Many Brooklyn construction workers are completely unaware about a law that is unique to the state of New York — the Scaffold Law. This law holds that a construction company or building owner is completely responsible for all “gravity-related” injuries that occur to the construction workers on the property.
The Scaffold Law means that if you fall off a scaffold or piece of equipment on a jobsite because you were negligent in not tying yourself off properly, you can still file a claim for worker’s comp benefits and prevail. As you might expect, contractors and builders loathe this law and would love to see it changed.
But the protections it provides to workers is vital. After all, everyone can make a mistake on the job, especially in a very fast-paced environment like a teeming Brooklyn construction site with lots of moving parts and people. It can only take a moment for a devastating and career-ending injury to occur. When that accident happened off the ground and the laws of gravity caused you to come crashing down to earth, you are going to need immediate and likely prolonged medical care.
You will need multiple surgeries, in all likelihood, and many weeks or even months of rehabilitative therapies to once again approach the physical condition you were in before this worksite accident ruined your life. You may never again be able to work for a living — or even walk.
Seeking more information about the ways that citing the Scaffold Law could improve your chances of a lucrative worker’s compensation settlement is a prudent decision.