If you were injured on a construction site in Elizabeth, New Jersey, you may believe workers’ compensation is your only option for recovering compensation. In many cases, that is not true. While workers’ compensation provides important benefits after a work-related injury, it does not always prevent you from filing a lawsuit against someone other than your employer.
Because construction projects in New Jersey often involve multiple contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, equipment companies, and property owners, more than one party may be legally responsible for a serious accident. If another person’s or company’s negligence contributed to your injuries, a third-party lawsuit may allow you to recover compensation where workers’ compensation falls short.
New Jersey law generally prevents you from suing your own employer for negligence after a workplace injury. Instead, your employer’s obligation is usually limited to providing workers’ compensation benefits under N.J.S.A. 34:15-8. However, that protection applies only to your employer.
Workers’ compensation does not shield another contractor, property owner, or negligent party from being held responsible for your injuries in a construction accident in Elizabeth or elsewhere in New Jersey. If someone other than your employer acted negligently and that negligence caused your injuries, you may have the right to file a third-party personal injury lawsuit.
Construction sites are busy workplaces where several companies often perform different jobs at the same time. One company may install scaffolding, another may operate heavy equipment, while another delivers materials. When one company’s negligence creates a dangerous condition that injures you, that company may be legally responsible. Depending on how the accident happened, a third-party lawsuit may be brought against another subcontractor, a negligent general contractor, a property owner, an equipment rental company, a delivery company, or another business working on the project.
If your injuries were caused by defective equipment, New Jersey law may also allow you to pursue a product liability claim under the New Jersey Products Liability Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-1 through 2A:58C-11. This law allows injured people to seek compensation when equipment was unreasonably dangerous because it was defectively designed, defectively manufactured, or sold without adequate warnings or instructions. A defective scaffold, ladder, harness, or power tool may create this type of claim under N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-2.
A third-party lawsuit is available because of who caused the accident—not simply because of how the accident happened. Common examples include scaffold collapses, ladder failures, falls, crane accidents, forklift accidents, trench collapses, falling objects, electrical accidents, machinery accidents, and injuries involving defective construction equipment. A delivery truck striking a worker or another subcontractor creating an unsafe work area may also give rise to a third-party claim.
Determining who controlled the dangerous condition is often the most important issue in the case because identifying the correct defendant is what makes a third-party lawsuit possible.
Workers’ compensation and third-party lawsuits serve different purposes. Workers’ compensation generally pays for medical treatment, temporary disability benefits, permanent disability benefits when appropriate, and certain death benefits. You usually do not have to prove your employer did anything wrong to receive those benefits.
A third-party lawsuit is different because it is based on negligence. You must prove that another person or company caused your injuries. If you do, you may recover damages that workers’ compensation generally does not provide, including pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, the full amount of recoverable lost income, and other damages allowed under New Jersey law. For many injured construction workers in Elizabeth, a third-party lawsuit is the only opportunity to recover compensation for the full impact the accident has had on their lives.
Receiving workers’ compensation benefits does not prevent you from filing a third-party lawsuit. However, New Jersey law also prevents an injured worker from recovering compensation twice for the same loss. That is why N.J.S.A. 34:15-40 allows your employer or its workers’ compensation insurance carrier to recover some of the benefits it paid if you later obtain compensation from the negligent third party. As a result, the value of a third-party settlement is not always the same as the amount the injured worker ultimately receives.
Yes. New Jersey follows a comparative negligence system. Under N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1 through 2A:15-5.3, you do not automatically lose your right to compensation simply because you were partly responsible for the accident. Instead, a judge or jury assigns each party a percentage of fault. Your compensation is generally reduced by your share of responsibility.
However, if you are found to be more responsible than all of the defendants combined, New Jersey law generally prevents you from recovering damages from those defendants. As a result, even relatively small disputes over how the accident occurred can significantly affect the amount of compensation an injured worker may recover.
For most third-party construction accident lawsuits, N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2 generally gives you two years to file a personal injury lawsuit. If a public entity or public employee may have been involved, different rules can apply. Under the New Jersey Tort Claims Act, N.J.S.A. 59:8-8 generally requires a notice of claim to be served within 90 days before a lawsuit can proceed. Waiting too long will usually result in your case being dismissed, even if your injuries are severe. That is why it is important to have your potential claim evaluated as soon as possible.
Construction sites are constantly changing. Work continues, equipment is moved or returned to service, temporary structures are dismantled, and different contractors and subcontractors rotate on and off the project as the job progresses. As those changes occur, it can become more difficult to determine the conditions that existed when the accident happened, who controlled the work area, and which company was responsible for the activity that caused the injury. For that reason, determining liability often becomes more difficult as time passes, particularly when several companies were working on the project.
Determining whether you have a third-party construction accident claim is rarely straightforward. Liability may depend on which company controlled the work, who was responsible for safety, and whether someone other than your employer contributed to the accident.
If you were injured on a construction site in Elizabeth or elsewhere in New Jersey, Beninato & Matrafajlo Attorneys at Law, LLC can determine whether someone other than your employer may be legally responsible for your injuries. Led by Dan T. Matrafajlo, the firm has recovered more than $100 million for injury victims. Contact Beninato & Matrafajlo Attorneys at Law, LLC for a free consultation with an Elizabeth construction accident lawyer.