Adam S. Kutner, Injury Attorneys · Las Vegas Valley
Las Vegas Electric Shock Accident Lawyer
4.7 ★★★★★ 2,735 Google Reviews
Get Your Free Electric Shock Accident Consultation
No fees unless we win!
We answer day and night · No obligation
Recognized Across Nevada
Best of Las Vegas 2025 Gold Winner
Top 100 Trial Lawyers
Million Dollar
Advocates Forum
Martindale-Hubbell Client Champion
Avvo Clients’ Choice
BBB Accredited
VGK Official Partner
In This Guide
Why Hire a Lawyer for Your Electric Shock Injury Claim?
You should hire a Las Vegas electric shock accident lawyer because an electrical injury creates bills right away, while the serious damage to the heart, muscles, or brain can hide behind a minor-looking burn. Our goal is to obtain a maximum settlement as quickly as possible, but never before your doctors know what the current did to you. People often call it an electrocution injury rather than an electric shock; it is the same claim.
Electric shock at work compensation cases normally close too early, especially when the claim is rated while internal damage is still being found. We keep the claim open until your treating physician reports your condition stable. We also look for the third party whose line, equipment, or contract work caused the shock. Adam S. Kutner spent his early career as an insurance defense attorney and knows exactly how insurance companies work.
Common Electric Shock Injuries at Work
Electric shock injuries at work range from a burn at the point of contact to electrocution, the fatal shock, and we handle both ends of that range. The National Library of Medicine lists six ways a current injures the body, from cardiac arrest and tissue destruction along its path, to arc burns and the fall that follows.
Electrocution
A current strong enough to electrocute is fatal. NIOSH’s four main types of electrical injury are electrocution, shock, burns and arc blast, and falls from height.
Arc flash burns
Arcing is electricity jumping from one circuit to another, and it burns skin and eyes without any contact with a live part.
Cardiac, nerve, and hidden injuries
A current through the body can stop the heart or leave an irregular heartbeat. A burn that looks minor can hide serious internal damage. Additionally, numbness, tingling, headaches, seizures, and vision or hearing problems are all on the symptom list.
A shock that seemed minor still needs a medical exam the same day because some electrical burns look small, while the heart, muscles, or brain carry serious internal damage. The exam also creates the record that electric shock injury compensation claims are built on.
How We Handle Your Electric Shock Injury Claim
We handle an electric shock injury claim on two tracks: the compensation claim that pays, regardless of fault, and the search for anyone other than your employer who caused the shock.
Lock down the evidence
We request the incident report, the equipment, the lockout-tagout records, and any Nevada OSHA file before a panel or tool gets repaired or thrown away.
Coordinate the two claims
Nevada law reduces workers’ compensation by what you recover from a third party, so we resolve the two together.
No Fees Unless We Win Your Electric Shock Case
You pay nothing up front. The consultation is free, we work on contingency, and if there is no recovery, you owe us no attorney fee.
Workers’ Compensation for an Electric Shock at Work
Workers’ compensation for an electric shock at work is a no-fault claim: you do not have to prove your employer did anything wrong, and it pays your medical treatment and part of your lost wages. Filing, benefit types, denied claims, and how workers’ compensation is calculated are covered on our Las Vegas workers’ compensation lawyer page. However, two things change in an electric shock compensation claim.
First, since internal damage can be hidden at the start, the permanent impairment rating should wait until a physician reports your condition stable; NRS 616C.490 ties the rating appointment to that report. Second, the treatment is broad: physical therapy with electrotherapy or electrical stimulation devices is care that your treating physician prescribes, and NRS 616C.245 entitles you to the accident benefits reasonably required. An electrician injured at work, a workshop worker shocked by a machine, and an industrial or power plant worker are all covered.
Can You Sue for an Electric Shock at Work in Nevada?
You can sue for an electric shock at work in Nevada when someone other than your employer or a coworker caused it. Workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy against your employer, under NRS 616A.020, but NRS 616C.215 lets an injured employee take proceedings against any other person whose negligence caused the injury and recover what the compensation claim does not pay. Getting electrocuted at work does not change that rule; who caused it does.
The utility
Contact with power lines tops OSHA’s list of the most frequent causes of electrical injury, and a utility’s line makes the utility a separate party.
Contractors and whoever controlled the site
A general contractor, another subcontractor, or the property owner may have left a circuit energized or failed to locate a buried line. Which contractors count as your employer is a legal question we evaluate in the first meeting; our construction site accident lawyer page covers liability between contractors.
Tool and equipment manufacturers
A tool or machine that shocked you because of a defect is a strict products liability claim: you prove the defect and the injury, not carelessness. Our product liability lawyer page explains that claim.
The two claims interact: NRS 616C.215 reduces your compensation by what you recover from the third party and gives the insurer its own right of action, so we settle the lawsuit with the insurer’s share. Our guide to how negligence works in a personal injury claim covers the proof.
Legal claims for electrical injuries outside work run on other rules: a baby shocked by an outlet at home, a shock from an electric fence, or a guest shocked at a hotel pool may be a premises liability or product defect claim.
What To Do After an Electric Shock at Work
The steps after an electric shock at work protect your health first and your claim second. Take them in this order:
- Get clear of the current and call 911.
Shut off the power or unplug the equipment if you can do it safely, and do not touch a coworker still touching the source. - Get examined the same day, even if you feel fine.
