Construction Accident Lawyers in Melbourne

An accident starts two legal tracks, and you need to know which one you are on

Something has gone wrong on site. Someone is hurt, or a load has come down on the neighbour’s roof, and now WorkSafe is asking questions, the insurer wants a statement and the head contractor’s lawyers are drafting letters.

Sort the tracks first. The injured person’s compensation claim runs through WorkCover, Victoria’s no-fault scheme. If that is you, report the injury to the employer within 30 days and lodge the claim form. WorkCover and serious injury damages are specialist personal injury work, and MK Law does not pretend otherwise: on a free call we will tell you if that is your claim and point you to the right firm.

Everything else the accident sets off is civil litigation. That is our work, and it usually costs the parties more than they expect if it is handled late. Call 1800 130 120 before you give the insurer a statement or answer the head contractor’s letter.

The disputes an accident leaves behind

Once the site is safe, the money questions start, and they land on whoever is slowest to get advice.

Property damage comes first. A crane drops a load over the fence, an excavation moves the neighbour’s foundations, demolition cracks the party wall. These run as negligence claims and as claims on public liability and contract works policies, and we act both for the owner whose property was hit and for contractors defending the claim.

Then there is the delay. A stop-work order wrecks the program, and whether you can pass those costs on, or are about to wear liquidated damages for them, comes down to the contract: the suspension clause, the extension of time rights, and who caused the incident in the first place. Where that argument grows into a full building dispute, the building disputes guide maps the steps from the first letter through conciliation to the tribunal.

Behind that sit the indemnity and contribution fights. Principal, head contractor and subcontractor each hold a contract saying someone else pays. The wording decides it, and courts construe indemnities strictly. Whatever is left gets split between the parties at fault according to their share of the blame.

Insurance is the last layer, and often the loudest. The insurer denies the claim, relies on an exclusion, or accepts it and then chases you for recovery. Coverage disputes are contract disputes, and they respond to pressure applied early.

Who actually pays

Liability rarely sits in one place. Workplace safety law puts duties on employers and on anyone who manages or controls the site, and a WorkSafe investigation runs on its own track. The civil bill is divided differently: by negligence, by the contract chain, and by the insurance program behind it. Getting that division right is what the fight is actually about, and it is won on documents, the same way the rest of our building dispute work is.

Sometimes the party who caused the loss was never on the tools. Where a design engineer, a building surveyor or a certifier got it wrong, the money is recovered as a professional negligence claim against them and the insurer standing behind them.

What to do this week

Keep the incident report, the site diary, the photos and the subcontract. Notify your insurer in writing, because policies punish late notice. Do not admit liability, and do not sign a statement for anyone else’s insurer without advice. Then call us on 1800 130 120. The first call is free and we will map who is exposed, who is covered and what to send, and to whom, first.

If the accident sits inside a wider fight about defective work or an unpaid contract, our contract lawyers run that side of it with us, and on a house or a renovation the surrounding claim is usually a domestic building dispute.