New York Construction Accident Lawyers

Why a New York Jobsite Injury Is Worth More Than a Comp Claim

Workers' compensation pays your medical treatment and roughly two-thirds of your average weekly wage, subject to a state maximum. It pays nothing for pain and suffering, nothing for the life you had before, and nothing to your spouse.

It is also the only thing you can collect from your employer. That is the trade the comp system makes, and it is why the entire fight in a New York construction case happens somewhere else: against the people who owned the building and ran the site. Workers' Compensation Law § 11 carries one narrow exception, and our page on the grave injury rule explains why it is not the door back to suing your employer that most people assume.

Those defendants are not your employer, so the comp bar does not shield them. And under the Labor Law they can be liable even when they never set foot on the floor where you got hurt. Ownership and control are what trigger the duty, not personal fault.

That is the structure worth understanding before you accept anything, and it is covered in depth on our breakdown of how a Labor Law claim works alongside workers' compensation.

Labor Law 240, 241(6), and 200: The Three Claims Behind Your Case

New York gives an injured construction worker up to three separate statutory claims. They are not alternatives. A well-built case usually pleads all three and lets the evidence decide which one carries.

Labor Law 240(1), the Scaffold Law

Section 240(1) requires owners and contractors to furnish scaffolding, hoists, stays, ladders, slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys, braces, irons, and ropes that give proper protection to workers exposed to elevation-related risk.^[1] The duty is non-delegable, meaning an owner cannot contract it away to the sub who actually built the scaffold. Comparative negligence is not a defense. If the safety device was absent or inadequate and that caused your injury, liability attaches. The full doctrine is laid out on our page about the Labor Law 240 Scaffold Law.

Labor Law 241(6) and the Industrial Code

Section 241(6) reaches hazards that have nothing to do with height. It requires that construction, excavation, and demolition areas be operated to provide reasonable and adequate protection, and it hands the specifics to the Commissioner of Labor's Industrial Code at 12 NYCRR Part 23.^[2] The catch is that only a concrete, measurable command supports the claim. Under Ross v. Curtis-Palmer Hydro-Electric Co., 81 N.Y.2d 494 (1993), a regulation written in general terms like adequate, proper, or safe will not do it. Picking the right code section is most of the work, which is why we built a dedicated guide to Labor Law 241(6) Industrial Code violations.

Labor Law 200 and Common-Law Negligence

Section 200 codifies the ordinary duty to keep a workplace reasonably safe. Unlike the other two, it requires proof that the defendant either created the dangerous condition, knew about it, or actually supervised the work that caused the injury. It is the fallback claim, and on some sites it is the strongest one, particularly where a dangerous premises condition existed before your trade ever arrived.

Why Pleading All Three Matters

Defense counsel attacks each claim differently. They argue your fall was a de minimis height differential to knock out 240(1), argue your Industrial Code section is too general to knock out 241(6), and argue no notice or control to knock out 200. Cases are won by giving the court more than one road to liability, and by developing the record early enough that the surviving claim is the strong one.

Which Jobsite Accidents Send New York Workers to Our Office

Falls remain the leading killer in New York construction, and the accidents below are the ones that produce most of the serious Labor Law cases across the state. The Labor Law protects people who were working, so a passerby, a delivery driver, a tenant, or an inspector hurt on the same site brings a different claim entirely, which our page on being hurt on a construction site without being a worker lays out.

Falls From Scaffolds, Ladders, and Roofs

An unsecured extension ladder that kicks out, a pipe scaffold missing a guardrail or planking, a roof edge with no perimeter protection. These are the core 240(1) fact patterns, and they generate the highest-value construction cases in the state. We handle scaffolding accidents and ladder falls throughout New York.

Falls Through Floor Openings, Shafts, and Skylights

An unguarded riser hole, an uncovered elevator shaft, a skylight that a worker steps on because nothing marked it. The Industrial Code has a specific command for exactly this hazard, which makes these cases strong on liability and devastating on injury. See our page on a fall through an unguarded floor opening.

