New York is home to more than 70,000 passenger elevators. These are an essential part of transportation in our vertical city. It’s vital that elevators are well maintained to get us to our destination without incident. While the majority of trips are uneventful, maintenance failures occasionally lead to accidents.
Figures released by the City of New York in November 2021 showed that there were 38 elevator and escalator injuries that year. That’s a big improvement on 2016, which saw 104 injuries.
However, even a single elevator injury is one too many. If your life has been turned around by an elevator accident, we understand the pain and distress that can cause. If the incident was the result of faulty maintenance, you may have a valid claim to compensation.
The New York law firm of Hill & Moin LLP is here to help. We do everything possible to ensure that our clients receive the compensation they are entitled to receive. We want to hear your story and advise you on how best to move forward with your claim.
Call (212) 668-6000 for a free case evaluation with an elevator accident lawyer.
Common Types of Elevator Accidents
Poorly maintained elevators can lead to a wide range of injuries. Sadly, a small number of elevator accidents lead to catastrophic injuries and even death.
During your case evaluation with Hill & Moin, we will listen carefully as you tell us about your accident. We understand that it can be traumatic to relive those memories. However, giving us the full picture can help us to assess your case, identify what went wrong, and determine who may be liable.
Some of the most common types of elevator accidents include:
- Unexpected increases in speed: Passengers can collide with the walls and ceiling of the elevator car or with each other. This can cause broken bones or head injuries and can be fatal when brakes completely fail. These terrifying accidents can also understandably lead to psychological damage.
- Sudden braking: This can also cause collision injuries, spinal damage, and cuts and bruises.
- Electrocution: Faulty electrics have led to the death of passengers and service personnel.
- Gap between the elevator car and floor: Gaps and uneven leveling can cause trip and fall injuries. In serious cases, passengers have caught limbs in the gap and even fallen down the elevator shaft.
- Crush injuries: Elevator door sensor failures and other equipment malfunctions have caused serious hand, arm, and leg injuries.
Injuries sustained in elevator accidents can have long-term consequences. Head, neck, limb, and spinal injuries can cause ongoing disabilities. If you have lost a loved one in an elevator accident caused by another person’s negligence, you may be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit.
If you’ve suffered any kind of injury due to an elevator accident, don’t delay in seeking legal representation. Whether you were injured as a passenger or while working on the elevator, you need a New York personal injury lawyer on your side – one with experience in handling elevator accident cases, who cares about getting results.
Call Hill & Moin LLP at (212) 668-6000 to discuss your accident with a qualified New York elevator accident lawyer.
Why Elevator Accidents Happen?
Elevators are finely tuned pieces of engineering, and it’s easy to see how things can go wrong without proper maintenance. For example, the elevator car must stop at precisely the right point so that the sets of doors on the elevator car and in the hallway line up perfectly.
Elevators thus have many safety mechanisms such as:
- Counterweights
- Regular and emergency brakes
- Reinforced steel cables
The personal injury lawyers you hire will investigate the cause of your elevator accident. You can focus on your recovery while the legal team focuses on establishing the basis for your claim.
Some common elevator malfunctions that have led to lawsuits include:
- Hoist cable failures
- Electrical failures
- Cutting corners on repairs
- Mistakes made by inexperienced technicians
- Negligence by property managers
With good maintenance, most accidents are preventable. However, you need an experienced attorney on your side to find the evidence that proves the owner was negligent. Hill & Moin clients can be confident that we will review the circ*mstances that led to the accident in detail.
Proving Liability for Elevator Accidents
The City of New York requires that all elevators are properly installed and maintained. Before their first use, all elevators must pass an installation inspection. To operate legally, all elevators receive two unannounced inspections from the Department of Buildings each year.
Gathering evidence
In New York City, it is the property owner’s responsibility to ensure elevators are properly maintained. Owners are required to:
- Employ a property manager to handle the day-to-day maintenance of the elevator
- Arrange a service contract with an approved elevator agency
- Make emergency call out details available to custodians at all times
- Establish a Maintenance Control Program (MCP) in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations
- Keep a detailed maintenance log, including dates and description of maintenance
Property owners have a duty to promptly follow up on all faults and reopen the elevator only when it is safe to do so. If the fault was found during an inspection, it will need to be reinspected before passengers can use it again.
Other evidence that can support your claim may include:
- Incident reports from the police or business
- Witness statements
- Photographs, video, or CCTV recordings
- Expert testimony on whether maintenance standards were neglected
You need an experienced lawyer on your side to gather all of this evidence and find the crucial facts that support your case. When you hire the New York law firm of Hill & Moin, our attorneys will source and examine all available evidence to find any breaches of relevant safety standards.
Proving negligence
Good intentions are not enough. Put simply, if someone with the duty of care and responsibility knew there was a problem and did not rectify it, you have the right to sue that party for proper compensation.
To prove negligence in a New York lawsuit, plaintiffs must meet four legal standards. The legal team must prove:
- Duty of care: The negligent party had a duty of care toward you as a user of the elevator
- Breach of duty of dare: By actions or lack of actions, the party failed to fulfill that duty of care
- Proximate cause: The breach of the duty of care was the direct cause of the accident
- Damages: The type and extent of the financial losses caused
Proving negligence or carelessness will be at the heart of the case. Our clients know that we will go over all relevant records with a fine tooth comb. When we take on your case, we will examine all options for pursuing compensation.
Call Hill & Moin LLP at (212) 668-6000 for a free case evaluation with an experienced New York elevator accident lawyer.
Your Right to Compensation
If the injuries you suffered in an elevator accident were caused by negligence, you have the right to seek compensation. Going it alone is overwhelming and you need an experienced and knowledgeable elevator accident attorney on your side who can give you the confidence to pursue the damages you are entitled to receive.
There are two types of damages – economic and noneconomic. You may be able to claim compensation for:
- Lost wages: If you had to miss work because of your injury, you can claim lost wages. If the injuries will continue to affect your ability to work in the future, you can also claim loss of earning capacity.
- Medical expenses: Even if you have excellent insurance, you will still have co-pays, fees, and other out of pocket medical expenses resulting from your elevator accident. If you sustain life-changing injuries, you can seek compensation for ongoing physical therapy, rehabilitation, and medical aids.
- Pain and suffering: These noneconomic damages include compensation for the pain, distress, and mental suffering you have experienced as a result of the accident.
In New York State, there is no limit on noneconomic damages. If your case is resolved in court, the jury will decide how much to award you. If you choose to settle, your attorney will negotiate the level of damages with the defendant’s attorney.
In both scenarios, it’s crucial to have an experienced and skilled attorney fighting your corner. At Hill & Moin, we tenaciously pursue the compensation our clients deserve.
How Hill & Moin LLP Can Help You
Elevator accidents can have a huge impact on your financial and emotional well-being and that of your loved ones. That’s why you need an attorney who treats you like family – a determined lawyer who can examine your case, zero in on the key facts, and use his or her knowledge of the law to help you get the compensation you deserve.
Hill & Moin LLP boasts more than 50 years of combined experience and has a solid track record of aggressively fighting for the rights of our clients. Our law firm is built on strong relationships with our valued clients.
We have previously secured settlements of $500,000 and more for our elevator accident clients. You deserve the support of a professional legal team who can help you to pursue the compensation that could secure your future.
Your first step is a free case evaluation. Call Hill & Moin LLP at (212) 668-6000 today to learn more about your Personal Injury Recovery SolutionsⓇ.
Don’t wonder about your rights!
