New York Elevator Accident Lawyer

The defendant's first argument in every New York fall case is "we didn't know." Beating it takes one of three showings:

• The owner created the condition — an employee mopped and left no sign, a display was stacked to fall.
• Actual notice — a complaint logged, a work order opened, a prior incident at the same spot.
• Constructive notice — the hazard existed long enough that reasonable inspection would have found it. Dirty, tracked-through liquid tells a time story; so do inspection logs with convenient gaps.

The evidence that proves notice is the evidence that disappears fastest: surveillance footage (often overwritten within days), sweep logs, incident reports. A preservation letter in the first week routinely decides these cases. Photographs of the exact condition — the liquid, the broken step, the missing handrail, with something for scale — taken before the store cleans it up are worth more than any witness.

• NYC sidewalk law (Admin Code §7-210) — within New York City, the owner of property abutting a sidewalk, not the City, is generally liable for defects, with an exception for owner-occupied one-to-three-family homes. Identifying the right defendant is half the case.
• Storm in progress — owners get a reasonable window after snow or rain ends before liability attaches for weather conditions; climate records and timestamps become evidence.
• Municipal defendants — a fall in a public school, housing authority building, park, or government office triggers the GML §50-e notice of claim: 90 days, not three years. This is the deadline that silently kills otherwise valid cases.
• Inadequate security — landlords and commercial owners owe minimal security precautions against foreseeable criminal acts; prior crime at the property is the foreseeability evidence.

The ordinary statute of limitations is 3 years (CPLR §214), with suit filed in the New York State Supreme Court for the county where the accident occurred for the county where the accident occurred accidents — but treat 90 days as the working deadline until the defendant's identity is confirmed private.