If you were hurt on a job site, you need a Florida construction accident lawyer who understands that your case may be worth far more than the workers’ compensation check you have been offered. Construction is among the most dangerous industries in the country, and a single accident can leave a worker with catastrophic, career-ending injuries. Attorney Tyson Kutner represents injured construction workers throughout Miami-Dade and South Florida, and he focuses on the question many workers are never told to ask: was a negligent third party also responsible?
Common construction accidents
Construction sites combine heights, heavy machinery, and constant change, and that mix produces some of the most serious injuries in any workplace. The cases we see most often involve:
- Falls from scaffolding, ladders, and roofs
- Falling tools, materials, and debris
- Crane, forklift, and heavy-equipment accidents
- Electrocutions
- Trench collapses
- Defective equipment and inadequate safety measures
Any one of these can change a worker’s life in an instant — and many of them trace back to a safety failure that someone other than the injured worker should have prevented.
Workers’ comp vs. a third-party claim
This is the most important thing to understand about a construction site injury, and it is the point most workers are never told.
If you are an injured construction worker, you almost certainly have workers’ compensation. It is a no-fault system that pays your medical bills and partial wage benefits regardless of who was at fault — and it is generally your exclusive remedy against your own employer. That sounds like the end of the story, but it is not.
Many construction injuries also involve a negligent third party — a general contractor, a subcontractor working alongside you, the property owner, or the manufacturer of a piece of defective equipment. When that is the case, you may have a separate third-party negligence claim in addition to your workers’ comp benefits. That claim can recover damages workers’ compensation never pays: your full lost wages and earning capacity, and pain and suffering, on top of medical expenses. For a seriously injured worker, that difference can be enormous.
Who may be liable
Construction sites are crowded with companies, and figuring out who controlled the hazard that hurt you is where these cases are won or lost. Depending on the facts, a third-party claim may reach:
- A general contractor responsible for overall site safety
- A subcontractor whose crew created or ignored a dangerous condition
- A property owner who failed to address a known hazard
- An equipment manufacturer whose defective machine or tool caused the injury
OSHA sets the safety standards that govern construction work, and a violation of those standards can serve as powerful evidence of negligence. As your construction accident attorney, Tyson Kutner investigates the full chain of responsibility so no available source of recovery is overlooked.
Serious injuries
Because of the heights and forces involved, construction accidents frequently cause life-altering harm — and the medical and financial toll can stretch for years. A third-party claim is built to account for that full cost, including:
- Full lost wages and reduced earning capacity
- Pain and suffering
- Medical expenses beyond what workers’ compensation covers
Workers’ comp alone rarely reflects what a catastrophic injury truly costs a worker and their family. When a third party is at fault, those additional damages are exactly what a negligence claim exists to recover.
What to do after a site injury
The steps you take early can protect both your benefits and your claim:
- Get medical care right away, even if the injury seems minor at first.
- Report the injury to your employer promptly. Florida generally requires reporting a work injury to your employer within 30 days to protect your workers’ compensation benefits.
- Document the scene — photograph the equipment, the conditions, and anything that looks unsafe, and get the names of any witnesses.
- Talk to a construction accident lawyer quickly. The statute of limitations on a third-party negligence claim is generally two years, and evidence on an active site can change or disappear fast.
Serving South Florida
From our office in Palmetto Bay, Florida construction accident lawyer Tyson Kutner represents injured workers across Pinecrest, Kendall, Cutler Bay, and Homestead, down to the Florida Keys, and throughout Miami-Dade County. Construction never stops in South Florida, and neither does the pressure on workers to get back on the job before they are ready.
If you were injured on a construction site, contact Kutner Personal Injury for a free, no-obligation consultation. You pay nothing unless we win.
