Our New York City personal injury and wrongful death lawyers know that New York's Labor Law 240 applies to people who are performing repairs on a structure. While this law is usually applied in construction accident cases, our lawyers know that it applies equally to repairman injury cases, even if the repair was not part of a construction project. So if you were performing a repair on a structure in New York, including an elevator repair or a roof repair and you were injured, you may be able to sue the building owner for personal injuries. You can recover Workers Compensation benefits and sue the building owner for pain, suffering and full lost wages. For more information call our Manhattan elevator fatality and NYC roofing accident lawyers.   

WHAT IS LABOR LAW 240?

New York's Labor Law 240 is a law that places the responsibility to protect certain classes of workers from elevation or gravity related risks. While the law is most commonly applied in the construction accident context, our NYC repairman injury lawyers know that the law explicitly applies to repairman.  This means that if you were performing a repair and are exposed to an elevation related risk, including the risk of falling or of an object falling and hitting you, then New York's Labor Law 240 applies to you. If the building owner fails to take proper precautions to protect you from gravity related risks then you can sue the landowner for pain and suffering.  These legal obligations include providing adequate ladders and scaffolds to support you while doing your work. These responsibilities also include providing proper fall protection to prevent you from falling from a dangerous height, such as an elevator shaft, a roof repair,  or a piece of machinery that is high off the ground. The building owner's responsibilities also include protecting you from falling objects, so if as part of the work, a large part has to be lifted, the building owner is responsible to provide slings, cranes, hoists and other devices to makes sure the object does not fall and hit you. 

IF I FELL AT WORK - CAN I SUE IF THE COMPANY SAYS IT WAS MY FAULT 

Our NYC personal injury lawyers who represent construction workers and repairmen in on the job injury lawsuits, know all too well that the company and building owner's knee jerk reaction is to blame the worker. Our lawyers find it astonishing that companies neglect their responsibilities to provide adequate safety devices and then turn around and blame the worker when there is an accident. Fortunately for New York's workers, a worker's negligence or comparative fault is not a defense to a Labor Law 240 lawsuit where the building owner has failed to provide proper protection in the first place. The only time a workers fault is a defense is if the accident was entirely the fault of the worker, or the injured worker failed to use safety equipment that was provided. 

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, roofers have the highest rate of non-fatal falls. from heights.  

According to the Journal of Safety Research, workers falling from roofs, account for approximately one third of all work related fatalities.