Lead Paint Lawyer

Lead Paint Lawyer

If your child has an elevated lead level and you live in an older New York City apartment, a NYC lead paint lawyer can tell you whether your landlord was responsible and what a claim can do for your child. These are premises liability cases, and New York City law gives families more protection here than in almost any other kind of building condition claim.

Lead poisoning is not treated after the fact the way a broken bone is. What a claim provides is funding for the evaluation, therapy, tutoring, and support a child may need for years, and accountability from an owner who was required to prevent this. Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower handles these cases and knows which records prove them. Below are the questions parents ask our lead paint attorneys most.

Do I Have a Lead Paint Case?

You may have a case if your child was exposed to lead in a rental apartment and the owner failed to meet obligations the law places on them. You do not need to prove your child ate paint chips, and you do not need to have complained in writing beforehand, though a complaint helps.

The central facts are usually the age of the building, whether a child under six lived there, the condition of the paint, and what the owner did or did not do about it. Our lead paint lawyers review those facts at no cost.

What Does New York City Law Require of Landlords?

Owners of older multiple dwellings carry specific, ongoing duties where young children live, and cases are built on which one was skipped:

• Ask, every year, whether a child under six lives in the apartment: in writing, and follow up when a tenant does not respond.
• Inspect at least annually: for peeling, chipping, or deteriorated paint where a young child lives.
• Fix lead hazards, not just the paint: including friction surfaces such as windows and doors that grind paint into dust.
• Use safe work practices: containment, trained and certified workers, and proper cleanup, because unsafe scraping and sanding creates far more exposure than the original condition.
• Remediate before a new tenant moves in: when an apartment turns over.
• Respond to complaints and violations: promptly, and correct what an agency cites.

An owner who never asked about children, never inspected, and only acted after a child tested positive has failed the requirements that exist precisely to prevent that outcome.

The Legal Presumption That Helps Your Child's Case

This is the part parents almost never know. In older New York City multiple dwellings, peeling or deteriorated paint in an apartment where a young child lives is presumed to be lead based paint. Your family does not carry the initial burden of proving what was in the paint.

That presumption changes these cases. It means the argument shifts to the owner, who has to come forward with proof that the paint was not lead or that the hazard was properly addressed. Combined with the annual inspection and notice requirements, it is why lead cases with good records are among the strongest building condition claims in the city.

Does My Landlord's Responsibility Depend on the Building's Age?

Yes, and the year matters. The strongest protections apply to multiple dwellings built before 1960, where the presumption and the inspection duties are at their broadest. Buildings constructed between 1960 and the late 1970s can also be covered where the owner knows lead paint is present.

Age is a starting point rather than the whole answer. Where a building falls outside those categories, an ordinary negligence claim can still exist if the owner knew about a lead hazard and did nothing, and exposure from unsafe renovation work is its own claim regardless of the building's age.

How Are Children Exposed to Lead?

• Peeling and chipping paint: on walls, ceilings, radiators, and porches.
• Dust from friction surfaces: windows that grind when opened, painted doors, and stair edges, which produce fine dust a crawling child picks up on their hands.
• Unsafe renovation: sanding, scraping, and demolition without containment, which contaminates an entire apartment in a day.
• Soil and exterior paint: tracked in from outside.
• Water: from older service lines and plumbing.
• Take home exposure: dust carried home on the clothing of a parent who works in construction, renovation, or a related trade.
• Imported products: some spices, cosmetics, pottery, and toys.

Dust matters more than chips. Most childhood lead exposure comes from invisible dust rather than from a child eating paint, which is why the condition of windows and the way repairs were performed are so central.

What Are the Effects of Lead Poisoning in Children?

Lead affects the developing brain, and the damage is generally not reversible. Public health authorities have lowered the level of concern repeatedly over the years and treat no amount of lead in a child's blood as safe.

The effects show up over time rather than immediately: difficulty with attention and impulse control, slower language development, learning problems and reading difficulty, lower measured cognitive ability, and behavior challenges at home and school. Younger children absorb more and are affected more. Many families first connect the dots years later, when a child is struggling in school and someone finally looks back at an old lead test.

What Should I Do if My Child Has Elevated Lead Levels?

• Follow your pediatrician's guidance: including repeat testing and any referral, and keep every result.
• Report it and let the health department inspect: an environmental investigation of the apartment creates an official record of where the lead is.
• Notify the landlord in writing: by text or email if that is what you use, and keep the thread.
• Photograph the conditions: peeling paint, window wells, radiators, and any work being done in the building.
• Do not let unsafe repairs happen: scraping and sanding without containment makes exposure worse, and it should be documented if it occurs.
• Keep your paperwork: the lease, any annual notice forms you received, complaint records, and repair notices.
• Ask about testing other children in the home: siblings are usually exposed to the same conditions.

