NYC Construction Accident Lawyer

Construction accidents do not happen in slow motion. One second you are on the job, and the next your life is completely different. If you were hurt on a construction site anywhere in New York City, you may have rights under some of the strongest worker protection laws in the country. You need to understand those rights before the people responsible for your injury get too far ahead of you.

Here is the most urgent thing: deadlines in construction accident cases can be very short. If a government entity owns the property or is connected to the project, you may have as little as 90 days to file a notice of claim. The general deadline to file a lawsuit in New York is three years, but that longer window does not apply to every situation. Assuming you have time is a mistake you cannot undo.

Our construction accident lawyers in New York City have handled these cases for decades. Call us before you talk to anyone from the insurance company, the general contractor, or your employer.

Can I Sue If I Was Injured on a NYC Construction Site?

Yes. If you were hurt on a construction site in New York City, you can almost certainly sue someone, even if workers' compensation is also in the picture. Workers' comp covers your employer, but it does not protect the property owner, the general contractor, or any other party that controlled the site. New York Labor Law creates direct liability for those parties, and you can pursue a third-party lawsuit alongside your workers' comp claim at the same time.

The short answer is that New York gives injured construction workers more legal options than almost any other state. The Scaffold Law, Labor Law 241, and Labor Law 200 all create pathways to hold the people who ran the job accountable for what happened on it. A construction accident attorney can tell you within the first conversation which of those statutes applies to your situation and who the right defendants are.

How Long Do I Have to File a Construction Accident Lawsuit in New York City?

Three years from the date of the accident under CPLR 214. That is the standard window for most construction injury cases in New York. Do not mistake that for breathing room.

Ninety days is the number that ends cases before they begin. Any construction site owned or operated by a government entity, the City of New York, the NYC School Construction Authority, the Port Authority, the MTA, triggers a notice of claim requirement. You have 90 days from the date of the accident to file that notice or you may permanently lose your right to sue. MTA track renovation projects running through stations like Delancey Street, the city-funded school construction sites going up across East New York and the South Bronx, infrastructure work tied to the BQE reconstruction in Brooklyn Heights, all of it involves government defendants who will use a missed deadline to end your case on a procedural technicality.

Courts have limited authority to allow late filings. The bar for getting an extension is high and courts grant them rarely. Call our construction accident lawyers the same week the accident happens.

What Compensation Can NYC Construction Accident Victims Recover?

The compensation available in a New York construction accident case depends on the severity of your injuries, how they affect your ability to work, and which parties are liable. In serious cases, the total recovery can be substantial. Here is what our construction accident lawyers pursue on your clients' behalf.

• Medical expenses: Every cost related to your injury, including emergency room treatment, surgery, hospitalization, physical therapy, rehabilitation, prescription medication, and any future medical care your doctors anticipate you will need. Future medical costs are calculated with expert testimony and can represent a significant portion of the total recovery in catastrophic injury cases.
• Lost wages: The income you lost while you were unable to work after the accident. This includes overtime and supplemental income you would have earned if you had not been hurt.
• Lost earning capacity: If your injuries permanently affect your ability to do the work you did before, or any comparable work, you can recover for the difference between what you would have earned over your working life and what you are now able to earn. For a 35-year-old ironworker or operating engineer, this number can reach into the millions.
• Pain and suffering: Compensation for the physical pain, emotional distress, and reduced quality of life caused by your injuries. This is the category workers' compensation does not cover at all, and in serious construction accident cases it is often the largest single component of a recovery.
• Permanent disability: If your injuries have left you with a lasting impairment, whether partial or total, you can recover for the permanent effect on your daily life, your independence, and your ability to engage in activities you had before the accident.
• Scarring and disfigurement: New York law allows separate recovery for permanent scarring and disfigurement, which is particularly relevant in burn injury cases and cases involving traumatic amputation.
• Wrongful death damages: If a construction worker died as a result of the accident, the estate can recover for funeral and burial expenses, the economic support the deceased would have provided to their family, and the loss of parental guidance for surviving children.

