Legal Question in Personal Injury in Alabama

On July 2nd, 2009 I slid off a sheet-metal roof in Bay Saint Louis, MS while working. I was installing a camera system and wasnt given any advanced notice that I would be doing that job that day. I was told, as I was leaving to go to Waynesboro, MS around 8:30am that day by my boss that when I got done in Waynesboro, that I was to drive down to Bay Saint Louis and help another employee instal the camera system. When I got there, it was brough to my attention that one of the cameras would be going up about 18 feet onto the side of the building. I tried my best to talk the store owner out of that decision, because I didnt have a ladder with me and he only had a 6 foot ladder at the store. He insisted on putting the camera on the outside wall. At this point, the only way to get the camera to the place he wanted was to get onto the sheet-metal roof. I did not have a saftey harness, I did not have anyone outside to help me (the other employee was in the attic pulling the wire to where I was to drill the hole), I did not have the necessary extension ladder (because I was unaware that I would be doing any camera jobs that day, I left our extension ladder at home that morning). I got up to the top of the roof, and hanging on by one hand drilled the hole for the wire and pulled it through. As soon as the wire was through, I lost my grip on the top of the building and slid off and broke both of my heels. I got a hairline fracture in my left heel, and broke my right heel severely. It took a metal plate and two screws to fix it. I was "off work" from July until the beginning of November per Drs Orders. I wasnt supposed to do ANY work, however, my boss had me dialing into stores computers and handling phone support calls. Every week he would call and harass me about coming back to work. I eventually asked the doctor, under harrasment by my boss, to release me back to work earlier than he was going to.

However, when i was being taken to the hospital by my fellow employee that day, he had called my boss and my boss asked me to LIE to the E.R. Staff, and LIE to the insurance company. I was told to tell them that I fell off a ladder, not a roof. He stated that his insurance rates would go up if the Insurance Company new he had employees working on roofs. I did this only because I felt that if I didnt, I would wind up losing my job. And having an injury as bad as mine, there wouldnt be any companies willing to hire me. When I did go back to work, one of the very first things I had to do was to get onto a roof on a metal building in Picayune, MS and instal a High-Gain Wireless Internet Antenna, once again without my ladder. This then led to me doing more camera instals in Georgia where I was again required to instal cameras on roofs, again without proper saftey equipment and again without enough notice to plan out all the things I would need. I basically walked into the store with camera wire, cameras, and DVR's and asked the store owner where he wanted them.

I wound up having to have a second surgery on my right heel on July 26th of this year. I was still in extreme pain and they removed the nerve on the right side of my right foot, removed the hardware that they had put in, and then scoped all the joints out to remove scar tissue build up. The week before the surgery, I was in Atlanta Georgia installing camera systems on a roof.

My boss and the VP of our company is now harrasing me 2 to 3 times a week asking me when Im coming back to work. I dont know OSHA regulations, but I believe that what he has me doing and the way he has me doing it is illegal. I am also not supposed to be doing ANY work, but yet again he has me in the on call rotation (every night and day since last friday) and also doing support calls. I feel that I am being taken advantage of. And I dont know if the statute of limitations has run out to possibly take legal action against him and the company. I dont even know if I have a case at all. He has many friends around Mobile, and some are lawyers so Im afraid to talk to anyone about it face to face. What can I do?

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