Eagle Pass & Maverick County Oilfield Accident Lawyer

Maverick County sits where the Eagle Ford meets the Maverick Basin, and the activity around Eagle Pass — drilling, completions, gas processing, saltwater disposal and the constant truck traffic on US-57, US-277 and FM 1021 — produces the same catastrophic injuries seen in Karnes and La Salle, with fewer lawyers nearby who handle them.

Many of the workers on those locations live in Eagle Pass, Carrizo Springs, Crystal City and Del Rio, or drive in from San Antonio and Laredo. Many work for service companies that dropped workers’ compensation. Almost none of them have dealt with an operator’s claims team before.

Sadovsky & Ellis is a San Antonio trial firm that handles oilfield injury and death cases across South Texas. We meet clients in Eagle Pass, and the consultation costs nothing.

Who handles oilfield injury cases in Eagle Pass?

An injured worker in Maverick County usually has a claim against companies other than the employer — the operator that holds the lease, the drilling or completions contractor, the trucking company at the pad, or the manufacturer of the equipment that failed. Those cases are tried in the district courts sitting in Eagle Pass, in Bexar County when a defendant keeps its principal office in San Antonio, or wherever the law allows and strategy favors. Sadovsky & Ellis handles them from San Antonio and comes to you.

The injuries we see on the western Eagle Ford

• Rig and workover injuries — falls from the derrick or the floor, crushed hands in the tongs, tubing and pipe-handling injuries, and blowouts.
• Explosions and burns — tank battery fires, hot work near vented gas, frac-iron failures under pressure. Our oilfield explosion page covers these in depth.
• Hydrogen sulfide exposure — parts of the Maverick Basin are sour, and an unmonitored release can kill before anyone smells it.
• Oilfield trucking crashes — sand, water, crude and frac-tank haulers on US-57 between Eagle Pass and Batesville, on US-277 toward Carrizo Springs, and on the county and lease roads that were never built for that weight. The FMCSA hours-of-service exception for oilfield operations shows up in these cases constantly.
• Saltwater disposal and gas plant injuries — pressure releases, chemical burns, and confined-space exposures at facilities that run around the clock.
• Heat illness and fatigue — long summer hitches without rest breaks, often the background cause of the crash or the fall that follows.

Why the employer is usually not the defendant

Texas lets an employer that carries workers’ compensation avoid a negligence suit by its own employee. The claim then runs against every other company that controlled the work or supplied the equipment. Chapter 95 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code gives the operator a defense unless it controlled how the work was done and actually knew of the danger, and proving those two things — through the master service agreement, the company man’s authority and the safety paperwork — is most of the work in an Eagle Ford case.

If the employer did not carry workers’ compensation, everything changes. A non-subscriber can be sued directly, and under Labor Code section 406.033 it cannot argue that the worker was partly at fault, assumed the risk, or was hurt by a co-worker. The Texas Department of Insurance publishes which employers have opted out. We check it in every case.

Getting to the evidence in a rural county

A location outside Eagle Pass can be cleaned up and moved in a day. The equipment goes back to the yard in Carrizo Springs or Cotulla, the crew rotates out, and the daily reports get written after the fact. We send a written preservation demand to every company on location the week we are retained, request the OSHA and Railroad Commission files, and, where a component failed, insist that it be held for inspection before anyone touches it.

Witnesses on the western edge of the play scatter fast — to Odessa, to Pecos, back to Mexico. Statements need to be taken while people are still here.

Wrongful death claims for Maverick County families

When a worker is killed, the spouse, children and parents hold a wrongful-death claim under Chapter 71 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code and the estate holds a survival claim. Even where the employer subscribed to workers’ compensation, the family keeps a gross-negligence claim against it, and full claims against everyone else responsible. Many of the families we speak with in Eagle Pass have relatives on both sides of the border; questions about who may bring the claim and how a Mexican spouse or parent participates are ones we answer at the first meeting.

What to do after an oilfield injury near Eagle Pass

Frequently Asked Questions