FELA Settlement and Filing Deadline for a Railroad Injury

The FELA filing deadline

The Act's limitation reads: “No action shall be maintained under this chapter unless commenced within three years from the day the cause of action accrued.” (45 U.S.C. § 56)

The tool above counts that period from the date you enter. The section counts from the day the cause of action accrued, which can be later than the date of the injury and is not earlier, so the date the tool shows is the earliest the period can end. When a claim accrues for a harm that developed over time, such as a hearing loss or a lung condition, is a question courts decide, and this page did not read their decisions.

Where a claim can be brought: “The jurisdiction of the courts of the United States under this chapter shall be concurrent with that of the courts of the several States.” (45 U.S.C. § 56) A FELA claim can be filed in a federal court or in a state court, and the period is the Act's either way.

What a FELA claim has to show

The Act reaches an injury or death, in its words, “for such injury or death resulting in whole or in part from the negligence of any of the officers, agents, or employees of such carrier, or by reason of any defect or insufficiency, due to its negligence, in its cars, engines, appliances, machinery, track, roadbed, works, boats, wharves, or other equipment.” (45 U.S.C. § 51)

So a FELA claim is built on negligence: something the railroad, its employees or its equipment did or failed to do. The words "in whole or in part" are the Act's, and they matter: the railroad's negligence does not have to be the only cause of the injury. What a court requires to prove it, and how much evidence is enough, is set by court decisions this page did not read.

Evidence of negligence can include the condition of the equipment, the track or the work area, the training and staffing the railroad provided, the rules it set and whether they were followed, and what the railroad knew about a hazard before the injury.

Your own share of fault, and the safety statutes

The Act does not bar a claim because the worker was partly at fault: “the fact that the employee may have been guilty of contributory negligence shall not bar a recovery, but the damages shall be diminished by the jury in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to such employee” (45 U.S.C. § 53).

And where a safety law was broken, the worker's own fault does not count against the claim: “no such employee who may be injured or killed shall be held to have been guilty of contributory negligence in any case where the violation by such common carrier of any statute enacted for the safety of employees contributed to the injury or death of such employee.” (45 U.S.C. § 53)

The Act also takes away the defense that the worker accepted the risks of the job: “such employee shall not be held to have assumed the risks of his employment in any case where such injury or death resulted in whole or in part from the negligence of any of the officers, agents, or employees of such carrier;” (45 U.S.C. § 54)

This is why the settlement calculators on this site are not the right tool for a FELA claim: they apply a state's comparative-fault rule, and in some states a high enough share of fault bars a recovery, while the Act sets its own rule.

Releases and agreements that limit a railroad's liability

The Act voids an agreement that tries to take away its protection: “Any contract, rule, regulation, or device whatsoever, the purpose or intent of which shall be to enable any common carrier to exempt itself from any liability created by this chapter, shall to that extent be void” (45 U.S.C. § 55)

Read anything the railroad or its claims department asks you to sign after an injury, and keep a copy. Whether a particular release or statement is binding is a question for a lawyer, and the Act's words above are where that question starts.

How a FELA settlement is figured

A FELA claim is for damages, so a settlement is built from the losses the injury caused: wages lost and the earning capacity lost for the years ahead, medical costs, and pain and suffering. A settlement is an agreement, and its amount is whatever the parties agree.

If the claim is tried, the Act's fault rule applies: the damages are reduced in proportion to the worker's own negligence, as § 53 says above, unless a safety statute's violation contributed to the injury. This page does not estimate a figure, because the site's estimate applies a state's fault rule and a FELA claim does not.

What you will be asked for: pay records before the injury, the medical records and bills, the railroad's injury report, the names of co-workers who saw what happened, and any photographs of the equipment or the scene.

What to keep and write down after a railroad injury

Write down what happened as soon as you can: the date, the time, the place, the equipment, the task, who was there, and what was said. Write down what the railroad told you to do afterwards and what you were asked to sign.

Keep a copy of every report you make or sign, every medical record and bill, every pay statement, and every letter from the railroad, its claims department or its insurer. Keep the names and contact details of the co-workers who saw the injury or the condition that caused it.

Photograph the equipment, the track or the work area if you can do so safely, and note any defect before it is repaired.

When to talk to a railroad injury lawyer

This site is not a law firm, does not refer anyone to a lawyer, and cannot say what a lawyer would recover. The questions on this page are answered by the Act and the court decisions under it, which this page did not read: when your claim accrued, whether your work was in interstate commerce, whether a safety statute was broken, and whether anything you signed binds you. A lawyer who handles FELA claims can answer them. Bring your written record, your reports and your pay and medical records, and the date the tool shows.