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

Health officials in New York City earlier this year linked three cases of hepatitis C to an anesthesiologist who administered intravenous pain medication. Although they are still investigating the exact cause, officials are notifying 4,500 patients who received treatment from the doctor from December 2003 to May 2007 that they should get tested for the disease, according to a report in The New York Times (11/17/07). The officials would not name the doctor. This report comes on the heels of last week's disclosure that the New York Department of Health (DOH) has known for three years that Dr. Harvey Finkelstein had reused syringes in violation of proper infection control procedures, but just recently sent letters to 628 of his patients that they were at risk for transmittal of hepatitis B and C and HIV and should be tested. Free testing is available from the Nassau County Health Department. Health offi

On September 27, 2007, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning about the risk of potentially fatal overdoses with Fentora, a narcotic painkiller manufactured by Cephalon. The action came less than two weeks after the company sent a letter to doctors notifying them of three drug-related deaths. Cephalon has just recently agreed to settle the U.S. Justice Department investigation of its allegedly illegal off-label marketing of Fentora (fentanyl buccal) and Actiq outside the indications on their labels. Cephalon denied it marketed the drugs improperly and claims the problems are a result of improper prescribing. In settling, they have agreed to pay $425 million, plead guilty to a misdemeanor violation of the U.S. Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; and will enter into a corporate-integrity agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services. Doctors are free to prescribe FDA-approved medications as th

Earlier this week, 628 people were sent letters by the New York State Health Department urging them to get tested for hepatitis B and C and HIV, all blood borne diseases, because they had received epidural injections from Dr. Harvey Finkelstein, whoused re-used syringes, from January 1, 2000 to January 15, 2005. Even though the victims would have had no way of knowing that they had been exposed to the diseases until now, it may be too late for them to sue the doctor. This is because under New York law, the time period to bring suit (2 1/2 years) begins to run from the date of the malpractice, not the date the malpractice was or should have been discovered by the victim. The lack of a "discovery rule" in New York for medical or dental malpractice often results in a victim of malpractice not learning that he has a perfectly valid case until it is too late for him or her to seek damages in court. A common scenario where such an unfair result occurs is where a woman's ma

The government's use of investigators or informants posing as underage victims to ensnare sexual predators has been upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in United States v. Gagliardi, 064541-cr, ruling that 18 U.S.C. 2422(b) is not unconstitutionally vague and does not require that the victim be an actual minor. The United States Supreme Court is also considering a constitutional challenge to a federal statute by an individual who used an Internet chat room for an unsavory purpose; exchanging child pornography. United States v. Williams, No. 06-6944, argued October 30, 2007. In United States v. Gagliardi, the Second Circuit rejected an argument the court said 'would effectively remove the 'sting' from the government's sting operations,' and 'significantly impede' enforcement of a law against enticing minors to engage in illegal sexual activity. Section 2422(b) of Title 18 imposes criminal liability on anyone who

It has become commonplace for attorneys and others sending faxes and e-mails to include at the end of such communications standard language stating that the contents thereof are confidential and priviledged. Such standard language should provide no comfort, however, for senders and receivers of e-mails that use an employer's server. A decision by Hon. Charles E. Ramos of the Supreme Court, New York County, holds that a pro forma notice at the end of an e-mail message did not inure the attorney-client priviledge to the e-mail when an employer's e-mail server is used. The Court was particularly persuaded by the fact that the employer had promulgated a Human Resources Policy and Procedure Manual that included policies requiring that its electronic mail system (as well as the Internet and other technology systems)be used for business purposes only, that employees using the e-mail system had no personal privacy right in any material using the e-mail system, and that the

An interesting discussion contrasting the technology, data storage characteristics and the discovery process of e-mails with instant messages (IM) appears in an article by attorneys Michael B. de Leeuw and Eric A. Hirsch in the "E-Discovery" special section of the November 5, 2007 New York Law Journal. IM is quickly becoming the medium of choice for informal communication in the workplace, offering far greater efficiency, speed and immediacy than e-mail. The article points out that although IM typically are stored locally in individual hard drives rather than in servers, some users of IM have found themselves in trouble because they did not realize that sometimes a log tracking their messages may be in use. As seen in <u>Scott v, Beth Israel Medical Center Inc.</u>, discussed above, employees may want to be particularly wary when using company-sponsored instant messaging program, as opposed to IM programs from America Online, MSN, Yahoo and the like. The l

The German pharmaceutical company, Bayer AG, announced that it will withdraw Trasylol, its controversial drug used for heart surgery, from the market. The withdrawal was due in part to a study performed in Canada which suggested that Trasylol increased rates of death. The New England Journal of Medicine published the results of a study it conducted finding that Trasylol increased the risks of stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, and death. The research concluded that stopping the use of Trasylol would result in the prevention of 10,000 to 11,000 cases of kidney failure per year along with the savings of over $1 billion dollars per year in the cost of dialysis. Bayer AG received pressure from the Food and Drug Administration to pull Trasylol from the market. According to Dr. John K. Jenkins, one of the F.D.A's leading officials, the F.D.A. was not able to identify a specific population of patients where Traysol's use would result in benefits outweighing its risks

State utilities regulators hit the Consolidated Edison of New York, Inc. with an $18 million penalty yesterday for its service disruptions last year, the largest the state Public Service Commission has imposed against Con Ed. The blackouts included a nine-day blackout in western Queens effecting Astoria and Long Island City that left about 174,000 people without power for as long as nine days in July 2006, and other power failures in Westchester County. The $18 million penalty is not intended to compensate customers for their losses during power failures. Instead, it will be spread to all customers in the system. It amounts to about $6 for each of Con Ed's 3.1 million customers, including big corporations, and just 1.5 percent of the $1.2 billion in rate increases the company is seeking. In early September, the commission's staff recommended that the rate increase, which would take effect in April, be limited to $618 million. The maximum penalty the commission

Aqua Dots, a/k/a Aqua Beads, a Chinese-made toy, was recalled Wednesday, November 7, 2007, by the Consumer Product Safety Commission after two children in the United States and three in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing the beads. Aqua Dots are packets of brightly colored beads that children arrange into mosaic designs. When sprinkled with water, the beads then stick together in as little as 10 minutes to form durable artworks.. The toy was pulled from shelves after scientists found they contain a chemical that converts into a dangerous, potentially fataldrug when eaten. The chemical coating on the beads, when ingested, metabolizes into the so-called date rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate (GHB). The United States places GHB in he same category as heroin. When eaten, the compound - made from common and easily available ingredients - can induce unconsciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death.The AP's calculation is conservative, because the companies were required to disclose payments within a $25,000 range, and the AP used the low end in its calculation. Prosecutors alleged that from at least 2002 through 2006, the companies paid exorbitant amounts for doctors to be consultants and to use their products exclusively. The money includes such items as royalties for inventions and payments for teaching classes. They did not allege that all the money was i