{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Maria\u2019s Fall: The Law That Saved Her Life","description":"Hard Hats & Justice Episode 1: \u201cMaria\u2019s Fall: The Law That Saved Her Life\u201d It was just another Monday morning in midtown Manhattan\u2014until a rotten plank snapped beneath Maria\u2019s feet. The fall left her paralyzed from the waist down. For this 41-year-old single mother and construction worker, everything changed in seconds. In the premiere episode of Hard Hats & Justice, attorney Chris Gorayeb tells the haunting true story of Maria\u2019s fall and the law that stood between her and destitution: New York\u2019s Scaffolding Law (\u00a7240). More than a century old and unique to New York, this statute forces contractors and building owners to take full responsibility for unsafe work conditions at height. Gorayeb unpacks how this landmark law\u2014now under attack by corporate lobbyists and insurers\u2014has saved thousands of workers from ruin, and what could happen if it\u2019s ever repealed. Through vivid storytelling, sobering statistics, and decades of legal experience, he reveals the brutal truth of construction work in America\u2019s largest city: safety is never guaranteed, and justice is always earned through the fight. About Gorayeb & Associates, P.C. For over 40 years, Gorayeb & Associates has been the voice of injured construction workers across New York City. Known as The People\u2019s Lawyers, the firm has recovered nearly $2 billion for over 10,000 clients, defending the rights of immigrants and working-class laborers who built this city\u2014and deserve its protection. SHORT DESCRIPTION In Hard Hats & Justice: \u201cMaria\u2019s Fall \u2014 The Law That Saved Her Life,\u201d attorney Chris Gorayeb recounts the devastating accident that left a New York construction worker paraplegic\u2014and how New York Labor Law \u00a7240, known as the Scaffolding Law, became her only hope for justice. This episode examines the legal framework that protects workers from unsafe job conditions, the ongoing corporate efforts to repeal those protections, and the human cost of negligence in one of the world\u2019s most dangerous industries. With decades of courtroom experience, Gorayeb connects Maria\u2019s story to the larger fight for worker rights, safety reform, and accountability in construction. Keywords: New York scaffolding law, construction accident podcast, workplace safety, labor law \u00a7240, worker rights NYC, Gorayeb & Associates, Chris Gorayeb, construction injury law, workplace justice, legal podcast. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT 00:00 \u2013 Chris Gorayeb It was a Monday morning and Maria went to her job as a laborer in midtown Manhattan, and before lunch, her life completely changed. My name is Chris Goreb and this is our first episode of Hearts, hats and Justice. If you\u2019re a construction worker or know someone who is a construction worker in New York City, then this broadcast is for you. We\u2019re going to be talking about construction accidents in New York, the effect that they have upon the construction workers, their families and the types of compensation that construction workers can receive when they\u2019re hurt. I look forward to explaining all of this to you. On that Monday, maria went to work, as she had done for six months at this job site in Manhattan, working as a laborer, and on this day, she climbed up onto a sidewalk bridge. She began her work and then, without warning, she stood on a rotten Osha plank. That broke and caused Marie to fall 20 feet. But before she hit the ground, her back landed on a cross brace, breaking multiple of her thoracic vertebrae, breaking multiple of her thoracic vertebra, rendering this 41 year old woman, a single mother of a learning disabled child, paraplegic. As a result of that, her life completely changed, and let me explain to you what now happened. She was hospitalized for two months. She was in rehabilitation for another three months, able to obtain her workers\u2019 compensation. We then brought a lawsuit against the owner of the building and the general contractor, who both were responsible for making sure that this job site was safe, making sure that the planks weren\u2019t rotten. Making sure that the planks weren\u2019t rotten, making sure that she had a lifeline and a harness to prevent her from falling in the event that something like a plank did break. But they did none of these things for her. 02:43 You\u2019re going to hear that Maria is protected by something that\u2019s known in New York as the scaffolding law. It\u2019s a law that was enacted more than 100 years ago and it\u2019s unique to New York State. The reason why the scaffolding law is unique to New York State is because no other state has a statute like it, but luckily, new York does. And the reason why New York does is because we have so much construction in New York high rise buildings. We have a statute in New York City that requires that every five years, a building over six stories must be inspected on its exterior, a sidewalk bridge must be installed, workers must climb scaffolds to inspect the buildings, and every time one of those buildings is inspected, there\u2019s the chance for a terrible accident to occur. 