Injury Lawsuit Against a Forklift Operator

My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: Oklahoma, Hello all, This is a question in reference to my son being sued and the former company that he worked for, during his employment he operated a forklift quite often and one day when he was loading a truck the way that he had been trained to do by the company, large pipes rolled off the forklift and the truck driver was nearby and he was then pinned under the pipes, after being in the hospital for quite some time he had to have a leg amputated as a result of this accident, obviously he is suing the company which by the way is a multi million dollar company, my son has nothing but he is also being sued, so here's my question, what might be some of the things that could happen to him as a result of being sued?? Thanks.

What cold happen? Worst case, he could be found responsible for the injury and have a $bazillion judgment debt. There are other possible outcomes that are not as painful.

Thanks for your reply, I Think I would rather hear the less painful outcome.

The possible outcomes range from nothing at all (unlikely) to the outcome Tobias suggested, and just about everything in between. Since the crystal ball is out being recalibrated, the Magic 8 ball is broken, and Madame Zulieka is overdue back from her vacation, your guess is as good as ours. And possibly better since you have more details about what happened.

Generally, he will sign an agreement to be represented by the companies attorney and accept the agreement they come to. It is unlikely aside from being fired he will be out an money unless he is rich.

Employers have been known to seek indemnification from employees for damages and liability resulting from the employee's sole negligence. The plaintiff can obtain a judgment against the employee individually. Whether or not he can ever hope to repay that judgment, the judgment will still be there until satisfied. The insurance company can go broke. The employer can go broke. It's possible the employee may be left holding the bag. A whole lot depends upon the jurisdiction and the laws involved. If he is lucky, he's in Canada, which seem to have rules very favorable to employees in this type of situation. But, we don't know.

I just read U.S. v. Gilman, 347 U.S. 507,74 S.Ct. 695, 98 L.Ed. 898, 1954, where the United States sued one of its own employees to recover damages and liability resulting from the employee's negligent operation of a motor vehicle while on the job. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The issue is not clear-cut.

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Quoting Tobias_Research

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If he is lucky, he's in Canada, which seem to have rules very favorable to employees in this type of situation. But, we don't know.

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I think we do.

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My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: Oklahoma, Hello all,

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Oops. So, what's the law of Oklahoma? Liberal and employee friendly?

Not particularly, no. Oklahoma falls somewhere in the middle; they're not as employer-friendly as Alabama, Georgia or Florida but they're not as employee-friendly as California, Massachusetts or Illinois.

It looks like Oklahoma adopted the Uniform Contribution Among Tortfeasors Act. This, I think, is bad news for our forklift driver.