Struck by Falling Tools, Materials, and Debris

A dropped hammer from six floors up, a load that slips out of a choker, a brick from a poorly netted facade. Whether 240(1) covers it turns on whether the object was being hoisted or required securing, a distinction we break down on our page about being struck by a falling object under Labor Law 240. The statute protects workers rather than passersby, so a pedestrian hit by the same brick has a different case built on negligence and the building's violation record, covered on our page about falling debris and sidewalk shed injuries.

Crane, Hoist, and Rigging Failures

Tower crane collapses, material hoist failures, and rigging that lets go over an occupied street. These cases bring in the crane owner, the rigging contractor, and the equipment manufacturer alongside the site defendants. Our attorneys handle crane accident claims nationwide, and hoists carry rules of their own, including a special approval that a temporary personnel hoist cannot go into service without, covered on our page about material hoist and construction elevator accidents.

Trench Collapse and Excavation Cave-Ins

An unshored trench in Brooklyn or a utility excavation on a Queens street can bury a worker in seconds. A cave-in is a known, regulated hazard with its own Industrial Code and OSHA requirements, and the failure to protect against it is not bad luck. See our coverage of trench collapse accidents.

Electrocution and Arc Flash Burns

Contact with an energized line, a panel that was never locked out, an arc flash that leaves catastrophic burns. Electrocution is one of the construction industry's four leading causes of death, and the cases usually turn on who controlled the energization sequence. We pursue electrocution claims against every responsible contractor. An arc flash burn injures differently, because the worker can be burned severely without current ever passing through the body.

Demolition, Silica, and Toxic Exposure

Demolition and interior gut work expose trades to crystalline silica, asbestos, and lead, and the injury shows up years later as silicosis or mesothelioma rather than on an accident report. These claims run on different clocks and different proof. See our page on construction toxic exposure, and our page on engineered stone silicosis for the fabrication workforce, where CPLR § 214-c runs the deadline from diagnosis rather than exposure. The structural side of that work has its own Subpart of the Industrial Code, including a limit on how much wall may be left standing above a working floor, covered on our page about demolition accident claims.

What Compensation Can You Recover in a New York Construction Lawsuit?

A Labor Law case recovers the categories workers' compensation refuses to touch, and New York places no cap on compensatory damages in an ordinary injury case. The number is set by the evidence, not a statutory ceiling.

Because the Scaffold Law removes comparative fault from the liability analysis, the fight in most 240(1) cases moves quickly to damages. That makes the documentation of your losses the whole ballgame.

Recoverable damages in a New York construction injury claim may include:

• Past and future medical care (surgery, hardware, injections, revision procedures, rehabilitation)
• Lifetime attendant care and home modification after a spinal cord or brain injury
• Full lost earnings, not the capped weekly benefit comp pays
• Lost future earning capacity, including the trade you can no longer work and the union benefits that came with it
• Pain and suffering, past and future, which comp does not pay at all
• Disfigurement and scarring from burns, degloving, or surgical hardware
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Loss of consortium for your spouse
• Wrongful death and the survival claim when a worker does not come home

Value tracks the severity of the injury, the strength of the statutory claim, the layers of insurance stacked behind the owner and general contractor, and how completely the future is documented. New York's rule against caps is explained on our page about New York's refusal to cap injury damages, and typical construction ranges are on our breakdown of construction accident settlement amounts.

Who Actually Pays: Owner, General Contractor, or Construction Manager?

Labor Law 240 and 241 name owners, contractors, and their agents. On a modern New York project that list is longer than it looks.

The title on the contract does not control. In Walls v. Turner Construction Co., 4 N.Y.3d 861 (2005), the Court of Appeals held that a construction manager becomes a statutory agent, and takes on the same liability, when the safety obligation has been delegated to it and it holds the authority to supervise and control the work. A CM that can stop unsafe work is a defendant.

