Reviewed by Adrianos Facchetti, Esq. California State Bar No. 243213. This page was reviewed for California personal injury accuracy, legal clarity, and usefulness for people injured in construction accidents in Pasadena and nearby Los Angeles County communities. You can verify Adrianos Facchetti’s license through the California State Bar attorney search.
Construction Accident in Pasadena?
A Pasadena construction accident lawyer can evaluate your case to determine where it fits within the realm of workers’ compensation, whether there may also be an independent tort action arising out of your accident, and what kind of evidence needs to be gathered prior to its disappearance. Such accidents can range from falls to hazardous scaffolding to falling objects to malfunctioning equipment to negligent subcontractors to dangerous conditions to heavy machinery, and determining which of these actually caused your injury is critical to your future.
The Law Offices of Adrianos Facchetti represent construction accident victims across Pasadena, Old Pasadena, South Pasadena, and Los Angeles County. As a Pasadena personal injury attorney, we know firsthand that construction accidents occurring on streets like Colorado Boulevard, Lake Avenue, and Fair Oaks Avenue can entail multiple companies all working on one job site, making it harder to determine fault than it may seem on its face.
Construction Accident Claims Are Different From Standard Injury Claims
The number of entities involved in any particular construction project can be much higher than usual. There are always general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers of the equipment, and even specialized safety and engineering agencies, all working on the same project at once. When there is a problem on the construction site, it requires serious investigation to establish who was controlling the dangerous condition and how to resolve this issue.
Shared responsibility may also play an important role. For example, a subcontractor may have created some kind of hazardous condition that wasn’t noticed during the regular inspection conducted by the general contractor. Moreover, it is difficult to obtain evidence on active construction sites because of constant work there and cleaning of the hazardous conditions during just several days.
Proving the case and obtaining relevant information are extremely important, and insurance providers approach this problem differently in the case of a workplace accident than in the case of a car accident or a slip and fall on the sidewalk. Your connection to the construction site also matters. It may be a place of your work or just a site where you were just passing through.
Workers’ Compensation v. Third Party Liability for Construction Injuries
These are not the same avenues, and the distinction may significantly impact the outcome of your case.
Workers’ compensation is usually applied to employees injured in the process of working. This kind of insurance covers medical expenses and part of the income lost due to injury, but it does not require proving the fault of your employer and, accordingly, does not provide all possible damages awarded in personal injury lawsuits, such as pain and suffering.
Third-party liability may be applicable if there was someone apart from your employer who caused the accident, for example, a subcontractor, general contractor, property owner, or equipment manufacturer. This kind of lawsuit usually provides for additional damages such as pain and suffering and emotional distress.
At times, both workers’ compensation and third-party liability may be used in the same case. A person could file for workers’ compensation with his/her employer while suing a third party that contributed to his/her injuries through its negligence. Whether you have such a case depends completely on the details of your accident.
Common Construction Accident Causes in Pasadena
- Falls from ladders, roofs, scaffolding or other elevated surfaces
- Tools falling from above
- Improperly set up scaffolding
- Collapses of trenches or structures
- Accidents involving heavy machinery
- Crane and forklift accidents
- Defective equipment and tools
- Electrical accidents
- Exposure to harmful substances
- Dangerous walkways and surfaces
- Motor vehicle accidents involving delivery trucks in active work zones
- Lack of fall protection and safety measures at the site
In the event that an accident is the result of a commercial vehicle causing a collision near a construction site, the Pasadena truck accident attorney guide discusses the role of commercial vehicle evidence in your case.
Who May Be Liable for a Construction Site Injury?
Liability depends on who controlled the hazard, who created it, who had notice of it, and whether applicable safety rules were followed.
- Subcontractors, if their work created the dangerous condition
- General contractors, who often have overall responsibility for site safety
- Property owners, if unsafe conditions on the property contributed to the accident
- Equipment manufacturers, if defective machinery or tools caused the injury
- Maintenance companies, if poorly maintained equipment failed
- Engineers or safety contractors, if inadequate planning or safety oversight contributed
- Delivery drivers, if a vehicle accident near the site caused the injury
- Other negligent third parties, depending on the specific facts
More than one of these parties can share responsibility for the same accident, and identifying every one of them matters because different companies typically carry different insurance policies.