Get emergency care, and for an electrical injury, that means the emergency room. Otherwise, ask your employer for the insurer’s list of providers and choose from it; care outside that list may not be paid except in an emergency (NRS 616C.010, NRS 616C.090). - Report the shock to your employer in writing within seven days.
NRS 616C.015 requires written notice within seven days and NRS 616C.020 requires the claim within 90 days. Missing either can bar the claim under NRS 616C.025. - Photograph the equipment and the panel before anyone fixes them.
The frayed cord, the missing ground, the lockout tag that was not there, and the coworkers who saw it. - Write down every symptom, every day.
Numbness, tingling, headaches, and palpitations are far easier to prove when they are written down and reported to your treating doctor. - Talk to us before you sign anything.
A release signed while symptoms are still developing gives up the rest of the claim. Our guide to documenting a workers’ comp injury covers the paperwork.
How Much Is an Electric Shock Injury Claim Worth?
What an electric shock injury claim is worth depends on which claims you have and what the shock did to you. There is no honest average compensation for electric shock injuries, and pages that quote an electric shock settlement amount are guessing. A third-party claim adds lost earnings above the compensation rate, pain and suffering compensation, and the cost of changing careers, reduced by your share of fault under NRS 41.141. We price that claim from your records; no one can do it from a phone call.
Where Electric Shock Accidents Happen in Las Vegas
The Las Vegas jobs that put workers near high-power electrical systems include construction along the resort corridor, resort engineering and maintenance, show and event production rigging, commercial kitchens and bars, where water and electrical equipment share a counter, and resort pool decks. The electric utility here is NV Energy, which supplies Las Vegas and Henderson, and OSHA’s construction guidance sets a 10-foot minimum clearance from overhead power lines and calls for contacting the utility to locate buried lines. We take calls from Henderson, North Las Vegas, and across Nevada.
Workplace safety in Nevada is enforced by Nevada OSHA, a state plan run by the Division of Industrial Relations, from its Las Vegas office at 2300 West Sahara Avenue, Suite 300, Las Vegas, NV 89102. Nationally, the CDC reports that construction, manufacturing and trade, transportation, and utilities had the highest number of electrocutions from 2020 through 2022.
Common Causes of Electric Shock Accidents at Work
The most common causes of electric shock accidents at work, according to OSHA, are contact with power lines, lack of ground-fault protection, a missing or broken path to ground, equipment not used as designed, and improper use of extension cords. Under what circumstances do electrical injuries occur on a job site? Those hazards look like this:
- Exposed wiring, damaged outlets, frayed or stapled extension cords (barred by 29 CFR 1926.416(e)), water leaks, wet floors, power surges, and lightning.
- A workman drilling or cutting into a wall or slab that hides a live line nobody located or marked.
- Machinery serviced without a lockout-tagout (29 CFR 1910.147), or live parts left energized when 29 CFR 1910.333 required them shut off.
- Aerial lifts, cranes, and ladders brought within reach of overhead lines; our heavy equipment accident lawyer page covers those.
Missing insulated gloves, arc-rated clothing, or a voltage tester turns a hazard into an injury. If you got electrocuted at work because that gear was never issued, our lack of personal protective equipment injury lawyer page covers the employer’s duty.
Nevada and Federal Electric Shock Laws
Electric shock at work claims in Nevada sit on the workers’ compensation statutes and the federal OSHA electrical standards:
|
Nevada Law |
What it says |
Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
|
Exclusive remedy |
Workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy against the employer for an injury arising out of and in the course of employment. |
You cannot sue your employer for negligence. |
|
Third-party claims |
The employee, or dependents after a death, may take proceedings against any person other than the employer or a coworker; compensation is reduced by the recovery. |
The statute that lets you recover pain and suffering from a utility, contractor, or manufacturer. |
|
Deadlines (NRS 616C.015, NRS 616C.020, NRS 11.190(4)(e)) |
Employer notice within seven days; compensation claim within 90 days; a dependent’s death claim within one year; third-party lawsuit within two years. |
Late-arriving symptoms are not an automatic extension, so give notice and file on time. |
|
Impairment rating |
Within 30 days after a physician reports the injury may be permanent and is stable and ratable, the insurer must schedule the rating. |
The rating should not happen while nerve or cardiac symptoms are still changing. |
|
Federal electrical standards |
De-energize live parts before work unless infeasible (1910.333). Lockout-tagout during servicing (1910.147). No work within reach of a circuit, unless it is de-energized and grounded or guarded (1926.416). |
We use a violation as evidence of what the third party should have done. |
Have you been in a workplace electric shock accident?
Not sure whether anyone besides your employer is responsible for the shock? Call (702) 382-0000 for a free consultation.
FAQ About Electric Shock Accident Cases in Las Vegas
Get a Free Consultation With a Las Vegas Electric Shock Accident Lawyer
If an electric shock anywhere in the valley has left you hurt, call or start your free consultation online. We pick up around the clock.
Electric Shock Claims and Related Workplace Injury Pages
Every electric shock claim is part of our workers’ compensation practice; the statutes are in our workers’ compensation legal resources.
This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, talk to a qualified Nevada attorney.
¿Prefiere hablar en español?
Nuestro equipo atiende a la comunidad en español, y la consulta es gratuita.