$895,000 Electric Saw Injury Settlement in Brooklyn

The safety guard had been removed from the electric saw weeks before the accident. The employer knew. Workers complained. And a Brooklyn laborer's hand paid the price.

Electric Saw Injury at a Brooklyn Job Site

Our client was cutting material with a table-mounted electric saw that should have been equipped with a blade guard — a standard safety device designed to prevent exactly the kind of injury that occurred. The guard had been removed weeks earlier because it was "slowing down production," according to coworker testimony. Without the guard, when the material caught and the blade kicked back, nothing stood between the spinning blade and our client's dominant hand.

The laceration severed two extensor tendons, fractured the third and fourth metacarpals, and caused permanent nerve damage that eliminated grip strength in the affected hand. Our client, a manual laborer who depended on his hands for his livelihood, faced immediate surgery and a career-ending diagnosis.

Proving the Employer Chose Production Over Safety in Brooklyn

The defense argued that our client should have refused to use the saw without its guard. Our attorneys countered with testimony from three coworkers who confirmed the guard had been removed on the supervisor's orders, that multiple workers had complained, and that the supervisor's response was to tell them to "be careful." We also obtained OSHA records showing the company had been cited for similar equipment safety violations at another job site within the prior two years.

"Removing a blade guard to speed up production is one of the most reckless decisions an employer can make. Our client lost the use of his dominant hand because a supervisor decided a safety device was inconvenient. The OSHA history made this pattern of negligence impossible to defend." — Steven Gershowitz, Attorney

$895,000 Settlement for a Brooklyn Saw Injury

The $895,000 settlement compensates our client for emergency hand surgery, tendon repair, nerve damage treatment, permanent loss of grip strength, vocational retraining costs, and lost earning capacity in his former trade. It also holds the employer accountable for a pattern of prioritizing speed over worker safety.

If you were injured by defective or unguarded equipment at a job site, our workplace injury lawyers have extensive experience with employer negligence and hand injury claims, and are ready to review your claim.