If you were hit by a falling object at a New York City construction site, on a sidewalk, or inside a building, a NYC falling objects lawyer can tell you who is responsible and what your case is worth, at no cost to you. A brick dropped from six stories lands with enough force to fracture a skull through a hard hat, which is why these cases so often involve head trauma, spinal injury, or death rather than a sprain that heals.
Falling object cases are one of the most common kinds of construction accident case in the city, and they are also one of the few kinds of personal injury case where New York law puts responsibility squarely on the owner and the contractor rather than on the injured person. Below are the questions injured people ask our falling object accident attorneys most.
Call us at (212) 732-4992 24/7 to arrange to speak with a personal injury lawyer about your case, or contact us through our website today.
You likely do if an object fell because someone failed to secure it, hoist it correctly, or put up overhead protection. You do not have to identify the individual worker who dropped it. You have to show the object was not properly secured and that the failure caused your injury. If a load, a tool, or a piece of the building came down on you and there was no netting, no toeboard, and no barricade keeping people out from under the work, that is the case.
More than dropped hammers. Our falling object accident lawyers handle cases involving:
The setting changes which law applies and who you sue, but the pattern is the same in every one of them. Something was in the air, nothing was holding it, and nothing was protecting the people underneath.
Falling object cases are usually proven by naming what was missing. On a properly run job, several layers stand between overhead work and the people below, and a case often comes down to which layer was left out.
Perimeter netting and screens catch material before it leaves the building, and catch platforms stop it before it reaches the street. When they are absent, torn, or installed too far apart, anything that gets away from a worker travels the full distance.
Scaffold platforms and open edges are supposed to have toeboards or guards so material cannot roll or be kicked off, and debris is supposed to move through enclosed chutes rather than being dropped down a shaft or over a rail.
A sidewalk shed exists so pedestrians can pass under work in progress, and drop zones are supposed to be barricaded and controlled so nobody stands below an active lift. Sheds that were never installed, taken down early, or built and left unmaintained show up in case after case.
Loads are supposed to be rigged, tied, and hoisted according to a plan, with slings and hardware rated for the weight and inspected before use. A load that came apart in the air is rarely a mystery once the rigging is examined.
A hard hat is designed for a glancing blow from a light object. It does not protect against a bucket of concrete, a length of pipe, or brick from height, and no insurer should be allowed to suggest otherwise. Protective equipment is the last layer, not the first, and its presence never excuses the missing ones above it.
The property owner and the general contractor usually are, even if neither one dropped anything. New York holds the parties who control the project responsible for height related hazards, and that duty cannot be handed off to a subcontractor by contract. Depending on the job, our falling object accident lawyers also pursue the construction manager, the subcontractor whose crew was working overhead, the rigging or crane company, the hoist operator, the scaffold or sidewalk shed company, the equipment owner, and the manufacturer of a piece of hardware that failed.
In a building rather than a job site, responsibility usually falls on the owner, the managing agent, the maintenance contractor, or the store operator who stacked the shelf. Where the site belongs to the City, the MTA, the School Construction Authority, or the Housing Authority, the public agency is a defendant too, and that case runs on a much shorter clock.
It usually does not change the case, and it should not stop you from calling. Workers' compensation is generally the only claim against your own employer and your coworkers, but the case that matters runs against the owner, the general contractor, and the other companies on the job, and their responsibility for height related hazards does not depend on which set of hands let go. Injured workers regularly stay quiet because they do not want a friend blamed. The claim is against companies and their insurers, not against the person next to you.
The Scaffold Law is not only about workers who fall. It also covers workers struck by objects that fall because they were not hoisted or secured properly, and it puts that responsibility on the owner and the general contractor without regard to what the injured worker did. When it applies, the argument that you were careless does not reduce your recovery, and it is the strongest tool in a construction accident case.
Not every falling object claim fits under it. The law reaches objects that were being hoisted or that required securing because of the difference in elevation. A separate part of New York's construction safety law covers violations of the state safety rules, including overhead protection, debris netting, toeboards, barricaded drop zones, and hard hat requirements. A third route is ordinary negligence against whoever created or ignored the hazard. Our falling object accident lawyers plead the routes that fit the facts rather than betting the case on one.
They help, though they do not decide the case by themselves. A stop work order, a violation for failing to maintain overhead protection, an accident report, or a prior complaint about debris at the same site is strong evidence that the danger was known and left in place. Those records also lock defendants into a version of events early, before their story has been shaped by lawyers. They are public, they are time sensitive, and our falling object accident attorneys pull them at the start of the case.
Yes, and you usually should. Workers' compensation pays a portion of your lost wages and your medical treatment, but it pays nothing for pain and suffering and it does not make up the full value of a career you can no longer do. It also bars you from suing your own employer in most situations.
