Artículos publicados en Falling Objects and Worker Falls

In most situations where you’ve been injured at work by a falling object, your lawsuit involves one filing. In that filing, you name all those entities liable to you and you file in the correct New York Supreme Court. Some situations are different, though. For example, if you attempted to sue the state government in a Supreme Court for your construction injuries, your lawsuit would not succeed. You must file that lawsuit in a special court, but you must still pursue all other liable entities in a regular civil court case. Confused? Don’t be discouraged. There are a lot of mandatory procedural technicalities that exist in New York court procedure, and that’s one reason among countless others why you should rely on a knowledgeable New York City construction injury attorney to help you get the compensation you need and deserve.

C.P. was a worker who found himself in that kind of procedural situation. He worked on a demolition project where his duties involved removing windows. One of those windows tipped and struck C.P. in the face. What made C.P.’s case less than typical was that he was working on a project at the state prison in Attica. The owner of his job site was the State of New York, but the general contractor on the project was a private firm.

New York law says that, if you have a claim for damages against the state government like C.P. had, you must sue the state in a special court called the Court of Claims. That’s very noteworthy because the Court of Claims has its own rules about many procedural things. Those rules, for example, say that you only have 90 days to file your lawsuit against the state and also to serve notice of that lawsuit on the state Attorney General.

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Whenever you are injured at your construction job, you probably have many worries. Your injury may have left you unable to work, whether temporarily or permanently, which means you may have great concerns about how you are going to pay your bills and meet your other financial obligations now that you’re not working. Under the law, you may have lots of different options available to you when it comes to obtaining much-needed compensation. These options may include filing a claim for workers’ compensation benefits and also filing a lawsuit in civil court. When it comes to assessing your options, be sure you seek out the advice of an experienced New York City construction injury attorney to help you choose the best path forward.

It also worth noting that, just because you pursue one option and your case is unsuccessful, that doesn’t mean that all options are closed to you. Look at this case involving a New York City worker. S.S. was a construction worker who was working in Queens County when he was injured. S.S.’s injury was allegedly the result of something called an “elevation-related” risk, meaning that it involved either him falling or something falling on him.

S.S. filed a claim for workers’ compensation. S.S. also filed a civil lawsuit seeking damages under Sections 240(1) and 241(6) of the Labor Law, which are two laws that permit construction workers hurt on the job to recover compensation in civil court.

If you’re hurt in an accident while working a construction job, there may be multiple legal options available to you to obtain compensation for your harm. If a worker is hurt in a fall or due to something falling on him/her, there is one New York law that can allow the worker to seek damages. (That is Section 240(1) of the Labor Law Code.) If a worker is hurt due to someone else’s failure to follow the rules laid out in New York’s code of safety regulations, then that may provide the worker with a separate basis for obtaining compensation. (That is Section 241(6) of the Labor Law Code.)

If you’re hurt in an accident that involved a safety regulation violation and something falling (either an object falling on you or you falling), then you may have the opportunity to assert both of these laws as bases for an award of damages. Generally, in most any type of civil lawsuit, the more bases for compensation you can assert, the better your chances of success. In order to make sure you have the strongest case possible to give you every opportunity to obtain all the compensation the law allows, contact a skilled New York City construction injury about your case.

An example of a worker who was able to pursue multiple claims based upon the statutes was the case of a man named J.P. J.P. was a worker doing roofing work in the Rochester area when he suffered his accident. The roof on which J.P. was working was a pitched roof, which meant that it sloped downward on each side. In order to aid and protect the workers, “toe boards” were placed on the roof. These toe boards were two inches by six inches and nailed directly into the roof. The toe boards were already nailed into the roof when J.P. began his work. J.P.’s accident occurred when his toe boards detached from the roof, which led to his falling off the roof and all the way to the ground, resulting in serious injuries.

When you suffer injuries in a construction accident, you may be entitled to compensation. The legal tools available to you to obtain this needed compensation may vary based upon the facts surrounding your accident. New York has multiple statutes that protect injured construction workers. Achieving the outcome you deserve often involves understanding all of the laws and recognizing how best to use them to pursue your claim for damages. To make sure you’re getting the compensation you deserve, be sure you’ve retained a knowledgeable New York construction injury attorney to handle your case.

