| August 19, 2026 | Maryland Law, Personal Injury

Hunter Duke, Attorney and Chief Operating Officer at WGK Personal Injury Lawyers

By Hunter Duke, Attorney | Chief Operating Officer | WGK Personal Injury Lawyers

A construction site injury hits twice: your body takes the damage, and the paycheck stops while the bills keep coming. If you were injured on a Baltimore construction site, Maryland law gives you two ways to recover money, not one.

Workers’ comp pays your medical bills and part of your lost wages, no matter who caused the injury. A separate lawsuit against a non-employer who helped cause the harm can pay for much more. That includes the pain and the limits the injury puts on your life. Call a Baltimore construction accident lawyer at (410) 837-2144 to find out which paths are open to you.

The Two Paths to Recovery After a Maryland Construction Injury

Maryland offers an injured construction worker two paths at once. Workers’ comp is a no-fault insurance system. It pays for your medical care and part of your lost wages, and your employer’s insurance company pays it no matter who was at fault. A third-party lawsuit is a separate claim against anyone other than your direct employer who helped cause the injury.1

That second party can be someone other than your boss.1 It might be:

  • a general contractor
  • a subcontractor whose worker hurt you
  • the maker of a tool or machine that failed
  • a property owner who knew about a danger
  • a driver who entered the work zone

Most construction-injury articles only talk about workers’ comp. But the lawsuit path matters. Workers’ comp doesn’t pay for pain and suffering. A serious injury caused by someone else often carries far more value through a lawsuit.

One important difference: workers’ comp doesn’t care if you were partly at fault. The third-party lawsuit does. Maryland follows pure contributory negligence, which is a strict rule. A worker who’s even slightly at fault for that accident can lose the third-party recovery entirely.

Even then, the same worker can still collect workers’ comp. That’s one reason it helps to have someone protecting your side of the story early.

How Dangerous Is Construction Work in Maryland?

Construction is the U.S. industry with the highest raw number of worker deaths. In a recent reporting year, the national picture was stark.2

  • 1,034 construction worker deaths, down about 4 percent from the year before
  • a fatality rate of 9.2 deaths per 100,000 full-time workers
  • 389 deaths from falls, slips, and trips alone, about 38 percent of the total

The executive director of the construction-safety research center CPWR said the industry "needs to work harder to eliminate all construction worker deaths on the job." He also noted the most recent numbers moved in the right direction.3

This content is marketing material and is not legal advice. Every case is unique, and laws change frequently. Please contact our office to speak with an attorney about your specific situation before making any legal decisions.

The risk is not shared evenly. The four leading hazard types together cause over half of construction deaths year after year.4 Hispanic or Latino workers had the highest fatal-injury rate of any group, roughly 30 percent above the national rate. Foreign-born Hispanic or Latino workers made up 68.5 percent of all foreign-born worker deaths.5

Maryland tracks this too. The state recorded 15 fatal construction and extraction injuries in the reporting period cited here, up from 11 the year before. That made it the second-deadliest occupational group in the state.6 Construction is about 7.0 percent of all Baltimore-area jobs, above the U.S. average of roughly 6.1 percent, so this risk hits close to home.7

OSHA’s Focus Four: The Hazards That Kill Most Workers

OSHA’s "Focus Four," also called the "Fatal Four," are the leading causes of construction-worker deaths.8 They are:

  • falls from height
  • being struck by an object or vehicle
  • being caught in or between equipment
  • electrocution

Together, these four hazards cause more than half of all construction deaths each year. If your incident fits one of these, you’re not alone. The safety standards covering it are well documented.

Federal OSHA estimates that more than one in three construction-worker deaths comes from a fall. The Fall Protection standard has been the most-cited workplace-safety violation in the country for over a decade.9 Five of OSHA’s ten most-cited standards are construction rules. Those include ladders, fall-protection training, scaffolding, and eye and face protection.10

That citation history can support your claim. A fall on a construction site, a scaffolding accident, or a crane accident each turns on whether a safety duty was ignored.

How WGK Builds a Construction Injury Case

A construction injury claim is won on evidence. Most of that evidence starts disappearing the day after the accident. Site conditions are cleaned up, the failed equipment is returned to service, and witnesses move on to the next job.

When you bring us in early, we move quickly to lock down that proof. Here’s what we do:

  • send preservation letters so footage, equipment, and inspection records aren’t lost
  • pull the OSHA and MOSH inspection file, the contractor’s citation history, and the safety plan for that task
  • gather your medical records and wage records
  • identify every party who may share fault
  • build the demand that puts a real number on what the injury cost you

We also handle the insurance side so you don’t have to. After a construction accident, an adjuster may call before you’ve even left the hospital. They may ask for a recorded statement, suggest the accident was partly your fault, or float a quick settlement. Speak with a lawyer before giving any recorded statements to an insurance adjuster.

