Reviewed by Adrianos Facchetti, Esq. California State Bar # 243213. The page has been reviewed to ensure that it is accurate, clear, and useful for individuals who have been injured in construction accident cases in West Hollywood and Los Angeles County, California. You can verify Adrianos Facchetti’s license with the California State Bar.
Hurt on a West Hollywood Construction Site?
If you’ve been hurt in a West Hollywood construction site accident, a West Hollywood construction accident attorney will determine if your case concerns workers’ compensation, a personal injury lawsuit, or both. Injuries in these cases typically result from falls, scaffolding, ladders, falling objects, machinery, electricity, unsafe premises, faulty equipment, or the negligence of another contractor and will ultimately dictate your potential legal options.
The issue of liability is not always as simple as who the injured party was working for. West Hollywood is home to constant construction and renovations on commercial, residential, hospitality, and mixed-use buildings surrounding major roads such as Sunset Blvd, Santa Monica Blvd, and Melrose Ave, where several different contractors might all be working on the same construction site at one time. Evidence must be secured immediately, as equipment gets moved around, construction sites are not always the same place each day, and security cameras have their recordings deleted after a matter of days. To learn more about negligence lawsuits resulting from injuries, please visit our West Hollywood personal injury lawyer page.
A Single Accident Can Give Rise to Multiple Claims
A construction site accident can give rise to two totally distinct legal theories, each of which could be potentially appropriate depending on the specific facts of your case.
Workers’ compensation laws are intended to provide relief for employees who have been injured in the course of employment regardless of fault. A workers’ compensation claim can cover:
Medical treatment
Temporary disability compensation
Permanent disability compensation, if appropriate
Third-party personal injury claims are separate from a workers’ compensation claim. In many cases, a third-party claim could be possible if a party besides your immediate employer was in some way responsible for your injury, such as:
- A subcontractor who was negligent
- An owner of the property where you were injured
- An equipment manufacturer
- Another unrelated company that made the site unsafe in some other way
Not all injured workers can pursue both types of claims. Workers’ compensation generally bars an employee from suing their employer based on ordinary negligence on the part of the employer, so the existence of a third-party claim will depend specifically on whether another company or party was involved in creating the dangerous condition that injured you.
Who Else May Be Responsible for a Construction Injury?
The liability determination does not rest merely on your paycheck but rather upon which party controlled the hazard causing the injury.
Some possible responsible third parties may be as follows:
- Subcontractors
- General contractors, in some instances
- Property owners
- Equipment manufacturers
- Companies providing the use of the equipment
- Suppliers of material
- Vehicle transportation companies
- Designers, in cases when facts warrant it
- Public authorities, in the case of dangerous public conditions
Examples of such a situation include:
Subcontractors leaving hazards in the walkways resulting in the injury of workers from another company. The machinery was faulty and caused an injury while used normally. The rented lift, scaffolding, or ladder collapsed. A vehicle delivering goods collided with the worker. A condition of the property other than construction site conditions caused the fall.
Violation of safety rules alone does not establish civil liability. The important point is determining who controlled that particular area or equipment. It can be done using the inspection, training, maintenance records, and contracts assigning specific works to particular companies.
Evidence That Can Show What Went Wrong
Construction job sites evolve quickly, making the importance of early documentation more significant than most any other kind of injury case.
- Photos or video of the site
- The specific piece of equipment, tool, scaffolding, ladder, or other equipment at issue
- Injured or destroyed safety equipment
- Names and contact info for witnesses
- Reports from supervisors and the incident
- Minutes from safety meetings
- Training documentation
- Inspection documentation
- Equipment manuals
- Contracts indicating which company was controlling the workspace
- Surveillance videos
- Pictures of the job site
- Work schedules
- Texts and emails related to the hazard
- Medical records
- Pay stubs
- Information from OSHA or Cal/OSHA investigations, if any
- Expert inspections in serious or questionable cases
Don’t assume you’ll have access to the same job site one week later. Equipment will be moved or taken away, temporary structures will be dismantled, and the site will continue to evolve through ongoing construction. It may turn out to be even more important to prove which company controlled the workspace than the actual hazard itself.
What a Construction Injury Claim May Cover
Construction sites involve real physical danger, and injuries here often include fractures, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, crush injuries, burns, amputations, electrocution injuries, and internal injuries.
Potential financial losses may include:
- Emergency treatment
- Hospital bills
- Surgery
- Rehabilitation and physical therapy
- Future medical treatment
- Lost wages
- Reduced earning capacity
- Mobility equipment
- Other documented out-of-pocket losses
Where a valid third-party personal injury claim exists, potential non-economic damages may include:
- Physical pain
- Emotional distress
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Permanent impairment
- Scarring or disfigurement
There’s no average construction accident settlement that applies across cases. What a claim is actually worth depends on the injury, the medical evidence, liability, your employment status, available insurance coverage, future limitations, and which legal claims are actually available to you.
Deadlines Can Depend on Which Claim You Have
Deadlines in construction accident cases aren’t one-size-fits-all, and getting this wrong can cost you the ability to recover anything at all.
Workers’ compensation has its own reporting and filing requirements, separate from any personal injury deadline, and these can move faster than people expect. For a third-party personal injury claim against a private company, California generally applies a different deadline under California Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1. If a government entity is involved, an administrative claim deadline under California Government Code § 911.2 can be significantly shorter than either of these.
The correct deadline depends entirely on who you’re pursuing and what type of legal claim applies, which is exactly why identifying the correct claim type early matters. More information on the workers’ compensation process is available through the California Division of Workers’ Compensation, and general job-site safety standards are addressed through Cal/OSHA.
Get Help After a West Hollywood Construction Accident
If you got hurt at a West Hollywood construction site or near a construction project, the Law Offices of Adrianos Facchetti can assist in analyzing the situation and determine if there was workers’ compensation, a third-party claim, or both. The consultation and case preparation will not cost you an attorney’s fee, as we charge contingency fee arrangements, which mean there’s no fee unless you get a recovery.
These usually involve uncovering who were the companies that worked in the location were, collecting evidence as soon as possible before any evidence destruction, and dealing with insurance complications related to serious injuries and earnings loss.
Some of the things that can be discussed in your case review are:
- Review how and where the injury happened
- Identify the companies involved at the job site
- Discuss whether workers’ compensation and third-party liability may overlap
- Identify evidence that should be preserved
- Review medical and wage losses
- Discuss the deadlines that may apply
- Explain what may happen next
Contact us through our website if you wish to discuss your case.
