LI groups join coalition to challenge Scaffold Law, which critics say drive up costs and sparked a wave of staged accidents

Four Long Island advocacy groups are among nearly 50 organizations statewide who have joined forces to challenge a 140-year-old law that exists only in New York State and holds property owners and contractors responsible for all construction site falls, even in cases of worker negligence.

Members of the group, Build More New York, argue the Scaffold Law has boosted the costs of construction projects, driven insurers out of the market and led to an epidemic of staged accidents and fraudulent lawsuits perpetrated, in part, by a network of unscrupulous law firms and medical professionals.

Unions and other Scaffold Law supporters, however, contend the law — which generally exempts projects involving one- or two-family homes — protects low-wage workers on some of the most dangerous job si