Workers' compensation runs alongside a third-party lawsuit in most construction cases, but the two are not the same. Comp covers a portion of lost wages and medical bills. It does not touch pain and suffering, permanent disability, or lost earning capacity the way a civil lawsuit does. The difference between settling for a workers' comp award alone and pursuing the full value of a Labor Law claim can be the difference between getting by and actually being made whole.

Who Can File a Construction Accident Claim in New York City?

Any worker hurt on a construction site due to unsafe conditions, a Labor Law violation, or another party's negligence. This includes union and non-union workers, day laborers, employees of subcontractors, and workers placed through staffing agencies. You do not have to be a full-time construction worker. If you were on that site doing work when the accident happened, you may have a claim.

Wrongful death cases follow different rules. If a construction worker died on the job, the family has two years from the date of death to bring a wrongful death claim. A survival action, which covers the pain and suffering the worker experienced before death, may be filed alongside it. The two claims calculate damages differently, and both matter to the total recovery.

Types of Cases Our NYC Construction Accident Lawyers Handle

Our construction accident lawyers represent workers hurt across every category of worksite accident. What every case has in common is this: someone with authority over that site made a decision, or failed to make one, and a worker paid for it.

• Scaffold and elevated platform collapses: Cases where scaffolding failed structurally, was improperly erected, or lacked required guardrails, causing workers to fall to lower levels or the ground.
• Ladder fall accidents: Cases where an unsecured, defective, or improperly positioned ladder caused a worker to fall, including falls from A-frame ladders, extension ladders, and step stools used in place of proper equipment.
• Falling object accidents: Cases where tools, materials, debris, or equipment dropped from an upper level and struck a worker below, including injuries from power tools, steel beams, and unsecured concrete forms.
• Trench and excavation collapses: Cases where inadequate shoring or failure to comply with OSHA and Labor Law 241 requirements caused a trench wall to give way onto a worker.
• Struck-by and caught-between accidents: Cases where a worker was hit by a swinging crane load, a reversing piece of heavy equipment, or was caught between machinery and a fixed object.
• Electrocution accidents: Cases involving contact with exposed wiring, unguarded electrical panels, or overhead power lines at active construction sites.
• Floor opening and roof edge falls: Cases where unguarded floor openings, unmarked holes, or unprotected roof edges caused falls resulting in serious injury.
• Construction vehicle and equipment accidents: Cases where forklifts, excavators, concrete trucks, or other site vehicles struck workers due to operator error or inadequate traffic controls on site.
• Defective equipment and tool accidents: Cases where a power tool, piece of rigging, or safety device failed because of a manufacturing defect or improper maintenance.
• Toxic exposure on construction sites: Cases involving exposure to asbestos, lead paint, silica dust, chemical solvents, or other hazardous materials on demolition and renovation sites across the five boroughs.

How Our Construction Accident Attorneys in New York City Can Help You Recover

The general contractor carries insurance. That insurance company has a claims team that has worked hundreds of cases just like yours. Their goal from the first phone call is to close your file for as little money as possible. They move fast. They reach out to injured workers before attorneys get involved. They make offers that can sound like a lot of money to someone sitting in a hospital bed who does not yet know what their case is worth.

Our construction accident lawyers get between you and the insurance company from day one. We go to the site on our own to document conditions before they are changed or fixed. We bring in engineering experts, medical specialists, and economists who calculate what this injury actually costs you over your lifetime, not just through your next surgery. A back injury that ends a 40-year-old ironworker's career is not a small claim. It is a calculation that includes decades of lost wages, lifetime medical care, and the permanent loss of the ability to do the work you spent your life building toward.

New York Labor Law cases are technical. The arguments over what counts as a safety device under Labor Law 240, whether the general contractor had supervisory control under Labor Law 200, and which safety codes apply under Labor Law 241 are all fought hard by experienced defense attorneys. Our construction accident attorneys know these laws and know how New York courts have ruled on the specific arguments you will face.

Every case we take is on a contingency fee basis. No upfront costs. No legal fees unless we recover for you. You focus on getting better. We handle everything else.

What Construction Injuries Require a NYC Construction Accident Lawyer?

Any injury serious enough to affect your ability to work, your quality of life, or your long-term health warrants a call to a construction accident attorney. That said, certain injuries are especially common on New York City job sites, and the stakes in those cases are high enough that going it alone is not a realistic option.

