Workers' compensation is not the end of the story for most seriously injured workers in New York. A third-party claim after a work injury in New York reaches the money comp does not pay, and it is filed against a company other than your employer. Whether you have one depends on who else was on that job site and what they did or failed to do.
The Perecman Firm PLLC has recovered nearly a billion dollars for injured New Yorkers, much of it in exactly these cases. Our work centers on construction and New York Labor Law, where the third-party claim is frequently worth many times the value of the comp file.
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.
Table of contents
- What Is a Third-Party Claim After a Work Injury?
- Workers' Compensation vs. a Third-Party Claim
- When Is Your Third-Party Claim Actually a Labor Law Claim?
- Who Are the Third Parties on a New York Job Site?
- How the Comp Lien Affects Your Recovery
- What a Third-Party Case Requires From the Start
- Why Work With The Perecman Firm on a Third-Party Claim
- FAQs about Third-Party Claims After a New York Work Injury
- Find Out Whether You Have a Third-Party Claim
What Is a Third-Party Claim After a Work Injury?
A third-party claim is a personal injury lawsuit against someone other than your employer whose negligence contributed to your injury. It exists because Workers' Compensation Law section 11 makes comp benefits the exclusive remedy against your employer, and against that company only. Everyone else on the job site remains fully exposed to an ordinary lawsuit.
On a New York construction project, that distinction does most of the work. Your paycheck may come from a framing subcontractor, but the hoist that failed belonged to a rental company, the floor opening you fell through was the general contractor's responsibility, and the building belonged to a developer.
None of those companies is your employer. None of them is protected by the exclusive remedy rule.
Workers' Compensation vs. a Third-Party Claim
The two claims differ in what you have to prove and in what they pay, and the second difference is usually the one that matters to a family. Comp is no-fault and pays a defined schedule of benefits. A third-party case requires proof of liability and pays the full measure of damages the law allows.
| Workers' compensation | Third-party claim | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed against | Your employer's insurance carrier | Owners, contractors, equipment companies, manufacturers, drivers |
| Fault required | No | Yes, unless a Labor Law section applies that imposes liability differently |
| Medical costs | Authorized treatment | Past and future medical costs in full |
| Lost wages | Partial, subject to a statutory cap | Full past and future lost earnings |
| Pain and suffering | Not available | Available |
| Loss of consortium | Not available | Available to a spouse |
| Where it is decided | Workers' Compensation Board | New York State Supreme Court |
Running both is the norm rather than the exception, and the comp file feeds the lawsuit, which is why the two should be handled with one strategy in mind.
When Is Your Third-Party Claim Actually a Labor Law Claim?
If you were injured doing construction, demolition, excavation, repair, alteration, painting, or cleaning work, your third-party claim is probably a New York Labor Law claim, and that changes everything about how it is proven. These statutes shift responsibility onto owners and general contractors, regardless of who actually created the hazard. A personal injury lawyer can help determine whether those protections apply to your case.
Labor Law section 240(1) governs elevation-related and gravity-related risks. It requires contractors, owners, and their agents to furnish and place scaffolding, hoists, stays, ladders, slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys, braces, irons, and ropes to provide proper protection. Understanding the dangers of working on scaffolds is especially important because the law applies to falls from height and to workers struck by objects that fall because they were inadequately secured.
Labor Law section 241(6) reaches hazards that have nothing to do with elevation, and it works only when tied to a specific provision of the New York State Industrial Code. The provision has to impose a concrete standard rather than a general safety exhortation. Courts have rejected 241(6) claims pleaded against Industrial Code provisions that merely restate a general duty of care.
One distinction is worth stating plainly, because getting it wrong can damage a case. 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.
Labor Law section 200 covers the general duty to provide a safe place to work, and it usually requires proof that the defendant supervised or controlled the work or had notice of the condition.
Who Are the Third Parties on a New York Job Site?
The property owner and the general contractor are the two defendants that appear in nearly every construction third-party case in New York. Both carry a nondelegable duty under the Labor Law, which means they cannot escape liability by pointing to the subcontractor who actually created the hazard. Understanding the causes of accident on construction site can help clarify which parties may bear responsibility for the resulting injuries.
Property owners. This includes building owners, developers, managing agents, and, in some circumstances, tenants who contracted for the work. Owners are liable under sections 240(1) and 241(6) whether or not they set foot on the site, with a narrow exception for owners of one and two-family dwellings who contract for but do not direct or control the work.
General contractors and construction managers. A general contractor is responsible for site safety across all trades. A construction manager may be treated as a statutory agent of the owner where it has authority to supervise and control the work, and that question is often contested.
Beyond those two, the list depends on the mechanism of injury.
