Federal Employers Liability Act Litigation: Proving or Contesting Negligence, Key Evidence, Interplay With State Laws
Recording of a 90-minute CLE video webinar with Q&A
This CLE webinar will discuss the specialized knowledge needed to litigate and settle Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) claims.
Outline
- Who is covered by FELA, & how FELA applies in unusual situations
- Employees
- Statutory employees (imputed employee)
- Hotel Lodging Suppled by RR
- Van & Taxi Transport by RR
- Injuries on Non-RR owned properties
- Investigating the accident and gathering evidence
- Obtaining injury reports, federal regulation
- FOIA’s, subpoenas, Employees, Investigators, FRA Inspectors
- Surveillance video/dashcam video
- GIS maps, drones, Archive.org
- Statutes of limitation
- Traumatic injuries
- Occupational disease
- Federal “discovery rule”
- Case examples, case precedents
- Selection of Filing Jurisdiction & Venue--recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions
- Personal jurisdictional vs. venue requisites
- Railroads-table of key information
- U.S. Supreme Court decisions impacting forum selection
- State statutes and regulations for strict liability
- 45 USC section 53
- 45 USC section 54a
- Proving Negligence in FELA
- Company documents and records:
- Industry standards and publications
- Federal Statutes
- Experts-Selection and Preparation
- Craft specific
- Choosing and preparing
- Medical causation
- in whole or in part
- no apportionment
- Retaliation claims and related issues:
- Whistleblower 20109,
- elements of proof
- forum choices - time issues
- damages
- Negotiating settlements
- claims agent -not defense attorney
- seniority issues
- liens, insurance, RRB issues
- Damages:
- Damages in injury claims
- Damages
- Damages in death claims
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key issues:
- What notices are required before filing suit?
- What is the standard of negligence under FELA?
- How is causation proved?
Faculty
Fred Bremseth
President
Bremseth Law Firm
Mr. Bremseth is among the nation’s elite trial lawyers. He began his remarkable career in 1978 and has... | Read More
Mr. Bremseth is among the nation’s elite trial lawyers. He began his remarkable career in 1978 and has continuously represented injury and death claims for over forty years. Mr. Bremseth has consistently won unparalleled jury verdicts and settlements for his clients in a career devoted to representing injured railroad employees under the FELA and other seriously injured individuals. He has successfully handled catastrophic injury cases in state and federal courts around the country including: quadriplegia, paraplegia, amputations, brain damage, severe spinal injury, disfigurement, chemical exposure, asbestos claims, and wrongful death cases. In addition to his successful FELA practice, Mr. Bremseth has achieved significant verdicts and settlements in other types of cases involving auto collisions, medical negligence, and product liability involving birth defects due to defective drugs. He is a member of the Montana and Minnesota Bar Associations and has been admitted in United States District Courts in Montana, Minnesota, Colorado, North Dakota and California, and the United States Courts of Appeals for 8th, 7th, 4th, 9th Districts, as well as the U.S. Court of Claims. Mr. Bremseth is regularly admitted Pro Hac Vice (by special appearance), in Courts throughout the country. He is a member of the Academy of Rail Labor Attorneys (ARLA), the American Association for Justice (AAJ), the American Bar Association and the Minnesota Association for Justice. Mr. Bremseth is a founding member of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, and is also a life-time member of the Roscoe Pound Foundation and a Sustaining Sponsor of the Civil Justice Foundation.
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Richard N. Shapiro
Partner
Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp
Mr. Shapiro has practiced as a Virginia Beach personal injury lawyer for over three decades in Virginia,... | Read More
Mr. Shapiro has practiced as a Virginia Beach personal injury lawyer for over three decades in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Legal Specialty Certification of Massachusetts and has litigated injury cases throughout the southeastern United States. He co-authored Railroad Health & Safety; a Litigator’s Guide which appears in a leading law encyclopedia, “American Jurisprudence Trials." He has written and lectured on evidence law at legal conferences.
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