Fremont is about forty minutes from my Omaha office, which makes it one of the outstate markets I can reach most easily. It has also changed substantially as an employment center in recent years, and the injury profile changed with it.
Poultry Processing and a Workforce From Everywhere
Lincoln Premium Poultry opened on the south side of Fremont in September 2019 and is now the city’s largest business employer, with roughly 1,200 workers producing for Costco. Its workforce comes from dozens of countries.
Poultry processing is physically punishing work, and it produces a characteristic injury set: repetitive motion injuries to hands, wrists, shoulders and back; lacerations; falls on wet floors; cold exposure; and machine injuries. The repetitive trauma claims are the ones most often never filed, because there is no single accident to point to and workers assume gradually-developing pain is not a work injury. It frequently is, and Nebraska workers’ compensation covers occupational conditions, not only sudden events.
Two points for anyone working in that plant. Immigration status does not disqualify an injured worker from Nebraska workers’ compensation — the contrary belief is widespread and it is why real injuries go uncompensated. And retaliation for filing a claim is not permitted. If language is an obstacle, that is a logistics problem to solve rather than a reason to abandon a claim.
As with any plant injury, ask whether a third party contributed — an equipment manufacturer, a maintenance contractor, a staffing agency. Workers’ compensation pays nothing for pain and suffering; a third-party claim can.
A Fremont Senator and the Firefighter Cancer Bill
Worth noting for local first responders: LB400, the 2026 bill that would have created a genuine rebuttable presumption that firefighter cancer is job-related under the Workers’ Compensation Act, was introduced by Sen. Dave Wordekemper of Fremont. It applied to professional and volunteer firefighters with five or more years of service.
It did not pass. The bill was passed over in January 2026 and then failed to break a filibuster on a 32–15 cloture vote in late March 2026.
What remains is Neb. Rev. Stat. § 35-1001, which provides prima facie evidence where a firefighter suffers death or disability from cancer — not where a firefighter merely receives a diagnosis. Some national resources describe Nebraska as having the broader presumption. It does not. I represent firefighters in workers’ compensation matters, and this distinction determines how such a claim has to be built.
US-30, US-77 and the Bypass
Fremont sits where US-30 and US-77 meet, with Highway 275 and the bypass carrying freight and commuter traffic around the city. These are the rural-highway crash geometries that produce head-on and left-turn collisions at speed — the crash types most likely to kill or permanently disable.
Rural highway crashes carry an evidentiary problem: fewer witnesses, no cameras, longer emergency response. That puts weight on physical evidence at the scene, which begins disappearing as soon as the roadway is cleared. It is a strong argument for calling someone before the vehicles are released.
Agricultural equipment on these roads during planting and harvest adds a further hazard, and those cases raise their own questions about lighting, marking and lawful roadway operation.
Dodge County District Court
Fremont is the Dodge County seat, so cases are heard here rather than in another town — Dodge County sits in Nebraska’s 6th Judicial District. At roughly forty minutes from Omaha, Fremont is close enough that I am there without difficulty.
Related Practice Areas
This page covers what is specific to Fremont. The pages below cover how the claims themselves work.
Your Attorney
Frank Younes
Every page on this site is written by Frank Younes, a Nebraska trial attorney with a published record of verdicts and settlements, selection to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, and a practice that covers every county in Nebraska and Iowa. No case is handed to an associate — the lawyer you read here is the lawyer who works your case.
More about Frank → · Free consultation: (402) 378-9208
Frequently Asked Questions
I work at the poultry plant and my hands and shoulders have gotten worse over years. Is that covered?
Very possibly. Nebraska workers’ compensation covers occupational conditions caused by the work, including repetitive trauma that develops gradually. These are the claims most often never filed because there is no single accident to point at.
I am not a US citizen. Can I still file a workers’ compensation claim?
Immigration status does not disqualify an injured worker from Nebraska workers’ compensation benefits. The belief that it does is widespread and costly. Ask instead of assuming.
Does Nebraska presume a firefighter’s cancer came from the job?
Not in the broad way it is often described. LB400 — introduced by Fremont’s own Sen. Dave Wordekemper — would have done that, but it failed a cloture vote 32–15 in March 2026. What exists is § 35-1001, which provides prima facie evidence where a firefighter suffers death or disability from cancer, not on diagnosis alone.
Where is a Fremont case filed?
Dodge County District Court in Fremont, Nebraska’s 6th Judicial District. Fremont is the county seat, so the case stays in town.
A machine at the plant hurt me. Do I have more than a comp claim?
Possibly. If equipment was defective or inadequately guarded, a claim against its manufacturer may exist alongside the comp claim — and that one can compensate pain and suffering, which workers’ compensation does not.
How quickly can you get to Fremont?
It is about forty minutes from my Omaha office, so quickly.
Free Consultation for Fremont Injury Victims
Tell me what happened. The consultation is free and confidential, and if I take your case there is no fee unless I win it.
Call (402) 378-9208