The majority of major downtown department stores once operated out of independent buildings in the area. Many were closed in the 1970’s and 80’s, as there was a movement away from stand-alones and into modern office parks and shopping complexes. With the city’s westward shift of the commercial center, downtown LA was lacking much nightlife until more recent times.

Despite the fact that the building and construction process proceeded relatively quickly, the LA City Council sped things up by enacting a reuse ordinance, thus making it simpler for developers to convert vacant old office buildings to high-class lofts and exclusive apartment complexes. A slew of professionals, fed up with the city’s notorious rush-hour gridlock problems, were quick to move in.

The number of residents in downtown LA has blossomed since the early 2000’s, in part due to all the building and construction, with a greater than 15 percent increase to approximately 28,000 persons. This amount surpassed estimates and, with a higher number of housing units being built, has pushed the total count to potentially be more than 40,000 by the end of 2008. However, the number of available jobs in the area has fallen to 418,000, down from an estimated 605,000 a decade ago.

In 2007, the City Council approved major changes to the downtown’s zoning rules. Muchly desired by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the changes facilitate more building and construction by allowing bigger and more closely-packed developments. In addition, builders who withhold 15 percent of their units for low-income residents are not governed by certain code requirements and living spaces can be constructed that are over 30 percent larger than current zoning laws call for.

Interestingly, a number of the core downtown buildings were built way back in the turn of the century. Between then and the late 1050’s, a rigid zoning law kept building heights at under 150 feet, causing a fairly homogenous skyline. Reportedly, it was done not for fear of earthquakes, but to maintain a uniform height in the area and to avoid New York City style congestion. None of these laws are in effect today, as a skyline filled with tall office buildings bears evidence to.

This is especially true when it concerns the legal side of things, and when this is true, it may be time to get a construction lawyer. This article will touch upon a few of the more common instances in which having a construction lawyer will benefit you greatly.

First, any form of construction that you will do, including digging of plumbing and foundations, will fall under the civil aegis of construction law. This law is very specific as to how low you can dig and how high you can build, for instance.

This too is determined by the area that the building will take place. Zoning laws are very different in commercial, residential, and semi-commercial (mixed) zones, as well as in different city and county. Due to the complexity of this fundamental issue, a construction lawyer is highly recommended.

The reason for this is that a construction lawyer will know all of the proper and most expedient channels to getting permits and gaining the time of an on-site inspector, to name but a few sticky bureaucratic instances. This last subject, inspectors, is very important as there are a limited number of inspectors for each county or municipality and until they arrive to do their inspection and certify you for the next phase of building, all construction must stop.

Further, let’s say that you’ve hired contractors to do your building for you. There are numerous clauses that you may not think to include in your contract, and others that the construction lawyer of the contractors will include, and which may prove to be pitfalls for you if unaware of them. (This can include clauses detailing allowance for the contractors to make certain lengthy -and costly for you, delays; of unfair overtime charges; and of the contractors not being responsible for certain types of mistakes that they might make -all of which will be legal catastrophe for you.)

An even more serious problem would be if the contractor or sub-contractor sues you, for whatever reason. This is common amongst an unprincipled minority of contractors who will sue you if they themselves anticipate being sued, in hopes that they can scare you away from forcing any legal indemnity upon them. To make things worse, for a job which they have botched, and which you refuse to pay for, they can actually place a lien on your home. However, just having a construction lawyer will dissuade most dishonest contractors from even considering such shady actions.

As you can see, there are many pitfalls involved in building, whether from the ground up, in upkeep, or in remodeling. Notwithstanding this, there is no reason to fear or defer such building plans. Simply put, fear-based decisions will get you nowhere, whereas having a construction lawyer will put your house on the map.

Construction projects can be dangerous places to work. Tools and materials get tossed around. Large, heavy objects are moved from place to place. Great forces are unleashed; chemicals are used. Torches and flame and pressure may be applied. Injuries can occur at even the safest job sites.

Accidents at construction jobs are divided roughly into two categories – height-related injuries, and everything else. “Everything else” can be stumbling on a hammer, or getting an electrical shock, or getting hurt because of defective or unsafe machinery, or anything else that’s not height-related. “Height-related” usually means a fall, or an object dropped from above.

Cases for injuries caused by construction site accidents are usually very complex. Usually, there are many companies involved and it’s not always clear who is to blame for the cause of an accident and resulting injury. Responsibility may fall on a company that the injured worker does not even know about, such as the owner of the construction site, a sub-contractor, construction manager, materials supplier, or general contractor. Additionally, there are many different rules and regulations intended to guarantee a worker’s safety, which negligent parties sometimes use clever defense attorneys to try to wriggle out of.

Complicating the picture is Worker’s Compensation insurance, which every employer must have available to its workers. Whether you’re a mason or carpenter, electrician or laborer, iron worker or painter, you can not sue your employer if you’re injured. The injured worker can only receive Worker’s Compensation, which is guaranteed, but tends to pay a small amount of money for lost wages and other benefits and is usually limited in the amount of time that it will pay the hurt claimant. The only way around New York’s Worker’s Compensation law is to sue a person or company that is not the injured person’s employer – not a simple matter. This requires figuring out who did what, where, at the job site.

