If you were hurt in a trench or excavation collapse, or you lost a family member in one, a NYC trench collapse lawyer can help you hold the responsible parties accountable and recover for what the accident cost you. Trench work is among the most dangerous work in construction, and a cave-in is almost never a surprise. The protections that prevent it are specific, they are required, and someone decided to skip them.
Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower handles trench and excavation cases and moves quickly, because the hole gets backfilled, the box goes back on a truck, and the soil that buried a worker is regraded within days. Below are straight answers to the questions injured workers and families ask our trench collapse 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 have a case if you were hurt in an excavation because the trench was not protected, not inspected, or not built the way the rules require. Like other construction accident claims, you usually do not have to prove your own employer was negligent, because owners and contractors owe safety duties on the site. You do not need to know the soil type or which shoring was called for. Our trench collapse lawyers review what happened at no cost.
Soil is far heavier than people expect. OSHA puts the weight of a single cubic yard of soil at up to 3,000 pounds, roughly the weight of a small car, and a collapse drops that weight in about a second. A worker buried to the waist usually cannot be pulled free, because the soil compresses the chest and the legs the way concrete would.
Collapses also rarely happen once. The wall that failed leaves the rest of the excavation unsupported, so a second collapse frequently follows and injures the coworkers who climbed in to dig someone out. That is why rescue is slow, why it is done by trained crews with shoring, and why the difference between injury and death is often measured in minutes.
Excavation safety is a checklist, and trench cases are usually proven by showing which item was skipped:
This question decides a great many trench cases. The rules require a designated, qualified person to inspect the excavation and the protective systems before each shift and after every rainfall, and to remove workers when conditions are dangerous. That role creates a record, and the record either exists or it does not.
When there are no inspection entries, when the designated person had no real training, when they were also running the crew and the schedule, or when they identified a problem and nobody acted on it, that is the case. Our trench collapse attorneys ask for those records first, because their absence tells the story faster than any witness can.
Most collapses trace back to a decision that saved an hour. The cases our trench collapse attorneys handle most include:
Cave-ins are not the only way an excavation hurts people. Workers are struck by buckets, backhoes, and equipment operating at the edge, injured when pipe, plate, or material comes down on them, which makes those falling object claims, and hurt when a crane or hoist sets a box or a section of pipe into the hole. Struck gas and electric lines cause explosions, fires, and electrical injuries. Workers also fall into unguarded or unmarked excavations, including pedestrians and drivers where a street cut was left open or badly barricaded. Confined space atmospheres in deep and sewer excavations cause loss of consciousness before anyone recognizes the danger.
New York's site safety rules cover excavation work directly, including shoring, sheeting, bracing, the protection of open cuts, and safe access into and out of the hole. Proving a violation of a rule written for worker safety moves the argument off what you should have noticed and onto what the site was required to provide.
The Scaffold Law can also apply, because a fall into an excavation is an elevation related injury and so is being struck by material that was being hoisted or that required securing above the trench. Where it applies, responsibility sits with the owner and the general contractor regardless of what the worker did. A third route is ordinary negligence against the contractor, the engineer, or the utility that created or ignored the hazard. Our trench collapse lawyers plead the routes the facts support rather than betting on one.
Often several parties are, and rarely just your employer. That list usually includes the property owner or developer, the general contractor and construction manager, the excavation or site work subcontractor, the engineer who designed the excavation or the underpinning, the company that supplied or rented the trench box or shoring, the utility whose line was mismarked or never located, and the design professional who prepared the plans. Where the work is in a City street or for the MTA, a school authority, or the Housing Authority, that public agency belongs in the case as well, on a far shorter deadline.
Each of those companies brings its own insurance, and excavation work is written with substantial coverage because the losses are severe.
Often, yes. Workers' compensation pays part of your medical bills and lost wages no matter who was at fault, but it does not cover pain and suffering and it usually blocks a claim against your employer. The separate case against the owner, the general contractor, the utility, and the equipment company is where the meaningful recovery comes from.
At the end of that case the compensation carrier is repaid part of what it spent, and that amount can be negotiated down so more of the recovery stays with your family. Our trench collapse lawyers pursue both claims and handle the lien as part of the work.
Families in these cases are usually dealing with a sudden death, an official investigation, and a funeral at the same time, and nobody explains what the deadlines are. New York allows a claim for the family's financial losses, and a separate claim for what the worker went through before death, which can matter a great deal in a burial case. Compensation benefits for a surviving spouse and children run alongside it.
If the work was in a City street or on public property, a written notice of claim is generally due within ninety days, long before most families are ready to think about a lawsuit. Talking to a wrongful death lawyer early is not about rushing the case. It is about keeping the option open while the evidence still exists.
The excavation is backfilled quickly, so these cases are built on records and on whatever images were taken before the hole was closed. The material that matters includes the competent person's daily inspection logs, the soil classification and any geotechnical report, the trench box or shoring manufacturer's tabulated data and the rated depth, engineering drawings for deeper excavations and underpinning, permits and street opening authorizations, utility markout tickets and the utility's own records, daily logs and toolbox talks, equipment tickets showing what was working at the edge, weather and rainfall data for the days before, and the contracts showing which company controlled the work.
Photographs and video from the site, the neighboring buildings, and the street are often the only record of how the trench actually looked. The trench box, the shoring components, and the failed section of pipe or plate should be preserved rather than returned. OSHA inspection files and Buildings Department violations and stop work orders round out what was known beforehand.
Get medical care first, then protect the case before the hole is closed.
Yes. Immigration status does not stop you from bringing a trench collapse claim in New York or from recovering, and it does not matter whether you were paid off the books. Excavation safety rules protect every worker in the hole, and our trench collapse lawyers protect that right without involving anyone else in your status.
In most cases you have three years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit, and two years from the date of death in a fatal case. If a public entity is involved, including work in a City street, a written notice of claim is usually due within ninety days. Filing for workers' compensation does not preserve the case against the contractor, the utility, or the equipment company. Because the excavation is backfilled within days, the practical clock on the evidence is much shorter.
The forces in a collapse do not leave much room between serious and fatal:
No lawyer can promise a number, but a claim can pursue:
Nothing upfront. Our trench collapse lawyers handle these cases on a contingency fee basis, which means you pay no attorney's fee unless there is a recovery for you. The first consultation is free and carries no obligation.
Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower carries the case so you and your family can deal with treatment and everything else. Our trench collapse lawyers:
Our trench collapse lawyers prepare every case as if it will be tried, because that is what makes the responsible companies and their insurers take the claim seriously. A settlement on the right number is welcome. A settlement that shortchanges what the accident cost you is not one this firm accepts just because it comes early.
An excavation is backfilled and the equipment is returned within days, and the proof of what was missing goes with it. The sooner your case is built, the stronger it is. Contact Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower for a free consultation about your NYC trench collapse.
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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