Suing for Construction Injuries in NJ usually begins with a tough realization: workers’ comp helps, but it rarely makes you whole. If you were hurt on a Bergen County jobsite—Paramus, Hackensack, Teaneck, Fort Lee—you’re likely juggling treatment, partial wage checks, and a lot of questions. That’s where we come in.
At Sammarro & Zalarick, we speak plainly. We’re a Bergen County construction accident lawyer team that handles fractured falls, trench collapses, scaffold failures, ladder slips, crush injuries, burns, traumatic brain injury, disc herniations, and everything a busy site can throw at a crew. This guide explains when comp isn’t enough, how a Construction accident lawsuit in NJ works, and what evidence wins these cases without turning your life upside down.
When Workers’ Comp Isn’t Enough – Suing for Construction Injuries in NJ
Comp is the safety net: medical treatment, partial wages while you’re out, and scheduled or permanent disability benefits. That’s it. Comp does not pay pain and suffering and does not restore full earning power when you can’t return to your trade. If your shoulder repair won’t let you hang board overhead; if a back injury ends your operating days—comp won’t bridge the gap.
That’s why Suing for Construction Injuries often means a Third-party construction claim in addition to the comp case. You can pursue both. The lawsuit targets the people and companies outside your employer who created the hazard or controlled the site and let it happen.
Third Parties and Section 40: How the Money Works
New Jersey permits a civil claim against third parties even while your comp case is open. When your civil case resolves, your comp carrier typically asserts a Workers’ comp lien Section 40 NJ for what it paid (with statutory reductions for fees and costs). We handle that math, negotiate where appropriate, and protect your net. The point of Suing for Construction Injuries is to recover what comp can’t—pain and suffering, full wage loss, loss of earning capacity, and household services your family now has to replace.
Can I Sue My Employer?
Most of the time, no—comp is the “exclusive remedy” for employer negligence. There’s a narrow exception for intentional wrong, but it’s rare and fact-intense. We’ll evaluate it honestly. For many clients, the real value comes from a focused case against other responsible players: General contractor negligence, Subcontractor negligence, Construction manager liability, Property owner premises liability construction, and Products Liability Act claims when defective tools or materials played a role.
Who Can Be Liable on a Multi-Employer Site?
On a big job, everyone has a job. That’s also how responsibility gets shared.
General contractors who keep control over means, methods, or safety can be accountable when the plan on paper isn’t the plan on deck. Subcontractors that create a hazard—remove a guardrail, leave a floor opening uncovered, forget to slope or shore a trench—own those choices. Owners and construction managers may share fault when they retain control or ignore known dangers. When equipment breaks or warnings fail, we analyze Products Liability Act exposure against manufacturers and sellers.
We pull the contracts, subcontracts, and certificates of insurance early to map indemnity and additional insured status. We don’t sue everyone in sight; we sue everyone who matters.
Safety Rules that Matter—and How We Use Them
We don’t drown jurors in code. But we use the rules to explain what reasonable safety looks like and how your incident fell short.
- OSHA fall protection 29 CFR 1926.501. Holes covered or guarded; edges protected; anchor points real, not imagined.
- Scaffold accident claim 29 CFR 1926.451 (Subpart L). Capacity, guardrails, planking, tie-ins, competent-person inspections.
- Ladder accident claim 29 CFR 1926.1053. Right ladder, right angle, right footing, and “use for the purpose designed.”
- Trench collapse claim 29 CFR 1926.652 (Subpart P). Sloping, shielding, trench boxes—all before anyone goes down.
- Multi-employer worksite policy CPL 02-00-124. On shared sites, creating, controlling, exposing, and correcting employers can all be responsible.
- Severe injury reporting OSHA 1904.39. Hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye triggers reporting and often an inspection.
When the defense says “accidents happen,” we show exactly which simple measures would have prevented yours. That’s the difference between an OSHA violation injury and a safe day at work.
Evidence Wins These Cases (and Disappears Fast)
Busy jobs change by the hour. We move quickly because conditions won’t wait.
We photograph the floor opening before it’s patched, the scaffold tags and inspection records before they’re tossed, the ladder model and condition before it walks to another site. We capture lift/boom maintenance logs, daily reports, job hazard analysis (JSA) sheets, toolbox talks, and foreman notes that show who knew what and when. We send preservation letters for any on-site cameras and ask whether the injury triggered a report under OSHA’s severe injury rule.
All of this folds into Suing for Construction Injuries with a document-driven story: what should have been there (rail, cover, box), why it mattered, and how its absence changed your life.
What You Can Recover Beyond Comp
Workers’ comp covers medical bills and a fraction of wages. A Construction accident lawsuit aims at the rest:
You can seek pain and suffering tied to the injury and the long tail of recovery. If you can’t return to your old role or hours, we build loss of earning capacity with vocational proof, union scale, and your history. We account for future medical care—hardware removal, injections, revision surgeries, therapy. We calculate household services your family must now pay for. In limited situations, a spouse may have a loss of consortium claim.
