A serious construction accident changes everything — your health, your ability to work, and your family’s stability. Our role is to step in quickly, make sense of what happened, and protect you while you focus on getting better. Clark, Fountain, Littky‑Rubin & Whitman has secured more than $1 billion in verdicts and settlements for people harmed by negligence in Florida and across the country, including complex construction, road design, electrocution, and product defect cases.

Florida’s 2023 tort reform shortened the deadline for most negligence claims to two years from the date of the incident, leaving far less time to investigate, file suit, and preserve evidence. Waiting to “see what happens” can mean key documents disappear, job sites change, and critical legal rights are lost. Early legal involvement allows us to secure records, consult qualified experts, and position your case under the new rules.

Several of our lawyers are Florida Bar Board‑Certified Civil Trial Lawyers, a credential reserved for attorneys who have demonstrated substantial trial experience, tested knowledge, and high peer review for ethics and professionalism. That background is particularly important in construction cases, where multiple companies, technical safety standards, and life‑changing injuries all intersect.

If you have questions after a construction site accident, you can speak with our team in a confidential, no‑obligation consultation.

Understanding construction site liabilities

Construction projects are governed by contracts, building codes, and safety regulations intended to keep workers and visitors reasonably safe. When those rules are not followed, preventable injuries and deaths occur.

• Preventable negligence. Safety procedures are designed to reduce human error. When they are ignored to save time or money, the resulting harm is rarely a “pure accident.”
• Improper site design and inspection. Architects, engineers, and site managers must account for load limits, traffic patterns, trench stability, electrical routing, and other foreseeable risks. Errors in planning or inspection can expose design professionals and supervising entities to liability when a worker is hurt.
• Hazard management. Unsecured materials, open edges without guardrails, unmarked drop‑offs, and poorly stored equipment frequently lead to falls, crush injuries, or struck‑by incidents.
• Equipment integrity. Aging or poorly maintained equipment, unsafe scaffolding, and defective safety gear can fail during normal use, creating both negligence and product liability issues.​

In many cases, responsibility is shared. We look at the roles of the property owner, general contractor, subcontractors, equipment suppliers, and manufacturers to determine who should be held accountable and where meaningful insurance coverage exists.

Negligence and safety code violations

A construction injury case generally turns on whether someone failed to act with reasonable care under the circumstances. Construction companies, site owners, and contractors are expected to follow OSHA rules, industry standards, and their own written safety policies.

OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) publishes safety standards for fall protection, scaffolding, excavation, electrical work, hazard communication, and more. When an injury occurs and the investigation reveals missing guardrails, unprotected trenches, noncompliant scaffolds, or unsafe electrical systems, those violations can be powerful evidence of negligence.

The duty of care on a job site extends to employees, subcontractor personnel, inspectors, and in some situations invited visitors. General contractors and site owners are typically responsible for coordinating safety efforts, enforcing rules, and correcting hazards they know about or should know about.

Many serious cases involve overlapping faults, for example, a defective harness from one company, inadequate supervision by another, and a property owner who allowed work to continue despite obvious dangers. Our firm routinely litigates these multi‑party construction and industrial cases and is accustomed to the expert testimony and discovery they require.

Common causes of construction site injuries

On Florida job sites, certain patterns appear again and again. We frequently see claims involving:

• Scaffolding incidents. Incorrect assembly, missing guardrails, overloading, or structural failure can lead to multi‑story falls or collapsing platforms. Responsibility may lie with the general contractor, scaffolding subcontractor, property owner, or, when the equipment itself is defective, the manufacturer.
• Falls from heights. Falls remain the leading cause of construction fatalities and often involve missing fall‑arrest systems, unprotected roof edges, or incomplete floor openings. These cases usually require close review of fall‑protection plans, training records, and OSHA compliance.
• Excavation and trench cave‑ins. When trenches are not properly shored, sloped, or shielded, the walls can collapse without warning, burying workers under thousands of pounds of soil.​
• Ladder failures. Injuries occur when the wrong ladder is used, it is placed on an unstable surface, it is not secured, or it is structurally defective. Liability may involve both site supervision and product defects.

Other recurring issues include:

• Head protection lapses. Falling tools or materials can cause serious “struck‑by” injuries or traumatic brain injuries if head protection is missing or inadequate.
• Hazard communication problems. Workers may be exposed to chemicals, dust, or other risks when they are not given proper warnings, labels, or access to Safety Data Sheets.
• Respiratory exposures. Silica, asbestos, welding fumes, and other airborne hazards can cause long‑term illness when proper masks or ventilation are not provided.​
• Electrical system failures. Ungrounded circuits, energized equipment, overhead power lines, and poor lock‑out/tag‑out procedures can result in severe shocks, burns, or electrocution. Our firm has handled electrocution and utility‑related cases involving multiple corporate and utility defendants.

