What to Do When Your Opponent Engages in Improper Conduct in Your New York Construction Injury Lawsuit

There are lots of things you may have to fight against in your New York construction injury case. You may have to fight against arguments that the injury you suffered wasn’t a type that’s covered by the law. You may face assertions that the activity that you were performing isn’t something that permits compensation under the statute. One thing you shouldn’t have to face is an opponent that doesn’t “play fair” with regard to pre-trial and trial procedural tactics. That can be difficult, though, as you may not know how to go about contesting the impermissible things that your opponents seek to do. Your skilled New York City construction injury attorney will know, however, and that is just one more among many vital reasons why it pays to have experienced counsel on your side.

What do we mean by “play fair”? D.F.’s case from Buffalo is a good example. Reportedly, D.F. was substantially injured when a load of rebar fell from a crane and crashed into his head.

For workers who are injured in a manner like D.F. was, there are several things that you have to do in order to get the fair compensation you need. You have to show that you were engaged in a type of construction activity that is covered by the law, which D.F. was. You have to demonstrate that yours was a covered type of injury. Under Section 240(1) of the Labor Law, injuries arising from worker falls and objects falling onto workers are generally covered. Clearly, this worker’s injury was one that the scope of the law encompassed.

Not just a delay, but an ‘intentional’ or ‘willful’ delay

That just shows that the defense was liable. Getting to a proper outcome also means showing how badly you were harmed. In D.F.’s case, the defense wanted to use as evidence the testimony of a psychiatric expert witness. The problem for D.F. was that the defense had allegedly intentionally delayed in mentioning that fact to the plaintiff’s side. The rules required the parties to disclose all their expert witnesses to the other side right away, but the defense didn’t do that. Instead, it finally came forward and told D.F. about the psychiatric expert the day after jury selection had begun, which put the worker at a distinct strategic disadvantage in choosing jurors and in other areas.

Would you know what to do if that happened to you? This worker’s lawyer did. D.F.’s counsel made a request that asked the trial judge to exclude the psychiatric expert’s testimony altogether as a penalty for the defense’s disclosure delay. The worker’s counsel was able to persuade the judge that the delay was “intentional or willful” and that the intentional delay hurt D.F.’s conduct of his case.

The trial judge agreed and excluded the psychiatric expert’s testimony, and the appeals court upheld that ruling. Getting that psychiatric evidence thrown out necessarily weakened the defense’s case and gave D.F. a better chance of getting a better recovery, so knowing how to get the testimony thrown out was very important.

There are many things that your experienced New York City construction injury attorney will know how to do, including meeting all filing deadlines, requesting disclosures of possible evidence from the other side and formulating your proof into a cohesive and persuasive argument. Your skilled attorney will also know what to do when the other side engages in tactics that are improper. To protect yourself throughout the litigation process, retain the knowledgeable New York City construction injury attorneys at Arcia & Associates. Our team has many years of handling construction injury cases and helping injured workers pursue the compensation they deserve.