Personal Injury Attorneys - Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and the Bronx

Today is not a day that will live in "legal infamy." District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff dismissed the lawsuit brought on by Roy L. Pearson who sued his dry cleaners for $54 million for supposed consumer abuse for losing his suit pants and attempting to replace them with a different, cheaper pair that did not belong to him. The Court rejected Mr. Pearson's lawsuit that strictly interpreted a dry cleaner's promise of "Satisfaction Guaranteed." Mr. Pearson attempted to sue under a consumer law that imposes fines of $1,500 per violation, per day, as well as claiming damages for inconvenience, mental anguish and attorney's fees. After being sued, the Chungs, the owners of the dry cleaners, offered to settle the case for up to $12,000, but this was insufficient for Pearson who decided that this was a case that needed to be litigated. Notably, he was emotional at trial as he cried on the stand and argued in his opening statement that "Never befo

Every year, about 260 children under the age of five die from drowning in swimming pools. Drowing is the second leading cause of accidental death for children under 14, with motor vehicle accidents being the first. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that most children who drown are found after about 10 minutes of being submerged. Children usually lose consciousness after being under water for only two minutes and irreversible damage to the brain often occurs after approximately four to six minutes of being under water. There are currently no national laws governing the safety of pools. In December of 2006, New York enacted legislation requiring residential pools built or renovated on or after December 14th, 2006 to have a pool safety alarm installed. The legislation does not apply to existing pools. On April 24th, Majority Leader of the Suffolk County Legislature, Jon Cooper (D-Huntington) proposed a bill which would require all pools owners to install an alar

United States District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein (Southern District of New York) has imposed sanctions totalling $1,250,000.00 against Zurich American Insurance Company and two of its law firms for failing to timely produce documents that defeated Zurich's attempt to avoid lliability insurance obligations regarding lawsuits brought by the legal successors of many of those who died and many of those who suffered personal injuries or suffered property damage in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Judge Hellerstein imposed the sanctions pursuant to Rule 11 and Rule 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure based upon a thorough analysis of what Zurich and its lawyers knew and when they knew it. In particular, Judge Hellerstein pointed to Zurich's "culpable state of mind" in intending to delete and in fact deleting from its files the electronic version of Zurich's insurance policy that its chief underwriter for the United States had printed-out (62 pages in leng

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in its preliminary report on fatalities occurring in 2006 as a result of motor vehicle accidents, project alcohol-related traffic fatalities increased by 2.4 percent from 2005 to 2006; 17,941 for 2006 versus 17,525 for 2005. This represents the highest number of alcohol-related traffic deaths since 1992. Injuries sustained in alcohol-related traffic accidents declined 6 percent, from 2.7 million in 2005 to 2.54 million in 2006. Comparing 2005 to 2006, overall traffic fatalities are down slightly by 0.3 percent, from 43,443 in 2005 to 43,300 in 2006. The 2006 fatality rate is projected to be 1.44 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT), down from 1.45 in 2005, a drop of 0.7%. Pedestrian deaths dropped from 4,881 to 4,768 (-2.3%), but bicyclist deaths increased from 784 to 789 (0.6%). Fatalities from large truck crashes declined 3.7 percent, from 5,212 to 5,018. Motorcycle rider fatalities are proj

Car accidents are becoming more prevelant today and there is a cause of concern that at the least this is partly due to the rise in consumer use of technology while they are operating their vehicles. As a result people are sustaining serious personal injuries. For instance, on Saturday June 2nd, 2007, there was a multi-car accident on the Long Island Expressway in Commack, New York due to a driver who was distracted by his Ipod. It is apparent that there is a rise of use of cell phones and ipods while individuals are driving. In New York, drivers are required by law to use hands-free cell phones, but this requirement is apparently being increasingly disregarded. There is a concern that the use of technology while driving will impair the manner in which they drive. In order to assert that another was negligent in how they operated their vehicle, it would have to be shown that they breached their duty of care by not exercising reasonable care for a forseeable risk. It must be