The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) had its annual meeting in New York City this week. For the past number of years the meeting has featured a Presidential Summit at which the Bar President chooses hot topics of the day for a distinguished panel to discuss. This year’s topics were wrongful convictions and attorneys’ use of social media, which centered mostly upon issues of privacy and the internet. I was fortunate this year to be able to attend the Presidential Summit for the first time, and it was well worth the time (I shouldn’t say it was well worth the price of admission because attendance was complimentary to meeting registrants). (more…)

The stories are wrenching. A distracted driver on a cell phone runs a red light t-boning another vehicle where the driver’s son sits; fails to see a child on a bicycle there to be seen; a truck slamming into the rear of a stopped school bus. Years ago groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) successfully changed attitudes towards drunk driving by bringing to life the horrors experienced by real-life victims and families. Based upon that model, two weeks ago the creation of FocusDriven, the first national nonprofit organization devoted specifically to raising awareness about the dangers of distracted driving, was announced by the U.S. Department of Transportation. (more…)

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common, important and well-documented mental health outcome among seriously injured civilian and military survivors of trauma such as those injured in car accidents, construction site accidents, or by electrocution.  One risk factor for the later development of PTSD is physical injury from a traumatic event especially injury that is associated with severe pain. A study published in this month’s New England Journal of Medicine found that giving morphine to troops injured in fighting in Iraq lowered their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder by half. These findings suggest a potential for prophylactic use of rapid pain reduction among injured, traumatized persons in both military and civilian acute care (emergency room) settings. (more…)

This afternoon the Jets face the San Diego Chargers for the chance to play the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game.  The Jets and their fans go into the game brimming with confidence and excitement.  But in a complaint filed Friday by the U.S. Attorney in Boston, prosecutors alleged that health care giant Johnson & Johnson paid tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks so nursing homes would improperly medicate more patients on Risperdal, a powerful schizophrenia medicine, and other drugs – prescription pain relievers Duragesic and Ultram, and the antibiotic Levaquin.  Although approved for treating schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder, Risperdal is not approved for use in elderly patients with dementia but is, nonetheless, administered to just such patients. Also on Friday, Johnson & Johnson issued a massive recall of over-the-counter drugs including regular and extra-strength Tylenol, children’s Tylenol, eight-hour Tylenol, Tylenol arthritis, Tylenol PM, children’s Motrin, Motrin IB, Benadryl Rolaids, Simply Sleep, and St. Joseph’s aspirin because of a moldy smell that has made people sick. (more…)

Characters in children’s movies are increasingly using seat belts, bike helmets and crosswalks, but there is still much room for improvement, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found. Approximately one half of scenes still depict unsafe practices, and the consequences of these behaviors are rarely shown. The report says the entertainment industry should continue to improve how it depicts safety practices in children’s movies, and parents should highlight the depiction of unsafe behaviors and educate children in following safe practices. (more…)

One of my favorite court decisions of 2009 was the Appellate Division, Second Department decision in Vinluan v. Doyle, 60 A.D.3d 237, 873 N.Y.S.2d 72. This is so because of the eloquent and impassioned defense of the constitutional right of an attorney to give, and a client to receive, advice of counsel. The case involved the simultaneous resignation of ten nurses from positions at a Smithtown, Long Island nursing home, Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, over pay and other working conditions, including being required to work as clerks for about $12 per hour and being housed in a single-family staff house with only one bathroom, inadequate heat, and no telephone service. The nurses 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. (Among the patients at Avalon Gardens are chronically ill children who need the assistance of ventilators to breathe.) Felix Vinluan, the attorney who provided these nurses with legal advice, was also indicted for allegedly advising them to commit a crime. (more…)

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign yesterday released a report identifying the tri-state region’s most dangerous roads for pedestrians. Topping the list is Hempstead Turnpike in Nassau County. Between 2006 and 2008, 13 pedestrians were killed along the 16-mile stretch of roadway, with most of those fatalities occurring as the road passes through Elmont, Franklin Square and Hempstead.  You might want to make a comparison to the 2005-2007 statistics we wrote about previously. (more…)

At least 30 states have statutes that went into effect on New Year’s Day. One of them in New York, The Child Passenger Protection Act, will require all drunken-driving offenders to blow into a breathalyzer ignition device before they can operate their cars. An article in The New York Law Journal last week (Dec. 28) discussed how the new law will create additional responsibilities for courts sentencing those defendants, according to state officials and court administrators. For example, although most drivers will be required to pay for the devices themselves, it has not been decided who will pay for the devices for indigent defendants. It costs about $100 for initial installation of the interlock equipment and about $3 a day for the monitoring necessary to ensure the drivers are not trying to thwart the mechanism or for GPS location of vehicles where results indicate drivers may be impaired. (more…)

A New York City public school teacher has a student in her special education class that she believes poses a danger to the safety of her classroom. The student had been verbally and physically aggressive for several months. The student’s increasing behavioral problems included bringing a knife to school, which resulted in a week’s suspension. The student frequently punched, kicked and threw various items at his classmates. He also threatened to kill the teacher, another teacher, and his fellow classmates on numerous occasions.

Concerned about the student’s behavior and the classroom safety risks it presented, (more…)