Blog de Abogado en la Ciudad de Nueva York

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.