03:36 There is an effort in New York to repeal that scaffold law. The people who want to repeal the law are those building owners and contractors and their insurance companies that have to compensate people like Maria for the injuries that they sustain, and they don\u2019t like compensating. They want to collect premiums and not pay. The problem with it is that someone like Maria and the thousands of construction workers that are hurt in New York every single year would be unable to obtain real compensation if it were not for the scaffolding law. The scaffolding law is the only thing that workers can turn to other than workers\u2019 compensation, and workers\u2019 compensation provides marginal benefits for only a very short period of time. Were it not for the scaffolding law, people would be rendered paraplegic, maimed, they lose arms, put in positions where they can\u2019t work and support their families, with nowhere to turn. We live in a society right now where there is an effort to restrict our people\u2019s access to medical care, making it more difficult to obtain medical care, making insurance much more expensive medical care making insurance much more expensive and without the scaffolding law, thousands, tens of thousands of people would be put in a position where they would be maimed, unable to work, unable to support their families, with nowhere to turn, not even to the government. There are efforts now to even change the scaffolding law so that the law wouldn\u2019t apply to buildings where the federal government has provided financing, and you have to ask yourself who would work on those buildings, knowing that they would be exposed to the dangers of construction, but unable to obtain compensation when they were badly hurt. 05:53 You know, the statistics in New York are incredible. Almost every hour, two construction workers get hurt. In 2023, 30 construction workers in New York City were killed in construction accidents. 39% of the deaths in construction accidents are the result of falls from ladders, from scaffolds, from beams, from roofs. Statistically and it\u2019s hard to believe that, if you work in construction for approximately 35 years, there\u2019s a 75% chance that you are going to sustain a serious, disabling injury. 06:45 Construction is one of the most dangerous jobs that anyone can do and it\u2019s one of the most essential jobs that we as a society need. Whether schools are being built, homes are being constructed, apartments are being constructed, office buildings are being constructed, bridges and highways are being constructed, apartments are being constructed, office buildings are being constructed, bridges and highways are being constructed we need Construction workers. And all of the people that work in those jobs run the risk of being injured to the point where they\u2019ll no longer be able to work, no longer be able to support their families, no longer be able to pay their bills. That\u2019s why the construction laws are so important and that\u2019s what we do here to protect construction workers. We even run classes providing the ability for construction workers to obtain OSHA certification so that accidents won\u2019t happen. But unfortunately, even with the best training, these accidents occur. Construction workers be hurt, but the owners and the contractors will no longer have incentive to provide protections to these workers. Why? Because they won\u2019t have to pay them if they get hurt, and individuals who are working on construction sites will more than likely be treated as disposable labor. And the less connection you have, the more disposable you become. Union workers, they\u2019re more protected. But if you\u2019re not in the union, you don\u2019t get trained, you have nowhere to turn. 08:35 If you complain to the boss, what happens? The boss fires you because someone else is going to be looking for that job. We know of many instances, thousands of instances. We\u2019ve represented almost 13,000 construction workers where an accident occurs and the boss won\u2019t call an ambulance. The boss will tell a worker go home. If you need to go to the hospital, tell them that your accident happened at home. And why would they do that? They do that so that if a claim is ever made, the boss can say there was no accident. He reported it at home. There was no ambulance, there\u2019s no proof of an accident. Okay, all they want to do the contractors, the owners of the buildings, the insurance companies themselves is save money, collect premiums and pay nothing. They don\u2019t care what happens to the construction worker, to his family or to his future his future. 09:52 My job is to explain all of this and to seek compensation for those individuals. So whenever you\u2019re working as a construction worker really in any job, but we\u2019re talking about construction there are a lot of people that want to pay you in cash. But the problem with being paid in cash is that the boss can deny that they know who you are when an accident occurs. The boss can deny how much they were paying you and that then affects your ability to receive workers\u2019 compensation. That affects your ability to receive workers\u2019 compensation Because if you\u2019re not getting paid in cash, because if you\u2019re getting paid in cash, there\u2019s no proof that you\u2019re working for a particular company and there\u2019s no proof of how much money you\u2019re getting paid. So, if it\u2019s possible, get paid by check. It protects you in the event that there\u2019s an accident. 10:45 If you do have an accident report it. Call an ambulance, report it to the job super to site safety. Document your accident when you go to the hospital. Don\u2019t ever allow the boss to tell you to say that you got hurt somewhere else at home. Tell the truth, report the accident. The bosses may tell you say you got hurt at home, don\u2019t worry, we\u2019ll pay your bills. And then, once you do that, you put yourself in a position where it\u2019s going to be much more difficult to prove that you had an accident. 