Manhattan Construction Accident & Work Injury Lawyers

If you are an eligible employee, workers' compensation covers medical care and part of your lost wages, whoever was at fault, and you generally cannot sue your own employer. On a Manhattan site the owner, general contractor or construction manager, and other companies may be legally responsible under the Labor Law or for negligence. The compensation carrier usually has a lien on part of any recovery, subject to statutory exceptions.

We do not rank job types; we have no reliable public data for that here. Construction injuries typically involve falls from scaffolds, ladders, floor openings and roofs, falling material, hoists and cranes, and demolition and renovation hazards. A Manhattan site can have several companies working at once, so identifying who controlled the work that caused the injury is often the first task.

Yes, but usually not your employer. You can keep collecting compensation and sue an owner, general contractor, construction manager, another subcontractor or an equipment maker that is legally responsible. Notice of the lawsuit goes to the carrier. The carrier usually has a lien on part of the recovery, subject to statutory exceptions, and a settlement for less than the compensation provided needs its written consent or a court order.

Labor Law 240(1) requires owners, contractors and their agents to provide proper protection against falls and falling objects during building, demolition, repair, alteration, painting, cleaning or pointing. If a missing or inadequate device caused the injury, your own carelessness is not a defense. With no violation and your own conduct the sole proximate cause, there is no claim (Blake, 2003). Owners of one- and two-family homes who contract for but do not direct or control the work may be exempt, depending on the property’s use.

We do not publish ranges. Value depends on the injury and its permanence, lost earnings, medical needs, the proof of responsibility, any compensation lien and the insurance available. A successful lawsuit can recover pain and suffering and lost earnings that compensation does not pay. The firm-wide results on this page are shown exactly as recorded; none names a county, and they are not predictions.

Get medical care and tell the doctor it happened at work. Give your employer written notice within 30 days. Photograph the device or hazard and the permit and contractor signs on the site fence or sidewalk shed. Note which company’s workers were in the area. Do not give a recorded statement to the owner’s or contractor’s insurer before talking to us.

Yes. The Workers' Compensation Board says benefits are available regardless of citizenship or immigration status. In Labor Law cases, the Court of Appeals held that federal immigration law does not bar a lost-wage claim, absent proof that the worker gave false work-authorization documents to get the job (Balbuena, 2006). Tell us your situation at the start so we can prepare for questions that may come up.

Injury claims against a private owner or contractor: generally three years. A public body often has an earlier step: the City usually needs a notice of claim within 90 days where required and suit within one year and 90 days; the Port Authority, a notice 60 days before suit and suit within one year. The State: within 90 days, a claim filed with the Court of Claims and served on the Attorney General, or a notice of intention served on the Attorney General. Death claims follow separate rules.

Compensation comes from your employer's carrier without proof of fault and pays medical care and, for eligible workers, partial wage benefits based on wages and disability; for accidents from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, weekly wage benefits are capped at $1,281.50. A Labor Law lawsuit is against an owner or contractor, not your employer, and can recover pain and suffering and lost earnings if a violation caused the injury. You can have both; the carrier usually has a lien on part of the lawsuit recovery.

No public dataset we rely on ranks Manhattan neighborhoods by work accidents, so we do not. For a claim, the kind of work matters more: high-rise construction, facade and sidewalk-shed work, interior renovations for tenants, demolition, and public projects such as transit or the World Trade Center site each involve different parties and, for public owners, different notice rules. Tell us the address and we will identify the owner.

In an emergency, call 911. The State designates these adult trauma centers in Manhattan: NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell (Level I), and NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem and Mount Sinai Morningside (Level II). Wherever you are treated, say the injury happened at work, and keep every report and bill. This is orientation, not a recommendation.