St. Louis Construction Injury Attorney

At The Floyd Law Firm, we advocate for the rights of construction injury victims. Our St. Louis construction injury attorneys can help if you or a loved one suffered a serious injury in a construction accident in St. Louis or the surrounding cities. Contact us today for a free case consultation.

Construction is the most dangerous industry in the United States for workers. There are many inherent injury risks in construction, such as working from heights and around heavy machinery. A construction site accident could lead to catastrophic injuries, such as amputations or paralysis.

Why Choose Our St. Louis Construction Injury Lawyers at The Floyd Law Firm?

Our St. Louis personal injury attorneys have over 50 years of experience and a 98 percent case success rate. We have collected millions of dollars on behalf of our clients.
We are dedicated to helping our clients get through tough times. We believe you deserve to be treated with integrity and respect as a construction injury victim.
We accept St. Louis construction accident cases on a contingency fee basis, meaning we advance all of the costs of litigation. You will not pay us until and unless we win your case.

How a Construction Site Accident Lawyer Can Help You

Consult with a St. Louis construction accident attorney before accepting a quick insurance settlement for your losses. Insurance companies are notorious for taking advantage of claimants and protecting their own bottom lines. This can make it difficult to accomplish your case goals and recover fair financial compensation. An attorney, on the other hand, will want to maximize your financial recovery after a serious construction accident. You can trust your lawyer to accurately evaluate your claim and aggressively negotiate with an insurer on your behalf.

A dedicated St. Louis construction injury attorney will thoroughly investigate your case, preserve and collect evidence, identify the liable party or parties, fill out and file confusing claims paperwork for you, and go up against one or multiple defendants in court, if necessary. Your lawyer will have connections to highly qualified experts who can support and strengthen your case. At The Floyd Law Firm, you will not pay your attorney out of pocket, win or lose. You will only pay if you win your case – and then, only out of a settlement or judgment award won.

How Common Are Construction Accidents in St. Louis, MO?

The construction industry comes with inherent risks, but adhering to industry safety standards and following protocols helps to minimize the risk. Still, 46.2 percent of fatal work-related slips, trips, and falls occurred within the construction industry in 2021. About 15.4 percent of construction accident deaths occurred due to “struck-by” accidents, 7.2 percent through electrocution, and 5.4 percent by caught-between accidents.

In Missouri alone, there were 123 workplace fatalities in 2023 and 6,462 injuries resulting in lost time from work. Alarmingly, by only mid-February of 2024, there were 291 reported construction accidents in Missouri and 1 fatality. This follows 10 fatalities in Missouri construction accidents in 2023 as well as 4,310 injuries, 403 of which resulted in lost time from work.

What Compensation Is Available after a St. Louis Construction Accident?

After a harmful construction accident, you may qualify for compensation through one or multiple sources. One possibility is a workers’ compensation claim. In Missouri, the workers’ compensation program offers no-fault benefits to workers who get injured on the job. As long as the injury or illness occurred within the course and scope of employment, a covered worker will be eligible for financial benefits for the following:

Medical bills
Partial lost wages (about two-thirds)
Temporary or permanent total or partial disability
Death benefits for surviving family members

If one or more parties were negligent and this caused the construction accident, another legal option is a personal injury claim. This type of claim requires the injured party to prove that someone else is at fault.

However, greater financial compensation could be available. The worker could receive pain and suffering damages, for example, and full lost wage reimbursement. If a loved one died in a fatal construction accident in St. Louis, surviving family members could also receive compensation for lost inheritance, loss of consortium, and mental anguish with a wrongful death claim.

Can I Recover Compensation If I’m Being Blamed for My Construction Accident in Missouri?

Recovering compensation after an accident for which you were at fault or partly to blame depends on the type of claim you’ve filed. Workers’ Compensation is a no-fault insurance system. You can collect Workers’ Compensation benefits even if your actions caused or contributed to the injury. However, if your claim is a lawsuit against a third party such as a contractor or property owner, as the plaintiff in the case, you have the burden of proving negligence against the at-fault party. If you caused the accident and were 100 percent at fault, you cannot recover compensation. Fortunately, Missouri legislature’s 537.765 allows injury victims who were only partly at fault to recover a portion of their losses. The law states:

“Any fault chargeable to the plaintiff shall diminish proportionately the amount awarded as compensatory damages but shall not bar recovery.”

