Workers Hurt on the Job, Including Non-Union and Undocumented Workers
If you got hurt on the job in New York, you have rights here, no matter how you came to this country and no matter who pays you or how. I have represented undocumented and non-union workers for twenty-plus years.
Call 718-261-0546. Free consultation. Hablamos español.
What you should know first
Your status does not decide your case. New York's highest court settled this in Balbuena v. IDR Realty LLC in 2006. Undocumented workers can sue, can recover medical bills and pain and suffering, and can recover lost wages. The law has been the same for twenty years.
You can recover real money. Medical bills, future medical care, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and lost wages are all on the table. In one appellate case, a $5.5 million verdict was upheld for an undocumented roofer who fell fifty feet. The defense tried to use immigration status to wipe out the recovery and failed.
Hiring me does not put you on ICE's radar. When you hire a lawyer in New York, attorney-client privilege protects everything you tell me, including your immigration status. That privilege binds me, my paralegal, my concierge, and any translator who works on the case. I do not call ICE. I do not file anything with immigration. The case lives in state court, not immigration court.
The law in 200 words
The controlling decision is Balbuena v. IDR Realty LLC, 6 N.Y.3d 338 (2006). Two Mexican workers, both undocumented, were hurt on New York construction sites. One fell from a ramp pushing a wheelbarrow. The other fell when a scaffold collapsed. The Court of Appeals held that the federal Immigration Reform and Control Act does not preempt New York Labor Law and that an undocumented worker's status does not bar recovery for lost wages in a personal injury action.
Balbuena allows full recovery of medical bills, pain and suffering, and lost wages, with one wrinkle: if the worker tendered fraudulent work-authorization documents at hiring (a fake Social Security card, someone else's SSN), lost wages may be limited under the federal Hoffman Plastic Compounds decision. Hoffman was an NLRB back-pay case, not a personal injury case. Many lawyers conflate the two. New York courts do not.
Pain and suffering and medical damages come through in every case, fraud or no fraud.
Twenty years of appellate decisions have followed Balbuena without disturbance.
What I do differently
Bilingual concierge who comes to you. My concierge has been on my team for twenty-plus years and speaks Spanish fluently. He goes to your house, your hospital room, your job site. You do not come to my office. The first meeting can happen at your kitchen table.
I work the case personally. I am not handing you off to a paralegal who calls you twice and disappears. You get my cell phone. I take the depositions. I argue the motions. I sit at the mediation.
Contingency fee. No money up front. I get paid out of the settlement or verdict. If there is no recovery, you owe nothing. No retainer, no hourly bills, no hidden costs.
I am quiet about your status. Your immigration information sits with me and the people on my team who absolutely need it. It does not go in the complaint. It does not go to opposing counsel. I will fight to keep it out of trial, and in personal injury cases courts almost always agree.
Common cases I see
- Construction falls and falling-object injuries. Scaffold collapses, ladder kicks, unsecured material falling on a worker. New York Labor Law §240 imposes absolute liability on owners and general contractors for gravity-related injuries, regardless of union status or paperwork. See /practice-areas/construction-accidents-labor-law-240.
- Restaurant and kitchen burns and lacerations. Hot-oil splashes, knife slips, slips on greasy floors, lifting injuries from heavy stockpots and produce crates.
- Warehouse and forklift injuries. Forklift strikes, pallet-rack collapses, lifting injuries, repetitive-motion damage that becomes a workers' comp claim plus a third-party case against the equipment manufacturer or property owner.
- Delivery and courier crashes. App-based deliveristas hit while on bike or scooter, struck by a driver running a light, doored on a Manhattan or Queens block. The Green Light Law (2019) lets undocumented New Yorkers license, register, and insure vehicles, which closes a lot of the old "no insurance" defense games.
- Building maintenance falls. Janitors and porters falling on wet floors, off ladders, or down unprotected stairwells; building owners and management companies are the defendants.
Can undocumented immigrants sue for personal injury in New York?
Yes. The New York Court of Appeals settled this in Balbuena v. IDR Realty LLC, 6 N.Y.3d 338 (2006). Undocumented immigrants can bring personal injury claims in New York and recover full damages: medical bills, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and lost wages. The federal Immigration Reform and Control Act does not preempt New York tort law. Hoffman Plastic Compounds v. NLRB (2002) was a federal labor-board back-pay case, not a personal injury case, and does not bar recovery in a New York PI action. The Balbuena line has been followed by every Appellate Division department for two decades. Hernandez v. 151 Sullivan Tenant Corp. (2006) upheld a $5.5 million verdict for an undocumented roofer, including $5.5 million in pain-and-suffering damages.
Will my immigration status be disclosed?
In a New York personal injury case, your immigration status is not put in the complaint and is not disclosed to opposing counsel without a fight. Attorney-client privilege under CPLR §4503 binds your lawyer and every member of the lawyer's staff, including paralegals and translators. New York courts have ruled that immigration status is not relevant to liability and routinely keep it out of trial when the plaintiff's lawyer asks. The exception is the narrow lost-wages question under Balbuena: if the defense puts lost wages in dispute, status may come up only on that issue. Most depositions today are by video, which lowers in-person exposure further. The Protect Our Courts Act (NY Civil Rights Law §28-a) bars ICE civil arrests at New York state courthouses absent a judicial warrant.
