No matter the circumstance, it may be an accepted fact that accidents happen every day. In construction accidents, for example, the laws and statutes covering personal injury apply if you, as a bystander, become the victim of a workplace accident. Any person or persons found to be negligent in the accident are supposed to be liable for damages caused by the incident.
If you are a construction site worker in Seattle, various construction site laws and employee injury statutes apply between you and the construction site owner. For example, state workers’ compensation laws may practically apply to you if you were somehow involved in an accident on a construction site. This can cover your financial concerns such as medical bills, lost wages, and other incidental expenses after the accident. During this time, it is of the utmost importance that you seek the legal assistance of a qualified construction accident attorney.
Typically, the person directly responsible would be the employer of your construction site. But there are other times when another party to construction operations becomes liable. This can include the construction engineer, site architect, general contractor, construction subcontractors, or even the equipment manufacturer. However, how that particular person is held responsible for the personal injuries you suffered from the construction workplace accident will depend on that person’s legal responsibility or duty to you.
In such a case, the main determinant would be the duties stipulated in the contracts between the different parties involved in the construction project. For example, the construction architect’s duties may not involve workplace safety, and therefore generally cannot be sued by the injured party after a workplace accident. In some cases, however, if the investigation concludes that there has been gross negligence at the level of the construction project or if the architect has agreed to assume safety responsibilities on the job site, that would be a different case.
Some experienced workplace accident attorneys also believe that while a construction project participant may not be directly liable to the workers, they may still be held liable in court in certain cases where their knowledge of any important issue leading to the prevention of the accident is from. This means that he can still be held liable if, for example, that person is actually aware of a known dangerous condition but still fails to provide proper safety warning of the hazard, which could prevent the workplace accident from occurring. Specific regulations regarding hazardous activities within the construction project, such as circumstances involving explosives or volatile chemicals, must also be observed.