Five Common Misconceptions about Construction Accident Cases

 A construction accident can have an immediate as well as a long-standing impact on victims’ lives. Not only does it affect the life of the injured worker, but also his family members who depend on his income to make ends meet. When a construction worker is seriously injured, he or she is not able to return to work for several weeks or months. In some cases, workers may never fully recover from the more serious or catastrophic injuries and this often means that they lose their ability to make a living.

The laws regarding construction accident cases can be quite complicated and challenging to comprehend. This in turn creates an amount of uncertainty and confusion giving rise to several misconceptions that currently exist. Such notions hamper injured workers from fully understanding their rights. As construction accident lawyers, we field a number of these questions frequently.
Here are the five most common misconceptions we see in connection with construction accident cases:
1. You cannot file a personal injury lawsuit if you collect workers’ compensation benefits.
This is not true. If you are injured in a New York City construction accident, you can seek workers’ compensation benefits from your employer, which will help pay for your medical expenses and a portion of your lost wages. In addition, depending on the circumstances of the accident, injured workers may also be able to file what is known as a “third-party claim,” which is a lawsuit against a party other than the employer or co-employee.
Examples of such third parties against whom you can file a lawsuit include, but are not limited to, general contractors, sub-contractors, property owners, property managers etc. Such a lawsuit is usually worth a lot more than your workers’ compensation claim. You can seek to recover all of your medical expenses and rehabilitation costs as well as lost income and compensation for pain and suffering. Here, your claim allows you to file for the damages that workers’ compensation does not cover.
2. You cannot bring a claim if you are an undocumented worker.
This is not true. New York City’s burgeoning construction industry rests on the shoulders of immigrant workers. The responsibility of checking documentation falls on the employer. Often, construction companies, general contractors and sub-contractors tend to look the other way when it comes to verifying documentation. These workers are usually non-union and don’t get the same pay, benefits or even the safety equipment that union workers do. Undocumented workers are also typically the most affected by a construction accident injury.
If you are an undocumented worker who has been injured in a construction activity related incident, please remember that you have the right to obtain fair compensation for your significant losses. Our law firm recovered $3,375,576 for a construction worker, an undocumented immigrant, who was injured on the job. This was one of the highest construction case settlements in New York that year.
3. You cannot bring a lawsuit if you are partially to blame for the construction accident.
This is also not true. New York’s Scaffold Law protects workers whose accidents occurred as a result of negligence or a safety violation on the part of the property owner, contractor or some other involved party. Even if the construction worker was partially at fault for the accident, the other parties may still be held liable for the worker’s injuries and losses. So, regardless of whose fault the incident was, workers can seek and obtain damages in these instances.
4. Filing a construction accident lawsuit can be extremely expensive.
This is among the more prevalent and widespread misconceptions. Experienced construction accident law firms work on a contingency fee basis, which means that they don’t charge you any fees unless they recover compensation for you. Our law firm offers free and comprehensive initial consultations at no cost. You will not pay anything unless we recover compensation for you.
5. You cannot seek compensation if your return to work.
Again, this is not true. If you suffered injuries that were serious enough to cause you to take time off of work and seek medical care such as hospitalization, surgery or rehabilitative care, you are entitled to receive compensation. Talk to an experienced New York City construction accident lawyer about filing for workers’ compensation benefits and potentially a third-party claim, to have two sources of compensation and help maximize your recovery.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
If you or a loved one has been injured in a construction accident, the experienced New York personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options, and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you. For over 49 years, our skilled accident attorneys have established a proven track record of helping injured victims get fair compensation for their losses.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury cases in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
Other TOLL FREE phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
Please visit us at: www.WORK4YOULAW.com