The statute of limitations is the legal deadline for filing a lawsuit. In New York construction accident cases, there is not one deadline but several, and which ones apply to your case depends on who owns the property where the accident happened, what type of claim you are filing, and how your workers' compensation status intersects with a separate civil lawsuit.
Missing any of these deadlines can permanently bar your claim, regardless of how serious your injuries are, how clear the liability is, or whether you have already been receiving workers' compensation benefits. There are no extensions for medical recovery, no exceptions for not knowing the deadline existed, and no second chances once the window closes.
This page explains every deadline that applies to New York construction accident cases, the exceptions that can extend or shorten them, the most common and most costly mistakes injured workers make, and what to do if you are not sure where you stand.
At Porter Law Group, attorney Michael S. Porter and his team represent injured construction workers throughout New York State. Call us at (833) 767-8379 or email info@porterlawteam.com for a free consultation. You pay nothing unless we recover for you.
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For most New York construction accident cases, the personal injury statute of limitations is three years from the date of the accident under CPLR Section 214(5). This applies to all claims under New York Labor Law Sections 240(1), 241(6), and 200 against private property owners, general contractors, developers, and other non-government parties.
The three-year clock begins on the date the accident occurred, not the date you hire an attorney, not the date you finish medical treatment, and not the date you discover the full extent of your injuries. If your accident happened on June 1, 2023, you have until June 1, 2026 to file a lawsuit. If you file on June 2, 2026, your case is time-barred.
Three years sounds like a significant runway, but it disappears faster than most injured workers expect. Building a construction accident case requires identifying every liable party, gathering OSHA inspection records and equipment documentation, obtaining medical records and expert opinions, and negotiating with multiple insurance carriers. Cases that are filed in the final months before the deadline are invariably more difficult to resolve well than cases where the attorney had full time to investigate and prepare.
When a construction accident kills a worker, the deadline for the family's wrongful death claim is different from the personal injury deadline. Under New York Estates, Powers and Trusts Law Section 5-4.1, a wrongful death lawsuit must be filed within two years of the date of death, not the date of the accident. If an injured worker survives for several months before dying from their injuries, the two-year wrongful death clock begins at the moment of death, not when the accident happened.
Surviving family members can pursue both a wrongful death claim for the economic and relational losses the family suffers and, in some cases, a separate survival action for the conscious pain and suffering the worker experienced between the accident and death. An attorney can assess whether both claims are available in your specific situation.
Workers' compensation claims operate on entirely separate deadlines from personal injury lawsuits. Under New York Workers' Compensation Law, you must notify your employer of a workplace injury within 30 days of the accident. You must file a formal workers' compensation claim within two years of the accident or within two years of the date of last payment of compensation, whichever is later.
These are the workers' compensation deadlines only. They have no effect on the personal injury lawsuit deadline.
When the property where the construction accident occurred was owned or controlled by a government entity, a dramatically shorter and more dangerous deadline applies. This rule catches more injured workers off guard than any other deadline in construction accident law, and missing it permanently ends the claim against the government defendant regardless of what other claims survive.
The government entity rule under General Municipal Law Section 50-e applies to construction accidents that occur on properties owned or managed by New York City, any New York City agency, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, New York State and its agencies, any county or municipal government, any public authority or public benefit corporation, public school districts, and public hospitals.
In New York City, a significant portion of large construction projects involve government-owned or government-managed sites. NYCHA buildings, MTA infrastructure projects, NYC Department of Design and Construction projects, and public school construction all fall under the government entity rule. Workers on these sites must assume the shorter deadline applies and act accordingly.
Under General Municipal Law Section 50-e, any person intending to sue a government entity for personal injury must serve a Notice of Claim on the appropriate government body within 90 days of the accident. This is not the lawsuit itself. It is a formal written notice that puts the government on alert that a claim is being asserted.
The 90-day window is strict. Courts may grant permission to file a late Notice of Claim under limited circumstances, but late filing applications are not guaranteed to succeed, and many are denied. The factors courts consider include how long the delay was, whether the government had actual knowledge of the claim, and whether the delay prejudiced the government's ability to investigate. Do not assume you can file late and get permission. The safest approach is to assume the 90-day deadline is hard and act within it.
