When you show up to work, you expect to be safe.
Your employer is required to install and maintain proper safety guards on machines that pose risks of crushing, cutting, or amputation. Yet in too many Ohio workplaces, employers remove these guards to save time or money, and workers pay the price.
If a missing or removed safety guard caused your injury, Harris Law is here to help.
Here’s what you need to know about your legal options.
How Safety Guard Removals Cause Injuries
Saws, presses, conveyors, grinders, and similar industrial equipment can cause devastating injuries in seconds.
Safety guards exist to prevent workers from coming into direct contact with dangerous moving parts. When an employer removes a guard, whether to speed up production, reduce maintenance costs, or simply avoid dealing with it, they’re knowingly exposing workers to harm.
The injuries that result, including amputations, crush injuries, deep lacerations, and bone fractures, typically require emergency surgery, extended rehabilitation, and often permanently changes how a person lives and works.
If you have experienced injuries in similar settings like construction site accidents or industrial plant injuries, the pattern is often the same: preventable negligence with life-altering consequences.
Why Workers’ Compensation Isn’t Always Enough
Workers’ comp gets you medical coverage and a portion of your paycheck, but the math stops there. There is no line item for pain and suffering, and it caps your wage replacement well below what you actually earn. For someone facing the loss of a limb or a permanent disability, those limits fall far short of what’s actually needed.
That’s where third-party and “deliberate intent” claims come in.
Under Ohio law, if your employer knowingly removed a safety guard or ignored a clear safety hazard, you may be able to step outside the workers’ compensation system and pursue a lawsuit directly. Additionally, if a machine manufacturer, maintenance contractor, or equipment supplier contributed to the injury, you can pursue separate claims against them that aren’t subject to workers’ comp limits.
What You May Be Entitled To
A successful safety guard removal claim can recover damages for any or all of the following:
- Past and future medical expenses
- The full value of lost wages and reduced earning capacity
- Prosthetics and assistive devices
- Home modifications
- Ongoing therapy and rehabilitation
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Loss of enjoyment of life
In cases involving a fatality, wrongful death claims are also available.
Proving the Guard Was Deliberately Removed
This is often the hardest part of a safety guard removal case, and where the right investigation matters most.
Attorney Sean Harris visits job sites, inspects equipment, and digs into maintenance records to determine exactly what happened and who bears responsibility.
In safety guard cases, that includes examining:
- Whether OSHA standards were violated
- Whether the machine had the required guarding
- Whether management knew about the hazard
- Prior complaints, inspections, or OSHA citations
- Witness accounts and expert testimony about how the injury could have been prevented
We work with workplace safety engineers to show that your injury wasn’t an accident. It was the foreseeable result of an employer’s deliberate decision to prioritize speed over safety.
Contact Harris Law Today
None of it had to happen.
A guard costs a fraction of what one serious injury ends up costing everyone involved.
If you’ve been injured by a missing or removed safety guard in Ohio, schedule a consultation with Harris Law today.
The worker did everything right. The employer didn’t.
Frequently Asked Questions About Safety Guard Removal Claims in Ohio
Can I sue my employer directly for a safety guard removal injury?
In most cases, workers’ compensation is your primary remedy and limits your ability to sue your employer. However, if you can prove your employer deliberately removed a safety guard or acted with deliberate intent to cause harm, you may be able to pursue a “deliberate intent” claim outside the workers’ compensation system. Additionally, if a third party, like a machine manufacturer, maintenance contractor, or equipment supplier, contributed to the accident, you can pursue a separate personal injury claim against them.
What if my employer removed the safety guard just to save time?
Removing a safety guard to increase production speed is negligence, and in some cases it can rise to the level of deliberate intent, especially if management knew about the danger. These situations require careful legal analysis, but they’re worth exploring.
How long do I have to file a claim in Ohio?
Ohio gives you two years from the date of injury to file most personal injury claims, and that same two-year clock generally applies to product liability claims against a manufacturer. Confirm current deadlines and any exceptions before publishing, since specific facts can shorten or extend what applies.
What evidence do we need to prove the safety guard was removed?
OSHA inspection records, photos or video showing the machine without a guard, witness testimony from coworkers, maintenance records (or a lack of them), prior complaints filed by workers, and expert engineering analysis showing what guard should have been in place.
Will filing a claim affect my job?
Reporting a safety violation or filing a workers’ comp claim is legally protected activity in Ohio, and an employer who punishes you for it can face a separate retaliation claim on top of your injury case. Document anything that changes about how you’re treated at work after you report or file, in case that becomes relevant.
What does it cost to hire Harris Law?
We handle these cases on a contingency fee basis, so you pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.