W&L Wins Millions for Injured Construction Workers

Weitz & Luxenberg is most predominantly known for our groundbreaking success in pioneering mass tort litigation throughout the country. However, many of our attorneys working out of our Manhattan headquarters, spend their days in courtrooms across the five boroughs of New York City (NYC) and Long Island fighting on behalf of injured construction workers.

Injured Tradesmen Are at the Heart of Weitz & Luxenberg

From the very beginning, fighting for injured tradesmen in and around New York City has been at the heart of Weitz & Luxenberg’s law practice. At its core, W&L has championed and protected men and women who work — day in and day out — building this country.

Nearly 40 years ago, W&L began as a firm with the intent of building skill, resources, and the reputation needed to hold the largest corporate defendants in America accountable when they choose to place profits over the safety of their workers.

Taking Cases from Injured Construction

To that end, Weitz & Luxenberg’s negligence and personal injury group handles construction work injury cases. The department is spearheaded by partners Gary Klein and Nicholas Wise.

Adam Raffo, one of our highly skilled construction injury attorneys, has extensive experience and a long history of success handling workplace injury and construction accident cases. As a key member of this litigation group, Mr. Raffo takes his commitment to securing successful outcomes for our clients very seriously.

“I am proud to play my role in making New York City safer for the men and women who work in the trades. When safety regulations are ignored and someone gets hurt at a construction site, I won’t hesitate to leverage the experience and resources of this firm to fight for my clients to ensure they are fairly compensated for their pain and suffering, lost wages, and medical expenses,” insists Mr. Raffo, an experienced negligence and personal injury attorney at Weitz & Luxenberg.

Construction Safety Training Helps Attorneys Prepare

To better represent our construction accident clients, Mr. Raffo underwent safety training to receive his Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA 30 card and NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) Site Safety Training (SST) card in 2023.

An OSHA 30 card certifies the holder underwent a 30-hour construction training program provided by OSHA. The OSHA training focuses on construction site safety. It covers topics such as fall prevention, ladder use, struck by and caught between hazards, crane safety, excavations, trenches, confined spaces, and scaffolding.

As a prerequisite within the construction industry, supervisors, foremen, and others in supervisory roles are often required to have an OSHA 30 card. Additionally, many specific jobs may require all workers on the job to have their OSHA 30 card. This is especially true on municipal capital projects.

Safety Training Applied To Legal Practice

Having completed the same safety training most construction supervisors and site safety workers have taken, Mr. Raffo often employs this knowledge while questioning defense witnesses during examinations before trial. After relentlessly exposing the myriad of cut corners and shortcuts that unfortunately exist on many construction sites, it becomes all the more difficult for defendants to credibly claim the jobsite was run with worker safety in mind.

“I use my training and knowledge of the extensive number of OSHA regulations to my clients’ advantage,” describes Mr. Raffo. “When I cross-examine the witnesses for the defense, I use this information to show how their construction site actually violated the safety rules.”

Mr. Raffo adds, “It’s a great feeling when I am able to successfully resolve a construction accident case for a deserving client, and bring a sense of closure to what is often a difficult time in their career and life.”

Here are some of our firm’s recent successes for our clients.

$1.1 Million Settlement for Union Carpenter’s Fall From Office Tower Ladder

At the time of the accident our client was a 62-year-old Local 157 union carpenter. The superintendent on the jobsite asked him to install sheetrock on a structural column several feet off the ground.

Our client, a carpenter foreman, was experienced enough to tell the super that he either needed a baker scaffold or a helper to assist. But he was told to use the equipment he was given.

While carrying the cumbersome sheet rock up the ladder, our client fell from the third step — striking his knee on the floor below. Initially hoping the pain would go away over time he did not follow up with a doctor for several months. Eventually, over a year after the accident, he had to undergo arthroscopic surgery on both knees.

Mr. Raffo says, “It was a hard-fought case, which we were able to bring to a successful resolution. We retained a highly regarded economist as an expert witness. Our expert used tax documents, union records and the Local’s Collective Bargaining Agreement to calculate the financial impact of the accident on our client and his family.”

He continues, “Not only was the economist able to put a dollar value on our client’s past lost earnings and union benefits, but the economist was also able to demonstrate further negative financial consequences. Our expert showed how the pension credits our client lost as a result of his forced early retirement impacted his future pension — and the social security checks he would receive over the course of his retirement.”

Once the settlement was secured, a weight was lifted from our client’s shoulders. Our client had this to say, “Mr. Adam Raffo took over my case after I was injured at work. He guided my wife and I through the entire process, and made sure we understood everything along the way. With English as our second language, we had difficulties with other lawyers, but not Adam. Mr. Raffo took care of us in every regard and made us feel like human beings. He is a very good person and lawyer who I would recommend.”

$625,000 Settlement in Scaffold Collapse

While working at a construction site, the scaffold our client was standing on shifted and the planks on the platform collapsed. This required our client to grab onto the pipe he was working on to prevent himself from falling to the ground several feet below.

While our client’s quick thinking prevented a potentially more serious fall, the pressure placed on his shoulder re-aggravated a prior surgical repair. Our client underwent a shoulder arthroscopy.

W&L works with an eye towards trial for all cases. We meet with our clients early and often to discuss strategy, and we stay flexible throughout litigation in case an opportunity for a fair settlement arises.

In this case, W&L achieved a great result for our client by walking into the mediation armed with preliminary expert reports on the handful of issues we knew would be contested. After several hours of negotiation, we were able to reach a settlement.

Let W&L Help You with Your Construction Injury Lawsuit

“While W&L files lawsuits in a wide range of personal injury and negligence cases, a large portion of the work involves workplace injuries at construction sites under the New York State Labor Law,” explains Mr. Raffo.

He adds, “Understanding the law and — also the worksite with its safety requirements — means I am uniquely qualified to handle construction site injury cases. Helping injured tradesmen has become an area of focus for me which I am passionate about.”

W&L attorneys have won more than $19 billion in verdicts and settlements. Let us help you with your construction accident compensation lawsuit. Reach out to us at (833) 977-3437 or by using our form. Mr. Raffo, and the rest of the W&L team, look forward to hearing from you. Call our firm now.