11:32 When you do have an accident in construction, you have two potential cases. You have a case for workers\u2019 compensation. Everyone in New York who gets hurt while they\u2019re working for a company always has one case. The case that they have is for workers\u2019 compensation. Workers\u2019 compensation pays your medical bills and some of the money you lose because you can\u2019t work. It\u2019s important to hire an attorney to represent you in a workers\u2019 compensation case. I\u2019ve been an attorney now for almost 40 years representing injured construction workers, but if I had an accident, I would hire a workers\u2019 compensation lawyer, because it\u2019s an area of the law that requires real expertise. The second case you have when you\u2019re a construction worker is the case that we\u2019ve been talking about, the case under what is called the scaffolding law, but it\u2019s much broader than that. You can have the second case when you have an eye injury or you\u2019re using a table saw that\u2019s unguarded or you trip and fall or something even falls on you, and when that happens, there are at least three different types of compensation that you can receive. Medical bills from the day of the accident, including ambulance doctors, hospital surgery, workers\u2019 compensation all the way up until when the case ends. But for those that continue to be injured and require medical care, you can recover money to pay your future medical bills for however long you\u2019re going to need that for your lifetime, if necessary. 13:06 The second category of compensation is compensation for the money you lose because you can\u2019t work or your ability to work is affected. If you\u2019re making $1,000 a week and you can\u2019t work any longer, you\u2019re losing approximately $50,000 a year and without raises, if you worked for another 20 years, you would lose a million dollars. With raises, of course, that would be much more. Even if you were able to go back and get another job, if you were earning less money than you were earning before, that difference would be part of your case. And then, lastly, the law allows you to recover compensation for the pain you experienced and the changes in your life that occur from that pain. Pain from the day of the accident up until when the case finishes, and then into the future, for however long you will experience that pain. 13:59 But the law recognizes that the pain changes your life and usually there\u2019s two types of changes that occur when you have an accident. The first change that happens is you find out I can\u2019t do the things I used to be able to do. I can\u2019t walk, I can\u2019t run, I can\u2019t work, I can\u2019t exercise, I can\u2019t do things with my children, with my wife, with my friends, I can\u2019t pay my bills. But the second thing you find out is that, because of this accident, now you\u2019re doing things that you never did before. I\u2019m going to hospitals, I\u2019m taking medicine, maybe having operations, physical therapy, I\u2019m going to lawyers. Now, as a result of this accident, I\u2019m worrying about my bills. I\u2019m worrying about my rent, I\u2019m worrying about my mortgage. Now, instead of taking care of myself and taking care of my family, I\u2019m asking people to take care of me, and the law recognizes that. 14:57 All of these things happen when someone is hurt and the law allows you to have compensation. And for those women out there who are married and their husbands get hurt, the law allows you to have compensation. And for those women out there who are married and their husbands get hurt, the law also allows you to have your own case, because the law recognizes that what happens to one also affects the other. Some of you have children and now your husband gets hurt, and when your husband gets hurt, you end up with another child, some very big, who ends up crying a lot, and the law recognizes that and entitles you to compensation for that. So the law, the scaffolding law, the laws we use to protect construction workers after an accident, provide far more compensation, or the ability, the opportunity to obtain compensation, than simply workers\u2019 compensation, which pays a limited amount of money if you can\u2019t work and will only pay you for a maximum of 10 years if that, and with great difficulty, to try to get workers\u2019 compensation to pay. 16:03 That\u2019s why we need these protections. That\u2019s why we need the labor law. That\u2019s why we need the scaffolding law, because without that, construction workers, the people of the state of New York, will have nowhere to turn and we\u2019ll have people living in boxes on the sidewalks because they\u2019re unable to work, they\u2019re unable to support their families. That\u2019s what attorneys like I do: we help people, we help families. We give them back the financial security that they\u2019ve lost because they were injured, because laws were violated and owners and contractors didn\u2019t care at all what happens to these people. I\u2019m Chris Correa. Thank you for listening to Hard Hats and Justice. I\u2019ve enjoyed very much explaining to you some of what we do here, and if you want more information, go to our website, and I look forward to seeing you again and speaking to you about what we do here as a profession. Thank you very much. About Gorayeb & Associates, P.C. Founded in 1981, Gorayeb & Associates, P.C. is one of New York's leading personal injury law firms, specializing in construction accident litigation. The firm has represented more than 12,000 injured workers and secured over $2 billion in verdicts and settlements. The firm provides bilingual legal services and free community education to immigrant and working-class communities across the five boroughs. For more information visit: https:\/\/www.gorayeb.com\/en\/ ","author_name":"Hard Hats & Justice","author_url":"https:\/\/sites.libsyn.com\/601890","html":"