New York City Law Firm Urges Construction Workers to Understand Legal Rights After Job-Site Accidents

The Perecman Firm, PLLC, a New York City personal injury law firm with more than 40 years of experience, is urging construction workers, bystanders, and contractors to understand and assert their legal rights following preventable job-site accidents. Construction sites present some of the highest risks for serious injury in the region, with accidents ranging from falls from heights and scaffold or ladder collapses to electrocutions, struck-by-object incidents, crane collisions, and trench or hoist mishaps. This matters because construction is a vital industry in the New York City metro area, and ensuring worker safety and proper legal recourse affects thousands of families, project timelines, and overall industry accountability.

Steven Dorfman, Managing Legal Officer at The Perecman Firm, explained that many workers mistakenly believe they're limited to filing only workers' compensation claims. In reality, injured workers often have the right to bring personal injury lawsuits that include compensation for pain and suffering, lost future wages, and full medical expenses. Every time a worker is injured on a construction site, there is often a chain of responsible parties including subcontractors, general contractors, property owners, and equipment manufacturers. The implication is that workers may be leaving significant compensation on the table if they do not explore all legal avenues, which can impact their long-term financial stability and recovery.

The firm outlines several critical steps injured workers should take to protect their legal options. Workers should immediately report accidents to supervisors and obtain accident reports, seek immediate medical attention while maintaining clear records of all treatments and bills, and preserve job site conditions by photographing equipment, scaffolding, guardrails, ladders, exposed wiring, and other hazardous setups. Workers should contact an experienced construction-accident attorney before providing statements to insurance adjusters, as these statements can be used to deny or reduce compensation. This guidance is important because proper documentation and legal advice can be the difference between a successful claim and a denied one, directly affecting a worker's ability to cover medical costs and support their family.

Time limitations are crucial in these cases. In New York, most personal injury lawsuits must be filed within three years of the accident, while workers' compensation claims follow different timelines, and claims involving government entities may have much shorter deadlines. The Perecman Firm's team includes litigation attorneys, former investigators, and engineers with deep familiarity with the special protections afforded to construction workers under New York's Labor Law, including Section 240(1) known as the Scaffold Law, Section 241(6), and Section 200. These laws allow injured workers to hold property owners, contractors, and others responsible for failing to provide proper safety protections, applying in many cases even if the employer itself was not directly negligent.

The firm emphasizes that construction workers including carpenters, iron-workers, masons, painters, and electricians who are injured when others fail to maintain safe work sites deserve legal representation that understands how to hold responsible parties accountable. For more information about construction accident rights, visit https://www.perecman.com. The broader implication is that increased awareness of these rights could lead to safer work environments as responsible parties face greater legal liability, potentially reducing accident rates in one of New York City's most hazardous industries and ensuring that injured workers receive the compensation they need to rebuild their lives.