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A construction accident can drastically change your life in a single moment. Too often, negligent safety lapses cost construction workers their livelihoods, health, and lives. In the aftermath, victims usually require extensive medical care while trying to come to terms with emotional scars. Healing takes time, and financial resources help injury victims get essential treatments.
Don’t go it alone when vying for fair compensation after a preventable calamity at a careless job site. Call a construction accident lawyer at Sargent Law for a free consultation. We help those who have been injured due to someone else’s negligence by providing access to the highest level of legal representation, medical treatment, and financial compensation.
The Dangers of Working in Construction Sites
As Temecula personal injury attorneys, the legal team at Sargent Law Firm understands the dangers construction workers face. Working in the construction industry can be extremely dangerous for several reasons:
- Height hazards—Construction frequently requires working at dangerous heights on structures, scaffolding, ladders, and rooftops, raising the risk of devastating fall injuries or fatalities.
- Heavy machinery—Operating, assisting, or simply working near heavy construction equipment like bulldozers, cranes, and lift vehicles exposes workers to serious crushing injuries and amputations from improper use or malfunctions.
- Hazardous materials—Toxic substances like asbestos, lead, silica, and chemical solvents at many construction sites pose respiratory, skin absorption, and other health dangers to those without proper safety gear.
- Confined spaces—Electrical, maintenance, infrastructure, and excavation work often occur in tight, enclosed areas where hazards like limited oxygen, toxic fumes, fire danger, and entrapment risks exist.
- Site conditions—Chaotic, messy, loud job sites with numerous contractors make consistent safety oversight difficult, leading to accidents with debris, tools, noise, and tripping hazards.
- Strenuous activity—Physically demanding, repetitious jobs like tuckpointing, lifting, and digging over long hours contribute to exhaustion and ergonomic injuries common among construction laborers and trade workers.
If negligent behavior by a property owner, general contractor, subcontractor, or other party contributed to your job site injury, you have the legal right to file an insurance claim or lawsuit for compensation.
Who Can Be Held Liable in a Temecula Construction Accident?
Multiple parties in a construction accident claim may share legal responsibility depending on the specific details and causes of the incident. Potentially liable parties can include:
- Property Owners: Owners of the construction site where the injury occurred can be named in a suit for negligence if site conditions, inadequate security against public access, or other factors directly contributed to the accident.
- General Contractors: Contractors overseeing the construction project owe all subcontractors and laborers a “duty of care” under federal regulations and state statutes to directly control operations and maintain safe working conditions. Liability exists if their negligence caused the incident.
- Sub and Independent Contractors: Any sub or independent contractors, vendors, or specialized trades working onsite whose defective equipment, unsafe practices, or faulty work led to the incident in question can be sued for construction negligence. For example, a crane subcontractor may be liable if rigging failure caused an object to strike employees below.
- Government Agencies: On public works projects, government bodies managing infrastructure design and construction, like state departments of transportation or school development authorities, could also be sued if negligence involving planning flaws or code violations is evident.
A construction accident attorney in Temecula can identify all potentially negligent parties who may share fault and legal responsibility depending on causation factors. If one or more parties are liable for your construction injuries, we will pursue them all to get you fair compensation.
Compensation You Can Receive After a Temecula Construction Accident
After a construction accident in Temecula, it’s crucial to understand the types of compensation you may be entitled to. Here are just a few things you can seek compensation for.
- Medical Expenses: Covers hospital bills, surgeries, rehabilitation, and ongoing medical treatments.
- Lost Wages: Compensation for income lost due to inability to work during recovery.
- Future Earnings: Damages for potential future income loss if the injury affects long-term earning capacity.
- Pain and Suffering: Monetary compensation for physical pain and emotional distress caused by the accident.
- Disability: Compensation for permanent disability or disfigurement resulting from the injury.
- Property Damage: Reimbursement for personal property damaged during the accident.
A knowledgeable construction accident lawyer can include these in your claim to maximize your compensation.
