Adam S. Kutner, Injury Attorneys · Las Vegas Valley
Las Vegas Unsafe Workplace Injury Accident Lawyer
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In This Guide
Why Hire a Lawyer for Your Unsafe Workplace Injury Claim?
You should hire a Las Vegas unsafe workplace injury lawyer because your claim depends on proof your employer controls: inspection records, complaint history, and the workspace itself, which can be fixed the day after you report it. We move early to preserve that evidence, file your workers’ compensation claim correctly, and identify anyone outside the comp system who can be sued.
How We Handle Your Unsafe Workplace Injury Claim
We handle an unsafe workplace injury claim as one case with three tracks, so you are not running a workers’ comp claim, a third-party claim, and an OSHA complaint from a hospital bed.
Get the workers’ comp claim moving
We file the notice and claim form on time and appeal a denial.
Identify every responsible party
Site owners, outside companies, equipment makers and drivers carry separate insurance.
Preserve the hazard evidence
Preservation demands for photos, video, maintenance records and injury logs go out early.
Coordinate the insurer’s lien
NRS 616C.215 offsets your benefits against a third-party recovery, so we negotiate both together.
Handle the rest
We meet you at home or the hospital, help line up treatment, and take the insurer’s calls.
No Fees Unless We Win Your Unsafe Workplace Injury Case
You pay nothing up front for an unsafe workplace injury case. With no recovery, you owe no attorney fee. Adam S. Kutner is a former insurance defense attorney, and the team at Adam S. Kutner, Injury Attorneys, has put that inside view to work for injured Las Vegans for more than 35 years.
What Makes a Workplace Legally Unsafe in Nevada?
A workplace is legally unsafe in Nevada when it exposes you to a recognized hazard that is causing, or is likely to cause, death or serious physical harm. That is the standard in the federal General Duty Clause, 29 U.S.C. 654(a)(1), and in Nevada’s own NRS 618.375, enforced here by Nevada OSHA.
Nevada’s statute goes further. NRS 618.375 also requires every employer to furnish and use safeguards, adopt reasonably adequate work practices, put someone in charge of safety, and do every other thing reasonably necessary to protect employees. NRS 618.385 bars requiring or permitting work in a place that is not safe and healthful, and NRS 618.395 bars an owner or lessee from maintaining one. Nevada OSHA has adopted most federal standards by reference, and a hazard does not have to break a specific standard to be illegal.
Our Las Vegas workers’ compensation lawyer page covers filing the no-fault claim itself; this page covers what an unsafe workplace adds: reporting rights, retaliation protection, and the cases where someone besides the insurer has to pay.
Examples of Unsafe Working Conditions
Unsafe working conditions are hazards built into the place where you work, as opposed to unsafe acts, which are risky things people do (NRS 618.405 bars employees from removing a safety device). Conditions an employer must correct include:
- Machines that are not safe to work on, including guards that were removed
- Missing gloves, harnesses, or other safety equipment (see lawsuits for lack of personal protective equipment)
- Toxic chemicals or bad air without protection (see workplace air quality claims)
- No safety training for staff, or training in a language you do not understand
- Unprotected edges, unstable scaffolds and ladders, and other fall hazards
- Las Vegas heat, without the protections in Nevada OSHA’s heat illness prevention regulation
- Poor workstation design that forces awkward postures or repeated motions, covered below
- Threats and assaults on the job (see getting compensated after being assaulted at work)
How to Report an Unsafe Workplace to Nevada OSHA
You report an unsafe workplace in Nevada to Nevada OSHA, the state-plan agency inside the Division of Industrial Relations. A complaint takes five steps.
- Tell your employer in writing.
OSHA’s guidance is to raise the hazard with your employer first, and a dated email proves the employer knew. - File the hazard report with Nevada OSHA.
Call (702) 486-9020, mail it to Nevada OSHA, 2300 West Sahara Avenue, Suite 300, Las Vegas, NV 89102, or use OSHA’s online complaint form, in any language. - Sign it.
NRS 618.425 keeps a complaining employee’s name confidential, and if Nevada OSHA finds reasonable grounds, it must investigate within 14 days; immediately if death or serious harm is probable. - Report while the hazard still exists.
An inspector documents only what is there, and Nevada OSHA cannot cite a violation more than six months old (NRS 618.465). - Refuse the work only when the danger is imminent.
Under OSHA’s guidance, you may have a legal right to refuse when a condition clearly presents a risk of death or serious harm, there is no time for an inspection, and you have told the employer.
Retaliation Protection for Reporting Workplace Hazards in Nevada
Nevada law makes it illegal for an employer to fire or in any manner discriminate against you for reporting a hazard, filing a Nevada OSHA complaint, testifying, or exercising any other safety right (NRS 618.445). Section 11(c) of the OSH Act says the same, and federal OSHA still enforces it for private-sector workers in Nevada.
Nevada OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program treats filing a complaint, cooperating with an investigation, voicing safety concerns to management, and reporting a workplace injury as protected activity; adverse actions include termination, discipline, reduced pay or hours, harassment, and blacklisting. A written complaint must reach the Division within 30 days after the adverse action (the federal deadline is also 30 days). File at 1-877-671-0003, nvoshawhistle@dir.nv.gov, or whistleblowers.gov; if the court finds a violation, the remedy is reinstatement, plus lost wages and benefits.
Can You Sue Your Employer for Unsafe Working Conditions in Nevada?
You cannot sue your employer for negligence over an unsafe workplace injury in Nevada, with exceptions written into the statute, because workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy against the employer for an injury by accident arising out of and in the course of employment (NRS 616A.020). The employer is shielded from a negligence lawsuit, even when it was negligent, and when a licensed principal contractor runs the project, its shield also covers the architects, land surveyors and engineers working for the contractor, or the property owner (NRS 616A.020(3)).
