Miami construction accident lawyer

Which Florida laws apply to a Miami construction accident claim

The rules are the same across Florida, so they are written out in full on one page rather than repeated here. They are explained on the statewide construction accident page, with the statute text linked.

Start with what this firm does and does not handle. Workers’ compensation — the claim against your own employer — is not part of this practice. What is, is the third-party claim: the case against everybody else on that site who caused the injury, which runs alongside a comp claim rather than instead of it.

That matters because of Fla. Stat. § 440.11. Comp is the exclusive remedy against an employer, with narrow exceptions. It says nothing about a general contractor who is not your employer, another trade on the site, an equipment manufacturer, a property owner or a driver.

And one sentence opens most of these cases. Under § 440.10(1)(e), a subcontractor is protected from suit by another sub’s injured worker only if comp was secured and that subcontractor’s own gross negligence was not the major contributing cause of the injury. Where it was, the immunity is gone. The deadline on the third-party claim is two years.

What follows is the part that is specific to Miami-Dade County — where these claims arise, where you will be treated, which courthouse the case goes to, and how the records are obtained.

Why a Miami site injury is usually two separate cases

One injury, two claims, and they do not compete with each other.

The comp claim is against your employer. Section 440.11(1) makes that remedy exclusive — it covers medical care and a portion of lost wages, it does not require anyone to have been at fault, and it does not pay for pain and suffering. This firm does not handle comp claims.

The third-party claim is against everybody else, and chapter 440 has nothing to say about them. A general contractor who is not your employer. Another trade whose work caused the hazard. The manufacturer of a machine that failed. The owner of the property. A driver who struck you in the work zone. A crane or scaffold company.

The third-party claim is where the full range of damages lives — pain and suffering, the whole wage loss rather than a fraction, and future care. That is why identifying every company on the site matters so much, and why it is done early rather than after a comp claim settles.

Expect a lien. Where comp has paid benefits, the carrier normally asserts a lien against a third-party recovery. That is a routine part of these cases and is worked out within them, not a reason to avoid bringing one.

When another subcontractor on the site can be sued

This is the provision that decides more construction cases than any other, and it is a single sentence.

Section 440.10(1)(e) says a subcontractor working alongside a contractor on the same project is protected by the exclusiveness-of-liability provisions from an action by an employee of another subcontractor or of the contractor — provided that workers’ compensation was secured, and that the subcontractor’s own gross negligence was not the major contributing cause of the injury.

Both conditions have to hold for the immunity to work. Which means two questions get asked in every one of these cases: was comp actually secured for that sub’s employees, and was that sub’s conduct gross negligence that was the major contributing cause?

Section 440.10(1)(b) sets up the structure behind it. Where a contractor sublets part of the work, all the employees of the contractor and the subs on that work are deemed employed in one and the same business, and the contractor must secure compensation for all of them — except employees of a sub who has already secured it. That is what makes a general contractor a statutory employer, and it is also why the paperwork showing who insured whom is one of the first things to obtain.

So the certificates of insurance, the subcontracts and the site safety plan are not background documents. They decide who can be sued.

The two narrow situations where chapter 440 does not protect your employer

They are narrow on purpose, and both are in § 440.11(1).

First, failure to secure compensation. Where an employer has not secured coverage as the chapter requires, the injured worker may elect to claim compensation or to bring an action at law. And in that action the employer may not plead that the injury was caused by a fellow employee’s negligence, that the employee assumed the risk, or that the employee was comparatively negligent. Those defenses are stripped.

Second, an intentional tort — and the bar is high. The employee must prove by clear and convincing evidence either that the employer deliberately intended to injure, or that the employer engaged in conduct it knew, based on prior similar accidents or on explicit warnings specifically identifying a known danger, was virtually certain to result in injury or death, where the employee was unaware of the risk because the danger was not apparent and the employer deliberately concealed or misrepresented it.

Co-workers and supervisors are generally immune too, but not absolutely: fellow-employee immunity does not apply to someone acting with willful and wanton disregard, unprovoked physical aggression or gross negligence, nor between employees of the same employer who are assigned primarily to unrelated works.

And one more shield worth knowing about. Under § 440.11(3) a comp carrier, service agent or safety consultant is not liable as a third-party tortfeasor for furnishing safety inspections or consultative services — and the statute says a safety consultant may include an owner as defined in chapter 713. That exclusion does not apply where the injury was proximately caused by willful and unprovoked physical aggression, or by the negligent operation of a motor vehicle.

OSHA, and what is already public about a Miami contractor

Construction is one of the few areas where a defendant’s safety history is published, searchable and free.

OSHA’s establishment search returns inspections, citations and penalties by company name. A citation issued to the same contractor, on the same hazard, before the injury is among the most useful documents a case of this kind can have — and it is sitting in a public database rather than behind discovery.

Florida has no state plan for private employers, so federal OSHA covers these sites, and OSHA’s own county listing puts Miami-Dade County under the Fort Lauderdale Area Office — 1000 South Pine Island Road, Suite 100, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33324, (954) 424-0242. That is the office whose inspection of a Miami-Dade site would generate the file.

A citation is not a finding of liability, and it does not decide a civil case. It is evidence of a standard, of notice, and sometimes of a pattern, and it tends to shape what a defendant is willing to argue.

What to secure beyond it: the site safety plan, the daily reports and sign-in sheets for that day, the subcontracts and certificates of insurance, equipment inspection and maintenance records, any toolbox talk sign-offs, and photographs of the condition before it is corrected — which on an active site can be the same afternoon.

Where the Miami office is, and how to get there

DAPENALAW is at 5975 Sunset Drive, Suite 102, South Miami, FL 33143, open Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 17:00. The direct number is (305) 662-4323.

The office is on Sunset Drive in South Miami, a few blocks west of US-1 and close to the South Miami Metrorail station, with parking on site. A first conversation can happen by phone or video, and home and hospital visits are available when someone cannot travel.

You do not have to come in. The first conversation can be by phone or video, documents are handled electronically, and where an injury makes travel difficult the meeting happens where you are. The Sunset Drive office serves Miami-Dade generally, and most often South Miami, Coral Gables, Westchester, Kendall, Coral Terrace, Olympia Heights, West Miami, Sweetwater, Glenvar Heights, Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay, Coconut Grove, Little Havana, Hialeah and Doral.

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