How Personal Injury Law Apply to Injuries?
A personal injury case must meet legal qualifications if you want to file a lawsuit. In other words, grounds must exist to pursue a case. The purpose of pursuing a case is to hold another party accountable for damages, for wrongful injury or social injustices. The person bringing the lawsuit is called the "plaintiff" and the person being sued is called the "defendant."
Personal injury law falls under civil law (not criminal law) and provides recourse for compensation. When more than one party is responsible for damages or injuries, the case may be filed against multiple defendants.
Are Personal Injury Cases More Difficult to Prove than Criminal Cases?
The burden of proof for a personal injury case is lower than for a criminal case. Many people are familiar with the legal concept of "innocent until proven guilty" and "proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." This describes the burden of proof in a criminal case. However, the burden of proof in a personal injury case is typically a preponderance of the evidence. In other words, the lawyer must convince the judge or jury that there is greater than a 50 percent chance the defendant is guilty. For this reason, even if the defendant was acquitted in a criminal case, a judge or jury may find them guilty in a personal injury case.
Proving Negligence or Reckless Conduct
When you suffer injury and want to recover compensation, your attorney must prove negligence or reckless conduct.
- To prove the defendant was negligent, lawyers must establish the following:
- The defendant owed you a duty of care. For example, drivers on the road must follow traffic laws. Abiding by the law is their duty of care to other drivers.
- The defendant breached his/her duty. Sometimes this involves breaking a law. For example, driving with blood alcohol content (BAC) over .8 is a violation of the duty of care drivers owe to other drivers.
- Causation. An attorney would have to show that the driver (defendant) was intoxicated and as a result crashed into the other driver.
Damages. Unless there are damages, there would be no compensation. The plaintiff must prove that actual damages occurred. Examples include: medical bills, lost wages due to injury, damaged vehicle, etc.
- Unless there are damages, there would be no compensation. The plaintiff must prove that actual damages occurred. Examples include: medical bills, lost wages due to injury, damaged vehicle, etc.
If Someone Else Seriously Harmed You, Speak with an Attorney
If you are seriously injured and the damages are considerable, seek legal help as soon as possible. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you hold the party at fault accountable.
How Does the “Scaffolding Law” Protect New York Workers?
Falls from heights during construction work often involve falls ladders or scaffolds. However, the differences in falls can be substantial. Workers on ladders may be feet from the ground, whereas workers on scaffolds could be many stories off the ground.
This type of work at heights is so dangerous that the State of New York passed a law, called Labor Law 240, to offer extra protection to laborers, who do construction work at heights.
Labor Law 240 has additional safety regulations that apply when scaffolding or staging is more than 20 feet off the ground or floor. Scaffolds or staging at these heights require safety rails. The scaffolding or staging also must be fastened to prevent it from swaying. Scaffolding should be sturdy enough to bear four times the weight that is placed on it, when in use.
Equipment that Labor Law 240 Requires for Safety Protection
By law, all contractors, owners and their agents (except owners of one and two-family dwellings) involved with construction or building maintenance work must furnish or erect equipment to give laborers proper protection. Equipment includes:
- Scaffolding
- Hoists
- Stays
- Ladders
- Slings
- Hangers
- Blocks
- Pulleys
- Braces
- Iron
- Ropes
- Other protective devices
What Types of Work Does the Scaffold Law Cover?
The Scaffold Law protects workers doing the following work involved with buildings and structures:
- Erection
- Demolition
- Repairs
- Alterations
- Painting
- Cleaning
- Pointing
Are Many Workers at Risk for Scaffolding Injuries?
OSHA (Occupational and Safety Health Administration) estimates that 65 percent of construction workers in the U.S. work on scaffolds. Close to three quarters of scaffold accidents resulted from the following:
- Planking or support gave way
- Employee slipped and fell
- A falling object struck the employee
Falls from heights can create a crippling injury. Any worker who sustains an injury of this type should contact an experienced personal injury lawyer for help with recovering compensation. For more information, see our Ladder and Scaffold Accidents page.
Hazardous property conditions can result in slips and falls. A slip and fall accident may not strike you as a serious type of accident, but incidents exists where people have fallen, hit their heads and died from concussions in slip and fall accidents. Elderly people in particular often suffer serious injuries from broken hips, backs and other broken bones in slip and fall accidents.
Under NY law, what is considered a slip and fall accident?
Slip and fall cases arise when a dangerous condition in a walking surface causes a person to slip and fall. Examples of dangerous surfaces are surfaces where there is water, ice, oil, soap, holes, cracks, torn carpet or other defects. The surface can be outdoors or indoors.
What Makes Another Party Liable in a Slip and Fall Case?
The property owner must have been negligent about handling the dangerous condition in order for grounds to exist to pursue a slip-and-fall case. In other words, the property owner should have known about the hazardous condition and then failed to repair, clean, wipe up or rope off the area or warn about the danger.
What Are Some Examples of Slip and Fall Cases?
The New York Bar Association provides the following examples of slip and fall cases where property owners may have failed to adequately deal with a dangerous property condition:
- A retail store has water on the floor, and the owner either knows or should know about it and fails to clean up the water. Someone walks on the water, slips and falls and suffers injury.
- Bananas fall onto the floor in a grocery store. Customers walk on the bananas and smash them, which leaves an undetectable slippery spot on the floor. Store employees who have the job of ensuring aisles have no spills have not done their job. A customer falls and suffers injury.
- A janitor has mopped the floors in an office building and fails to post a warning sign or rope off the wet area. Someone falls and suffers injury.
- People walk on a municipal walkway that has been cleared after a snowstorm. However, the surface is icy in certain areas because a poor job was done when clearing the walkway. A pedestrian slips and falls and suffers injury.
In every case listed above, when property owners do not know or could not have known about the dangerous condition, negligence may not exist, and there would be no grounds for a case.
What Should You Do in a Slip and Fall Accident?
- If you slip, trip and fall on someone else’s property, you should:
- Notify the property owner as soon as possible.
- Get medical attention and document your injury.
- Contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible because you have a limited amount of time to sue for damages.
Our attorneys at Sackstein Sackstein & Lee, LLP have extensive experience representing clients in slip and fall accidents.