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

A print advertisement placed by Allstate in newspapers takes information from The Allstate Foundation Report on Teen Driving, 2005, and puts it ina form called "Parent-Teen Driving Contract". The contract lists several topics with corresponding statistics from the Report. For each topic, there is a blank space for "Agreement" to be filled in, and another blank space for "Consequences" to be filled in. At the bottom of the contract is a space for the Teen Driver's signature, and another for the Parent/Guardian signature. An interactive contract can be downloaded from the Internet. The topics and their corresponding statistics include the following: Speeding and Tickets - In 2005, speed-related crashes accounted for 44% of fatalities among 15-20 year olds; Crashes - Sixteen-year-old drivers have crash rates that are three times greater than 17-year old drivers and five times greater than 18-year old drivers;

"In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade" - Paul Simon, 1968. In Gamache v. State Of New York, 106968, decided 11/26/08, Joey Gamache, a professional boxer, alleged that the State Athletic Commission ("Athletic Commission") improperly conducted the weigh-in for a professional boxing match which permitted his opponent to be 19 pounds more than the agreed upon maximum, and then allowed the match to occur while his opponent wore 8 ounce boxing gloves instead of the proper 10 ounce gloves, resulting in permanent injury. In what the decision states is a case of first impression, Court of Claims Judge Melvin L. Schweitzer held that based upon New York's statutory and regulatory scheme governing boxing, the New York State Athletic Commission owes a duty of care directly to licensed boxers under its jurisdiction and control to ensure compliance with statutory and regulatory mandates.

It may be hard to find a more eloquent and impassioned defense of the constitutional right of an attorney to give, and a client to receive, advice of counsel than in the decision in Vinluan v. Doyle, 60 A.D.3d 237, 873 N.Y.S.2d 72 (Appellate Division, 2nd Department, January 13, 2009). The matter granted a petition for Article 78 review brought on by a group of ten nurses and their attorney to prohibit the Suffolk County district attorney from prosecuting, and Supreme Court justice from presiding over, a criminal case against the nurses, who were indicted for the misdemeanor offenses of conspiracy in the sixth degree, endangering the welfare of a child, and endangering the welfare of a physically-disabled person. The prosecution came in the aftermath of their simultaneous resignations from positions at a Long Island nursing home. The attorney who provided these nurses with legal advice was also indicted for allegedly advising

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is alerting consumers of a recall involving 31,392 Britax Frontier child restraints that could fail to properly secure young passengers in the event of a vehicle crash. Britax is recalling these child seats because the harness straps may detach from the metal yoke on the back of the child restraint if repeatedly loosened one strap at a time. This clearly appears to have potentially fatal consequences. Motor vehicle crashes are the #1 cause of death for children and adults, age groups 1 to 34. But NHTSA officials note that it is harder for those who have not taken advantage of the NHTSA's program of signing-up to receive automatic e-mail alerts when there is a government recall of child restraint safety seats or defective tires to learn about the recall. Meanwhile, they are unintentionally exposing their children to serious risk.

Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of deaths among combat veterans during the first years after their return home. Several studies have reported an increase in post-deployment deaths among military personnel who served in a combat zone compared to their non-deployed counterparts, who are in the military but not deployed to a war, after both the Vietnam War and the 1991 Gulf War. Preliminary evidence also indicates this is the case with veterans from the Global War on Terror. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Department of Defense (DOD) are working together to reduce these accidents.

Matter of Eli H. v. Barbara H., nn-01297-08, decided on November 28, 2008 by Judge Barbara R. Potter of St. Lawrence County Family Court, required the court  to balance the religious beliefs of "loving, caring parents" of an infant born on April 1, 2007 with life-threatening congenital heart defects with the court's duty as "parens patriae" to ensure the infant's health and safety.  The heart defects were initially treated by the surgical insertion of a shunt between his aorta and his pulmonary artery to increase the blood flow to his lungs. Due to the infant's growing body, the shunt became too small, requiring that it be replaced and that the hole in his heart that he was born with be repaired in order to prevent him from dying early in childhood.  The infant's parents refused to consent to the surgery.  Thus petitions were filed by the St. Lawrence County Department of Social Services alleging that the infant is a neglected

On January 5, 2009, the master rigger involved in the 200-ft-high tower crane that collapsed at a Midtown high-rise site March 15, 2008, killing six workers and a civilian, was indicted on multiple charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault and reckless endangerment. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau also said William Rapetti and his firm Rapetti Rigging Services Inc., Massapequa Park, N.Y., failed to file tax returns for 2006 and 2007. The following day, another contractor official at the troubled Deutsche Bank asbestos-abatement and demolition site near Ground Zero was indicted in connection with a 2007 fire at the Deutsche Bank Building that trapped and killed two city firefighters.

Vehicle owners across the nation can be instantly informed of a safety recall under a new automated alert system announced today by U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters. The recall alerts can be received via e-mail or RSS-feeds on personal computers, cell phones or PDA devices-automatically and free-of-charge. This ability by the consumer to be directly contacted in the case of a recall is similar to the systems set-up for recalls of car tires and child safety seats.

It is indisputable that cerebral concussions are commonly sustained by football players, professional or amateur. As time has gone by, concussions have gone from being considered relatively minor injuries to becoming a cause of deep concern forlong-term cognitive problems that often result therefrom. An interesting article in The New York Times last week by Alan Schwartz about the recent concussion sustained by Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and the expertise of concussion management at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center pointed out some apparently significant differences between how concussions are dealt with in the National Football League as compared to elsewhere, particularly in the willingness to allow players suspected of having sustained a concussion to return to the game in which they were injured. Whether this will eventually result in the imposition of civil liability in a future lawsuit brought by a player is an interesting question.

On the Friday following Thanksgiving last year a pre-dawn mob of approximately 2,000 shoppers broke down the doors to a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, New York, and rushed past and trampled to death Jdimytai Damour, a 6-foot-5, 270-pound Wal-Mart worker who was stationed near the entrance to assist with crowd control. At least four other people were hurt. This past Wednesday, Nassau County police released recommendations for better crowd control in such circumstances, two weeks after meeting with 75 Long Island retailers about how to stage major sales events safely.