Recently, a worker, R.F., found himself in the position of needing the legal system to recover compensation for his injuries. R.F. was employed as a laborer and was, in June 2014, working on a subway project in Manhattan. While the R.F. was working and standing on a flatbed truck, another group of workers were lowering a bundle of 12-foot aluminum I-beams. At some point in the process, the bundle of beams swung toward R.F. and pushed him off the truck, causing him to fall to the ground below and suffer substantial injuries. As a result, he sued.

An injured worker may be entitled to an award of damages based upon proving a violation of Section 200 of the state’s Labor Law, Section 240(1) of the Labor Law or Section 241(6) of the Labor Law. These laws each address different types of accidents. For example, Section 240(1) deals with “elevation-related” risks of harm, like a falling worker or a falling object striking a worker. Section 241(6) addresses injuries where a failure to follow the state’s safety regulations led to the accident. It is possible that your case may allow you to sue under two or three of these statutes. For example, if you slipped and fell off a scaffold because construction debris was left on the scaffold’s platform, you might be entitled to sue under both Section 240(1) and Section 241(6). As with any kind of civil lawsuit, the more legal bases for compensation that you can bring forward, the better your chances of success.

An old maxim opines that “what you don’t know won’t hurt you.” While there might be certain areas of life in which ignorance really is bliss, legal matters and your legal rights are not one of them. When it comes to the law, what you don’t know can hurt a great deal. It can hurt when you’re injured at work and you don’t know your rights and don’t know that you have a legal opportunity to sue and collect an award of damages. It hurts when you fail to act and lose out on the compensation you deserve. Don’t let that happen to you. Instead, if you’ve been hurt at your construction job, reach out to an experienced New York City construction accident attorney about your case.An example of this truth was illustrated in the case of J.R. J.R. was a New York ironworker who was supervising a crew who was hoisting a steel beam with the aid of a mechanical device. The crew member who controlled the device’s switch erred and started the hoist too soon, which caused the beam to strike J.R. The impact caused J.R. to suffer a torn biceps tendon.

J.R. sued for the injuries he suffered. One of the bases that he used for his claim for compensation was a Labor Law statute called Section 240(1). Section 240(1) is sometimes nicknamed the “Scaffold Law.” The statute covers more than just scaffold-related injuries. The statute can be a valid basis for any “elevation-related” risk of harm.

Sometimes, this risk of harm is also known as “gravity-related.” That can potentially lead one to believe that the statute only provides for potential awards of compensation in cases of falling workers or workers falling on objects. J.R.’s case established that this is not correct and that the “Scaffold Law” can possibly cover even more workers than one might think.

You may know that if you suffer an injury as a result of fall while working your construction job, New York law has statutes that could allow you to obtain compensation for the harm you suffered. Cases like ones where the worker was in mid-task and fell from a scaffold are fairly clear-cut. However, what you may not know is that the law extends beyond just those “clear-cut” situations. For example, a New York appeals court recently ruled in favor of a worker who fell from a loading dock while waiting in line to sign in and start his work. All this shows that you should never assume that you have no case; instead, contact a knowledgeable New York construction accident attorney to discuss your options.

The worker, W., was a painter who was working on a project at a Manhattan skyscraper when he was injured. His job required him to sign into a security log and get a pass in order to enter the building and do his job. There was just one guard and one security desk, and the sign-in line stretched across a loading dock. The day W. was hurt, the dock was overcrowded and, when he stepped back to make room for another person, he slipped and fell off the dock, falling 4-5 feet to the ground below.

You can imagine finding yourself in a position like W.’s. You’ve suffered a substantial injury, but you had not actually started your daily work yet. You had not even changed into your work uniform yet. You were simply waiting in line to sign in and you fell off a dock while standing in the sign-in line. Chances are that you, as a layperson, are fearful about what recourse you have. Surely you cannot seek compensation based upon the laws governing construction injuries, right?

The law in New York is clear that construction workers are required to receive proper protection to safeguard their well-being while they are on the job. The protection they receive should protect them from falling as well as keep them safe from falling objects. When those requirements are not met, and a construction worker gets hurt, that worker may have a case for compensation. In order to make sure that you are getting everything to which the law says you are entitled, be certain to contact a knowledgeable New York construction accident attorney about your situation.

