns, amputations — these are the cases that end up on my desk.

If you work in manufacturing in Austin and you’ve been seriously hurt on the job, you’re probably hearing a lot about workers’ compensation. But workers’ comp isn’t always the whole picture. Texas law gives injured manufacturing workers a separate path — sometimes multiple paths — that can lead to significantly larger recoveries. At Kelley Wolff Injury Attorneys | Austin Accident Lawyers, we handle manufacturing accident claims across Texas, and I want to give you a straight answer to the questions I hear most often.

—

Can I File a Third-Party Lawsuit After a Manufacturing Accident Even if My Employer Carries Workers’ Comp in Texas in Austin?

Yes. This is one of the most misunderstood areas of Texas personal injury law, and the confusion costs injured workers real money.

Here’s how it works: Texas workers’ compensation covers your medical bills and a portion of your lost wages, and it does so without requiring you to prove your employer was negligent. That sounds good until you look at the tradeoffs. Workers’ comp does not pay for pain and suffering. It caps your wage replacement at 70% of your pre-injury average weekly wage, up to a statutory maximum. It won’t compensate you for permanent disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, or the full scope of your future earning losses if your injury is severe.

Filing a workers’ comp claim against your employer does not prevent you from suing a third party — meaning someone other than your employer — whose negligence contributed to your injury. In manufacturing, third parties show up constantly. The company that made the press that crushed your hand. The safety equipment manufacturer whose defective harness failed. The staffing agency that placed workers in a facility without proper training. A subcontractor whose crew created the hazard that hurt you. A chemical supplier whose product lacked adequate warnings.

I’ve worked cases where the employer’s workers’ comp coverage paid out a modest amount, but the third-party product liability claim against the machinery manufacturer produced a settlement many times larger. The key is identifying who, besides your employer, had a duty to keep you safe — and who failed to meet that duty.

Under Texas law, your employer does have certain immunity from personal injury lawsuits when it carries workers’ comp. But that immunity does not extend to third parties. And even that employer immunity has exceptions — particularly when the employer’s intentional conduct or gross negligence caused your injury. Cornell Law School’s legal information resources provide useful background on how third-party liability functions in workplace injury contexts.

If you’ve been hurt in a manufacturing accident in Austin, the first thing to do is get someone to look at both the workers’ comp angle and the third-party angle simultaneously. Waiting on one can sometimes affect the other.

—

What if My Manufacturing Employer Fired Me After I Filed a Workers’ Comp Claim in Texas?

Texas Labor Code Section 451.001 prohibits retaliation against an employee for filing a workers’ comp claim in good faith. That includes termination, demotion, reducing your hours, or otherwise discriminating against you because you exercised your legal right to file.

In practice, I see retaliation dressed up in other language. Employers call it a “performance issue” or a “restructuring” or a “policy violation.” The timing is usually the tell — you file, and suddenly you’re getting written up for things that were overlooked for months before your accident. Or your position gets eliminated within weeks of your claim being filed.

If your termination occurred within a suspicious timeframe following your workers’ comp claim, you may have a retaliation cause of action separate from both your workers’ comp claim and any third-party personal injury lawsuit. These claims can result in reinstatement, back pay, and additional damages.

Document everything. Save emails, text messages, performance reviews, and any communications from your supervisor or HR department around the time of your injury and claim filing. If coworkers witnessed relevant conversations, note that. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data consistently shows that manufacturing workers face some of the highest rates of occupational injury in the country — which means protections against retaliation for reporting those injuries matter enormously.

Do not assume that because Texas is an at-will employment state, your employer can fire you for anything. At-will employment has statutory exceptions, and retaliating against a workers’ comp claimant is one of them.

—

Can I Recover More Than Workers’ Compensation After a Manufacturing Accident in Texas?

Yes — and often substantially more, depending on who caused your injury and how.

Workers’ comp in Texas is a no-fault system, which means you collect benefits regardless of negligence. But the trade-off is a capped recovery that excludes entire categories of damages. A successful third-party lawsuit operates under a completely different damages framework.

In a third-party manufacturing accident claim, recoverable damages include the full value of your past and future medical expenses (not just those approved under workers’ comp), your actual lost wages and full future earning capacity loss, pain and suffering, mental anguish, physical impairment, and disfigurement. For fatal manufacturing accidents, wrongful death attorneys can pursue additional categories of damages on behalf of surviving family members.

One thing worth knowing: if you collect workers’ comp benefits and then recover money through a third-party lawsuit, your employer’s workers’ comp carrier has a subrogation right. That means they can seek reimbursement from your third-party settlement for what they paid out. This doesn’t eliminate the value of pursuing both — in most cases, the third-party recovery is large enough that you still come out significantly ahead — but it’s a factor we account for in structuring your claim.

The American Bar Association has published guidance on how workers’ comp subrogation intersects with third-party claims, and it’s an area where having experienced legal representation makes a material difference in your net recovery.

—

What if My Manufacturing Employer Does Not Carry Workers’ Compensation in Texas — What Are My Options?

Texas is the only state in the country that does not require most private employers to carry workers’ compensation insurance. This is a critical fact. According to the Texas Department of Insurance, a meaningful percentage of Texas employers — including some in manufacturing — are “non-subscribers,” meaning they’ve opted out of the workers’ comp system entirely.