• Traumatic brain injuries: Happen when workers fall from elevation or are struck by falling objects. The effects can be permanent and may not be fully apparent in the days or weeks immediately following the accident. Insurance companies routinely challenge TBI claims by arguing the symptoms are exaggerated or unrelated to the accident. You need medical experts and legal representation that knows how to document these injuries properly.
• Spinal cord injuries: Including herniated discs, fractured vertebrae, and full or partial paralysis, these are among the most expensive and life-altering injuries that come out of construction sites. A single fall from a scaffold on a site along the Hudson Yards corridor or a high-rise project in Midtown can end a career and require decades of ongoing medical care. The lifetime costs in these cases are enormous, and the fight over those numbers is serious.
• Crush injuries and amputations: Result from caught-between accidents, equipment malfunctions, and trench collapses. These injuries are catastrophic by definition. They often involve multiple surgeries, prosthetics, rehabilitation, and permanent disability. The legal and medical complexity of these cases makes experienced representation essential.
• Broken bones: Including femur fractures, pelvic fractures, and multiple fractures from high falls, these may sound less severe than spinal or brain injuries but can result in months out of work, permanent hardware in the body, and long-term complications that affect earning capacity for years.
• Burn and electrocution injuries: Electrical contact, chemical exposure, and fires on demolition and renovation sites can require skin grafts, repeated surgeries, and cause permanent disfigurement. Electrocution cases in particular often involve violations of specific safety codes under Labor Law 241, which changes the legal analysis significantly.
• Internal injuries: Often underdiagnosed in the immediate aftermath of an accident. Workers sometimes leave a site feeling shaken but not critically hurt, only to discover days later that the internal damage is serious. If there is any chance of internal injury, get to a hospital immediately and call our construction accident attorneys as soon as you are able.

Can I Sue My Employer or the Contractor If I Got Hurt on a Construction Site in New York City?

Yes, and in many cases you can sue even if your employer carries workers' compensation. This is one of the most misunderstood things about construction injury law in New York, and it matters enormously to what your case is actually worth.

Workers' compensation covers medical bills and a portion of lost wages. It does not cover pain and suffering. It caps your recovery at a number that has no relationship to how seriously your life has been affected. More importantly, it does not bar a lawsuit against the property owner, the general contractor, or any other party that controlled the worksite. New York Labor Law creates direct liability for those parties, completely separate from your workers' comp claim. You can pursue both at the same time.

Construction cases in New York are genuinely different from almost anywhere else in the country because of this. The Scaffold Law and related statutes were written to put financial responsibility for worker safety on the parties with the most power over how a site is run. Not the laborer standing on the platform. The owner who hired the contractor. The GC who ran the job. Our construction accident attorneys understand how to use these laws, and we do.

What Is the NY Scaffold Law?

New York Labor Law 240 is one of the strongest worker protection statutes in the country. It holds property owners and general contractors strictly liable when a worker is injured in a fall from a height or is struck by a falling object. Strictly liable. That means you do not have to prove they were careless in the traditional sense. The law assigns responsibility the moment the accident fits the category.

Falls from scaffolding, ladders, rooftops, and elevated platforms all qualify. So does being struck by a tool, a piece of material, or any object that drops because it was not properly secured. It does not matter which subcontractor employed you. It does not matter how long you had been on that job. It does not matter if someone told you the conditions were fine.

Defense lawyers push back hard on these cases. The most common argument is that the worker was the sole proximate cause of the accident. Our construction accident lawyers in New York City have heard that argument hundreds of times, and we know exactly how to dismantle it.

What Other New York Labor Laws Apply to Construction Workers Hurt on the Job?

Labor Law 241 is the statute most injured workers have never heard of. It requires property owners and general contractors to maintain construction sites in a reasonably safe condition and comply with specific industrial codes that govern everything from trench depth to floor openings to how heavy machinery is operated. Unlike Labor Law 240, which is focused on gravity-related accidents, this one covers a much wider range of hazards.

