New York construction accident lawyer.

Reviewed by Daniel Hochman, Esq. · Last updated November 1, 2026

Why New York construction cases are different.

LABOR LAW § 240(1)

New York Labor Law § 240(1), the Scaffold Law, imposes absolute liability on property owners and general contractors when a worker is injured in a gravity-related accident: a fall from a ladder, scaffold, roof, or other elevation, or being struck by a falling object that should have been secured. When the statute applies, the owner and contractor are liable for the failure to provide proper protection. In most § 240(1) cases, your own comparative fault is not a defense.

That is not how ordinary negligence works, and it is why defendants and their insurers treat these cases seriously. Statutory liability changes the negotiation.

Workers' comp is not the ceiling.

Workers' compensation generally prevents you from suing your own employer, and it pays only a fraction of what an injury actually costs: partial wages and medical bills, nothing for pain and suffering. But comp does not stop you from suing the property owner, the general contractor, or other companies on the site. That third-party lawsuit is where full compensation lives: complete lost earnings, past and future, union benefits and annuity losses, medical care for life, and pain and suffering. You can collect workers' comp and pursue the lawsuit at the same time; the comp carrier's lien is handled at settlement.

Beyond section 240: the rest of the toolbox.

LABOR LAW § 241(6) · § 200

Not every site injury is a fall. Labor Law § 241(6) covers injuries caused by violations of New York's Industrial Code: unguarded machinery, debris and tripping hazards, electrical contact, trench and demolition failures. Labor Law § 200 and common-law negligence cover unsafe means and methods of work. A construction case is often built on several of these at once.

The injuries these cases involve.

• Spinal injuries, herniations, and fusion surgery
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Fractures requiring surgical hardware
• Shoulder and knee tears requiring repair
• Fatal accidents and wrongful death

What a case is worth turns on specifics: the surgery you needed, the work you can no longer do, your age, your trade, your future medical needs. No honest lawyer quotes a number before knowing them. We will tell you plainly what drives value in your case and what does not.

Deadlines.

Most New York construction injury claims must be filed within three years of the accident. If a public entity owns the site, a notice of claim may be due within 90 days. Site conditions get repaired, video gets overwritten, and coworkers scatter to other jobs. The investigation should start now. If the accident happened in the last few days, what to do in the first 72 hours lists the photographs, names and records to collect before the site changes.

Where we take construction cases: all five boroughs.

We handle site injuries in every borough and across New York State. Labor Law 240 reads the same everywhere. What changes from one borough to the next is the courthouse, the kind of work and, most of all, who owns the site, because the owner sets the clock. A case is usually filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York for the county where the accident happened or where one of the parties lives. When more than one county is a proper choice, we pick one on purpose and tell you why.

Queens (Queens County).

Towers in Long Island City and Astoria, large projects in Flushing and around Willets Point, terminal and roadway work at JFK and LaGuardia, and additions to the one and two family houses that fill much of eastern and southern Queens. Most Queens cases are filed in Supreme Court, Queens County, at 88-11 Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica. Airport work usually means a public authority owns the site. Claims against an authority carry notice requirements measured in weeks and suit deadlines that can be as short as one year, so an airport injury is urgent.

Brooklyn (Kings County).

Gut renovations of brownstones and rowhouses in Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, Park Slope and Bushwick, often run by small crews working off ladders. Towers in Downtown Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and along the Gowanus Canal. Warehouse conversions near the waterfront. Brooklyn cases are filed in Supreme Court, Kings County, at 360 Adams Street near Borough Hall. On the small jobs the first argument is usually the homeowner exemption, covered below. Many of those crews are paid in cash. That does not bar the case; it changes how lost wages are proven, through coworkers, foremen, union scales and wage data instead of pay stubs.

The Bronx (Bronx County).

Facade and parapet repair on prewar apartment buildings along the Grand Concourse and in Mott Haven, Highbridge and Kingsbridge, done from pipe scaffolds and hanging platforms. Roof, boiler and window replacement in buildings where tenants stay in place during the work. New affordable housing on former industrial lots in the South Bronx. Most Bronx cases are filed in Supreme Court, Bronx County, at 851 Grand Concourse. NYCHA owns a large share of Bronx housing, and a claim against NYCHA needs a notice of claim within 90 days of the accident. Ask who owns the building before you ask anything else.

Manhattan and Staten Island.

A case from a Manhattan site usually goes to Supreme Court, New York County, and one from Staten Island to Supreme Court, Richmond County. The rules are the same: generally three years against a private owner or contractor, far less when a public body owns the site.

"The owner says the house is exempt."

New York exempts owners of one and two family homes from §§ 240 and 241 liability, but only when they did not direct or control the work. Owners invoke it constantly and often wrongly. It can fail where the property is really an investment building, where it holds more than two families, or where the owner ran the job. It never protects the general contractor. Whether it applies is a question we investigate, not a statement you should accept from an adjuster.

Struck by falling debris as a passerby rather than a worker? That is its own claim, and often a stronger one: see falling debris injuries.