Who May Be Held Liable for a Construction Site Injury?
Liable parties depend on who had control over the hazard, who created it, who was aware of its existence and whether appropriate safety standards were adhered to.
- Subcontractors if their work resulted in the hazard
- General contractors as they generally oversee site safety issues
- Landowners if there were any hazards on their property that led to the accident
- Manufacturers if their defective machines/tools caused the accident
- Maintenance company whose machines failed to operate due to improper maintenance
- Engineers/Safety contractors if the lack of proper safety planning contributed to the accident
- Drivers whose vehicles were involved in an accident in proximity to the construction site and led to the accident
- Other negligent parties, based on circumstances
It is possible that more than one of the above-mentioned may be held liable in one accident, and each of them should be accounted for since various companies have various insurance.
Evidence That Can Help Prove What Happened
- Report of Incident
- Photographs of site
- Videos/Surveillance Footage
- Statements of witnesses
- Information of coworkers
- Cal/OSHA report if any investigation was conducted
- Safety Log
- Inspection Record
- Records of maintenance of equipment
- Contractor Agreement
- Safety plan for construction site
- Medical Record
- Injury photographs
- Damaged equipment/tools
- Wage records and missed workdays
Construction sites are ever-changing. Equipment is repaired or replaced, hazards are removed, and workers may shift from one project to another. The sooner such evidence is collected, the more comprehensive it will be for future use in case your case demands it.
Potential Compensation for Construction Accidents
What may be covered by compensation will vary widely depending upon whether your accident falls under workers’ compensation, a third-party claim, or both.
Workers’ compensation may cover:
- Medical bills
- Temporary disability pay
- Wage loss pay
- Permanent disability pay
A third-party personal injury claim may cover the following:
- All medical bills
- Future medical costs
- Wages lost
- Diminished earning ability
- Pain and suffering
- Mental anguish
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Expenses
- Damages in wrongful death cases
If there is a death resulting from the accident, the information at our Pasadena wrongful death attorney page will give you details about wrongful death claims in California. There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to determining your entitlements.
California Deadlines That May Apply
Worker’s Compensation Reporting & Filing can be quick, and failure to meet early deadlines in that process can impact your claim, which is why you need to report your injury to your employer right away.
A third-party personal injury claim requires that most claims in California be filed within two years, per California Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1. However, if a public entity is involved in the case, then the deadline could be as little as six months, per California Government Code § 911.2.
The preservation of evidence early on can be critical, even if the legal deadline seems distant because the construction site changes quickly, and most of the physical evidence will be gone well before that deadline comes around.
How Attorney Adrianos Facchetti Reviews Construction Accident Claims
The review starts with understanding your relationship to the site. Whether you were working there directly, employed by a subcontractor, visiting for a delivery, passing by as a pedestrian, or driving near the site when the accident happened all affect which type of claim applies.
From there, we look at whether workers’ compensation applies to your situation, and separately, whether another company besides your employer may bear legal responsibility. We review what safety rules or site controls were supposed to be in place, whether the hazard that caused your injury had been previously documented or reported, and whether equipment, scaffolding, a vehicle, or a property condition contributed to what happened.
Medical records get reviewed closely to understand the full extent of your injury, and we identify whether insurance coverage is being disputed by any of the companies potentially involved. Throughout the process, we make sure the correct deadlines are identified and protected, since workers’ compensation timelines and third-party claim deadlines don’t always run on the same schedule. If a construction site incident overlaps with a broader personal injury matter, our Pasadena personal injury lawyer resource covers how we approach that kind of case more generally, and our blog post on whether you should get a lawyer after an accident in California offers useful context if you’re still deciding how to move forward.
Contact an Attorney for Pasadena Construction Site Accidents
If you have been hurt at or close to a Pasadena construction site, there is no harm in getting someone to figure out whether your case falls under workers’ compensation or a third-party case or both. There is no obligation involved with a discussion.
The Law Offices of Adrianos Facchetti provides a no-cost consultation service without any charge and without fees if we are unable to get you compensation. We will not make any promises before we get all the facts, but we will be able to give you an honest evaluation of your case.