That first offer often looks like a lot until you add up the bills still coming. You don’t have to give a statement or accept it. We handle insurance companies for you on both the workers’ comp and third-party sides. We negotiate from the evidence, and we file suit and go to trial when the offer doesn’t match the harm.

Who You Can Hold Accountable Besides Your Employer

You usually can’t sue your direct employer for a Maryland construction injury. Workers’ comp is the only remedy against them. But you can often pursue a separate party who helped cause the harm. That short list of defendants is the heart of the lawsuit path most workers never hear about.

A common defendant is the maker of a defective tool, vehicle, or machine. Claims about unsafe equipment are filed against the manufacturer, not your boss. Other possible defendants include:

  • a subcontractor whose worker hurt you
  • a property owner who knew about a hazard
  • an engineer whose design failed
  • a driver who entered the work zone

Be careful with the general contractor. Under Maryland’s statutory-employer doctrine, a general contractor that pays for a subcontractor’s workers’ comp coverage is often treated like your employer. That shields it from a lawsuit.11

The lawsuit may still work against a general contractor with no coverage relationship, against equipment makers, and against outside drivers. Some websites tell injured workers to "sue the general contractor" without explaining this limit. Sorting out who is actually open to suit is one of the first things we do on your case.

What an OSHA or MOSH Citation Really Proves

Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH) enforces workplace-safety standards for almost all Maryland employers. Federal OSHA delegated enforcement to MOSH in 1973, and MOSH was certified as the state plan in 1980. MOSH inspectors investigate construction sites and issue citations when standards are broken.12

A MOSH or OSHA citation is strong evidence of an unsafe condition. By itself, though, it doesn’t prove the violation caused your injury. The Key Bridge investigation shows the gap. MOSH issued a fall-protection citation to the road crew’s employer, but investigators found the violation "did not cause or contribute to the deaths" of the six workers.13

Your lawsuit still needs its own proof linking the cited failure to your harm. That’s why we treat a citation as a starting point. Then we build the causation record around it, using inspection files, the equipment itself, and your treatment history.

Two Baltimore Work-Zone Tragedies Show How This Works

Work-zone deaths are a distinct part of the construction toll. Baltimore-area tragedies in recent years make the risk concrete. Maryland highway work zones have seen fatal crashes involving vehicles speeding through gaps in barriers. State safety citations and civil suits have followed.14

Maryland State Highway Administration data show roughly a dozen people died in state work-zone crashes during the period cited here. Several more were killed in the early part of the next year.15 So this reflects a class of incident, not a one-off.

Bridge construction crews face the same risk in a different setting. When the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, road-crew workers on the span were killed. Families and prosecutors pursued the ship’s operators on a separate track from any workers’ comp benefits.13 These were public tragedies, not WGK cases, but they show that a fatal work-zone or bridge incident may also support a wrongful-death claim.

You Cannot Be Fired for Filing a Claim

You can’t legally be fired for filing a workers’ compensation claim in Maryland. Md. Code, Labor & Employment § 9-1105 bars an employer from firing or punishing a worker for filing a claim. If the firing was retaliatory, the statute creates a separate lawsuit for damages and back pay.16 This is the question construction workers ask most.

If you were let go soon after reporting an injury or filing a claim, don’t assume it was lawful. Talk to a lawyer before the timing evidence becomes harder to gather.

What Workers’ Comp Pays vs. What a Lawsuit Pays

Workers’ comp pays a fixed menu. It covers:

  • medical treatment
  • two-thirds of your average weekly wage while you can’t work, up to the state’s weekly cap
  • scheduled permanent-disability awards
  • limited vocational rehabilitation

It doesn’t pay for pain and suffering or loss of enjoyment of life.17

A third-party lawsuit can recover more. It can pay for:

  • medical bills
  • the full amount of your lost wages
  • pain and suffering
  • the limits the injury places on your daily life

When you win on the third-party side, the workers’ comp insurance company has a lien for part of what it already paid. Costs and attorney fees are split proportionally under the statute.1 For a serious injury, the net lawsuit recovery is often much larger than workers’ comp alone. That’s why the Baltimore workers’ compensation lawyer hub and the permanent disability page are worth reading alongside this one.

