It takes enormous physical courage to work on a New York City construction site. Especially when your job means moving hundreds of feet above the ground. One loose bracket on a scaffold can send a worker tumbling to the ground, bringing permanent physical injury.
The good news is that New York State has incredibly strong labor laws to protect workers like you. If you are injured in a serious accident on the construction site, the law allows you to seek significant financial compensation. If you would like to know how these laws affect you, we recommend scheduling a consultation with our legal team.
Understanding Your Rights Under the Scaffold Law
When it comes to a work site injury associated with gravity, your best shot at legal action is New York Labor Law Section 240: the Scaffold Law. The statute, which creates a strict liability standard for property owners and general contractors when they fail to provide scaffolding, hoists, ladders, or ropes. With absolute liability, your own negligence is entirely out of the equation in assigning blame in a lawsuit.
The owner and general contractor are still absolutely liable if the cause of your fall was due to the absence of guardrails or a safety harness. Even if you slipped while falling from an elevated platform. This protection also extends to conventional roofers, painters, subcontractors, and demolition laborers. Learn more about our Construction Accident Lawyer in New York City services to protect your rights.
Financial Consequences and Real-World Examples
An instant means to destroy the financial well-being of your family is a major fall at the construction site. A spinal injury, brain trauma, or fracture — those types of injuries are often addressed in emergency surgery. If, for example, a bricklayer falls fifteen feet from an improperly locked and flushed mobile scaffold and shatters his pelvis, the ensuing emergency evaluation and treatment may easily reach seventy-five thousand dollars.
One fortunate development in these astronomical losses is a civil lawsuit, which holds negligent property owners responsible. Moderate neck and back claims with fractures and surgeries routinely resolve for $300,000 to $800,000 in New York.
By comparison, many of the most serious cases that render individuals with severe brain damage typically end in verdicts or settlements in the millions of dollars. We invite you to contact us today for a full case review for accurate assessments of your case under New York law.
Bypassing the Limits of Workers’ Compensation
A significant number of hurt employees labor under the impression that they will only be entitled to normal workers’ compensation benefits after a site accident. Then there are the limitations of workers’ compensation. It pays your medical bills and a percentage of your lost wages. However, it leaves you unable to sue your employer for the injury at all. It also disregards your physical injuries, emotional distress, and the total degree of your future lost income potential.
A Labor Law Section 240 claim does not suffer from these limitations because the statute applies to third parties who own the property. This standalone civil lawsuit puts you back in the position that would have existed had you not been injured. At The Law Office of Olena Manilich, we focus on creating these two parallel tracks in the legal system so that you can receive your weekly workers’ compensation checks. While we prepare a strong third-party lawsuit. Contact us now so we can start securing important physical evidence before it is too late.
Taking Action to Secure Your Family’s Future
The time slots right after a scaffold collapse are critical to the success of your civil lawsuit. You need to report it to your supervisor, take photos of the faulty equipment, and get medical care right away. Insurance defense teams routinely try to divert blame or downplay your injuries.
So, you need to act fast to protect your legal standing. Your court filings and your expert testimonies can be handled by the Law Office of Olena Manilich. Schedule a consultation with us to embark on your path to complete financial recovery today!
