Accident Attorney

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Scaffold Accident Questions

 

1. Question:  What is the Scaffold Law and how does it affect safety at construction sites in New York?

 

Answer:  Labor Law Section 240, the Scaffold Law, requires building owners and general contractors to provide workers proper scaffolds, hoists, harnesses and other appropriate work site safety and equipment. If a construction worker is injured because the owner or general contractor failed to provide safety equipment, then the owner or contractor can be held fully liable. New York State's Scaffold Law applies only to work at elevated heights and does not apply to the owners of one or two family dwellings.

 

2. Question:  How does the Scaffold Law make New York different from other states?

 

Answer:  New York State's legitimate construction industry is virtually the safest in the nation, thanks in large part to the Scaffold Law and other safe construction work site state laws: Labor Law sections 200 and 241. According to statistics compiled by the United States Department of Labor, New York State consistently ranks as the second lowest rate of construction injury among the fifty states. Many states have more than twice the rate of worker injury because of the absence of scaffold and safety state laws similar to New York's.

 

Construction work is inherently dangerous. In high elevation work, particularly when working on a scaffold, ladder or roof, a moment's lapse in attention can result in death or serious injury unless workers are supplied with adequate safety equipment to protect against a fall.

 

Without the Scaffold Law, more building owners and general contractors in the highly competitive construction industry would cut corners on safety and more workers would be injured or killed in construction falls. The owner who signs the construction contract with the general contractor and then makes payment is in the best position to insist on full compliance with all safety standards.

 

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, studying the relative risk for fatal injury in occupations, based on an index of "1" for all occupations, assigned an index of "8.1" to construction site workers and "13.1" for sheet metal construction site workers. By comparison, electrical power workers are rated at "5.7."

 

3. Question:  Do New York's construction safety laws, Labor Law §200, 240 and 241, favor the employee or the employer?

 

Answer:  New York's safety laws favor both the employee and the employer. The employee benefits from having construction safety equipment available at the work site to protect him or her from harm which could result in loss of earnings, permanent disability, inability to support children and spouses, which also can result in death.

 

The employer benefits because when injuries are prevented, Workers' Compensation insurance rates remain stable.

 

Tax payers also benefit because when workers are injured and are permanently disabled, taxpayer money is needed to help compensate for the damage caused to the worker and the family through benefits such as Medicaid, permanent disability payments and other social service programs. The Scaffold Law saves taxpayers money because it requires owners and general contractors to take responsibility through private insurance.

 

The owners and general contractors in the legitimate construction industry benefit because they can require specific safety procedures to be followed by the subcontractors at the work site under the authority of the Labor Law §200, 240 and 241.

 

4. Question:  What about OSHA?

 

Answer:  The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration has found that 33% of all construction fatalities are from falls from an elevation and another 22% were from being struck by an object. These are exactly the hazards which can be prevented and guarded against under New York State's Scaffold Law which requires proper use of scaffolds, hoists, harnesses and other safety equipment.

 

A review of 2600 OSHA construction site inspections in New York State revealed violations of construction safety standards in 62% of all inspections. Violations are especially prevalent in construction worker trades, like roofing and masonry, where most work is at elevated heights.
OSHA is a federal agency which has authority only over the employer, and no supervisory power over the owner or the general contractor of the construction site. This is why New York State's Labor Law sections are necessary to avoid work site injury because the law applies to owners and general contractors, not just employers.

 

5. Question:  Does New York State Labor Law construction site safety sections apply to all work sites?

 

Answer:  The Scaffold Law specifically does not apply to owners of one or two family dwellings. This means that the home owner is not affected by the Scaffold Law. The other sections (200, 241) of the Labor Law apply only if the owner actually controls or supervises the construction work being done.