What to Do After a Construction Injury in Baltimore

Act before the deadlines first:

  • Tell your employer about the injury within 10 days, preferably in writing.
  • File the workers’ comp claim with the Commission within 60 days. Waiting more than 2 years bars the claim entirely.18
  • A third-party lawsuit generally has a three-year deadline. If workers’ comp has been awarded on your claim, the clock on your lawsuit doesn’t begin to run until two months after that first award; a worker who never receives an award gets no extension.1

Get medical care as soon as you can, and keep going to your appointments. Gaps in treatment can reduce the value of your claim. Save your hard hat, gloves, tools, and any photos or names of co-workers who witnessed it. Then call a lawyer before key records are lost.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sue my employer if I am hurt on a Baltimore construction site?

Generally no. Workers’ comp is the only remedy against your direct employer, so you can’t sue them in civil court for the same injury.19 You can usually sue another party who contributed. That includes a general contractor who isn’t your statutory employer, a subcontractor whose worker hurt you, an equipment maker, a property owner, or a driver who entered the work zone.1

How much is a Baltimore construction injury case worth?

There’s no single number. The value turns on the injury, your medical bills, the wages you lost, and which paths are open to you. Workers’ comp follows a fixed schedule, while a third-party lawsuit can add pain and suffering and the full value of your lost earning ability, which is often where the larger recovery comes from. The fastest way to get a real estimate is to have a lawyer review your medical records and the parties involved.

How long do I have to report a construction injury and file a claim?

Report to your employer within 10 days and file the workers’ comp claim within 60 days. A hard 2-year outer bar applies to the claim itself.18 One piece many workers miss: under § 9-902, when workers’ comp has been awarded, the clock on the injured worker’s third-party lawsuit doesn’t begin to run until two months after that first award. A worker who never receives an award gets no extension, so have a lawyer check your actual deadline instead of assuming it’s open or closed.1

What if the accident was partly my fault?

The third-party lawsuit matters a lot. Maryland follows pure contributory negligence, so even slight fault can bar recovery. For workers’ comp, it doesn’t matter at all, and the no-fault benefits are still owed. This split is why fault gets contested hard in construction cases, and why it helps to have someone documenting your side before the other side’s insurance company frames the story.

I am an undocumented construction worker. Can I still file a claim?

Yes. Maryland workers’ comp covers most workers injured on the job, regardless of immigration status, and the insurance company can’t deny benefits based on status. Third-party injury lawsuits are also generally available.20 Federal law limits some lost-wage damages, but medical and pain-and-suffering recovery generally remain.

Si habla español, llame al (410) 837-2144.

Talk to a Baltimore Construction Injury Lawyer

If you were hurt on a Baltimore construction site, the next step is a free, no-obligation call. We’ll look at both paths: the workers’ comp benefits your employer’s insurance company owes you, and any third-party lawsuit that could recover much more. There’s no upfront cost. The contingency fee on a third-party lawsuit is 33.3% before suit and 40% if a lawsuit is filed, so you owe nothing unless we recover compensation for you.

Our firm has recovered over $100 million for injured Marylanders, including numerous six- and seven-figure settlements.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is different. These figures represent aggregated data from cases handled by our firm and are provided for informational purposes only.

Call a Baltimore construction accident lawyer now at (410) 837-2144, or send us your details through our contact form and we’ll call you back.