After a timely Notice of Claim is served, the injured worker has one year and 90 days from the date of the accident to commence the actual lawsuit against the government entity under General Municipal Law Section 50-i. This is shorter than the three-year statute of limitations that applies to private defendants. If you serve a timely Notice of Claim but miss the one-year-and-90-day lawsuit filing deadline, your case against the government defendant is lost.
One of the most common reasons workers miss the 90-day Notice of Claim deadline is not knowing that the site was government-owned. In New York City, the ownership of a property is not always apparent at the job site level. A contractor may be operating under a private general contractor while the underlying property is owned by NYCHA, the MTA, or a city agency. NYC DOB permit records identify the property owner for permitted construction projects. An attorney can check this quickly.
If there is any possibility that a government entity owned or controlled the site where your accident happened, treat the 90-day deadline as applicable and contact an attorney immediately.
When a defective tool, machine, scaffold component, or piece of safety equipment caused or contributed to the construction accident, a product liability claim against the manufacturer, distributor, or rental company may be available alongside the Labor Law claims.
Product liability claims in New York are also governed by a three-year statute of limitations, but under CPLR Section 214(c) rather than 214(5). For most product liability cases, the clock runs from the date of the injury. If the defect was latent and could not have been discovered through reasonable diligence at the time of injury, the discovery rule under CPLR Section 214-c may apply, starting the clock from the date the injury was discovered or should have been discovered. This exception applies narrowly and primarily to toxic substance exposure cases rather than mechanical defects.
For construction cases involving defective equipment where the defect is apparent from the accident, the standard three-year-from-injury rule applies to the product liability claim just as it does to the Labor Law claims. For more detail on how product liability and Labor Law claims work together, see our page on defective equipment accidents.
This is the single most common and most damaging misconception in New York construction accident law. Filing a workers' compensation claim does not toll, pause, or extend the statute of limitations for a personal injury lawsuit. The two deadlines run on completely separate tracks, and one has no effect on the other.
A worker who files a workers' compensation claim the day after their accident and then waits three years to think about a lawsuit has permanently lost the right to sue. The three-year personal injury statute ran from the date of the accident regardless of the workers' comp filing. The workers' comp filing did not stop that clock for a single day.
Workers who discover this after the deadline has passed have no recourse. Courts do not make exceptions for this mistake. The claim is permanently barred.
If you are receiving workers' compensation benefits after a construction accident, contact an attorney immediately to determine whether a third-party personal injury lawsuit is available and what deadline applies to it.
In limited circumstances, New York law allows the statute of limitations to be tolled, meaning paused. These exceptions are narrow and have specific legal requirements.
When the injured person was under 18 years of age at the time of the accident, the statute of limitations is tolled until they turn 18. The three-year personal injury clock begins running on their 18th birthday, not on the date of the accident. This exception applies to the injured minor, not to their parents, who retain their own claims with their own deadlines.
Under CPLR Section 208, when a person is insane or under a disability at the time the cause of action accrues, the statute of limitations is tolled during the period of disability. Courts apply this exception narrowly. Being injured or in medical treatment does not constitute a legal disability. The incapacity must be severe enough that the person genuinely cannot manage their affairs or understand their legal situation.
Under CPLR Section 214-c, for claims based on toxic substance exposure where the injury was latent and could not have been discovered through reasonable diligence, the statute of limitations runs from the date of discovery of the injury rather than the date of exposure. This applies to occupational diseases like silicosis, mesothelioma, and other conditions with long latency periods, not to typical construction accident injuries.
Under CPLR Section 210, when the defendant dies before the statute of limitations expires, the plaintiff has at least 18 months from the date of the defendant's death to commence the action, even if the regular limitations period would otherwise expire sooner.
The table below summarizes the key deadlines that apply to New York construction accident cases. This is general guidance and not a substitute for a case-specific legal assessment.
| Claim type | Deadline | Authority |
| Personal injury against private parties | 3 years from date of accident | CPLR Section 214(5) |
| Personal injury against government entities | Notice of Claim within 90 days; lawsuit within 1 year and 90 days | GML Sections 50-e and 50-i |
| Wrongful death | 2 years from date of death | EPT Section 5-4.1 |
| Product liability (manufacturing or design defect) | 3 years from date of injury | CPLR Section 214(c) |
| Workers' compensation notice to employer | 30 days from date of accident | WCL Section 18 |
| Workers' compensation formal claim filing | 2 years from date of accident or last payment | WCL Section 28 |
A frequent misconception is that the statute of limitations does not begin running until you have finished medical treatment or fully understand the extent of your injuries. This is not how New York law works for most construction accident injuries. The clock starts on the date of the accident, period.
