Roofing work is among the most dangerous occupations in New York City. Workers are frequently exposed to extreme heights, unstable surfaces, heavy equipment and unpredictable weather conditions. Unfortunately, roofers are injured frequently while on the job and left with severe injuries that affect their health, livelihood and financial stability. If you’ve been injured in a roofing accident in New York City, it’s crucial that you understand your rights as well as the steps to take to pursue compensation. Below, we’ll walk you through some of the key considerations in these types of accidents.
Understanding Roofing Accident Risks
Before discussing compensation, it helps to understand the common causes of roofing accidents. These include:
• Falls from heights: One of the leading causes of serious injury or death in construction work.
• Falling objects: Tools, debris, or materials may fall and strike workers.
• Faulty safety equipment: Harnesses, guardrails or ladders that fail can result in catastrophic accidents.
• Slips and trips: Loose materials, wet surfaces and poor housekeeping contribute to slip and trip hazards for roofers.
• Electrocution: Roofers often work near power lines or electrical equipment. This increases the risk of electrocution.
Protections Under New York Law
New York State has enacted special labor laws designed to protect workers and hold property owners/managers, construction companies, contractors and other parties accountable. The state provides some of the strongest legal protections for construction workers in the country.
Employers in New York are required to carry workers’ compensation insurance. This system ensures injured workers can access medical care and a little wage replacement regardless of fault. Benefits often include coverage for medical expenses, a portion of lost wages and disabilities. However, workers’ compensation very likely may not cover all of your financial losses.
New York Labor Law §240, which is also known as the “Scaffold Law,” is particularly significant for roofers. It holds owners and general contractors strictly liable for injuries caused by incidents such as falls from heights or falling objects. Section 241(6) of the Labor Law allows injured workers to sue if a safety code violation contributed to the accident. Section 200 codifies the general duty of owners and contractors to maintain a safe workplace. Together, these laws provide multiple avenues for compensation for injured workers.
Steps to Take After a Roofing Accident in New York City
If you’ve been injured in a roofing accident, what you do immediately after the incident can have a big impact on your ability to recover compensation. Here are some key steps:
Seek Medical Attention Immediately
Your health and safety come first. Even if your injuries seem minor, get checked by a doctor. Some injuries, such as concussions or internal bleeding, may not be obvious right away. Medical records also serve as critical evidence for your claim.
Report the Accident
Notify your employer or site supervisor as soon as possible. Under New York law, you generally need to report a workplace injury within 30 days to preserve your workers’ compensation rights, but try to report to your employer right away.
Document the Scene
If you are physically able, take photographs of the accident site, your injuries and any safety equipment (or lack thereof). Collect the names and contact information of coworkers or witnesses who saw the incident. Your personal injury lawyer can also help with these efforts.
File a Workers’ Compensation Claim
Submit a claim with the New York Workers’ Compensation Board. This involves completing a Form C-3 (Employee’s Claim for Compensation). You’ll need to provide details about the accident, your injuries and your employment. You should consult a personal injury lawyer before signing or filling out any papers.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
Many construction workers including roofers, ironworkers, steelworkers, laborers, carpenters, masons, bricklayers, painters, window washers, and electricians etc. carry out their tasks at elevations while on roofs, scaffolds, ladders, platforms, etc. Such jobs are often physically demanding and expose the workers to various perils.
Workers injured in roofing accidents and other construction accident can bring civil actions against the construction company, contractor and property owner/manager, etc. responsible for the safety of the jobsite. Construction accident injuries can be debilitating and sometimes, even catastrophic or fatal.
A construction accident victim can seek workers’ compensation benefits from his or her employer. In addition, workers may also be able to file a third-party claim against a negligent (careless) party other than the employer or co-employees for significant monetary damages and have two sources of compensation available for their losses.
Examples of third parties include, but are not limited to, general contractors, construction companies, sub-contractors, building owners/managers, managing agents etc. In cases where a worker dies from injuries suffered on the job, surviving family members may seek death benefits through workers’ compensation and/or file a wrongful death claim against a third party who may be held liable for the fatal incident.
If you have suffered injuries in a construction-related 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.
Our law firm recovered $3,375,576 for a construction worker (an undocumented immigrant) who was injured on the job — one of the highest construction case settlements in New York that year. Our law firm also recovered $3,000,000 for a man who fell and suffered two broken legs when he walked into an open elevator shaft. Also, one of our clients obtained a verdict for $43,940,000 and another of our clients got a verdict for $23,500,000, both in medical malpractice cases.
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, lead poisoning and medical malpractice cases including, brachial plexus palsy (Erb’s palsy) and cerebral palsy cases in New York, 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