If you contributed to the accident but weren’t entirely responsible, you can recover damages minus your percentage of fault through a third-party lawsuit. For example, if your damages amount to $100,000 but you were 50 percent at fault, you may still recover $50,000.

What Is Your Time Limit for Filing?

Act quickly if you believe you have grounds for a workers’ compensation claim or workplace accident lawsuit in Missouri. State law requires workers to file claims for compensation with the Department of Workers’ Compensation within two years from the date of the accident. However, you must notify your employer or supervisor about the injury within 30 days.

If you wish to file a personal injury claim, you have five years from the date of the accident to do so. Waiting too long could mean losing your right to seek financial compensation forever.

What Are the Top Causes of Injuries and Deaths in Construction?

Every year, thousands of workers in the construction industry visit emergency departments with serious, life-threatening injuries. Federal rules and regulations are in place to improve construction worker safety, but many companies and job site supervisors cut corners for their own profit. This leads to serious threats to workers, including the top four causes of construction worker deaths:

Falls: falls from rooftops, scaffolds, ladders, forklifts, and other equipment can cause serious and catastrophic injuries. Examples include broken bones, brain injuries, and spinal cord injuries.
Electrocutions: contact with exposed electrical components or live power lines at a construction site can lead to electric shock, electrical burns, and fatal electrocutions.
Struck-by objects: construction workers can suffer traumatic brain injuries from being struck in the head with objects such as cranes, collapsing structures and tools dropped from scaffolds.
Caught in or between objects and equipment: amputations and crush injuries can be caused by contact with objects and equipment at work, such as sheets of metal or cement, forklifts, cranes, and bulldozers.

Known as the “Fatal Four,” these are recognized by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as four preventable accidents that cause the highest numbers of construction worker deaths each year. Construction companies often have the power to prevent these accidents by properly instructing workers on safety protocols, ensuring safe workspaces, and providing adequate safety equipment.

Who Is Liable for a Construction Site Accident?

Liability, or legal and financial responsibility, for a construction accident in St. Louis, depends on the cause of the injury. These cases are complicated and often require investigation by an attorney. Many construction accident cases involve multiple parties. For example, an employer or construction site owner may be negligent as well as the manufacturer of a defective product.

Construction companies have a duty to ensure the reasonable safety of workers through the use of accepted safety measures. If an employer fails to meet this duty, the company can be held liable. Other potentially liable parties include general contractors, subcontractors, engineers, and architects. These parties can be held liable for injuries to construction workers as well as passersby, such as pedestrians and drivers who get injured in dangerous construction zones in St. Louis.

Do I Need to Prove Negligence After a Construction Accident?

Workers’ Compensation insurance is a no-fault insurance system meant to provide medical benefits, lost wages, and death benefits for injured workers and also protect employers from lawsuits. After suffering a construction accident injury on the job, you do not have to prove that your employer was negligent in order to collect workers’ compensation. If you have filed a claim against a third party, such as a contractor, subcontractor, or property owner, you must prove negligence. Proving negligence and liability after a construction accident requires demonstrating that the at-fault party’s actions meet the following legal points:

They had a duty of care to take reasonable measures to prevent injuries
They breached this duty of care through negligence
The negligent breach of duty directly caused your injury
You’ve suffered significant damages from the injury such as medical costs, lost wages, and pain and suffering

An experienced construction accident attorney will thoroughly investigate all aspects of your injury and provide legal counsel for the best way forward for your claim, whether through a no-fault workers’ compensation claim or by proving negligence in a third-party negligence claim or lawsuit.

Contact Our St. Louis Construction Accident Lawyers for a Free Consultation

If you or a loved one has been injured on a construction site in St. Louis, Missouri, help is available at The Floyd Law Firm. We have been dedicated to helping accident victims recover since our law firm’s foundation in 1959. Learn more about how our St. Louis construction injury attorneys can help you during a free case consultation. Call (314) 863-4114 or contact us online anytime.