What it does not bar is a case against everyone else on the job. On a typical New York City site that includes the owner, the general contractor, and other trades, and that third party case is where the meaningful recovery comes from. The comp carrier is repaid part of what it spent out of the recovery, and negotiating that repayment down is part of the work.
You still have a case. Pedestrians struck by material off a scaffold, sidewalk shed, facade, or roof can sue the building owner, the managing agent, and the contractor doing the work. The same is true for a customer hit by merchandise off high shelving and a tenant hurt by falling ceiling material. The claim is premises liability, and it turns on whether the owner knew or should have known about the condition and failed to fix it or warn about it.
Building owners in New York also carry a running obligation to inspect and maintain their facades, and the inspection reports are filed with the City. When a report already noted loose brick, cracked terra cotta, or a failing lintel, and nothing was done, that record can decide the case. Drivers whose vehicles were struck, businesses closed by falling debris, and tenants forced out of an apartment have claims of their own.
Yes. Immigration status does not bar an injured person from recovering in New York, and the construction safety laws protect every worker on the site regardless of status or whether the employer paid off the books. Our falling object accident attorneys are not immigration authorities and do not report anyone. This question keeps injured workers from calling, and it should not.
Falling object cases produce some of the most serious injuries our falling object accident lawyers see. Force builds fast with distance, and a hard hat is built for a glancing blow rather than a loaded bucket:
Symptoms after a head strike can take days to surface, and workers routinely go back to the job the same afternoon. Get examined even if you walked away. The record made in the first week is what an insurance company will use later to argue about whether you were really hurt.
The proof is on the site and it does not stay there long. Video from the building, the neighboring building, and the sidewalk is often overwritten within days. Daily logs, hoisting and rigging plans, delivery tickets, safety meeting sign in sheets, inspection records, permits, and the accident report all show who was working overhead and what protection was supposed to be there. Facade inspection filings matter when material came off a building. The object itself and the failed netting, strap, or clamp matter most of all, and they have a way of disappearing before anyone photographs them.
Written demands to preserve that material go out at the start of the case, which is the practical reason to call early rather than after treatment ends. The crews who were working above you also scatter to other jobs, and a coworker who saw the load being rigged is often the witness the whole case turns on.
Report it to the foreman, the building, or the store manager right away, and make sure the report says an object fell and struck you rather than that you simply felt pain. Photograph the object, the spot it fell from, and any missing netting, tarps, toeboards, or barricades. Get the names and numbers of witnesses before the crew rotates off the job. Keep the hard hat and the clothing you were wearing, because damage to them is evidence of the force involved. Follow through on the medical treatment your doctors order, because gaps in treatment are the first thing an adjuster points to. Do not give a recorded statement to an insurance company before you have talked to a lawyer.
It depends on the injury, the surgery, the time out of work, and the coverage available on the project. A case involving permanent injury, future surgery, and lost earning capacity is worth many times a case that resolves after a few months of therapy. The recovery accounts for past and future medical care, past and future lost earnings, home and attendant care where it is needed, and pain and suffering. In a death case, New York compensates the family's financial losses, with a separate claim for the pain the person went through before death.
Construction projects usually carry substantial layered insurance, and part of the job is finding every policy that applies. Our falling object accident attorneys will give you a straight read on the range once they have the medical records, and will not promise a number to get you in the door.
You can still recover. New York reduces the recovery by your share of the fault rather than barring the case, and where the Scaffold Law applies to a falling object, your conduct generally does not reduce it at all. Insurers raise fault early, usually by suggesting you walked into a marked off area or ignored a warning, because it is the cheapest way to lower the number. Do not adopt their version of events in a recorded statement.
Most falling object cases have to be filed within three years of the accident, and death cases within two years of the death. If the site or building belongs to the City, the MTA, the Housing Authority, or another public agency, the deadline is far shorter: a written notice of claim is usually due within 90 days, and the lawsuit follows on a compressed schedule after that. Filing a workers' compensation claim does not preserve the case against anyone else, and missing the deadline ends it no matter how strong the facts are.
Nothing up front. Our falling object accident lawyers work on a contingency fee, so the fee comes out of the recovery and there is no fee unless there is a recovery. The first consultation is free and carries no obligation.
They take the pressure off you and put it back on the parties who let it happen. In practice that means getting your medical care and wage benefits moving so treatment does not stop, sending preservation demands for video and safety records before they are gone, pulling the public agency records, identifying every company on the job and every policy that covers the loss, working out the comp lien so more of the recovery stays with you, and handling the adjuster so you do not have to.
Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower prepares every falling object case as if a jury will hear it, and carriers price cases differently when the firm across the table is ready to try one. Settlement on the right number is welcome. Settlement on a number that shortchanges a client is not.
If an object fell and hurt you or killed someone in your family, reach out today. The consultation is free, and Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower does not get paid unless you do.
Call us at (212) 732-4992 24/7 to arrange to speak with a personal injury lawyer about your case, or contact us through our website today.
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