Injury After Notifying Construction Company Of Danger: Who's Responsible?
Posted on: 13 July 2022
An injury on a construction site is not a new thing, nor, unfortunately, is it a rare thing. Good construction companies do everything they can to avoid injuries, but not-so-good companies can have more issues in that regard. Workers may try to tell supervisors about something dangerous that needs to be fixed, turned off, moved, or blocked off, but there's no guarantee that the supervisor will listen if the company isn't great. If you've been injured on a construction site after trying to warn your supervisors about the issue, you need to speak to a construction injuries lawyer as fast as possible.
Sometimes the Negligence Comes From Far up the Chain of Command
You might think at first that you need to have your supervisor or co-workers charged with negligence that caused your injury. This might not be the case; the fault lies with whoever knew about the danger but did nothing. It could even be the property owner and not the supervisor, for all you know. For example, if your supervisor was off in an office, trying to reach the owner of the property about the danger, and you were injured while the supervisor was making that call, then the supervisor was trying to help you stop the danger. They may not be considered negligent.
That Doesn't Excuse Others Who Willingly Ignored the Danger
Even if the owner of the property was really the main negligent party, it doesn't save others who knew from being charged with negligence. Maybe your supervisor tried to help you but couldn't and instead ordered you to keep working around the danger; your supervisor may be considered negligent in that case. It's not nice to think about, but negligence in personal injury cases can be difficult to pin down.
The Court May Look at Your Role, Too
You tried to have the problem fixed but couldn't get anyone to do anything, and you were unable to make whatever it was any safer – and then you were injured because of that very thing you warned people about. Be aware that the company's lawyers may try to bring up your role in your injury, wondering why you kept working around something so dangerous. This is tricky, and in states that look at comparative negligence, it could affect your award and even the verdict.
You must have good legal representation to fight off the insinuation that the accident was your fault. You'll also need help determining who in the company was really negligent and thus should be the target of the lawsuit if worker's compensation doesn't restrict your ability to sue.
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