Construction work is the backbone of New York City's growth and development, but it's also one of the most dangerous professions. From towering skyscrapers being renovated in Midtown to roadwork in the Bronx, construction sites dot the city. Unfortunately, these sites often come with hazards that can lead to serious injuries or even fatalities. If you or a loved one has been involved in a construction accident, a trusted New York City construction accident lawyer at The Rothenberg Law Firm can help you understand your rights, pursue justice, and rebuild your life.
For over 50 years, The Rothenberg Law Firm has fiercely advocated for injury victims, securing billions of dollars in compensation for our clients and their families. Construction accident cases in NYC require skilled, compassionate counsel. With us, you'll find legal professionals who treat every client like family, standing by your side during challenging times and working tirelessly to achieve the best possible outcome for your case.
If you or someone you care about has been injured on a NYC construction site, contact The Rothenberg Law Firm for a free consultation today.
Call us today for a free, no obligation consultation.
Why Choose Rothenberg Law Firm for Your New York City Construction Accident Case?
Choosing the right attorney to handle your construction accident case can make all the difference. At The Rothenberg Law Firm, we blend exceptional experience with a caring approach, offering our clients the comprehensive support they need during an emotionally and physically draining time.
Here's what sets us apart from other law firms in New York City:
- A Proven Track Record of Success
For over five decades, we've fought vigorously for personal injury victims, recovering billions of dollars in compensation. Our results speak volumes, and we bring this deep legal knowledge to every client's case. - Personalized Care and Support
We don't just take on cases-we take care of people. With us, you'll never feel like just another file number. We treat each client as if we're fighting for a member of our own family, providing compassionate guidance every step of the way. - Comprehensive Resources at Your Disposal
We understand that a severe injury impacts every aspect of life. That's why we go beyond legal representation to connect our clients with medical specialists, financial advisers, and other professionals who can help ease the recovery process. - Fearless Advocacy Against Powerful Opponents
Construction accident cases often involve powerful construction companies, contractors, and insurers determined to minimize payouts. We level the playing field, using aggressive tactics and being fully prepared to go to trial when defendants fail to offer fair compensation.
When life takes a devastating turn because of a construction accident, you deserve a team that listens to your concerns, fights for your rights, and delivers justice. That's The Rothenberg Law Firm promise.
Who May Be Eligible for Filing a Construction Accident Claim
Construction accidents can happen to anyone on or around a worksite-not just workers. This means that various individuals may have the right to file a claim after an accident in New York City.
- Construction Workers and Laborers
Workers injured due to unsafe site conditions, equipment malfunctions, or failures to follow OSHA regulations may be eligible for compensation beyond workers' compensation, depending on the circumstances. - Pedestrians and Passersby
Construction zones on NYC streets pose risks to pedestrians, cyclists, and others who are near the site. Falling debris, unsecured materials, and construction vehicle collisions can lead to serious injuries. - Contractors and Subcontractors
Independent contractors working on a site may also be eligible to file claims if their injuries are caused by the negligence of a third party, such as another contractor's failure to ensure safety protocols.
Eligibility for a claim depends heavily on the specific facts of your case and the parties responsible. It's crucial to consult with experienced construction accident lawyers at The Rothenberg Law Firm to understand your legal options.
Common Types of Construction Accidents and Hazards in New York City
Construction sites contain changing conditions, elevated work areas, heavy machinery, electrical systems, moving vehicles, and multiple contractors working at the same time. A failure to plan, communicate, inspect equipment, or follow appropriate safety procedures can put workers and members of the public at risk.
OSHA identifies falls, struck-by accidents, electrocutions, and caught-in or caught-between accidents as four major construction hazards. Construction accidents can also involve many other unsafe conditions.
Common types of construction accidents and hazards include:
- Falls from ladders, scaffolds, roofs, platforms, elevated surfaces, and unguarded openings
- Falling tools, construction materials, debris, and inadequately secured loads
- Crane, hoist, derrick, and rigging accidents
- Scaffold collapses and improperly assembled scaffolding
- Ladder failures or the use of an inappropriate ladder for the work
- Electrocutions, electrical shocks, and electrical burns
- Trench collapses and excavation accidents
- Workers becoming caught in machinery or trapped between equipment, materials, or structures
- Forklift, backhoe, truck, and other construction-vehicle accidents
- Defective or poorly maintained power tools and machinery
- Fires, explosions, and exposure to harmful substances
- Slips, trips, and falls caused by debris, cords, uneven surfaces, or poor housekeeping
- Structural collapses
- Inadequate personal protective equipment
- Missing guards, railings, barricades, or fall-arrest systems
- Poor training, supervision, or communication between contractors
An accident does not automatically establish that another party is legally responsible. Determining how a construction accident happened may require an examination of photographs, video recordings, witness statements, daily work logs, safety plans, training records, contracts, inspection reports, equipment-maintenance records, prior complaints, and records from government agencies.