Heavy equipment and powered industrial trucks add further risk. Cranes, hoists, forklifts, telehandlers, loaders, and skid‑steers can cause crushing injuries, run‑overs, or rollovers when poorly maintained, operated without adequate training, or used on unsafe ground conditions.

OSHA has identified four categories — falls, struck‑by events, electrocutions, and caught‑in/between incidents — as the “Fatal Four,” responsible for the majority of construction worker deaths. Many of the cases we handle involve some combination of those hazards.

Florida’s 2023 Tort Reform and What It Means for You

Florida’s recent tort reform (often referred to as HB 837) brought several important changes to personal injury cases, including construction site claims. A few points are especially important for injured workers and families to understand:

• Shorter deadline. For many negligence claims, the statute of limitations is now two years rather than four, for incidents occurring on or after March 24, 2023. Failing to file in time can bar the claim entirely.
• Modified comparative fault. Florida now uses a modified comparative negligence system: if you are more than 50% at fault for the incident, you are barred from recovering damages in most negligence cases. Defendants will often argue for a high fault percentage to limit or avoid payment.
• Medical expense proof (Florida Statute §768.0427). New rules restrict what evidence may be used to show the value of past and future medical treatment, looking more to actual payments and typical reimbursement rates than to gross billed charges. Presenting medical and economic evidence now requires careful planning with treating physicians and experts.

Our construction practice is structured with these changes in mind: early evidence preservation, prompt filing when appropriate, and detailed workups of liability and damages so the case is ready for negotiation or trial under the new framework.

Third-party claims beyond workers’ compensation

Workers’ compensation provides an important but limited safety net. It typically covers a portion of wage loss and medical care but does not compensate for pain and suffering or many other long‑term losses. It also generally protects your direct employer from being sued in tort.

However, workers’ compensation does not prevent you from pursuing third‑party claims against others whose negligence contributed to your injury, such as:

• Subcontractors or other trades on the site. Each company on the job owes its own duty of care. If another contractor’s practices create a hazard that injures you, that entity may be responsible.
• Property owners. Landowners who fail to correct or warn about dangerous conditions, or who retain control over certain aspects of the work, can face liability when injuries occur.
• Architects and engineers. Design errors, unsafe plans, or inadequate site oversight can support professional negligence claims.
• Manufacturers and suppliers. When a defective product or piece of equipment plays a role, product liability law may allow a separate recovery.

We review contracts, site control, and the flow of decision‑making to identify every viable third‑party claim and to ensure those claims are preserved alongside any workers’ compensation benefits.

Defective Products, Catastrophic Injuries, and Wrongful Death

A significant number of construction injuries involve products or machinery that do not function as they should. Under Florida law, manufacturers and others in the product’s chain of distribution may be liable when:

• A product’s design is unreasonably dangerous.
• Adequate warnings or instructions are not provided.
• A manufacturing flaw makes a particular item unsafe.

In these cases, we often work with mechanical engineers, metallurgists, and reconstruction experts to examine the equipment, test components, and explain failures to a jury if necessary.

Because construction accidents frequently result in permanent harm, many cases require detailed life care planning. Traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations, and severe crush injuries can require a lifetime of medical care, adaptive equipment, home modifications, and support services. Our firm collaborates with life care planners, vocational specialists, and economists to project those costs and document them thoroughly.

When a construction worker is killed, surviving family members may bring a claim under the Florida Wrongful Death Act. Depending on the circumstances, spouses, children, and sometimes parents or other dependents may be able to recover for loss of support and services, loss of companionship, and mental pain and suffering. We also know that families often want answers and systemic change, not just compensation. Many of our wrongful death construction and utility cases have led to changes in site practices, safety devices, and industry procedures.

Significant Case Results

Our investigative approach and why clients hire us

Construction litigation is evidence‑driven. Job sites change, equipment is moved, and witnesses return to work. To keep pace, we focus on early, careful investigation:

• Securing photographs, measurements, and physical evidence from the scene.
• Collecting electronic information, including drone footage, surveillance video, GPS and telematics data from vehicles or equipment, and utility or site records when relevant.
• Obtaining safety manuals, training records, inspection reports, and maintenance logs through informal requests and formal subpoenas.
• Interviewing workers, supervisors, and other witnesses before memories fade or are influenced by company pressure.

Clark, Fountain, Littky‑Rubin & Whitman has a long history of handling complex construction, road design, explosion, electrocution, and defective product cases in Florida and beyond, often against large corporations and national insurers. The firm is AV® Preeminent™ rated by Martindale‑Hubbell, and other lawyers frequently ask us to serve as co‑counsel or trial counsel in serious injury and wrongful death matters.

We represent injured clients on a contingency fee basis: you do not pay attorney’s fees or case costs unless we obtain a recovery for you.​

If you or a family member has been injured on a construction site in Florida and would like to understand your options, you can contact Clark, Fountain, Littky‑Rubin & Whitman for a confidential case evaluation. We handle serious cases throughout the state, including the Palm Beaches, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Jacksonville.