What if I was just a bystander or homeowner at a construction site and suffered injuries from an accident? What are my prospects of collecting?

That depends on the answers to several major questions. Namely, why were you there? Were you authorized to be there? Did you cross a line into an area posted with signs that required special permission to enter? Was it posted as a “Hard Hat Area” or with other warnings? And if you had the right to be there, or were outside the fence line and legally on a public street, for instance, how did the injury occur? Can you demonstrate that it was clearly someone else's fault?

If this job site was your home, the outcome may also depend on the homeowner’s policy or any agreement you had with the contractor. Reading the fine print is important in a case like this. Your homeowner’s policy may or may not cover injuries on your property caused by third parties, especially if that party is a hired worker on your property. In addition, most homeowner’s policies would not cover injuries to the insured homeowner, but is meant to protect the homeowner from claims by third parties. At any rate, you should seek the advice of an experienced construction accident attorney right away.

For starters, in an auto accident it’s often pretty simple to determine who is at fault and what happened. Construction accidents often have much more complex liability issues. Most car accidents involve only one or two defendants, such as a driver and an owner. You might compare a serious construction accident to a multiple-car pile-up potentially caused by several factors, including weather conditions, driver lack of attention, brake failure, getting hit and pushed into another vehicle, and so on. It will take longer to get all the facts and parties lined up.

Construction claims usually involve a variety of parties: owners; contractors and subcontractors; individuals who might have made an error; manufacturers who sold faulty equipment; management that didn’t keep equipment in good working order; foremen that didn’t give clear instructions, etc. There could even be government agencies involved, including building and safety inspection, or other departments involved with a public location.

Additionally, there are issues concerning your role at the job site and whether your relationship is that of an employee, a contractor or someone unrelated to the job site who was just passing by.

If have been injured at a construction site, seek the advice of an experienced construction accident attorney right away.