We like numbers more than adjectives: tax returns, pay stubs, timecards, and medical opinions. That’s what moves value from guesswork to verdict level.
Deadlines that Protect Your Rights
New Jersey’s Two-year statute of limitations in NJ governs most personal injury suits. Two years sounds long until witnesses move, phones change, and jobsites disappear. We calendar the earliest plausible date on day one and file well before it.
If a public project is involved—county building, municipal lot, state agency—you must also serve a 90-day Tort Claims Act notice through the state’s digital portal. Miss it, and your Public entity construction claim may be limited or lost. Separate from the two-year injury deadline, certain construction-defect claims face a Ten-year statute of repose for unsafe improvements to real property; we analyze whether it applies to your facts.
The short version: don’t wait on Suing for Construction Injuries. Waiting helps the defense.
Real Bergen County Scenarios (and how we prove them)
The uncovered hole. You’re hauling material; your foot drops through a deck opening covered by scrap plywood. We lock in photos from your vantage point, collect the JSA and daily log, and line the facts up with 1926.501. If the general contractor negligence case is about control and safety, we prove it with their own paperwork.
The scaffold swing. A supported scaffold shifts and collapses. We pull the scaffold drawings, tags, and inspections, then tie them to scaffold accident claim 29 CFR 1926.451. Ground conditions—mud, base plates, tie-ins—tell the rest of the story.
The trench “just for a minute.” A cut creeps from five feet to seven without a box because someone’s chasing a pipe. Subpart P says what needed to happen long before that minute arrived. We identify the subcontractor negligence that created the hazard and the controlling entity that let it continue.
The ladder slip. A painter uses the wrong ladder on dusty concrete; the feet kick out. We match photos to ladder accident claim 29 CFR 1926.1053 and inspect whether safer equipment was on site. If the ladder itself failed, we also pursue a Products Liability Act claim against the seller or manufacturer.
What To Do in the First Week
Get care. Tell providers it was a worksite injury. Keep it simple and truthful.
Write down the basic facts: GC and foreman names, subcontractor company, exact location on the site, and any witnesses. Photograph the scene, the equipment, the floor opening or edge, the scaffold, the ladder. If OSHA or the safety director contacted you, save the voicemail and email. If you’re union, notify your steward and open the comp claim—but don’t give recorded statements to outside insurers until we talk.
Then hand it off. We open comp, preserve evidence for Suing for Construction Injuries, and start building the civil case while you focus on healing.
Local Matters
Litigation is local. A New Jersey construction injury attorney who tries cases in Hackensack understands our juries, our judges, and how sites are run from Ridgewood to Englewood. We know which defense firms represent which GCs, where jobsite cameras usually live, and how to move a Third-party construction claim without drama. If you need a Fort Lee or Paramus presence, we’re here.
FAQs (short and candid)
Is workers’ comp enough after a construction injury in NJ?
Usually not. Comp pays treatment and partial wages. Suing for Construction Injuries through a third-party claim is how you recover pain and suffering, full wage loss, and future costs.
Who can I sue after a construction accident in NJ?
Potential defendants include GCs, subs, owners/CMs, and product manufacturers. The mix depends on control, contracts, and who created the hazard.
Can I sue my employer for a construction injury in NJ?
Only in rare “intentional wrong” scenarios. Most cases target other responsible parties.
Do I need a 90-day notice for a public project claim in NJ?
Yes, for public entities. Serve a 90-day Tort Claims Act notice through the state portal to preserve a Public entity construction claim.
How long do I have to sue after a construction accident in NJ?
New Jersey’s Two-year statute of limitations applies to most injury suits. Separate rules may apply to certain construction-defect scenarios (the Ten-year statute of repose).
What evidence helps win a construction injury case?
Photos and video; scaffold tags and inspection records; ladder model and condition; daily logs, JSAs, toolbox talks; maintenance records; contracts and COIs; OSHA inspection files.
How does OSHA affect my New Jersey construction claim?
OSHA standards help explain what reasonable safety looks like. We use them to show how a hazard became an OSHA violation injury.
How We Work the Case
We treat every file like a two-lane road: comp on the left, civil on the right. We open and manage comp so your care continues, then push the civil lane with preservation letters, contracts, coverage, and a clean medical story that ties mechanism to injury. We quantify loss of earning capacity, future care, and household services. We also negotiate the Workers’ comp lien Section 40 so your net recovery makes sense.
If the defense wants to talk early, we talk. If not, we file, take depositions, and set a trial timeline.
Ready to Talk?
If you’re weighing Suing for Construction Injuries, call or email Sammarro & Zalarick. Bring whatever you have—photos, names, the incident report number. We’ll build the rest and keep you focused on getting better.