The only meaningful exception is for latent injuries from toxic exposure under CPLR Section 214-c, where the injury by definition cannot be discovered immediately. For traumatic injuries from falls, machinery, falling objects, electrocution, and other typical construction accident mechanisms, the injury is apparent from the date of the accident, and the statute runs from that date.
This means that a worker who suffers a spinal cord injury in a construction accident and spends two years in surgical recovery and rehabilitation has only one year remaining when they are medically stable enough to think about filing a lawsuit. That one year, if used wisely, is enough. But it is not a comfortable margin. And if the accident happened on a government-owned site, the 90-day Notice of Claim deadline passed long ago.
Every step in the first hours and days after a construction accident either protects or compromises the deadlines available to you.
Not Sure If Your Deadline Has Passed?
Let's Find Out. Talk to our experienced New York construction accident lawyers about your filing deadline in a free, no-obligation consultation.
Michael S. Porter founded Porter Law Group to represent New York workers and families in serious injury cases. A graduate of Harvard University and Syracuse University College of Law, he served as a Captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps before entering private practice. He has been selected to Super Lawyers for 14 consecutive years, from 2012 through 2025, and holds a 10.0 Superb rating on Avvo and a Distinguished rating from Martindale-Hubbell.
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For most construction accident cases against private property owners, developers, and general contractors, you have three years from the date of the accident under CPLR Section 214(5). For wrongful death claims, the deadline is two years from the date of death under EPT Section 5-4.1. If a government entity owned or managed the site, you must serve a Notice of Claim within 90 days of the accident under General Municipal Law Section 50-e and file your lawsuit within one year and 90 days under GML Section 50-i. Filing a workers' compensation claim does not extend or pause any of these deadlines.
Your claim is permanently barred. Courts do not grant exceptions for missing the statute of limitations in most circumstances. An untimely complaint will be dismissed, and you will have no right to recover compensation regardless of how serious your injuries are or how clear the liability is. This is why contacting an attorney as soon as possible after a construction accident is so important, especially if a government entity may be involved.
No. Filing a workers' compensation claim has no effect on the statute of limitations for a personal injury lawsuit. The two claims run on completely separate tracks with completely separate deadlines. Many injured workers lose their right to file a personal injury lawsuit because they assumed their workers' comp filing extended the clock. It does not.
In New York City, construction project permits are public records filed with the NYC Department of Buildings. The permit identifies the owner of the property. Outside New York City, deed records at the county clerk's office identify property ownership. If the project involved any public infrastructure, public housing, mass transit, or public school construction, a government entity is likely involved and the 90-day Notice of Claim rule applies.
In limited circumstances, yes. Under CPLR Section 208, the statute of limitations is tolled during a period of insanity or disability severe enough that the person genuinely cannot manage their affairs. Being injured, hospitalized, or in medical treatment does not by itself constitute a legal disability. Courts apply this exception narrowly. The better approach is to contact an attorney as soon as you are physically able, even if you are still in medical treatment, so that all deadlines are identified and protected.
For most traumatic construction accident injuries, the statute of limitations runs from the date of the accident regardless of when the full extent of the injuries became clear. The discovery rule under CPLR Section 214-c applies to latent injuries from toxic substance exposure, not to physical injuries that were apparent at the time of the accident. A herniated disc that was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain is still a known injury from the date of the accident, and the three-year clock began running on that date.
Founder and managing partner of Porter Law Group. Harvard University (B.A., 1994), Syracuse University College of Law (J.D., 1997). Former U.S. Army JAG Corps Captain, Airborne Training School graduate. Super Lawyers 14 consecutive years, 10.0 Superb on Avvo, Distinguished rating from Martindale-Hubbell. Over 20 years of trial experience and $500 million in recoveries.
Reviewed by Michael S. Porter, J.D. | Last updated: [April, 2026]
If you were seriously injured in a New York construction accident and are not sure which deadlines apply to your situation, do not wait. A free consultation with an experienced construction accident attorney can tell you exactly where you stand, whether a Notice of Claim needs to be filed, and what steps to take next.
Porter Law Group is ready to help. Call us at (833) 767-8379 or email info@porterlawteam.com for a free, confidential consultation. We handle construction accident cases on a contingency fee basis, which means you pay nothing unless we win your case.
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