Who Is Responsible for Lead Paint Poisoning?

Usually the building owner, and often more than one party. Claims can run against the owner and any prior owner during the exposure period, the managing agent, a contractor who performed unsafe renovation work, and a public agency where the apartment is public housing.

What if We Live in Public Housing?

The same obligations apply, but the deadline does not. A claim against the Housing Authority or another public agency generally requires a formal notice of claim within about ninety days, with a shortened period to sue after that, as explained on our municipal liability page.

Because lead exposure is discovered gradually rather than on a single date, the timing questions in public housing cases are genuinely complicated. That is a reason to ask early rather than to assume the answer either way.

How Do You Prove a Lead Paint Case?

Through records that already exist. Our lead paint lawyers gather the health department's environmental investigation and any testing performed in the apartment, your child's complete blood lead history, housing violation histories for the building and the specific unit, the owner's repair and work order records, the annual notice and inspection documentation the owner is required to keep and often cannot produce, complaints made by your family and by other tenants, permits and contractor records for any renovation, and the building's ownership history during the exposure period.

The damages side is proven separately, and it is where these cases are made. That means developmental and neuropsychological evaluation, school records including any special education services, and testimony about what a child's abilities and trajectory would have been.

What Do Landlords Argue in Lead Cases?

• We did not know a child lived there: answered by the requirement to ask every year, in writing, and by the absence of those forms.
• The exposure came from somewhere else: answered by the environmental investigation showing lead in your apartment and by the time your child spent there.
• The levels were not high enough to matter: answered by current public health guidance and by the child's own evaluations.
• The family caused the paint damage: answered by the owner's duty to inspect and repair regardless.
• We fixed it when we were told: answered by whether it was fixed safely, and by how long the condition existed beforehand.
• The child's difficulties are unrelated: answered with the evaluations and school records that trace the pattern.

How Long Do I Have to File a Lead Paint Claim?

Longer than in most cases, because the injured person is a child. New York extends the time for a child's own claim well past the ordinary three years, subject to limits, and toxic exposure claims carry their own timing rules tied to discovery.

Two cautions. A parent's separate claim for expenses runs on the ordinary adult clock, and a claim involving public housing carries the ninety day notice requirement. Families who assume they waited too long are frequently wrong, and it costs nothing to find out.

What Can I Recover for a Lead Paint Injury?

• Evaluation and treatment: medical care, developmental and neuropsychological testing, and follow up.
• Educational support: tutoring, therapy, and services beyond what a school district provides.
• Lost earning capacity: where lead exposure has affected what a child will be able to do as an adult, proven with expert analysis.
• Pain and suffering: including the effect on daily life, school, and relationships.
• Future care and support services: where a child will need help into adulthood.
• A parent's out of pocket costs: including medical expenses and time lost from work.

A settlement for a child requires court approval, which protects the money and holds it for the child. In lead cases the recovery is frequently structured so funds are available as a child moves through school and into adulthood.

Do I Have to Pay to Start a Lead Paint Case?

No. Our lead paint lawyers handle these cases on a contingency fee basis, which means there is no fee unless there is a recovery. The first consultation is free and carries no obligation.

How Can Our NYC Lead Paint Lawyers Help?

Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower carries the case so you can focus on your child. Our lead paint lawyers:

• Get the environmental investigation and testing records: which establish where the lead was.
• Pull the building's history: violations, complaints, repair records, permits, and prior owners.
• Use the presumption: so the burden sits with the owner rather than with your family.
• Show what the owner never did: the annual inquiries and inspections that should exist and usually do not.
• Build the damages case properly: with the developmental evaluations and school records that show the real effect.
• Protect every deadline: your child's, your own, and the ninety day notice in public housing.
• Keep you informed in plain language: straight answers about where the case stands and what comes next.

Our lead paint lawyers prepare every case as if it will be tried, because that is what makes an owner and its insurer take a child's future seriously. A settlement on the right number is welcome. A settlement that leaves a child's needs unfunded is not one this firm accepts because it comes early.

Talk to Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower About Your Child's Lead Exposure

If your child tested positive for lead in an older apartment, the records that prove what the owner knew and did are available now. The consultation is free, and Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower does not get paid unless you do.