If you were in a construction accident, there are different types of monetary claims you can file, you can also get compensated for different types of damages, such as bodily injury, loss of income and medical expenses. Attorney Matthew Sullivan of the Queens, NY Personal Injury Law Firm of Gregory Spektor & Associates, P.C. explains how to get the maximum for your personal injury case.

What compensation in Construction

Fri, 4/29 2:40PM • 8:40

SPEAKERS

Matthew Sullivan, Michael Levitis

Michael Levitis  00:00

Hey, everybody, it’s Michael Levitis, from JurisQ.com with an attorney who is a partner in a personal injury law firm of Gregory Spektor and Associates, Matthew Sullivan. Matthew, thank you for being with us. Again, I keep on bringing you back to discuss various topics in construction accidents, unfortunately, they happen and the injuries could be very serious, very grave, want to make sure that people are compensated, if somebody was responsible, somebody was negligent. So Matthew, what I want to ask you this time is, again, we’re gonna go back to basics is what exactly are you asking for? When you get injured, what can you get compensated for? For your loss from injury? Can you please tell us where the money for what,

Matthew Sullivan  00:52

When you’re injured on a construction site, you can be compensated not only for your pain and suffering, not only for the amount of time that you lost from work from the date of the incident, but for all your future earnings, all the money that you would have earned in the future, all those retirement benefits, all those union benefits for many of our union clients, you can get compensated for all of those losses, which often results in the millions and millions of dollars.

Michael Levitis  01:20

What about if you have injuries, and you have medical bills, can you get compensated for that?

Matthew Sullivan  01:28

You can absolutely not only get compensated for your past medical bills, any money that you’ve come out of pocket, or your insurance company has come out of pocket for to pay, you can also be compensated for the medical bills and lifetime of  care  you’re expected to need as a result of your life changing injuries.

Michael Levitis  01:48

Matthew, what about if, let’s say you had a job, we have to use your your physical force. However, from injuries, you’re no longer able to do the job you did before. So now you’re getting paid less, maybe you can work less hours, you can’t pick up the heavy materials used to before to the gave you a lower job, can you get compensated for the business for the loss of income?

Matthew Sullivan  02:16

Michael, you can absolutely be compensated for what we would call the diminution of earning capacity. Or put it more plainly, the difference in the amount of money you weren’t earning before the accident versus the lower amount of money that you’re earning. Because the job that they are now reassigning you to do doesn’t include overtime, or doesn’t include those benefits, or isn’t as strenuous and therefore not likely to pay as much.

Michael Levitis  02:41

Yeah, see, this is why we urge people if God forbid they get injured at an accident, a construction accident, speak to an attorney as soon as possible because you have to analyze all these factors. See, what exactly can you get money for us to make sure there’s no money left on the table wouldn’t want to do that? Right? We want to get to clients  their full recovery,

Matthew Sullivan  03:07

of course, and that’s why Michael, you not only need lawyers who understand the law, but you need lawyers who have relationships with expert witnesses, expert economists, rehabilitation, expert life care planners, who understand the mathematics of these losses, and who can show up to a jury with us show up to trial with us and Blackboard, these millions and millions of dollars in losses. So that way, when a jury does award a worker millions of dollars in compensation, they have a good reason to and Juries love to do the right thing and compensate the injured worker, of course,

Michael Levitis  03:46

I would say juries like the working men and women.

Matthew Sullivan  03:50

Right. Absolutely. And they like wrapping their head around numbers. One of the most complicated things that we do is convince a jury what a broken shoulder is worth what a surgically repaired back is worth. And it’s difficult for a jury to understand that what’s easy for a jury to understand is if a laborer a worker, a foreman was earning X before the accident, and now they weren’t earning less than x and surety is able to get that and that can end up being a lot a lot of money, especially when you factor in those pension benefits and other union benefits that are often afforded to construction workers. 

Michael Levitis  04:25

I see. Now you mentioned experts. That sounds expensive. Who pays for those experts?

Matthew Sullivan  04:33

Greg Spektor and Associates – we front all of the litigation costs. That means we pay for the experts and we only recover those costs. At the end of the case. When we win the case. We understand that injured workers are already struggling to heal struggling to continue to put food on the table. The last thing they need is another hand in their pocket. Another bill to pay another expert witness to put on the stamp. That’s not how we operate at Gregory Spektor and Associates, we pay those costs, and we only get paid when you get paid.

Michael Levitis  05:04

Very good. As a follow up question, if you’re suing your company you are working for right, the general contractor or the developer, can you stay at your job while you are, you know, once you’re healed, you’re able to cut back but the case goes on, are you able to stay at your job or you have to quit?

Matthew Sullivan  05:28

you can certainly stay at your job, if you’re physically able to. In New York, you can’t go after your employer directly because they afford the workers compensation benefits. Those workers compensation benefits include getting your medical bills paid for, if your medical treatment has concluded and the doctor say you can go back to work, then we understand how difficult it is and how important it is to put food on the table. You can go back to work. But bear in mind, when we go to trial, when we sue the developer or the construction manager or the general contractor, they will use that as evidence to say you’re not really that hurt, you came back to work. And so these are all factors that we have to consider when we make those decisions during the course of the litigation.

Michael Levitis  06:15

Matthew, but what happens if you want to go back to work, but your manager fires you because you have filed a lawsuit against them or against the developer against GC, in the fact they retaliate against you? Have you seen such cases and what happens then?

Matthew Sullivan  06:33

it’s an unfortunate reality that these companies choose to retaliate and terminate employees and workers who have been injured just doing their day to day job. If there’s a retaliatory firing, that opens up a whole host of potential employment litigation matters that we can either assist with, or we work hand in hand with qualified skilled employment lawyers, who would be able to bring that separate cause of action against the employer.

Michael Levitis  07:03

So it sounds like you have to go to the attorney, get a consultation for free, because your firm provides free analysis of the case, free consultation, and then you will know your rights and support to document everything early. And the attorney like Matthew Sullivan will tell you, what needs to be documented, what evidence you need to have, what evidence your attorney can find for you through different court processes of discovery, and so on. So you are in the best position to recover the most money for your case. Matthew Spektor, from the law firm of Gregory Spektor and Associates, thank you so much. This was always very interesting, very educational. And what we’re trying to do here is not just to give a dry law, because that’s boring. We’re trying to make it interesting to educate you on your rights. So you know, so you are aware of what is going on, prior to your case, and during your case. So please follow us for more educational posts on legal topics, and q&a with various attorneys. And please like our pages on Facebook and Instagram, YouTube, where everywhere so you can reach us, you can access us and if you have any questions, either call Matthew Sullivan directly at  the phone number at the bottom of the screen. Or you can post comments below this post on social media or what have you. Matthew Sullivan, thank you so much. And I’ll see you very soon with more questions.

Matthew Sullivan  08:36

Really appreciate your time. Thank you