Floor openings are a standard feature of active construction sites, including stairwell cutouts, utility access points, and ventilation shafts. In a finished building, they are accounted for. On an active site, they are often left uncovered, unmarked, and directly in workers’ paths who have no reason to expect them.

Subin Law represents workers who have suffered unprotected opening injuries in New York. These are not freak accidents. They are foreseeable outcomes of site management failures, and New York law defines who bears responsibility when they occur.

How These Injuries Happen

Workers on active construction sites move constantly. They carry materials, navigate narrow pathways, and shift between tasks in environments that change daily. An uncovered opening in a work path is not always visible, especially when carrying equipment, working in low light, or moving through an unfamiliar site section.

A single step into an unprotected opening can cause a fall of several feet or stories. These incidents are not worker error. They result from failures in site planning and oversight that should have been addressed before work began.

Legal Responsibility

New York law places responsibility on those who own and control construction sites to ensure openings are properly covered, secured, and marked. When that responsibility is unmet and a worker is injured, the legal question focuses on who controlled the site, what protections were in place, and why they were absent.

What These Cases Involve

These claims depend on documenting the site’s condition at the time of injury. That record can disappear quickly as sites change and openings are covered. Early investigation is essential. Every case at Subin Law is built for trial from the start.

Falls into unprotected openings cause severe injuries, including fractures, traumatic brain injury, spinal damage, and fatalities. Where contractors, property owners, or site managers bear responsibility for the unprotected condition, civil claims may allow recovery for losses beyond what workers’ compensation provides.

Subin Law takes a limited number of serious cases so each receives focused attention and a strategy built around its specific facts. Consultations are free and confidential. No attorney fees are charged unless compensation is recovered.

Contact Subin Law to discuss your case.