Failures to Comply with Building and Construction Codes
Experienced Bronx Attorneys Holding Property Owners Accountable for Your Injuries. Jesse Minc Personal Injury Law is committed to representing people who have been injured in accidents on commercial and residential property throughout New York City. Many of these cases arise from trip and falls and other accidents caused by violations of building and construction codes on the property where the mishap happens. Our Bronx premises liability lawyers understand that being injured in an accident can be a painful and stress-inducing experience. That is especially true when you are injured unexpectedly through no fault of your own. Our lawyers pursue these cases head-on, fighting relentlessly to ensure that the people whom we represent get the full compensation that is made available to them under the law. Our firm maintains relationships with engineers and building inspectors who will inspect a premises and find violations of building and construction codes and help link these violations to your accident to help you prove negligence and recover compensation in your personal injury lawsuit.
Violations of Building and Construction Codes May Lead to Accidents
State and local building and construction codes are designed to ensure that construction work happens in a way that is safe for everyone involved. The standards are also intended to guarantee that apartment buildings, retail stores, and other properties are in a reasonably safe condition for anyone who lives, works, or visits there. Fire safety standards, for example, require buildings to be constructed without certain highly flammable materials and in a way that allows people to safely exit in the case of an emergency. Other building and construction codes cover everything from how plumbing is installed and the types of materials that can be used on exterior walls to security protections and obligations to clear ice and snow from walkways. (The specific requirements vary based on how the building is used.) Among the most common types of accidents that are caused by failures to comply with building and construction codes involve falls down stairs that occur because of inadequate handrails, or unevenly constructed steps that make ascent and descent dangerous for those who use the staircase.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a trip or slip and fall or another accident, you have the right to seek compensation from a property owner that failed to comply with building and construction codes if this caused your injuries. The compensation typically available in these cases includes money for doctors’ bills, missed wages due to time away from work, and any reduction in your earning capacity caused by your injuries. Additional money damages for pain, suffering, and emotional distress are also often available. In the tragic event that a person dies in an accident, his or her spouse can seek compensation for wrongful death.
Proving Liability
New York state and local laws require property owners to keep their premises in a reasonably safe condition. Owners are also obligated to warn people of any hazards on the property that the owner has discovered or should have discovered through a reasonable inspection. An owner that does not live up to this “duty of care” is likely to be considered negligent and responsible for any accidents caused as a result of the property’s unsafe condition or the owner’s failure to warn about a dangerous condition.
Building and construction codes can be a valuable tool for anyone seeking to prove that a property owner has been negligent. First, they can help establish that the premises were in an unsafe condition by showing that they were not up to code requirements. In addition, records of previous citations for code violations may help establish that the owner was aware of the property’s poor condition at the time of the accident. This can be a big step forward in proving negligence, although your attorney still needs to prove that the accident happened because of the hazards created by code violations. Finally, if you can establish that a building code was violated in connection with an accident, this is evidence of negligence, and the judge at trial will instruct the jury in this regard. This can be an immensely valuable piece of evidence that can make the difference between a win and a loss in court.
Contact Us
At Jesse Minc Personal Injury Law, we have a strong record of success for the people whom we represent in premises liability cases. We draw on former police officers to investigate cases and a pool of expert witnesses to help convince judges and juries that our clients are entitled to legal remedies for their harm. We also offer clients direct access to our lawyers. You will not be required to communicate through assistants and paralegals. Our attorneys represent victims of floor and sidewalk accidents, falls down stairs, inadequate lighting, and other incidents involving defective property conditions in the Greater New York City region, including in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties. We usually do not charge a fee unless we are successful. Call us at (718) 354-8000 or contact us online to schedule a free initial consultation. Se habla espanol.