 

6. Question:  How do the New York State Labor Laws regarding construction site work promote worker safety?

 

Answer:  In high elevation work, a worker who falls several stories in an uncovered elevator shaft or stairwell (an accident that is always preventable if the opening is blocked off as required) should not have his or her recovery reduced on the theory that the worker should have been more careful walking around the opening. Quite simply, the failure to cover the hole caused the accident and it is unfair to blame the worker engaged in dangerous construction work. The same analysis applies to the lack of safety equipment at the construction site. The harnesses, ropes, safety lines, ladders and scaffolds need to be provided by the owner, general contractor or subcontractor.

 

Without the Scaffold Law, more building owners and contractors in the highly competitive construction industry would cut corners on safety and more workers would be injured or killed in construction falls. The owner who signs the construction contract and makes the payment can and should insist on, and budget for, full compliance with all safety standards.

 

By making building owners and general contractors responsible for the work site safety, the Scaffold Law effectively ensures that owners and general contractors adequately budget for safety and pay attention to safety and hire subcontractors who have excellent safety records. The Scaffold Law deters owners and general contractors from hiring subcontractors who have poor safety records.

 

7. Question:  What are the damages that a construction worker can sue for under the New York State law?

 

Answer:  The damages include loss of earnings, medical expenses, rehabilitative expenses, compensation for the pain inflicted, compensation for permanent disability, compensation for the level of impairment of duties and responsibilities as a spouse or a parent and for permanent suffering such as disfigurement, impairment of quality of enjoyment of life.

 

8. Question:  What about Workers' Compensation?

 

Answer:  Workers' Compensation is provided through the employer's insurance company so that there is immediate coverage for medical and hospital expenses and a little money to soften the impact of the loss of wages due to the injury. Workers' compensation money received by the injured worker or paid on his or her behalf must be paid back to the workers compensation insurance company for the worker when there is a recovery in a personal injury lawsuit. Also, when a worker is compensated under the New York Labor Laws, Workers' Compensation payments are stopped.

 

9. Question:  Are there certain typical construction site accident scenarios?

 

Answer:  Yes, particularly from heights. Many times involving Hispanic/Latino workers. 15% of workplace fatalities involve Latino workers, although they comprise only 10% of the workforce. In New York City, this pattern is specifically more pronounced as Latinos, defined under federal law to be of Hispanic origin, account for 27% of New York City's population but represent 62% of all work sites deaths in New York City. In 2003, the Community Development Research Center of the Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy at the New School University estimated that there were 8,333 day laborers in the New York City metropolitan area. The research study found that day laborers worked predominantly for small business owners, primarily in construction, painting and carpentry industries. Small contractors without good safety records and those who do not devote adequate attention to safety protocol often hire day workers and cut corners by not providing day workers with safety equipment, which in turn results in work site injury and death.

 

10. Question:  What qualifications should an injured person look for in a lawyer to represent them in a construction site accident?

 

Answer:  The most important qualification is experience. Many lawyers advertise for business based on their overall personal injury experience involving car accidents, trip and falls and other types of negligence cases. But in construction site accident cases, experience counts. An experienced lawyer's knowledge and wisdom from other cases is important to the client.

Integrity, trust and concern are also qualities that clients need from their accident attorney. Since clients rely on their attorneys as a confidant and counselor to help them recover the lives that have been devastated by an accident or injury, those clients should always ask their lawyers about their experience in the field of construction site accidents. Questions regarding the recent cases the law firm has successfully resolved, verdicts or settlements they have obtained or examples of appeals argued in the appellate courts should be asked by a client to reveal the experience of the attorney.

 

11. Question:  How are construction accident lawyers compensated?

 

Answer:  Generally, lawyers representing injured construction workers work on a contingency fee basis. This means that the client is not billed by the hour and only pays a legal fee if the lawyer obtains a recovery for the client. Lawyers representing injured workers will only collect a legal fee as a percentage of the compensation recovered. This gives the construction worker the ability to have a fair day in the courthouse when fighting the large insurance companies backing the owners and general contractors.

 

 

 

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