Sources

  1. Md. Code, Labor & Employment § 9-902 (Action Against Third Party After Award or Payment of Compensation). Dual-track recovery; the two-month employer-priority window after a first award of compensation; the rule that the injured worker’s limitations period does not begin to run until two months after the first award of compensation; and the workers’ comp lien and proportional cost apportionment. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gle&section=9-902&enactments=false
  2. Construction Dive, citing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries 2024, 2024. 1,034 construction deaths in 2024 (down from 1,075 in 2023), 9.2 deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, and 389 fall/slip/trip deaths (about 38 percent). https://www.constructiondive.com/news/constructions-deaths-fatality-rate-2024-hazards/812666/
  3. Construction Dive, interview with the CPWR executive director, 2024. Quote on the 2024 fatality data. https://www.constructiondive.com/news/constructions-deaths-fatality-rate-2024-hazards/812666/
  4. OSHA outreach publications and CPWR Focus Four data center, citing U.S. BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries 2023, 2023. Fatal Four hazards caused 56 percent of construction deaths in 2023; falls about 39 percent (421 of 1,075). https://www.cpwr.com/research/data-center/the-construction-chart-book/interactive-7th/injuries-illnesses-health/focus-four/
  5. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary 2024, 2024. Hispanic or Latino fatal-injury rate of 4.3 per 100,000 (about 30 percent above the national 3.3); foreign-born Hispanic or Latino workers were 68.5 percent (842 of 1,229) of foreign-born worker fatalities. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm
  6. Maryland Department of Labor, MOSH Research and Statistics 2023, 2023. 15 fatal construction and extraction injuries in Maryland in 2023 (up from 11 in 2022), second-highest occupational group; 69 total fatal Maryland work injuries with the event-type breakdown. https://www.labor.maryland.gov/labor/research/research2023.shtml
  7. citybiz, citing federal employment data, 2024. Construction accounts for about 7.0 percent of Baltimore-area jobs, above the U.S. average of roughly 6.1 percent. https://www.citybiz.co/article/727207/construction-industry-employs-7-0-of-baltimore-workers-above-u-s-average/
  8. Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH) Focus Four Campaign, 2026. Definition of the Focus Four / Fatal Four construction hazards. https://www.labor.maryland.gov/labor/mosh/moshfocusfour.shtml
  9. U.S. Department of Labor OSHA, Top 10 Most Cited Standards, 2026. More than one in three construction deaths from falls; Fall Protection (29 CFR 1926.501) the most-cited standard for more than a decade. https://www.osha.gov/top10citedstandards
  10. Federal OSHA, Commonly Used Statistics, 2026. Top-ten most-cited standards, including Ladders, Fall Protection Training, Scaffolding, and Eye and Face Protection. https://www.osha.gov/data/commonstats
  11. Md. Code, Labor & Employment § 9-508 (Maryland statutory-employer doctrine). A general contractor responsible for a subcontractor’s workers’ comp coverage is treated as the statutory employer and shares exclusive-remedy immunity. https://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/labor-and-employment/title-9/subtitle-5/section-9-508/
  12. Federal OSHA, Maryland State Plan, 2026. MOSH enforcement delegated 1973, certified as the state plan 1980, covering almost all Maryland private and public employers. https://www.osha.gov/stateplans/md
  13. Baltimore Sun, February 2025. MOSH cited Brawner Builders with a fall-protection penalty after the Key Bridge collapse and found the violation "did not cause or contribute to the deaths" of the six workers. https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/02/08/maryland-probe-of-key-bridge-collapse-leads-to-safety-violation-for-construction-firm/ Free corroborating report: Patch (Baltimore), February 2025. https://patch.com/maryland/baltimore/construction-firm-cited-after-6-workers-killed-key-bridge-collapse
  14. Maryland Matters (October 2023); CBS Baltimore; WTOP, 2023. March 2023 I-695 work-zone crash near Woodlawn killed six highway workers; MOSH cited the State Highway Administration with a serious violation carrying no monetary penalty; worker families filed civil suits. https://marylandmatters.org/2023/10/18/maryland-highway-agency-cited-for-serious-violation-connected-to-crash-that-killed-6-highway-workers/
  15. Construction Dive, citing Maryland State Highway Administration, 2024. 12 people died in Maryland work-zone crashes in 2023, with eight more killed through the early part of 2024. https://www.constructiondive.com/news/baltimore-crash-family-sues-contractor/729924/
  16. Md. Code, Labor & Employment § 9-1105 (Retaliatory discharge). An employer may not fire or discriminate against an employee for filing a workers’ comp claim; the statute creates a civil action for damages and back pay. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gle&section=9-1105
  17. Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission, 2026 Compensation Rates, 2026. 2026 Temporary Total Disability rate is two-thirds of the average weekly wage, capped at the state average weekly wage. https://www.wcc.state.md.us/adjud_claims/comp_rates.html
  18. Md. Code, Labor & Employment §§ 9-704, 9-709 (employer notice and claim filing); Md. Code, Courts & Judicial Proceedings § 5-101 (three-year personal injury limitations), 2025. 10-day employer-notice guidance, 60-day claim-filing and 2-year bar, and the general three-year tort deadline. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gle&section=9-709
  19. Md. Code, Labor & Employment § 9-509 (2026). Exclusivity of workers’ compensation: the compensation provided under the title to a covered employee is exclusive as against the employer, which bars a separate civil suit against the direct employer for the same injury. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gle&section=9-509&enactments=false
  20. Md. Code, Labor & Employment § 9-502 (Covered employee), 2025. Maryland workers’ compensation defines a covered employee broadly by work performed, not by immigration status, so most workers hurt on the job are covered; the separate third-party negligence remedy under § 9-902 remains available. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gle&section=9-502