Can I recover lost wages if I worked off the books?
Yes, in most cases. Balbuena allows lost-wage recovery for undocumented workers as long as the worker did not tender fraudulent work-authorization documents at hiring. A worker paid in cash who never filled out a Form I-9 has not tendered false documents and the wages are recoverable. Proof of cash earnings comes from bank deposit patterns, Western Union and MoneyGram transfer records, IRS Form 1040 returns filed under an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), informal pay stubs, text messages with the employer, and testimony from coworkers and family. ITIN tax returns are the strongest piece of evidence: they convert off-the-books work into a paper record that a jury accepts. If you have been filing taxes under an ITIN, save those returns and bring them to the consultation.
What is workers' compensation and do I qualify?
Workers' compensation is a no-fault insurance system. Your employer's carrier pays for medical care related to a work injury and pays a portion of your lost wages, regardless of who caused the accident. In New York, workers' compensation is available regardless of immigration status. The Workers' Compensation Board does not require a Social Security number to file a claim. Comp does not let you sue your employer, but it also does not block a separate personal injury lawsuit against a third party (the property owner, the general contractor, an equipment manufacturer, the driver who hit you). On a serious construction injury, comp pays the immediate bills and the third-party Labor Law claim usually pays the rest, including pain and suffering and full lost earnings. The two systems run in parallel.
Frequently asked questions
Will hiring you trigger ICE notification?
No. I do not contact ICE, file anything with immigration authorities, or share your status with any government agency. Attorney-client privilege protects everything you tell me. Filing a personal injury case is a state-court civil matter and is not reported to immigration enforcement.
What if I used a fake Social Security number to get the job?
You can still recover for medical bills and pain and suffering. Lost wages are more complicated under the Hoffman/Balbuena framework. Tell me everything at the first meeting. I have handled this fact pattern before and there are ways to structure the case that protect the largest categories of damages.
How much does it cost to hire you?
Nothing up front. I work on contingency: my fee comes out of the settlement or verdict. If there is no recovery, you pay no fee. Case expenses (medical records, expert reports, filing fees) are advanced by my office and reimbursed at the end of the case.
Do you speak Spanish?
I speak working Spanish. My concierge is fluent and has been on my team for over twenty years. Most client conversations in Spanish go through him; he sits with the client, takes the statement, and translates for the file. The first home visit and most follow-ups can run entirely in Spanish.
Will I have to go to court?
Probably not. Most personal injury cases settle before trial. Depositions are mostly by video now. If your case does go to trial, the Protect Our Courts Act limits ICE access to New York state courthouses, and we plan exposure carefully.
Talk to me
Call: 718-261-0546 Text: 718-261-0546 (often the easiest way to reach me) Office: 102-11 Metropolitan Ave, Forest Hills, NY 11375 Email: nicholas@nroselaw.com
Or use the contact form. I will call you back personally during business hours. Hablamos español: pregunte por el investigador.
Su estatus no me importa. Su lesión sí.
Nick
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case is different. Consult a licensed New York attorney about your specific situation. Law Offices of Nicholas Rose, PLLC | 102-11 Metropolitan Ave, Forest Hills, NY 11375 | 718-261-0546.
Common questions.
Yes. Under Balbuena v. IDR Realty Corp., 6 N.Y.3d 338 (2006), undocumented workers have the same rights to bring personal injury and Labor Law claims as documented workers, including lost-earnings damages calculated at U.S. wage rates. Immigration status is not a defense to a New York tort case.
Generally no. The Protect Our Courts Act (CPLR §3132-a) shields civil-court parties and witnesses from civil immigration arrest during court business, and New York courts routinely deny defense discovery requests for immigration-status information when it is not relevant to the case. We have represented undocumented clients without status ever coming up at deposition or trial.
Yes, but the case needs to document earnings. We use a combination of pay stubs (if any), bank deposit records, tax filings (Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers count), W-2s from earlier employment, and sometimes a vocational economist to project lost earnings based on hours-worked testimony and prevailing wage rates for the trade.
That is potentially actionable retaliation. New York Labor Law §215 prohibits employer retaliation for asserting rights, including filing tort claims. The federal NLRB and other agencies have remedies. Tell us immediately and we document the threat. The threat itself can sometimes strengthen the underlying case.
Yes. The firm communicates fully in English and Spanish. Our concierge with 20-plus years on the firm is bilingual and meets clients in person at home, at work, or wherever they prefer rather than requiring office visits. Initial consultation is free, in Spanish, on your schedule.
Free consultation. No fee unless we win.
Call 718-261-0546 or use the form. I answer my own phone during business hours, and the answering service patches urgent calls through after hours.
Twenty-two years on these cases. Boutique New York City practice with a real team behind it. Bilingual concierge on staff. Hablamos español. Arabic spoken on request.