A Nevada OSHA citation does not change that: it can bring fines and a deadline to fix the hazard, and it is strong evidence, but NRS 616C.215 states that it grants no right of action in tort against the employer.
NRS 616C.215(2) lets you sue anyone other than your employer or a coworker whose negligence created the hazard, while the workers’ comp claim continues:
- The owner of a property where you were sent to work. A general contractor is different: Nevada deems every subcontractor’s crew the licensed principal contractor’s own employees (NRS 616A.210), so it shares the workers’ comp shield (our construction site accidents page covers the split).
- Another company’s crew working next to you, if it is not working under the same principal contractor as you.
- The manufacturer of a defective machine, tool, or safety device (our Las Vegas product liability lawyer page explains the major types of product defects).
- A driver who hits you while you are working.
The statute ties the two claims together: benefits are reduced by the damages you recover and the insurer is subrogated to your rights, so the settlement is built with that lien in view. Our page on your rights when you are injured on the job covers the exceptions and what happens when an employer has no insurance; Nevada pays those claims from the Uninsured Employers’ Claim Account (NRS 616C.220).
How to Document an Unsafe Workplace Injury
Documenting an unsafe workplace injury means proving the hazard existed and that the employer knew or should have known. Six steps build that record; we handle each one, once you call.
- Get emergency care if you need it.
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.090). Describe the hazard to the provider. - Give written notice within seven days.
NRS 616C.015 requires it on the Administrator’s form; describe the hazard (see our guide to documenting a workers’ comp injury). - Photograph the hazard before it is fixed.
Afterward, your photos are the only record. - Save every earlier complaint.
Emails, texts, and coworkers’ reports about the same hazard prove the employer knew. - Request the inspection file.
We request the Nevada OSHA file with the employer’s injury logs. - Write down what supervisors said.
A comment that the hazard had been reported before is evidence.
Injuries From Poorly Designed Workspaces and Repetitive Work
Injuries from poorly designed workspaces build slowly. Ergonomic injuries are known as musculoskeletal disorders: damage to muscles, nerves, and tendons from how a job is set up. The causes of employee injuries at poorly designed industrial workstations are the risk factors OSHA’s ergonomics guidance lists for every industry, office desks included: lifting heavy items, bending, reaching overhead, pushing and pulling heavy loads, awkward postures, and repeating the same tasks. A poorly laid-out workstation is a hazard for those reasons, and poor ergonomics in the workplace produce the same issues on a factory floor, in retail storage rooms, or at a computer desk, where an assessment could catch the common office workstation problems early. Improperly adjusted workstations can result in this kind of hazard too. Ergonomics, meaning fitting a job to a person, is how OSHA says employers prevent them. Examples of ergonomic injuries on OSHA’s list:
- Carpal tunnel syndrome from repetitive work (see suing for carpal tunnel and other sedentary work injuries)
- Tendinitis and epicondylitis (elbow)
- Rotator cuff injuries
- Trigger finger
- Muscle strains and low back injuries; a consequence of work stations with poorly designed ergonomics is the same strain every shift
Nevada treats a gradual injury from ergonomic hazards as an occupational disease, under NRS Chapter 617, which changes two rules. Written notice to your employer is due within seven days after you know about the disability and its relationship to your work (NRS 617.342), and NRS 617.440 requires a direct causal connection between the work conditions and the disease, which must not come from a hazard you would have been equally exposed to outside work. The insurer can argue that computer-related injuries in the workplace came from your phone or hobbies instead, and a worker left unable to work has to prove otherwise. We answer with the workstation itself, the employer’s injury logs, and the absence of any ergonomic assessment.
Where Unsafe Workplace Injuries Happen in Las Vegas
Unsafe workplace injuries in Las Vegas are policed by an agency headquartered here: Nevada OSHA’s main office is at 2300 West Sahara Avenue, Suite 300, Las Vegas, NV 89102, covering private employers and state and local government. The valley’s workplaces set the hazards: resort and casino back-of-house areas and laundries, construction sites on and off the Strip, warehouses and distribution centers, hospitals, and restaurant kitchens. Nevada OSHA publishes guidance on its heat illness prevention regulation for anyone working through a Las Vegas summer.
Nevada Unsafe Workplace Laws
Three Nevada statutes do most of the work on an unsafe workplace claim:
|
Nevada Law |
What it says |
Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
|
Duties of employers |
Employers must furnish a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious harm and furnish safeguards. |
The definition of an unsafe workplace and the basis for a Nevada OSHA complaint. |
|
Third-party claims |
Workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy against the employer for an injury by accident arising out of and in the course of employment. |
An OSHA violation alone does not let you sue your employer for damages. |
|
Statute of limitations |
An injured employee may recover damages from a person other than the employer or a coworker; benefits are reduced by the recovery and the insurer is subrogated. |
Full damages when an outside company, a site owner that is not your statutory employer, or a manufacturer created the hazard. |
Have you suffered from an unsafe workplace injury?
Hurt by a hazard your employer knew about? Call (702) 382-0000 and tell us what happened. The consultation is free.
FAQ About Unsafe Workplace Injury Cases in Las Vegas
Get a Free Consultation With a Las Vegas Unsafe Workplace Injury Lawyer
Hurt at an unsafe workplace in the Las Vegas Valley? Call or start your free consultation online. We answer day and night.
Related Workplace Injury Claims
An unsafe workplace injury is one kind of Nevada workers’ compensation claim; the third-party claim is part of our Las Vegas personal injury practice.
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.
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