Elevator accidents

Experienced Chicago Lawyers for Elevator Accidents

Elevator accidents may occur at a construction site. The affected may include visitors to the site, as well as construction workers. There are many different reasons elevator accidents occur including the speed of the elevator, door strikes, defective doors, misleveling, and abrupt stops. After you are injured in or around an elevator at a construction site, it may be important for your lawyer to conduct an inspection, in addition to any inspections conducted by contractors and OSHA. If you were injured or a loved one was killed onsite, you should call the seasoned Chicago elevator accident lawyers of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca.

Liability for Elevator Accidents at Construction Sites

Elevator accidents can give rise to a range of minor and catastrophic injuries. The latter include decapitation, crushing injuries, limb amputation, broken bones, paralysis, and more. A number of different parties may share blame for an elevator accident that produces injuries. We may need to send an accident reconstruction expert or other expert out to the site to figure out all culpable parties and causation.

Common causes of elevator accidents include malfunctioning features, faulty sliding doors, misleveling, excessive speed, door strikes, overloaded elevator, fluctuating electrical voltage, door strikes, broken or missing safety features, and abrupt stops. Misleveling, for instance, occurs when an elevator doesn’t stop level with the floor such that there is an unexpected gap between the elevator car and the floor; sometimes the problem can be attributed to a problem with the springs or brake linings. When there are broken detector edges, safety edges, and electric eyes, these can result in passengers, whether visitors to the site or construction workers, who are hit by the closing doors. Elevators should be routinely checked and repaired as needed to avoid serious injuries. Additionally, elevator shafts should not be left open and without warnings when an elevator goes to the bottom or top.

Our construction accident attorneys may be able to bring a lawsuit against the third parties (other than your employer) who are responsible for the elevator accident. In most cases, we will need to prove negligence. This means we’ll need to prove: (1) you were owed a duty of reasonable care, (2) the duty of reasonable care was breached, (3) causation, and (4) actual damages. In a third party lawsuit, your damages can be reduced by your degree of fault, and you can be barred from recovering damages if you are 50% or more at fault for the accident.

It may be a breach of the duty of reasonable care, for instance, if an elevator shaft was left fully open with no warnings at a construction site, and you fell into the shaft and suffered broken bones and paralysis. Another breach of the duty to use reasonable care would be where inspections weren’t conducted to make sure an elevator was safe for workers to ride, and you were injured in an elevator where the speed was set to be excessive.

If you were a passerby or visitor to a construction site and you were injured in an elevator accident where you tripped and fell due to misleveling, it may be appropriate to bring a premises liability lawsuit.

Workers’ Compensation Benefits for Elevator Accidents

It may be appropriate to file a workers’ compensation claim. This is your exclusive remedy against your employer; you are not allowed to bring a lawsuit for work injuries against your employer. You can pursue damages in a third party lawsuit, while also bringing a workers’ compensation claim. It is important to retain lawyers who understand both types of claims and the subrogation issues that may come up.

Consult a Chicago Lawyer About Your Elevator Accident Lawsuit

If you were injured or a loved one was killed in elevator accident on a construction site, you need skillful legal representation. Call the experienced Chicago elevator accident attorneys of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca to handle your personal injury lawsuit, workers’ compensation claim, or SSDI claim. Call us at 312-724-5846 or complete this online form.