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A scaffolding collapse on a construction site is a workplace injury, and Washington's workers' compensation system usually stands in the way of a direct claim against your employer.The workers' compensation system pays medical bills and a portion of lost wages rather than the full value of what you lost. It does not cover pain and suffering, and it has no bearing on a separate claim against a different company on site whose negligence caused the collapse. Freeman Law Firm pursues that separate claim, against the general contractor, a subcontractor, the scaffold company, or whoever was responsible.
Call our injury team at (253) 383-4500 for a free consultation. There are no upfront fees, and you pay nothing unless we win your case.
A scaffold collapse commonly has more than one cause and more than one responsible company. Several businesses typically share a job site, and the company responsible for your injury depends on what went wrong.
A general contractor that oversees the site can be responsible for a collapse caused by poor site coordination, inadequate safety oversight, or a decision to rush the schedule at the expense of safe assembly.
If a subcontractor other than your own employer built, altered, or damaged the scaffold, that company can be liable even though it never employed you.
A business hired specifically to erect, inspect, or rent scaffolding equipment can be responsible for a design flaw, a missed inspection, or equipment that should have been taken out of service.
A property owner who knew about a hazard tied to the scaffold, like unstable ground or a structural attachment point, and did nothing about it can share responsibility for the collapse.
A manufacturing defect in a scaffold component, a coupling pin, a plank, or a locking mechanism, can make the manufacturer responsible under Washington's product liability law.
RCW 51.04.010 makes workers' compensation the exclusive remedy against your employer for a workplace injury, regardless of who was at fault on the job. In exchange for giving up the right to sue, you receive medical coverage and a portion of your lost wages through the system, without having to prove your employer did anything wrong.
Washington law makes one narrow exception. RCW 51.24.020 allows a direct lawsuit against an employer only when the injury resulted from the employer's deliberate intention to cause it, which is different from carelessness or a safety violation.
RCW 51.24.030 gives you a separate right to sue a company other than your employer whose negligence contributed to the construction site accident, while still receiving your workers' compensation benefits. The third-party claim is where Freeman Law Firm's work begins.
Freeman Law Firm pursues the third-party injury claim described on this page. We do not pursue the workers' compensation claim itself, so if you have not already filed one, you will want to do that with the Department of Labor and Industries or your employer's self-insurance program separately.
Washington's scaffold safety standards, WAC 296-874, set specific requirements for how a scaffold is built, inspected, and used. A collapse usually traces back to one of the failures below.
Washington regulation requires scaffold erection to be supervised by a competent person qualified in scaffold erection, and the workers doing the physical assembly need to be trained and experienced employees that supervisor selects. A scaffold put up without that supervision, or missing the cross-bracing needed for structural stability, is more likely to fail under normal use.
Every scaffold has a load limit tied to its design, and stacking materials, tools, or workers beyond that limit puts stress the structure was never built to carry.
A scaffold built alongside a building needs ties or anchors at set intervals to stay upright, and skipping or spacing them incorrectly leaves the structure to rely on its own weight for stability.
A cracked, overloaded, or improperly secured plank can give way under a worker's weight, and a platform without the required guardrails or toeboards turns a partial failure into a fall.
WAC 296-874 requires regular inspection of a scaffold and its components, and a scaffold that goes back into use after damage without meeting minimum strength requirements again puts everyone on it at risk.
A successful third-party claim can include medical expenses beyond what workers' compensation paid, the full value of your lost wages and future earning capacity, and pain and suffering, which workers' compensation does not provide at all.
If you already received workers' compensation benefits, RCW 51.24.060 sets the order for dividing a third-party recovery of economic damages. After costs and fees, you're guaranteed at least 25 percent, and the statute does not cap you there. The department or self-insurer is reimbursed next, but only for benefits paid minus its own share of the costs and fees, so it does not get the full amount. Anything left over comes back to you, so your actual share commonly runs above 25 percent. Money allocated to pain and suffering is exempt from this formula entirely under Tobin v. Department of Labor and Industries, 169 Wn.2d 396 (2010). Freeman Law Firm accounts for this formula when we evaluate what your case is likely to bring you.
Washington uses a pure comparative fault rule (RCW 4.22.005). If your own conduct contributed to the collapse, your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault, but you can still recover even if you are found more at fault than the company you are suing. A scaffold collapse case commonly names more than one defendant, and RCW 4.22.070 decides how they split the damages. If you bear no fault at all, they are jointly and severally liable, so you can collect the full judgment from any one of them. If you share some fault, each defendant owes only its own percentage.
RCW 4.16.080 gives you three years from the date of the collapse to file a personal injury lawsuit against a third party in Washington.
Usually not directly. Washington's workers' compensation system, under RCW 51.04.010, is the exclusive remedy against your employer, except in the rare case of deliberate intent to injure you under RCW 51.24.020.
A general contractor, a different subcontractor, the scaffold erection or rental company, the property owner, or the equipment manufacturer can all be liable, depending on what caused the collapse.
No. Freeman Law Firm pursues the third-party injury claim against the company or companies responsible for the collapse. Your workers' compensation claim goes through the Department of Labor and Industries or your employer's self-insurance program separately.
A pedestrian, a delivery driver, or another tenant hurt by falling scaffolding or debris has an ordinary negligence claim against whoever was responsible, without the workers' compensation limits that apply to an employee.
Under RCW 51.24.060, you keep at least 25 percent of the balance after costs and fees. The department or self-insurer is reimbursed next, but only for benefits paid minus its own share of the costs and fees, and any amount left after that comes back to you.
The citation document itself is generally not admissible in a Washington civil case. What is admissible is the underlying safety violation, and RCW 5.40.050 lets the jury consider a proven violation of a safety regulation as evidence of negligence, even though the citation paper never goes in front of them.
A scaffolding collapse can leave you facing medical bills and lost income that workers' compensation alone does not cover. Freeman Law Firm has recovered compensation for injured construction workers and bystanders across Tacoma and Pierce County, and we fight as a fierce advocate for every dollar your third-party claim deserves. Call (253) 383-4500 now for a free consultation, and pay nothing unless we win.