Michigan Construction and Workplace Wrongful Death Lawyer

In 2024, 152 Michigan workers died on the job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Twenty-eight of those deaths happened in construction, and twelve of those were falls. Within days of a death like that, most families are dealing with paperwork from a workers’ comp carrier they had never heard of, without anyone explaining what the comp checks cover and what they leave out.

Vahdat Weisman Law helps Michigan families see the whole picture after a workplace death: the workers’ compensation claim, and, in many cases, a separate lawsuit against companies other than the employer. Call (734) 469-4994 for a free, confidential consultation with our wrongful death lawyers, any hour. You pay no attorney fee unless we recover compensation for your family.

Why You Usually Cannot Sue the Employer, and Who You Can

Michigan’s workers’ compensation law contains a hard rule: under MCL 418.131, comp is generally the exclusive remedy against the employer, and that protection generally extends to coworkers too. The only exception is a true intentional tort, which Michigan courts read so strictly that even serious safety failures rarely qualify.

Families hear that and assume the case ends there. Often it does not. The exclusive remedy shield protects the employer, not the general contractor running the site, the other subcontractors, the property owner, the manufacturer of a defective machine, or the driver who caused a work-related crash. Significant recoveries in Michigan workplace death cases frequently come from these third-party claims, pursued alongside the comp claim, not instead of it. Modern worksites complicate the question; staffing agencies, borrowed employees, and layers of contractors can blur who legally counts as the employer, so mapping the site and the contracts is the first thing we do. We will also tell you candidly when the facts support only the comp claim; not every workplace death produces a lawsuit, and your family deserves to know which situation you are in.

What Workers’ Comp Pays a Family

For a death arising out of employment, the comp system pays benefits without proof of fault. Under MCL 418.321, dependents who relied on the worker’s income generally receive 80 percent of the worker’s after-tax average weekly wage, subject to state maximums, for up to 500 weeks, with extensions possible for some children. Funeral expenses are covered up to the statutory limit of $6,000 under MCL 418.345, and since funerals routinely cost more than that, the difference becomes part of what the lawsuit pursues.

Comp matters, and we make sure it is paid promptly and the wage calculation is done right; overtime, second jobs, and dependency questions are where carriers shortchange families. But comp is a wage-replacement schedule. It pays nothing for your loved one’s final suffering and nothing for the loss of the person themselves. Those losses belong to the liability case.

Construction Deaths and the Common Work Area Doctrine

Construction is where many of Michigan’s workplace deaths happen, and the national pattern is consistent: falls, struck-by incidents, electrocutions, and caught-in-between accidents, OSHA’s “Focus Four,” account for roughly 60 percent of construction deaths. On a multi-employer site, the worker’s own employer is often a small subcontractor shielded by the exclusive remedy rule, while real safety authority sits with the general contractor.

Michigan law addresses that structure through the common work area doctrine: a general contractor that fails to take reasonable steps, within its supervisory authority, to guard against readily observable, avoidable dangers creating a high degree of risk to a significant number of workers in a common work area can be held liable even though it employed no one who was hurt. In July 2024, the Michigan Supreme Court clarified the doctrine in El-Jamaly v Kirco Manix, rejecting two recurring defense arguments: workers from different subcontractors need not be exposed to the danger at the same moment, and no prior accident is required. Property owners who retained control over the work can face liability on related theories.

These cases are built on site evidence: photographs before conditions change, the subcontracts and safety plans that show who controlled what, witness accounts from other trades, and the MIOSHA investigation file. A MIOSHA citation is issued only when the agency finds a violation; its fines go to the state, not the family, and employers frequently appeal citations to water them down. But the investigation behind a citation, the interviews, photographs, and findings, often becomes central evidence in the civil case, which is why we obtain the file and monitor the citation process rather than waiting on it.

Work Deaths on the Road

Nationally, transportation incidents are the leading cause of workplace death, and Michigan follows the pattern: 48 of the state’s 152 work deaths in 2024 involved transportation. A fatal work-related crash creates overlapping claims: workers’ comp death benefits, Michigan no-fault survivor benefits, and a wrongful death lawsuit against the at-fault driver and the companies answerable for that driver. These systems offset and reimburse each other in technical ways; no-fault survivor benefits, for example, are coordinated against comp death benefits, and handling the interplay wrong leaves money with insurers instead of the family. Our car accident wrongful death and truck accident wrongful death pages explain the crash side of these cases.

