Artículos publicados en Ladder or Scaffold Accidents

When you have suffered an injury while working at your construction job, you are probably feeling very concerned. You’re likely concerned about yourself and concerned about providing for your family, in addition to other concerns you inevitably have. Many of these concerns are financial, and can be addressed by pursuing, and then completing, a successful legal action as fast as possible. One of the best ways to make sure that your construction injury lawsuit proceeds, and finishes, as swiftly as possible is to be sure you have an experienced New York City construction injury attorney on your side.

A successful, and swiftly resolved, case need not involve elaborate trial presentations or mountains of paperwork. Pursued in the right manner, it may be based, in large part, just on your own deposition testimony. Of course, to make that deposition get the job done, you have to be sure that the right questions are asked and the right answers elicited (thereby by placing that information on the record). Again this is a place where skilled legal counsel helps.

Take, as an example, a recent case involving C.V., a roofing worker working in the Hudson Valley. C.V. was atop a ladder while working one day when he fell from that ladder and suffered substantial injuries.

There is a type of mental image one gets when one thinks of a construction injury situation. The reader likely imagines a “hardhat” going to work at a large construction site and doing work on behalf of an employer whose only relationship to the worker is that of employer-employee. However, you might be surprised to know that those type of scenarios are not the only ones that can allow you to recover compensation for an injury under New York’s laws that protect workers hurt in construction-related accidents. In other words, if you’ve been hurt, the law may be capable of offering you more options than you would’ve thought. Contact an experienced New York construction accident attorney to find out more about the compensation you may be entitled to pursue.

Take, for example, the recent court case of A.D. J.P., who was A.D.’s mother, owned some rental properties upstate. A.D. attempted to climb onto the roof of one of J.P.’s properties one day to check on a chimney that possibly had suffered damage in a storm. A.D. fell from the ladder, though, and suffered injuries in the fall.

The son sued the mother, seeking compensation under several laws related to construction injuries, including Sections 200, 240(1) and 241(6) of the state’s Labor Law. Section 240(1) allows construction workers to seek compensation for harm suffered as a result of insufficient safety protection from “elevation-related” risks of harm.

If you are familiar with New York construction law, you know this state has certain statutory sections that make it easier, in some specific situations, for construction workers hurt on the job to recover much-needed compensation for their injuries. One of the circumstances in which that can happen is if the site owner or general contractor on your project violated one or more specific safety regulations established by the State of New York. If they did, and that violation led to your accident and injuries, then you can succeed in recovering damages in a lawsuit under this law, which is Section 241(6) of the Labor Law.

There’s another scenario that can lead to a successful case. That happens when you suffer a fall or something falls on you. You are entitled to proper safety protections that will protect you from “elevation-related” risks of harm, such as a scaffold. This law is Section 240(1) of the Labor Law. As a construction worker, those numbers aren’t necessarily what’s important; what is important is, if you’re injured on the job, be sure to reach out to an experienced New York City construction injury attorney about your situation.

Contacting legal counsel is important for many reasons. One of those is that the range of accidents that can possibly create claims for compensation under these laws can actually be broader than you might think. In other words, your accident doesn’t necessarily have to be you falling off something (like a scaffold) or involve an object falling from high above and striking down on you in order to permit you to recover compensation under this law.

The law in New York provides some very clear and strong protections for construction workers who are hurt on the job. The owner of the property where the work is taking place, as well as the general contractor on the project, has a responsibility under the law to provide workers on the site with a safe place to do their jobs. This includes providing them with the equipment and safety devices needed to do the work in a way that won’t result in injuries. In New York, you are entitled to that protection and entitled to sue when you are hurt because you didn’t receive that protection, regardless of your immigration status. If you’ve been hurt at your construction job, you should contact a knowledgeable New York construction accident attorney right away.

New York courts are clear about undocumented workers’ rights to pursue their cases. One recent example was a case filed by a worker named Carlos, who was a construction worker on a project in Long Island. Carlos needed to do a job that was high up. The ground below was uneven. Carlos recognized, and stated, that a ladder would not work for the task. Even though there were aerial lifts and scaffolding available, Carlos’s supervisor told him to use a ladder anyway. The ladder that Carlos used was not secured to anything. Eventually, Carlos fell from the ladder and suffered serious injuries to his back and his dominant hand and wrist.

Carlos sued. Carlos’ case was a strong one based upon the unsecured ladder. He gave his testimony as part of the trial. The owner of the site, which was one of the companies that Carlos sued, argued that the court should reject all of the proof Carlos gave in his testimony and should instead rule in its favor. The sole basis for this argument by the property owner was the fact that Carlos was an undocumented immigrant, that he did not pay taxes, and that he had used a co-worker’s name to obtain health insurance after the ladder accident.

New York has certain laws that protect construction workers. These laws do more, though, than just protect the men and women working with heavy equipment. As long as you are engaged in certain activities, you may be able to use these laws to your advantage in your injury case too, even if you are not a “hard hat” worker. An experienced New York construction accident attorney can help you determine the best way to proceed with your case and pursue the compensation you deserve.

The case of Juan from Manhattan was an example of how this can work for you as an injured worker. Juan was a porter who worked at a co-operative building in the Upper East Side in June 2013. One day, the building supervisor asked Juan to paint the hot water pipes in the building’s basement. The job required a ladder because the pipes were 10-11 feet off the ground. Juan grabbed an aluminum A-frame ladder. The ladder was missing the stabilizer bar on the left side and one of its rubber feet. These flaws caused the ladder to move front to back and side to side.

Juan used the imperfect ladder because, by the time he went to the shop room to start the painting work, all of the other ladders were already in use. Juan told the supervisor that the last remaining ladder was a broken one, but the supervisor told him “it’s fine.” Juan ascended the ladder holding a paint roller. The ladder shifted, and the porter fell to the ground, suffering injuries.

When you are injured at your construction job and need to file a lawsuit in order to obtain the compensation that the law allows you to receive, it helps to accumulate as many pieces of evidence as possible that back up your own assertions about what happened before and during your accident. Another important litigation tactic you may need to use to give yourself a stronger case is keeping out harmful evidence that the law says is not allowed to be admitted as part of your case. For advocacy in these evidentiary battles within your case, you should make sure you have a knowledgeable New York construction accident attorney representing you.

One recent construction injury case involved Atley, a construction worker who was working on Christmas Eve in 2012 when he suffered a serious accident. The worker was wearing a safety harness when he had his accident, but his harness was not tied off to anything. According to Atley, his accident took place because, while he was working on a scaffold, he tripped on a block and fell backward, tumbling off the scaffold and landing on the ground.

To back his allegations regarding how the accident happened, Atley had, in addition to his own testimony that he fell off the scaffold because he tripped on a block, his workers’ compensation claim, which stated that he slipped and fell off the scaffold. These pieces of proof, when put together, were enough to demonstrate to the court that Atley had not received the proper safety protections to safeguard him against falling off the scaffold and suffering injuries, which is a violation of New York’s Labor Law.