Railroad work is genuinely dangerous. Tracks, heavy equipment, moving trains, long shifts, and exposure to diesel fumes and toxic chemicals are all part of the job for many workers. When something goes wrong and a railroad employee gets hurt, the path to compensation looks nothing like what most workers in other industries experience. There is no state workers’ compensation system for railroad workers engaged in interstate commerce. Instead, there is the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA).
FELA has been the legal framework protecting injured railroad workers since 1908. It is a federal law that operates differently from standard workers’ comp and requires understanding a few things that many railroad workers have never had reason to consider until they actually get hurt. Below are four questions that come up regularly, along with straightforward answers to each.
What Exactly Is FELA and Who Does It Cover?
FELA is a federal statute that gives railroad workers the right to sue their employer in court for injuries caused, at least in part, by the railroad’s negligence. It covers employees of railroads that engage in interstate commerce, which includes most major carriers operating in the United States.
FELA protects engineers, conductors, trainmen, track workers, machinists, signal workers, yard employees, and many others whose jobs involve railroad operations. The law also covers occupational illnesses, not just sudden traumatic injuries. Workers who develop lung disease, cancer, or other conditions from long-term exposure to diesel exhaust, asbestos, or other hazardous materials have filed FELA claims, sometimes decades after the exposure occurred.
What FELA does not do is work like workers’ compensation. Under state workers’ comp, an employee generally does not need to prove anyone was at fault. Being injured on the job is usually enough to trigger the benefit. FELA works the opposite way. The injured worker has to show the railroad was negligent, or that a safety regulation was violated, and that this contributed to the injury. The good news is that the burden of proof is intentionally low. Courts have described it as “featherweight” — meaning the injured worker only needs to show that the railroad’s negligence played any role, even a small one, in causing the harm.
What Kinds of Negligence Can Support a FELA Claim?
Railroads have a legal duty under FELA to provide their employees with a reasonably safe workplace. When they fall short of that duty, an injured worker may have a viable claim. That failure can take many forms:
- Failing to maintain equipment, tools, or machinery in safe working condition
- Not providing adequate training for the tasks a worker is assigned
- Requiring workers to perform jobs that are physically unsafe or require more force than one person can safely exert alone
- Failing to fix known hazards in the work environment after being put on notice
- Violating specific federal safety regulations like the Locomotive Inspection Act or the Federal Railroad Safety Act, which triggers what is called negligence per se
- Exposing workers to toxic substances without adequate protection or warning
When a railroad violates one of the federal safety statutes that govern railroad operations, that violation is treated as negligence automatically. The injured worker need not separately prove that the railroad’s conduct was unreasonable. They only need to show that the violation caused or contributed to the injury. This is known as negligence per se.
It is also important to know that even if the injured worker was partly to blame for the accident, that does not necessarily end the case. FELA follows comparative negligence, meaning an award will be reduced by the percentage of fault assigned to the worker, but it is not wiped out entirely. A worker found 30 percent responsible for their own injury would still be entitled to 70 percent of their total damages.
What Compensation Is Available Under FELA?
One meaningful difference between FELA and workers’ compensation is the scope of recoverable damages. Workers’ comp typically provides medical benefits and a portion of lost wages, but it does not compensate for pain and suffering or loss of enjoyment of life. FELA allows for all of those things.
A successful FELA claim can include compensation for past and future medical expenses, wages lost during recovery, any reduction in future earning capacity if the injury is permanent or disabling, physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of the ability to engage in activities the worker valued before being injured. In wrongful death cases under FELA, surviving family members can also seek compensation for lost financial support and funeral costs.
The range of recoverable damages under FELA is why railroads take these claims seriously and why they typically have experienced claim agents and defense attorneys working on their side from the moment an injury is reported. An injured railroad worker trying to negotiate a settlement without legal representation is at a serious disadvantage. The railroad’s team knows what a claim is worth. Injured workers dealing with medical treatment and recovery often do not.
How Long Does a Railroad Worker Have to File a FELA Claim?
FELA sets a three-year statute of limitations for injury claims, running from the date of the injury. For wrongful death cases, the three-year period runs from the date of the worker’s death. Missing that deadline almost always means losing the right to recover anything, regardless of how serious the injury was or how clear the railroad’s fault.
For occupational illnesses and conditions that develop gradually, the clock works differently. With hearing loss, repetitive stress injuries, or diseases caused by chemical exposure, the three-year period typically begins when the worker knows, or reasonably should know, both that they have the condition and that it is connected to their work. This discovery rule can extend the window in cases where a diagnosis comes years after the exposure, but it does not mean a worker can wait indefinitely once they know something is wrong.
Three years sounds like plenty of time. In practice, waiting works against an injured railroad worker for reasons unrelated to the deadline itself. Railroads begin building their defense immediately after an injury is reported. Evidence gets collected. Witnesses are interviewed. The condition of the equipment or the location where the injury occurred may change. Photographs taken early can make or break a claim that photographs taken two and a half years later cannot.
Reaching out to a FELA lawyer shortly after a railroad injury is not about rushing into litigation. It is about making sure the evidence that matters is preserved while it is still there to be found.
About Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp
Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp has represented injured railroad workers in FELA claims since the mid-1980s. This firm was built in large part on railroad injury law. Our team has litigated more than 100 FELA cases across the eastern United States and has secured multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements for railroad workers and their families.
The firm’s national recognition in this practice area reflects four decades of focused work. Our attorneys understand how railroads defend these cases, what evidence matters most, and how to push back when a carrier tries to minimize or avoid what it owes. That is not the kind of knowledge you pick up handling an occasional FELA case. It comes from years of doing this work exclusively.
If you are a railroad worker who has been injured on the job, or a family member who has lost someone to a railroad-related illness or accident, contact the FELA lawyers at Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp. Call 833-997-1774 for a free consultation. Our offices are in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton, Norfolk, and Chesapeake. In one case our FELA lawyer team handled, a train conductor who was struck by an engine and became quadriplegic received a settlement worth several million dollars — at the time, the largest voluntary settlement ever offered by a railroad to a disabled former employee.