Texas Work Injury Arbitration Agreements

Can You Still Sue After Signing a Work Injury Arbitration Agreement?

Often you can still bring the claim. You may just have to bring it in arbitration instead of court.

Many Texas non-subscribers require employees to sign an arbitration agreement, usually buried in the hire packet or the injury benefit plan.

That agreement changes where your case is decided, but it does not erase your right to compensation.

An arbitration agreement and a waiver of your claim are two different things. Texas treats them very differently, and some arbitration agreements can be challenged.

Call (888) 713-6653 for a free, confidential review of your Texas work injury. You Win or It's Free.

What a Non-Subscriber Arbitration Agreement Does

An arbitration agreement is a contract to resolve disputes in private arbitration rather than in front of a judge and jury. Non-subscribers favor them because arbitration is private, faster, and decided by an arbitrator instead of a jury that might award large damages.

If you signed one, a work injury claim against the employer generally proceeds in arbitration. You present evidence, the employer defends, and an arbitrator decides liability and damages. The forum changes. The claim itself, and the damages you can win, does not disappear.

Are These Arbitration Agreements Enforceable in Texas?

Usually, yes. Texas and federal law strongly favor arbitration, and Texas courts have repeatedly enforced non-subscriber arbitration agreements. Continuing to work after the agreement is presented can count as accepting it, even without a separate signature.

This is the key distinction injured workers miss. A pre-injury waiver of the right to sue a non-subscriber is void under Labor Code Section 406.033.^[1] An arbitration agreement is not a waiver of that right. It is an agreement about where the right is enforced, which is why it survives where a waiver would not.

Arbitration Is Not the Same as Giving Up Your Claim

This is worth repeating because the company benefits from the confusion. Being in arbitration does not mean you lose, and it does not cap your damages.

In arbitration you can still recover the full, uncapped damages a non-subscriber owes: medical care, lost earnings, lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, and mental anguish. The employer still loses its contributory-negligence, assumption-of-risk, and fellow-servant defenses. The advantages of a non-subscriber claim travel with you into the arbitration room.

When an Arbitration Agreement Can Be Challenged

Not every agreement holds up. An experienced lawyer reviews whether yours is enforceable before assuming you are bound by it.

• Illusory promises. If the employer kept the right to change or cancel the agreement whenever it wants, courts may find the promise illusory and refuse to enforce it.
• No real assent. If you were never actually given the agreement, or could not have known about it, that can defeat enforcement.
• Unconscionability. Terms that are extremely one-sided, or that strip away basic fairness in the process, can be struck.
• A waiver disguised as procedure. An agreement that tries to function as a pre-injury release of your claim runs into the rule that voids such waivers.

Whether any of these applies depends on the exact words of your agreement, which is why the document itself is the starting point.

What to Do Before You Sign Anything

If you were just injured and the company is asking you to sign forms, slow down. A post-injury release can give up rights an arbitration agreement never touched, and once signed it is hard to undo.

Keep a copy of everything you have signed and everything you are asked to sign, and have a lawyer review it before you agree. The related questions of whether you can sue your employer and what your claim is worth often turn on these same documents.