- Subcontractors from other trades whose work created the condition
- Equipment rental companies and the owners of hoists, lifts, and cranes
- Manufacturers, where a machine guard was defective, missing by design, or easily defeated
- Maintenance contractors responsible for an elevator, HVAC system, or temporary power
- Trucking companies and drivers making deliveries to the site
- Utilities and municipal entities, which carry separate and much shorter notice requirements
Sorting out which entity controlled what usually requires contracts, certificates of insurance, daily logs, and testimony, which is why these cases are built rather than simply filed.
How the Comp Lien Affects Your Recovery
The comp carrier that paid your benefits has a right to be repaid out of a third-party recovery, and that lien has to be managed from the beginning rather than confronted at the end. Workers' Compensation Law section 29 sets out how this works.
Two provisions in that section deserve attention. First, settling a third-party action without the carrier's written consent or court approval can jeopardize your right to continued compensation benefits, which is a costly surprise for a worker who settles a case on their own.
Second, the statute provides that an employee who accepts compensation and does not commence a third-party action within the statutory window can have that claim assigned to the carrier by operation of law.
The lien is also negotiable in practice, and the carrier's share is reduced by its equitable share of litigation costs. Handling that calculation properly can meaningfully change what actually reaches the injured worker.
What a Third-Party Case Requires From the Start
Third-party cases are won or lost on evidence that exists for a short window. A job site is a moving object, and the condition that injured you may be corrected, demolished, or built over within days.
- Photographs of the location, the equipment, and the surrounding conditions
- The identity of every company working in the area, not just your employer
- Site safety logs, daily reports, and toolbox talk records
- The contracts and insurance certificates that establish who controlled the work
- Names and contact information for coworkers who saw what happened
- Preservation of the actual equipment involved, before it is repaired or returned to a rental yard
Getting a preservation letter out early is often the single most valuable thing that happens in the first week of a case.
Why Work With The Perecman Firm on a Third-Party Claim
We are a New York injury firm whose identity is construction and Labor Law work. That focus matters here because the third-party claim after a work injury is usually a Labor Law case, and Labor Law cases are not general negligence cases with a different caption. Understanding blame after a construction accident requires looking at the specific Labor Law protections and the parties who may be legally responsible.
What we bring to these files:
- We identify the third-party defendants early, while contracts and site records are still retrievable
- We plead Industrial Code predicates that hold up, rather than a list of provisions that gets dismissed on motion
- We coordinate the comp claim and the lawsuit together, including consent-to-settle and lien reduction
- We litigate against the construction defense bar regularly and know the arguments before they are made
- We prepare these cases for trial, which is what moves the settlement conversation
Our results include nearly a billion dollars recovered for injured people across New York. If you are not sure whether your injury supports a claim beyond comp, that is exactly the question we can answer quickly.
FAQs about Third-Party Claims After a New York Work Injury
Below are questions that come up often once workers learn a second claim may exist.
Can I sue a third party after a work injury in New York and keep my comp benefits?
Yes. The two claims coexist, and pursuing a lawsuit does not end your benefits. What can affect your benefits is resolving the lawsuit without the carrier's written consent or court approval. A work injury lawyer in NYC can help you navigate both claims and avoid mistakes that could affect your benefits.
What if the company that hurt me was on the same job site as my employer?
Being on the same site does not make another company your employer. A subcontractor from a different trade, the general contractor, and the owner are all separate entities, and a claim against them is not barred by the exclusive remedy rule.
Can my employer be brought into my third-party lawsuit?
Sometimes. A third-party defendant can seek contribution or indemnity from your employer only where the worker sustained a grave injury as that term is defined by statute, or where a written contract requires indemnification. The statutory list of grave injuries is narrow and specific.
Does a defense that I was careless defeat my claim?
Not by itself. New York applies comparative fault to most claims, reducing recovery by your share rather than barring it. Certain elevation-related claims under section 240(1) are analyzed differently, which is one reason identifying the correct section early matters so much.
What if I was working off the books or paid in cash?
Labor Law protections apply to workers on covered sites regardless of how they were paid. Being paid in cash can complicate proof of earnings, but it does not remove your right to bring a claim.
How long does a third-party case take?
Longer than a comp claim, generally measured in years rather than months, because liability is contested and damages require medical proof. Cases with clear statutory liability sometimes resolve earlier through motion practice on liability alone.
Who pays for the investigation?
We do. We advance the costs of investigating and litigating these cases and work on a contingency basis, so there is no out-of-pocket cost to you while the case is pending.
Find Out Whether You Have a Third-Party Claim
Most injured workers who have a claim beyond workers' compensation do not know it, and the evidence that proves it does not stay available for long. A short conversation is usually enough to tell whether there is something worth pursuing.
The Perecman Firm PLLC represents injured workers across New York City, Queens, and Long Island. Call (212) 977-7033 or contact us online and tell us what happened. We will explain what we see and what we would do next.