One worker who did not get proper protection and who was entitled to compensation was Angel, a masonry worker in Brooklyn. Angel’s job required him to work on a scaffold. Angel’s scaffold consisted of a metal framework and wooden planks upon which he stood. The problem cropped up when a masonry stone fell onto the scaffold. It damaged the frame piece, which allowed the wooden planks to collapse from underneath the worker. Angel fell 35 feet to the ground, suffering substantial injuries. The injured masonry worker sued the property owner, among others.

When you undertake a construction injury lawsuit, it is important to understand that there are several ways to secure compensation for your injuries. Obviously, one of these is a settlement. Settling your case can be a useful outcome if the offer is large enough, since it allows you to obtain much-needed money in a quicker fashion than some other methods.

New York has several laws designed to protect construction workers in this state. One of them is Section 240(1) of the Labor Law, and it is sometimes known as the “Scaffold Law.” This law is intended to protect workers from the risks associated with falls from significant height differentials. What size must a height differential be in order to entitle a worker to seek compensation? The answer is that it depends. In some cases, if an object is heavy enough, even very short distance falls can be enough to permit an injured worker to win his case. This variability is just a reminder that each case is unique, so, if you’ve been hurt at your construction job, make sure you retain an experienced New York construction accident attorney, who can help you determine how to pursue your rights under the law.

As an example of a short-distance case, an appeals court in 2015 allowed a worker to pursue compensation in a construction injury case in which the object that fell on him fell only 2½-3 feet. In that case, the pile of rails that hit the worker weighed roughly 1,500 pounds, so that meant that the rails could generate a substantial amount of force, even over a short distance.

That same principle came up in a very recent case, and it again allowed the injured worker to succeed. Omar and three co-workers were trying to transport a 500-pound steel I-beam from the top floor of an 18-story Manhattan building to the ground level. The relative size of the 12-foot beam and the small elevator forced the men to try to stand the beam on its end. During that process, the beam fell roughly half a foot onto Omar’s shoulder, injuring him.

When you are injured at your construction job, it is possible that there may be multiple different ways to achieve a successful result and get the compensation you deserve. This is especially true if your injury was a result of a fall at work. To make sure that you are taking maximum legal advantage of the facts of your injury to put together a successful case, be sure you retain a knowledgeable New York construction injury attorney.

A recent example of a successful case was the one filed by Antonio, a construction worker at the World Trade Center. On June 6, 2013, his job responsibilities included helping two iron workers lift a 200-pound float from the building’s roof to its antenna. The floor in that area was a metal grating with several openings that were covered by pieces of plywood. At one point, Antonio took a step onto a plywood covering, felt it shift, and then fell through the opening exposed by the shifted plywood.

Injured in the fall, Antonio sued. There are various legal options available to you as an injured construction worker in New York in order to obtain fair compensation for your harm. If you’ve been hurt as a result of a fall, there is one statutory section in particular, Section 240(1) of the New York Labor Law, that may be helpful to you. That law says that site owners and general contractors on a construction project have a legal obligation to ensure that all workers have the protections and safeguards needed to protect them from falling, or from things falling onto them.

Working in the field of construction can be dangerous. There are many different ways that you can be injured on the job. However, the law also gives you multiple potential ways to seek compensation if you were hurt because you did not receive proper safety protection, were not working in a safe workplace, or were hurt due to a violation of safety regulations. With these many ways to pursue financial recovery, it is well worth your while to contact a knowledgeable New York construction accident attorney to discuss your case.

Sometimes, the law’s protections may be greater than you would normally think. Take, for example, the case of Luis, a construction worker whose job was delivering bundles of scaffolding materials. During one delivery to a group of workers on a sidewalk bridge, and after Luis removed two metal bands that secured two of the bundles, two other bands popped open. This caused the scaffolding frames inside those bands to fall over and hit Luis. With each bundle weighing between 2,500 and 3,000 pounds, the accident caused Luis to suffer significant injuries.

If you know only a bit about New York’s “Scaffold Law,” you might think that Luis’ case could be a difficult one to win. After all, Luis was not injured at the actual construction site but was hurt while delivering materials to a site. Additionally, Luis wasn’t hurt because he fell or because something fell on him from above.

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