Beyond the site defendants there is often a leasing company for the failed lift, a manufacturer for the defective harness or ladder, a property manager, and on public work a city or state agency with its own notice deadlines. Mapping every entity before the two-year mark is what separates a case with one insurance layer from a case with four. We go through the whole chain on our page about owner, general contractor, and construction manager liability.

One category of owner is carved out entirely. The Labor Law exempts owners of one- and two-family dwellings who do not direct or control the work, which comes up constantly on brownstone and small-house renovations, and our page on the homeowner exemption covers where that protection stops.

One New York wrinkle matters here. CPLR 1601 normally lets a defendant found 50 percent or less at fault pay only its equitable share of non-economic damages, but CPLR 1602(8) carves out claims under Labor Law Article 10, so that limit does not protect a Scaffold Law defendant.^[3]

Why Injured Tradespeople Choose Lawsuit Legal for a Labor Law Case

These cases are decided on things that happen in the first weeks: whether the scaffold or ladder was preserved, whether the site safety log and daily reports were demanded before they were tidied, and whether the Industrial Code sections pleaded actually fit the accident.

Our firm has handled more than 40,000 injury cases and recovered over $100 million for clients, with a 98 percent recovery rate. Our attorneys have been recognized by Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and the National Trial Lawyers.

What matters more on a Labor Law file is posture. We are selective about the cases we take, and when we take one we prepare it to be tried. Owners, general contractors, and their carriers keep track of which firms file cases and which firms try them, and that reputation shows up in the number on the offer.

Practical things that matter to a working tradesperson: the consultation costs nothing, you owe no fee unless we recover for you, we come to the hospital or the house when you cannot travel, and your immigration status does not bar a Labor Law claim in New York. If you are undocumented, our page on undocumented worker injury claims explains how those cases are handled.

The Manhattan high-rise is what people picture. The cases that come through our door are more often a two-family in Queens or a mid-rise in Brooklyn, on a job nobody was watching. New York Labor Law does not distinguish between a landmark tower and a neighborhood jobsite. We see catastrophic falls, crush injuries, and struck-by incidents on residential renovations, mixed-use developments, and commercial projects across all five boroughs. Every site has safety obligations. Every worker deserves to go home safely.

Where New York Construction Cases Come From and Where They Get Tried

New York State recorded 55 construction worker deaths in 2024, with 19 of them in New York City, and 81 percent of the workers in the state fatalities OSHA investigated that year were non-union.^[4] Latino workers made up roughly 18.6 percent of the state workforce and 25.8 percent of worker fatalities. The pattern in our intake matches it: the most dangerous jobs in this state are the ones with the least oversight.

The work itself sorts by borough. Manhattan produces high-rise steel, curtain wall, interior fit-out, and facade work driven by the Facade Inspection Safety Program. Brooklyn and Queens produce mid-rise residential, the sector with the thinnest safety supervision. The Bronx and Staten Island bring infrastructure and utility excavation. Long Island and Westchester add residential and commercial work where the homeowner exemption starts to matter.

Our office sits at 305 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, in the Civic Center, and these cases are litigated in the county where the accident happened: New York County Supreme Court at 60 Centre Street, Kings County Supreme Court on Adams Street, Queens County Supreme Court in Jamaica, and Bronx County Supreme Court on the Grand Concourse. Where a case is venued affects how it is valued, and that is part of the early strategy, not an afterthought.

How Long Do You Have to File a New York Construction Accident Claim?

Three years from the date of the accident for a personal injury claim under CPLR 214, and two years from the date of death for a wrongful death claim. Those are the outer limits, and two things routinely shorten them.

If any part of the project involved the City, a public authority, the MTA, or a school district, a notice of claim is generally due within 90 days, and the lawsuit itself within one year and 90 days. Missing that notice ends an otherwise strong Labor Law case. Our page on the notice of claim rules that govern public work covers which defendants trigger it.

The practical deadline is much earlier. Ladders get returned to the rental yard, scaffolds get struck, the accident location gets built over, and site safety logs and daily reports get archived by a contractor with no reason to help you. Full deadline detail is on our page covering every New York injury filing deadline.