Workers’ Compensation and Third-Party Construction Accident Claims
A construction worker injured in the course of employment may generally seek New York workers’ compensation benefits without proving that the employer caused the accident. Ordinary carelessness by the worker does not usually prevent a workers’ compensation claim.
Depending on the injury, workers’ compensation may provide:
- Necessary medical treatment
- A portion of lost wages
- Temporary disability benefits
- Permanent disability or schedule loss-of-use benefits
- Vocational rehabilitation in qualifying cases
- Death benefits for eligible surviving dependents
Workers’ compensation generally does not provide damages for pain and suffering. It also ordinarily prevents an employee from suing the employer for negligence, although limited exceptions may apply.
A worker may have a separate third-party claim when someone other than the employer contributed to the accident. Depending on the project and the evidence, potentially responsible third parties may include:
- A property owner
- A general contractor
- A construction manager
- Another subcontractor
- A developer
- A company responsible for site safety
- A manufacturer, distributor, rental company, or maintenance company responsible for defective equipment
- The driver or owner of a construction vehicle
- A design professional whose own conduct or contractual responsibilities contributed to the accident
- A government entity or public authority
A third-party claim may be based on negligence, product liability, or New York Labor Law. A worker may be entitled to workers’ compensation while also pursuing a responsible third party, but the workers’ compensation carrier may have a lien or credit against part of the civil recovery. The two claims should therefore be coordinated carefully.
New York Labor Laws That May Protect Construction Workers
New York has several laws addressing safety during construction, demolition, excavation, repair, alteration, painting, cleaning, and related work. These protections are separate from workers’ compensation and may allow an injured worker to pursue a claim against an owner, contractor, statutory agent, or another responsible party.
Whether a particular law applies depends on the work being performed, the cause of the accident, the defendant’s role, and the available evidence.
New York Labor Law § 200
Labor Law § 200 reflects the general duty to provide reasonable and adequate protection to workers and people lawfully present at a worksite.
A claim involving the methods or manner in which work was performed may depend on whether the defendant had authority to supervise or control the injury-producing work. A claim involving a dangerous property condition may instead depend on whether the defendant created the condition or had actual or constructive notice of it.
General authority to monitor progress or stop unsafe work may not, by itself, establish the level of control required in every case.
New York Labor Law § 240(1)
Labor Law § 240(1), commonly called the Scaffold Law, applies to certain elevation-related risks during specified construction-related work.
The law requires certain owners, contractors, and their agents to provide appropriate safety devices, which may include:
- Scaffolds
- Ladders
- Hoists
- Stays
- Slings
- Hangers
- Blocks
- Pulleys
- Braces
- Ropes
- Other devices necessary to provide proper protection
The law can apply when a worker falls from an elevated location or when an inadequately secured object falls or descends because of gravity.
Not every fall, falling object, or construction accident qualifies under Labor Law § 240(1). The worker must establish that the statute was violated and that the failure to provide proper protection caused the injury. Statutory exceptions may also apply, including an exception involving certain owners of one- and two-family homes who do not direct or control the work.
New York Labor Law § 241(6)
Labor Law § 241(6) applies to construction, excavation, and demolition work. It requires owners, contractors, and their agents to comply with applicable safety rules contained in the New York State Industrial Code.
A claim generally must identify a sufficiently specific Industrial Code provision, establish that the provision applied to the work, and show that its violation contributed to the accident.
Industrial Code Part 23 contains requirements addressing subjects such as:
- Scaffolds and ladders
- Falling-object protection
- Floor and wall openings
- Excavation work
- Demolition
- Electrical hazards
- Power-operated equipment
- Material handling
- Construction vehicles
- Housekeeping and passageways
- Personal protective equipment
More than one legal theory may apply to the same accident. A worker may, for example, have a workers’ compensation claim together with claims under Labor Law §§ 200, 240(1), or 241(6) and a negligence or product-liability claim against a third party.
OSHA Rights and Construction-Site Safety Complaints
Construction workers have the right to raise workplace safety concerns and report hazardous conditions. Depending on the circumstances, a worker may have the right to:
- Receive required workplace safety training in a language and vocabulary the worker can understand
- Use appropriate personal protective equipment
- Review certain workplace injury, illness, and exposure records
- Report unsafe conditions to an employer
- File a safety complaint and request an OSHA inspection
- Report a work-related injury or illness
- Exercise protected workplace-safety rights without unlawful retaliation
An OSHA safety complaint is different from a workers’ compensation claim or personal-injury lawsuit. OSHA investigates and enforces workplace-safety requirements, but filing an OSHA complaint does not itself provide the injured worker with financial compensation.