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Schedule NowHow a Temecula Construction Accident Attorney Builds a Strong Claim for You
A Temecula construction accident lawyer can help injured construction employees and contractors build and file a compelling legal claim by:
- Thoroughly investigating how negligence likely caused the accident
- Consulting with medical teams about the extent of injuries and prognosis
- Consulting with labor experts about how injuries impact employment ability and income
- Gathering eyewitness accounts, police records, photographic evidence
- Understanding California construction injury law and statute of limitations
Pursuing fair restitution is often the only path to financial stability for construction professionals facing months or years of recovery and rehabilitation after workplace disasters. An attorney well-versed in construction claims can make the legal process much less burdensome.
Types of Cases Our Temecula Construction Accident Lawyers Represent
Some of the most common types of serious or fatal construction accidents include:
- Falls
- Struck by or caught in/between incidents
- Electrocution and electric shocks
- Excavation and “trenching” collapses
- Heavy machinery accidents
- Motor vehicle crashes
Adhering to OSHA and industry safety standards could prevent countless incidents. However, time pressures and a lack of unified control among contractors and crews too often prevail over caution on active job sites where serious hazards remain underestimated.
The Statute of Limitations for Construction Site Accidents in Temecula Explained
If you suffered a severe injury in a construction site accident in Temecula, it is crucial to understand the statute of limitations for filing a related personal injury claim. Here are the critical filing deadlines:
Workers’ Compensation
All job site injuries must be reported to your employer, and you must initiate a workers’ compensation claim within 30 days of the incident. Failing to comply can jeopardize benefits and protection.
Workers’ compensation covers construction accident injuries for many construction workers, and victims typically cannot sue their employers under this agreement. However, there are exceptions to this, and it usually depends on the party that caused your harm.
Civil Injury Claims
According to CCP § 335.1, for construction injuries caused involving negligence or liability of any potentially responsible parties (general contractor, architect, sub-contractor, etc.), you have two years from the date of injury to file a personal injury claim. Strict time limits apply even if disability or complication from the original injury manifests later.
A lawyer can tell you if workers’ compensation or a third-party claim is the right option for you.
Wrongful Death Claims
CCP § 335.1 also states that if the construction accident resulted in the death of the worker, surviving family members have two years from the date of death to file a wrongful death lawsuit.
Consider seeking legal counsel from a construction accident attorney serving Temecula immediately after a serious injury occurs. Preparing a case, gathering evidence, and filing documentation can take a lot of time, so the sooner you reach out, the better.
It’s free to speak with us and learn the value of your case today.
Call Us NowHow a Temecula Construction Accident Attorney Can Help You
A construction accident attorney in Temecula can help injured workers or grieving families in the aftermath of worksite disasters in the following ways:
- Thorough investigation– An attorney will obtain police reports, witness testimony, construction records, and surveillance footage to determine what safety laws or procedures were violated and pinpoint who bears responsibility. This allows us to gather evidence to prove negligence.
- File legal paperwork—The attorney handles complex filings like OSHA complaints against builders, workers’ compensation claims, time-sensitive personal injury demand letters to negligent parties to pursue restitution, and any necessary civil litigation if a fair settlement isn’t reached.
- Maximize compensation– Lawyers will quantify current and all future medical costs based on the extent of your injury, calculate lost wages and reduced earning capacity from disability, account for pain and suffering, and ensure you receive the maximum damages you deserve.
- Negotiations and litigation– If needed, our accident attorneys have the experience to represent clients in settlement meetings, mediation, binding arbitrations, and courtrooms if those liable refuse reasonable offers. This saves the client excessive hassles.
Recovering damages won’t make up for the harm and losses suffered in construction accidents. However, legal support can help you balance the scales after negligence causes accidents on construction sites in Temecula.
Get a Free Consultation with a Temecula Construction Accident Lawyer
If you or a loved one has been injured or disabled in a preventable construction accident in Temecula, it’s time to exercise your legal rights. The Temecula construction injury attorneys at Sargent Law Firm offer free, no-obligation consultations to discuss your accident details and determine if negligence caused this life disruption.
With a proven record of results, Sargent Law Firm’s personal injury lawyers can challenge contractors’ insurance providers and at-fault parties to fight for the highest compensation you deserve. We can assess potential financial remedies covering extensive medical treatment, lost income, pain and suffering, and changed future capacity.
Contact us today or call our number to begin.