One Case, Coordinated

A Michigan workplace death often means the comp claim, the estate, and the liability lawsuit moving at once, and they touch constantly.

The wrongful death lawsuit, filed under MCL 600.2922 by the personal representative of the estate, pursues the third parties whose negligence caused the death. It reaches what comp never touches: your loved one’s conscious pain and suffering, the family’s loss of society and companionship, lost financial support, and the funeral costs comp did not cover. The court approves how any recovery is distributed among the family members the statute defines.

Connecting the two systems is MCL 418.827: the comp carrier that paid death benefits holds a lien on the third-party recovery and is reimbursed out of it, after litigation expenses, with credits against future benefits. That lien can often be negotiated down, and doing so is one of the quieter ways counsel changes what a family actually keeps. The general deadline for a negligence lawsuit is three years under MCL 600.5805, with an estate-related saving provision in limited cases, but the real clocks are shorter: sites get rebuilt, machines get repaired, and MIOSHA concludes in months. Early investigation decides these cases.

What Should You Do Now?

The most important steps are ones we can take for you, starting with written preservation demands for the scene, the equipment involved, and any surveillance or device data. What helps most from the family’s side: gather the names of coworkers who were present, because they change employers and phone numbers quickly; keep every document that arrives from the comp carrier, the employer, or MIOSHA; and sign nothing beyond routine comp claim forms until independent counsel has read it. Broad releases have a way of appearing early.

The employer has its own duty to report the death to MIOSHA within hours. Your family’s job is not to run that process; it is to get the whole picture evaluated, the comp calculation, the third-party possibilities, and the timeline, before accepting that the comp check is the entire case.

Why Choose Vahdat Weisman Law?

We look past the obvious defendant. That means mapping the site, every contractor, contract, insurance policy, and safety obligation, pursuing the comp claim and the liability case as one coordinated effort, and negotiating the lien at the end, because that negotiation is part of what your family keeps. We move early on evidence, and we prepare cases for trial because that preparation is what produces serious settlement offers.

Founding partners Kara E. Weisman and Jordan S. Vahdat have each been honored as Super Lawyers Rising Stars, and our attorneys are members of the State Bar of Michigan and active in the Michigan Association for Justice. We advance case costs and serve families across Michigan from our Livonia office, with phones answered 24/7, in English and Spanish.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can we sue the employer for the conditions that caused the death? Generally no; workers’ comp is the exclusive remedy against the employer unless the family can prove a true intentional tort, which Michigan courts define extremely narrowly. But general contractors, other subcontractors, property owners, equipment manufacturers, and at-fault drivers sit outside that shield, and claims against them are where most substantial recoveries come from.
• The comp carrier is already sending checks. Doesn’t that settle everything? No. Routine death-benefit checks are owed automatically, and accepting them does not waive the lawsuit against third parties. What can affect your rights is signing a redemption agreement or release, which is why nothing beyond routine claim forms should be signed unread.
• My loved one was undocumented. Does the family have any rights? Yes. Michigan courts have held that undocumented workers are covered employees under the comp act, though some wage-loss benefits can be limited in certain situations, and immigration status does not bar a wrongful death lawsuit against negligent third parties. We handle these cases with discretion.
• MIOSHA cited the employer. Does that money go to us? No, MIOSHA penalties are paid to the state, and citations only issue when the agency finds a violation. But the investigation behind a citation- witness interviews, photographs, findings about what should have been done, becomes powerful evidence in the family’s civil case against other responsible companies, and we monitor the employer’s appeals so the record is protected.
• What if my loved one made a mistake that contributed to the accident? Comp death benefits are paid regardless of fault. In the lawsuit, comparative fault can reduce damages, and fault over 50 percent bars non-economic damages, which is exactly why the defense builds that argument and why an independent investigation, not the employer’s version of events, has to establish what actually happened.

Talk to a Michigan Workplace Wrongful Death Lawyer Today

Before anyone signs anything, find out what the whole case looks like. The consultation is free, and the answers are yours to keep either way. Call Vahdat Weisman Law at (734) 469-4994 or contact us online for a free, confidential consultation. Available 24/7, serving all of Michigan, with Spanish-speaking staff.

Dedicated to Justice. Devoted to You. Winning for Your Future.

This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is unique, and prior results do not guarantee future success.