An OSHA inspection, citation, or investigative record may become relevant to a separate claim, but it does not automatically prove civil liability. Workers who believe they were fired, demoted, threatened, or otherwise retaliated against for reporting a safety concern should act promptly because some retaliation complaints have very short filing deadlines.
What Compensation May Be Available After a Construction Accident?
The compensation available after a construction accident depends on whether the worker has a workers’ compensation claim, a third-party civil claim, or both.
Workers’ Compensation Benefits
Workers’ compensation may provide:
- Medical treatment related to the occupational injury
- Partial replacement of lost wages
- Temporary disability benefits
- Permanent partial or total disability benefits
- Schedule loss-of-use awards for qualifying permanent injuries
- Vocational rehabilitation in appropriate cases
- Death benefits for eligible dependents
Workers’ compensation does not ordinarily compensate an injured worker for pain and suffering.
Compensation Through a Third-Party Claim
A third-party claim may provide compensation for losses not fully addressed by workers’ compensation, subject to applicable liens, credits, offsets, insurance coverage, and the evidence in the case.
Recoverable damages may include:
- Past and future medical and rehabilitation expenses
- Lost wages
- Reduced future earning capacity
- Nursing care and personal assistance
- Assistive devices
- Home or vehicle modifications
- Physical pain and suffering
- Emotional and psychological effects of the injury
- Permanent disability
- Scarring or disfigurement
- Loss of mobility or independence
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Certain losses sustained by a spouse when permitted under New York law
The same loss generally cannot be recovered twice. An attorney handling both claims can account for workers’ compensation payments and any carrier lien when evaluating a potential third-party recovery.
Fatal Construction Accidents
When a worker dies from a construction-related injury, eligible dependents may have a claim for workers’ compensation death benefits.
The estate’s personal representative may also be able to pursue a wrongful-death action against a responsible third party. Recoverable damages may include qualifying medical and funeral expenses, lost financial support, the value of services the deceased person would have provided, and other legally recognized pecuniary losses.
A separate survival claim may seek damages for the deceased person’s conscious pain and suffering between the injury and death. New York generally does not permit surviving family members to recover damages for their own grief in a wrongful-death action.
How Long Do I Have to File a Construction Accident Claim in New York?
Several deadlines may apply to the same construction accident.
For a New York workers’ compensation claim, the injured worker should notify the employer as soon as possible. Written notice generally must be provided within 30 days of the accident, subject to limited exceptions. The worker generally must also file a claim with the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board within two years.
A third-party personal-injury or Labor Law action generally must be commenced within three years of the accident.
A wrongful-death action generally must be commenced within two years of the person’s death.
Much shorter deadlines may apply when a city, public authority, school district, or another government-related entity owns the property, controls the project, or caused the accident. Many municipal claims require a notice of claim within 90 days, followed by a lawsuit within one year and 90 days. Wrongful-death claims and claims involving the State of New York or a particular public authority may follow different procedures.
The workers’ compensation deadline and civil-lawsuit deadline are separate. Filing one claim does not automatically preserve the other.
The applicable deadline depends on the type of claim, the identity of the defendants, the date of the accident or death, and other case-specific facts. Evidence can also disappear long before the legal deadline expires, so the accident should be investigated promptly.
Contact Our Trusted New York City Construction Accident Attorneys Today
Suffering a construction accident is life-altering. You deserve compensation for your medical bills and other losses. The personal injury lawyers at The Rothenberg Law Firm are here to help you through this challenging time. For over 50 years, we've been committed to treating our clients like family, fighting tirelessly to secure the compensation they need to rebuild their lives.
Whether you've been injured or lost a loved one in a tragic construction accident, our caring and experienced attorneys are ready to stand by your side. Don't wait - time is critical. Contact The Rothenberg Law Firm today at (866) 771-4988 or through our online form to discuss your case during a free, no-obligation consultation. Your path to justice begins here.
Call us today for a free, no obligation consultation.
NYC Construction Accident Claims FAQs
When you or a loved one has been hurt in a construction accident, it's natural to have questions about what comes next. Below are clear, straightforward answers to some of the most common questions our lawyers receive.
Can undocumented workers file a construction accident claim?
Yes, undocumented workers injured on construction sites may still have the right to file a claim to recover compensation for their injuries. Our team can help guide you through the legal process and ensure your rights are protected, regardless of your immigration status.
Do I need to see a doctor even if I feel fine after a construction accident?
Yes. Some injuries, such as traumatic brain injuries or internal damage, may not show symptoms immediately. Prompt medical attention is essential for your health and for documenting your injuries, which can strengthen your legal claim.
How much does it cost to hire a construction accident lawyer?
At The Rothenberg Law Firm, we work on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay nothing upfront. We only get paid attorney's fees when we successfully recover compensation for you. This ensures that everyone, regardless of their financial situation, has access to skilled legal representation.