If your employer is a non-subscriber and you’re injured on the job, you can sue them directly in civil court. This is a major procedural advantage that doesn’t exist in states where workers’ comp is mandatory. Non-subscriber employers lose several common-law defenses that would otherwise limit your recovery. Specifically, they cannot claim that:

You assumed the risk of the injury by working in the environment. A fellow employee’s negligence caused your injury. Your own contributory negligence was the primary cause.

This means non-subscriber cases often favor the injured worker significantly. You still need to prove the employer’s negligence caused your injuries, but the defenses they can raise are stripped away. Combined with a third-party claim against a machinery manufacturer or safety equipment supplier, a non-subscriber manufacturing accident case can produce a very substantial recovery.

If you’re unsure whether your employer carries workers’ comp, you can ask the Texas Department of Insurance to confirm their subscriber status. We’ve helped clients in Austin discover mid-case that their employer was actually a non-subscriber — which completely changed the legal strategy.

—

What Compensation Can I Recover After a Serious Manufacturing Accident in Austin, Texas?

The specific damages available to you depend on whether you’re pursuing a workers’ comp claim, a third-party lawsuit, a non-subscriber employer claim, or some combination of these. Here’s what the full range can look like in a serious manufacturing accident case in Texas.

Medical Expenses. All past treatment costs related to your injury — emergency care, surgery, hospitalization, physical therapy, specialist visits — and the projected cost of future care. For severe injuries like amputations, spinal cord damage, or traumatic brain injuries, future medical costs can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime. The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics documents how significantly catastrophic workplace injuries affect long-term health outcomes and care costs.

Lost Wages and Earning Capacity. Workers’ comp only replaces a capped percentage of your pre-injury wages. In a civil lawsuit, you can recover the full difference between what you would have earned and what your injury now allows you to earn. For a 35-year-old machinist with 30 earning years ahead, this number can be substantial.

Pain and Suffering. Workers’ comp pays nothing for this. Civil claims do. A manufacturing accident that leaves you with chronic pain, limited mobility, or permanent disability carries real non-economic value that juries and settlement negotiations recognize.

Physical Impairment and Disfigurement. Texas law treats these as separate damages categories from pain and suffering. If you’ve lost a limb, suffered severe scarring, or lost full use of a hand or eye, these losses carry independent compensation value.

Mental Anguish. Serious manufacturing accidents are traumatic. Post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and the psychological impact of living with a permanent disability are legitimate, compensable damages.

For cases involving death, the family of the deceased worker can pursue wrongful death and survival claims — categories that go well beyond anything workers’ comp offers.

—

Can I File a Manufacturing Accident Claim if My Employer Classified Me as an Independent Contractor in Texas?

This is a situation I see more often than most people expect, and the short answer is: the label your employer puts on you doesn’t automatically determine your legal rights.

Texas law uses a multi-factor test to determine whether a worker is genuinely an independent contractor or actually an employee. Courts and agencies look at things like whether the company controlled how you did your work (not just the outcome), whether you supplied your own tools and equipment, whether you worked exclusively for that company, whether you were paid hourly versus by the project, and whether the company set your schedule.

In manufacturing specifically, I’ve seen workers classified as “independent contractors” who showed up to the same facility every day, used company equipment, followed company supervisors’ directions, and worked full-time for a single employer. That’s not an independent contractor — that’s a misclassified employee. And misclassification doesn’t forfeit your legal rights.

Even if you genuinely are an independent contractor, that doesn’t mean you have no claim. You still have full access to third-party lawsuits against equipment manufacturers, product suppliers, property owners, and other negligent parties. The contractor classification only limits whether you can access employer-based remedies. It doesn’t shield the machine maker whose press crushed your fingers.

If you’re uncertain about your classification, FindLaw’s legal resources offer a solid overview of how employee vs. independent contractor status is analyzed, and Justia provides Texas-specific case law context. But in practice, the best step is to have your specific situation reviewed by someone who handles manufacturing accident claims in Texas.

—

Getting the Right Legal Help After a Manufacturing Accident

Manufacturing accident claims are genuinely complex. You may be dealing with a workers’ comp claim, a third-party product liability case against a manufacturer, a potential employer retaliation claim, and questions about your employment classification — all at the same time, with different deadlines and different evidentiary requirements.

In Texas, the statute of limitations for personal injury claims is generally two years from the date of the accident. That sounds like enough time, but in manufacturing cases, critical evidence disappears fast. The machinery gets repaired or replaced. Surveillance footage gets overwritten. Witnesses leave the company. Moving quickly to preserve evidence — and to identify every potential source of liability — matters more in these cases than almost any other type.

Our team at Kelley Wolff Injury Attorneys | Austin Accident Lawyers handles manufacturing accident claims across Texas, including cases involving Austin workplace accidents, defective industrial equipment, and complex multi-party liability situations. We work on a contingency fee basis — you pay nothing unless we recover for you.

If you’ve been hurt in a manufacturing accident in Austin, Texas, call us at (512)-470-6068 to discuss your situation. You can also contact us online to schedule a free consultation. Our office is located at 17800 Hamilton Pool Rd Ste. 203, Austin, TX 78738, United States — and we serve clients throughout Texas.

For general legal background on personal injury law and workers’ rights, personal injury attorneys at our firm are available to answer questions across a range of practice areas beyond manufacturing accidents.

—

Travis S. Kelley is a personal injury attorney at Kelley Wolff Injury Attorneys | Austin Accident Lawyers. He represents injured workers and accident victims throughout Texas. Read more about Travis S. Kelley.