Undocumented Construction Worker Injury Lawyer in New York

If you were hurt building something in New York, the law protects you. An undocumented construction worker injury lawyer in New York exists because so many injured workers believe the opposite, stay quiet, and lose the chance to recover anything at all. New York's highest court settled this question 20 years ago, and the answer has not changed since.

The Perecman Firm PLLC represents injured construction workers across New York City, Queens, and Long Island, including workers without legal status. We have recovered nearly a billion dollars for injured people and their families.

Injured on the job in NYC, Queens, or Long Island? The Perecman Firm PLLC handles serious work accident cases. Call (212) 977-7033 for a free consultation.

Can Undocumented Construction Workers Sue for a Job Site Injury in New York?

Yes. An undocumented worker injured on a New York construction site can bring a personal injury claim and can recover damages, including lost wages. This is settled New York law rather than an argument a personal injury lawyer makes on your behalf.

The New York Court of Appeals decided the question in Balbuena v. IDR Realty LLC, 6 N.Y.3d 338 (2006). Two undocumented workers were badly hurt on New York construction sites. One fell from a ramp while pushing a wheelbarrow and suffered severe head trauma. The other fell when a scaffold gave way.

The defendants argued that federal immigration law, specifically the Immigration Reform and Control Act, should block any award of lost earnings. The Court rejected that argument. It held that federal immigration law does not bar an undocumented worker from maintaining a claim for lost wages under the New York Labor Law.

The protections at issue in that case were Labor Law section 200, section 240(1), and section 241(6). Those are the same sections that protect every other construction worker in the state.

What Does Your Immigration Status Actually Affect?

Your status is not an element of your injury claim, which means the person who hurt you cannot use it to defeat liability. What the owner or contractor did or failed to do is what the case turns on.

Here is the honest breakdown of where status does and does not come into it.

What your status does not affect:

• Your right to bring a claim under Labor Law sections 200, 240(1), and 241(6)
• Your right to recover medical costs, past and future
• Your right to recover for pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life
• Your spouse's claim for loss of consortium
• Your eligibility for workers' compensation benefits
• Whether an owner or general contractor owed you a nondelegable duty

None of those depend on a document.

Where status can come into a case:

There is one narrow wrinkle in Balbuena, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a footnote. The Court's holding applied in the absence of proof that the worker tendered false work authorization documents to obtain the job. Where a worker presented fraudulent documents at hiring, the analysis of lost wages can be different.

A second point comes up in valuing future earnings. Defendants sometimes argue that future lost earnings should be measured against wages in a worker's home country rather than in New York. That argument requires concrete, case-specific proof rather than assumption, and it is regularly contested.

Neither issue removes your claim. Both are reasons to have a lawyer who has dealt with them before.

The Labor Law Protections That Apply to You

New York gives construction workers protections that exist almost nowhere else in the country, and they apply on covered job sites regardless of who you are or how you were paid.

Section 240(1), often called the Scaffold Law, covers elevation-related and gravity-related risks. It requires owners, contractors, and their agents to furnish and properly place scaffolding, hoists, ladders, slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys, braces, and ropes to provide proper protection. It applies to falls from height and to workers struck by objects that were not adequately secured, addressing many of the dangers of working on scaffolds.

Section 241(6) covers hazards that have nothing to do with height, and it works by pointing to a specific provision of the New York State Industrial Code. It imposes a nondelegable duty on owners and general contractors, meaning they cannot avoid responsibility by blaming the subcontractor who created the condition.

Section 200 establishes the general duty to provide a safe place to work and usually requires showing that there was supervision, control, or notice of the hazard.

A note on accuracy that matters in these cases: an OSHA citation is federal enforcement evidence. It is not a New York Industrial Code violation, and it cannot serve as the predicate for a section 241(6) claim.

Can I Get Workers' Compensation Without Legal Status?

Yes. New York workers' compensation benefits are available to injured workers regardless of immigration status, and the New York State Workers' Compensation Board administers claims on that basis.

Comp pays medical treatment and partial wage replacement. The question of whether workers’ compensation pays for pain and suffering matters because it does not pay for pain and suffering, and it caps wage benefits at an amount the state sets each year, which is often far below what a skilled tradesperson actually earns.

That is why the third-party claim matters so much. Comp is the exclusive remedy against your employer under Workers' Compensation Law section 11, but it protects your employer alone. The building owner, the general contractor, the other trades on the site, and the equipment companies remain fully answerable in a separate lawsuit, where expert witnesses in construction accident lawsuits may help establish how the accident happened and which parties may be responsible.

Many injured workers we meet have a comp claim and nothing else, because nobody ever asked who else was working on that site. That is why reviewing a construction accident claim in NYC can be important when other companies or contractors may also be legally responsible.

What Happens When You Call Us

The first conversation is about the accident, not about paperwork. We want to understand what you were doing, what failed, who else was working nearby, and how badly you were hurt.

Conversations with a construction accident lawyer are protected by the attorney-client privilege. That protection is a feature of the law itself, and it applies from the first call.

What we generally ask about:

• What kind of work you were doing, and where the job site was
• What happened, and what equipment or condition was involved
• Who else was on the site, including companies other than the one that paid you
• Whether anyone saw it, and whether anything was photographed
• What medical care you have received so far
• Whether anything was reported, and to whom

We speak with workers in Spanish and Polish as well as English, and we will make sure you understand what we are telling you before any decision gets made.

Why Injured Workers Bring Us These Cases

Construction and New York Labor Law are what our firm is built around. We represent people with serious injuries, and a substantial share of the workers building New York are immigrants, documented and undocumented alike.

What we bring to these cases:

• We treat status as a legal question with a settled answer, not as a reason for caution about your claim
• We look for the third-party and Labor Law claim immediately, because comp alone rarely covers a serious injury
• We have handled the defense arguments that come up in these cases, including future-earnings valuation disputes
• We investigate sites early, while equipment, contracts, and witnesses are still reachable
• We work with Spanish-speaking and Polish-speaking clients throughout the case, not only at intake

Our record includes nearly a billion dollars recovered for injured people and their families in New York. If you have been told your status limits what you can do, we would like the chance to tell you what the law actually says.

FAQs about Undocumented Construction Worker Injury Claims in New York

These are questions injured workers raise with us most often, and the answers are general information rather than advice about your own case.

Talk With a Lawyer About Your Construction Injury

You built something in this city, and you were hurt doing it. New York law gives you the same protections it gives every other worker on that site, and the sooner someone looks at the facts, the more of them can still be proven.

The Perecman Firm PLLC represents injured construction workers in New York City, Queens, and Long Island. Call (212) 977-7033 or contact us online. Tell us what happened, and we will tell you honestly where you stand.