B. Some Law

One of the best known worker’s protection laws is New York’s Labor Law, section 240, which is intended to protect workers from height-related risks. That law states:

1. All contractors and owners and their agents, except owners of one and two-family dwellings who contract for but do not direct or control the work, in the erection of, demolition, repairing, altering, painting, cleaning or pointing of a building or structure shall furnish or erect, or cause to be furnished or erected for the performance of such labor, scaffolding, hoists, stays, ladders, slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys, braces, irons, ropes and other devices, which shall be so constructed, placed and operated as to give proper protection to a person so employed.

So if an injured worker was engaged in “erection of, demolition, repairing, altering, painting, cleaning or pointing” and using “scaffolding, hoists, stays, ladders, slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys, braces, irons, ropes and other devices” he or she has “super-protection” under New York State law. But there are several loopholes, so an experienced accident or personal injury construction law lawyer is necessary in these cases.

For example, defenses commonly raised by insurance companies to Labor Law claims are a “sole proximate cause” and “recalcitrant worker.”

“Sole proximate cause” occurs when the worker sets up equipment incorrectly and may be found to be entirely responsible for the accident. As you can imagine, this can be very tricky stuff.

For example, in one case (Robinson v. East Medical Center), New York’s Court of Appeals addressed a defense to a Labor Law section 240 claim. The defendants claimed that the injured worker’s actions were the sole proximate cause of his injury. The injured worker was hurt while using a six-foot ladder – which he knew was too short to accomplish the task he needed to perform. And even though he knew that there were eight-foot ladders available at the job site, he stood on top of the six-foot ladder and fell. The work’s case was dismissed because it was found that he was the sole proximate cause of his injury.

“Recalcitrant worker” is when a worker uses equipment incorrectly. This usually is found where a worker ignores safety instructions or fails to utilize available safety equipment, when he or she should have known better.

A Labor Law section 240 claim was dismissed where the injured worker was provided with proper safety equipment and told how to use it safely, but was injured because he disregarded his supervisor’s instructions and misused the equipment. (Mayancela v. Almat Realty Development, LLC).

The effect of the defenses of “sole proximate cause” and “recalcitrant worker” is to chip away at the protections provided by law to New York workers.

C. Conclusion

If you’re hurt in an accident, consult a personal injury or accident attorney experienced in construction site and work-related injuries. Because of the complex issues and assortment of possible defendants, there must be a thorough investigation of the construction site, interviews of co-workers and witnesses, and, possibly, taking of photographs. This must be done fast, fast, fast – sometimes even while the injured worker is still in the hospital.

California’s Construction Industry could be facing a perfect storm of monumental proportions as the credit crunch and delinquent construction and commercial real estate loans threaten to produce even less construction and more construction defect litigation.

It’s being reported with greater frequency, higher and higher rates of delinquency in payments of construction and commercial real estate loans. Now with the credit crisis and bank failures, it is being reported that banks are cutting off credit to builders and more and more contractors are being forced to declare bankruptcy or to go out of business.

As builders and subcontractors cut corners to make a profit on losing propositions, construction defect litigation is almost certain to rise. If the possible scope of this economic crisis comes to fruition, fewer of the contractors and subcontractors responsible for defects may be around to fix the problems.

Liability insurance for builders and contractors in California has already been tight and some contractors have looked at their policies only to complain that despite the higher deductible, they still offer spotty protection.

A spot check of defendants in construction lawsuits filed over the past few years finds a significant percentage of the defendants in such lawsuits may no longer in business. Whether it is the result of such lawsuits or the economic crisis and the housing slump can’t be determined. What can, however, be said, is that homeowners can no longer count on their contractor or subcontractors to be in business when problems are found in the construction of their homes.

While such builders may still have insurance which covers them for their defects, it can be hard for a homeowner’s attorney to find that insurance when the builder is no longer around.When a subcontractor or his insurer is no longer around to stand up for their mistakes, general contractors worry.

In the Coachella Valley, construction spending fell 41.4 percent in the second quarter of 2008 from a year ago. Home prices dropped 22.7 percent. New construction starts are off by 90 percent since the peak of market activity in the third quarter of 2004. Unemployment in the Inland Empire of California was at 9.2 percent in August 2008. The construction industry that at one point employed nearly a third of the Coachella Valley’s work force has seen its jobs cut almost in half.

Contractors who see the economic storm coming are cutting costs, selling the trucks and equipment they no longer need and just trying to hunker down until conditions improve. It is probably wise to cut back as much as they can because at last check, the wind speed of problems for this industry was increasing and as far as anyone can tell, the eye of the storm hasn’t even come close.

If you have construction law issues and need help, whether you are a general contractor, a subcontractor, a homeowner or connected in any manner to the construction industry or the real estate market, we invite you to call us for a consultation.

If you have a construction law, real estate or mortgage issue in Orange County, San Diego, in Riverside, Palm Springs or anywhere in Southern California, we have the knowledge and resources to be your California Real Estate Lawyers, and Orange County and San Diego Construction Attorneys. For this reason, be sure to hire a California law firm with real estate and Construction lawyers who can represent you from Palm Springs, Laguna, Newport and Huntington Beach, Corona del Mar, Yorba Linda, Carlsbad, San Diego, Costa Mesa, Westminster, Murrieta, to Chula Vista, and Coachella.

If you have a construction law or real estate legal issue, and need to know your rights, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com  and learn how we can assist you. You can also call us to speak directly to Sebastian Gibson on the phone about your legal matter.