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

As an attorney representing people injured in accidents, I have been told by adversaries who regularly represent building owners, general contractors and subcontractors that when they are walking on a sidewalk and are approaching a sidewalk bridge (commonly referred to as scaffolding), they always cross to the other side of the street in order to avoid walking under the sidewalk bridge. They are too familiar with what can and do go wrong. This past Wednesday afternoon, October 17, 2007, provided a vivid example of why these attorneys feel the way they do. That afternoon, a bathtub-size steel bucket toppled from the roof of a skyscraper under construction in Midtown, banging along the side of the building, breaking windows, and trailing a shower of glass and metal as it crashed through the plywood roof of a sidewalk shed behind scaffolding 53 stories below. Eight people were injured. The accident was the fourth time since January 1, 2006, that debris has fallen from

The nation's largest maker of implanted heart devices, Medtronic, said yesterday that it was voluntarily urging doctors to stop using a family of leads known as the Sprint Fidelis, a crucial component in its most recent implantable defibrillator models, because the leads break too often. Medtronic told doctors to stop using the Sprint Fidelis wires after linking five deaths to breaks in them. The company said the Fidelis wires failed slightly more often than the thicker wires they were meant to replace. A lead is a wire that connects the heart to a defibrillator, a device implanted near the shoulder that shocks faltering hearts back into normal rhythm. An estimated 235,000 patients are thought to have Fidelis leads, and the company estimates that 4,000 to 5,000 patients - or about 2.3 percent - will experience fractures in the leads that can make the device misread heart-rhythm data. Such a malfunction can cause the device to either deliver an unnecessary elect

While many might assume that concussions are a "boy thing", studies are showing that girls are more susceptible to suffering a concussion. For instance, in high school soccer, girls sustained a concussion 68 percent more often then boys, while in basketball, girls are practically three times more likely to sustain a concussion. Due to the erroneous notion that a concussion is a problem that primarily plagues males, looking for and diagnosing concussions in women are not reasonably and diligently pursued. Some symptoms of a concussion include blurred vision, dizziness, nausea and disorientation. However, often the diagnosis of a concussion is not made and this results in more serious long term health problems and injuries. There are often lingering symptoms such as headaches, dizziness and sensitivity to noise and light. Repeat concussions, even when mild, often increase the risk

The Appellate Division, Second Department of the New York State Supreme Court has ruled that an unmarried woman who underwent an abortion can recover punitive damages from the medical clinic where theprocedure was performed for the clinic's wrongful disclosure to her mother of private information from which the girl's mother was able to deduce that the girl had undergone a abortion. The case is J. v. Long Island Surgi-Center, decided on September 25, 2007. The appellate court was reviewing a jury verdict awarding the plaintiff $65,000.00 in compensatory damages for emotional distress and $300,000.00 in punitive damages. The plaintiff in the case, according to the court's decision,is an unmarried woman who lived with her parents who strongly disapproved of premarital sex and were implacably opposed to abortion. Because the woman, then 20-years old,was determinedto keep her decision to have an abortion from her parents, she specifically instructed the cl

Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. and Consolidated Edson, Inc. have filed an application in New York State Supreme Court, New York County, requesting that the Justices of the Litigation Coordinating Panelaccept this matter for the scheduling and completion of pre-trial matters in New York County regarding all lawsuits thus far filed and those to be filed regarding the steam pipe explosion of July 18, 2007. As part of its motion Con Ed is requesting that the court issue an interim stay of all such actions. According to Con Ed, sixteen (16) cases have been filed to recover for personal injuries, property damage and/or loss of business income. Thirteen (13) cases have been filed in New York County (Manhattan) and the other three (3) cases have been filed in King

Earlier this month as the school year was beginning, we wrote a blog about safety tips for pedestrians. One of the points made was that it should not be assumed that obeying "Walk/Don't Walk" lights decreases your risk of getting hit because studies show that standard pedestrian signals have no effect on pedestrian-motor vehicle accident rates compared with nonsignalized intersections. Recent travel to Toronto, Canada revealed an interesting and apparently effective way to make crossing streets less risky. In Toronto, situated next to the "Walk/Don't Walk" signal is a lighted signal that counts down the seconds left before the light is going to change colors. This enables the pedestrian to gauge whether he or she has sufficient time to cross safely. It should be borne in mind that under New York law, a pedestrian who has begun to cross a street with the right-of-way has the right to complete crossing the street, and motorists

The Office New York State Attorney General ("OAG") Andrew Cuomo subpoenaed Facebook for documents related to Facebook's safety and security representations and complaint resolution mechanisms. The OAG stated that it is concerned that Facebook's public statements and advertising may be materially misleading and may constitute violations of General Business Law 349 and 350 and Executive Law 63(12). According to the OAG's letter to Facebook, the OAG, after a preliminary review of Facebook.com, has uncovered evidence demonstrating that (1) underage users are targeted by sexual predators on Facebook, (2) there is widespread pornographic and obscene content of Facebook, and (3) Facebook's response to user and parental complaints is slow, sporadic and inconsistent. The OAG is especially concerned these problems are not being adequately addressed and will worsen over time. Cuomo pointed out that prior to September 2005, Facebook justifiably promoted the exclusivi

Concerns have surfacedthat Chantix, the stop-smoking drug manufactured by Pfizer,may have led tomusician Carter Albrecht's bizarre and tragic death on September 5, 2007.That rare psychotic and suicidal behavior are possible side effects of Chantix is mentioned in extreme fine print of the original box insert. However, large-print, pharmacy handouts given to users of the drug warning of nausea, changes in dreaming, constipation, gas, and vomiting with the use of Chantix do not mention rare psychotic and suicidal behavior. Albrecht was keyboard player from pop-music group Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians. Albrecht was also a singer, songwriter and guitar player. On the cusp of a solo career with a solo album in the works, the 34-year-old was poised to break out on his own when a doctor warned Albrecht he might lose his soulful voice if he didn't ditch cigarettes. So Albrecht started taking the stop-smoking drug Chantix. Those closest to Albrecht believ

The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning today about the risk of potentially fatal overdoses with Fentora, a narcotic painkiller manufactured by Cephalon. The action comes less than two weeks after the company sent a letter to doctors notifying them of three drug-related deaths. The FDA has received reports of death and life-threatening side effects in patients who have taken Fentora. The reported deaths were the result of improper selection of patients, dosing, or improper product substitution, according to the FDA. One of the deaths was a suicide. Last October, the FDA approved Fentora for use in cancer patients who experience intense bursts of pain. However, the drug is also sometimes prescribed to treat migraines and short-term pain in non-cancer patients. According to the government warning, using Fentora for off-label, or non-approved, purposes could lead to deadly overdose, particularly in patients who are not taking narcotic painkillers on a regu

2007 is on its way to becoming the year when more toys were recalled than any other year in the history of the toy industry. As of August 15, 2007, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission ("CPSC") had recalled 40 toys, which extrapolates to 56 recalls by the end of the year. Much attention has been paid to the problem of toys colored with lead paint. Mattel, the world's largest toy company, announced three major recalls, involving some 20 million items. The company said a number of toy cars and Barbie-related accessories had been colored with lead paint. But a new study by two Canadian professors concludes that design flaws, not Chinese manufacturing problems, are the cause of the vast majority of American toy recalls over the last two decades. The study, relying on data from the CPSC, showed that 76.4 percent of the recalls going back to 1988 involved design flaws while 10 percent were caused by manu