A worker hurt when an unguarded trench collapses. A laborer struck by equipment that lacked required safety features. Someone who went down on a surface that violated the applicable code. All of these can support a 241 claim.

Then there is Labor Law 200, which is New York's codification of the basic common law duty to provide a safe workplace. It applies when the owner or contractor had actual control over the method or condition that caused the injury. It requires more to prove than the other two statutes, but it reaches situations that 240 and 241 do not.

Three statutes. Each one covering different ground. Our construction accident attorneys go through all three in every case, because the one that applies changes what you can recover and who you can recover it from.

What If I Was Hurt on a Publicly Funded Construction Project in New York City?

Government construction is not slowing down in this city. The Second Avenue Subway extension pushing into East Harlem. Penn Station reconstruction and the Hudson Yards adjacent projects. MTA capital work at stations from Pelham Bay Park to Far Rockaway. School Construction Authority projects across all five boroughs. Repaving and utility work on streets from the Grand Concourse to Atlantic Avenue.

When a public agency owns the site or funds the work, the case involves notice of claim requirements, specific procedural rules, and government immunity defenses that simply do not exist in private construction litigation. One missed step in the process and the case can be over before it gets anywhere near a courtroom. Our construction accident attorneys have handled government-defendant construction cases and know exactly where those traps are.

What If I Was an Undocumented Worker Injured on a New York City Construction Site?

You have rights. New York Labor Law does not ask about your immigration status. Undocumented workers can bring claims under Labor Law 240, 241, and 200 the same as any other worker on the same site. You can recover for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

Some contractors and insurance companies count on workers not knowing this. The threat of immigration consequences is not a legal defense. It is a pressure tactic. Our construction accident lawyers will not ask about your status, and it will not affect how we handle your case.

Where Our NYC Construction Accident Lawyers Serve Injured Workers

Our construction accident lawyers represent injured workers across all five boroughs of New York City. Construction is booming throughout the city right now, and so are the accidents that come with it.

Manhattan is home to some of the most active and dangerous construction corridors in the country. High-rise development along the Far West Side, gut renovations in Tribeca and SoHo, infrastructure work around Penn Station and Grand Central, and the constant churn of commercial construction between 42nd and 57th Streets put workers at serious risk every day. When something goes wrong on a Midtown tower or a Lower Manhattan renovation site, our construction accident attorneys are ready.

Brooklyn has seen an explosion of development over the past decade that shows no sign of slowing. Major residential and commercial projects in Downtown Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Sunset Park have brought hundreds of active sites to the borough. Infrastructure work along Atlantic Avenue and the ongoing BQE reconstruction in Brooklyn Heights add to the volume. Workers hurt on Brooklyn construction sites have the same rights under New York Labor Law as anyone working in Manhattan, and we make sure those rights are enforced.

The Bronx has seen significant publicly funded construction in recent years, including school construction authority projects, city housing developments, and infrastructure work throughout the borough. Sites near the Grand Concourse, in Mott Haven, and in Co-op City have all been active. Government-owned sites mean the 90-day notice of claim rule is often in play, which makes calling our construction accident lawyers quickly even more critical.

Queens is one of the most actively developing boroughs in the city. Long Island City continues its transformation with new high-rise residential towers going up along the waterfront. Jamaica and Flushing are seeing significant commercial and transit-adjacent development. Infrastructure projects tied to JFK Airport modernization have brought heavy construction to the southeastern part of the borough. Our construction accident attorneys handle cases across all of Queens, from Astoria to Far Rockaway.

Staten Island may be the smallest borough but it is not exempt from serious construction accidents. Development along the North Shore, infrastructure work near the St. George Ferry Terminal, and residential construction throughout the island generate real injury cases. Workers hurt on Staten Island sites have full access to New York Labor Law protections, and our construction accident lawyers handle those cases the same way we handle every other case in the city.

If you were hurt on a construction site anywhere in New York City, borough does not matter. What matters is that you call before a deadline passes.

Talk to Kelner & Kelner About Your NYC Construction Accident Case

You were hurt on the job. Someone controlled that site, and someone is responsible for what happened on it. Call Kelner & Kelner today to speak with our construction accident lawyers about your case and what New York Labor Law may entitle you to recover.