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

Effective immediately, it is a primary traffic offense for drivers to use handheld electronic devices for activities such as texting while a vehicle is in motion, thereby giving law enforcement the power to stop drivers solely for engaging in this activity. Before this law, it was illegal for drivers to use handheld electronic devices while their vehicle was in motion, but it was a secondary traffic offense -- meaning a driver had to be stopped for another violation in order to receive a ticket. The monetary penalty for a violation of this law continues to be a fine of up to $150. Changes in state regulations will increase the penalty for using a cellular phone without a hands-free device or a handheld device while driving from two to three poin

In Edwards v. Erie Coach Lines Company, 131, NYLJ 1202499068316 (Decided June 30, 2011), New York States highest court was called upon to answer a choice-of-law question regarding a motor vehicleaccident wherein a charter bus carrying members of an Ontario women's hockey team plowed into the rear-end of a tractor-trailer parked on the shoulder of the highway near Geneseo, New York on January 19, 2005. Four bus passengers and the trailer's driver died; several bus passengers were seriously hurt. The charter bus's driver, his employer, and the company that leased the bus are Ontario domiciliaries, as are (or were) all the injured and deceased passengers. The tractor-trailer driver was a Pennsylvania domiciliary, as are his employer and the

Last Friday, June 3, Maine Governor Paul LePage signed a new law that prohibits texting behind the wheel. Under the new law, which takes effect in September 2011, violators will face a minimum fine of $100. The new law is designed to strengthen a 2009 Maine law that more generally prohibited distracted driving but was felt not insufficient to deal with the huge safety risk of texting while driving. In Nevada, a bill that bans any non-hands-free use of a cell phone while driving passed through the State Senate and Assembly on June 4th and is now awaiting the governors approval. Under the new law, the use of a cell phone while driving will be considered a primary offense, with offenses carrying progressively increasing fines. Anyone convicted of a third offense will have their dr

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood last week announced the 2011 Click It or Ticket mobilization with a reminder to motorists about the severe risks of driving unbelted, day or night. In a surprising statistic, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) research shows that fewer people buckle their seat belts at night, making evening hours especially dangerous. In 2009, 62 percent of nighttime vehicle occupants who were killed in crashes were unbelted. In contrast, 44 percent of daytime occupants who were killed were unrestrained. NHTSA Administrator David Strickland cautioned that holiday periods, like the Memorial Day weekend, are unusually dangerous for unbelted motorists. Of the 306 people who died on U.S. roads during the 2009 Memorial Day period, 55 percent were unb

If I had a dollar for every time a defendant argued in a summary judgment motion that it was not negligent because the condition that caused my clients accident was open and obvious . With words that every defense counsel (and Judge) should never overlook, the Appellate Division, First Department opened a recent opinion with the sentence: In this personal injury action, we reiterate the well established principle that a finding of open and obvious as to a hazardous condition is never fatal to a plaintiffs negligence claim. It is relevant only to plaintiffs comparative fault. Saretsky v. 85 Kenmare Realty Corp., 2011 WL 1796367 (May 12, 2011). Even though this is not new law, you would be surprised how many times cases are dismissed solely because the condition is open and obvious. What is often overlooked is that although there is no duty to warn where a dangerous condition is open and o

Throughout New York City and other places drivers are becoming accustomed to seeing radar-equipped speed boards that tell them how fast they're going, and flash when their speed exceeds the speed limit. This past week Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) announced that some of the speed boards will now also show the words SLOW DOWN and the image of a healthy pedestrian turns into a skeleton on electronic signs when drivers exceed the city speed limit. As long as a driver obeys the citys 30 mph speed limit, no skeleton will appear. The signs have been placed along stretches of Bruckner Boulevard in the Bronx and Richmond Avenue in S

With National Dog Bite Prevention Week upcoming on May 15-21, the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) has released a statement concerning the costs that result from dog bites based upon an analysis of homeowners insurance data. I.I.I. statistics show that from 2009 to 2010, the average cost of dog bite claims rose from $24,840 to $26,166, up 5.3 percent, although the number of claims dropped 4.9 percent from 2009 to 2010 ($16,586 vs. $15,770). The decline in the number of claims was almost exactly offset by an increase in the average cost. Dog bites accounted for more than one-third of all homeowners insurance liability claims paid out in 2010, costing nearly $413 million, according to I.I.I. A December 2010 report from the Tagged with: Personal Injury Dog Bite Personal Injury Lawyer Accident Attorney

Entitled Experience Is Not Enough, the new multi-lingual campaign is designed to emphasize that all workers must use proper fall protection, such as safety harnesses, guardrails and netting, regardless of how long they have worked in the construction trades and how much experience they possess. A worker falling is the most commonconstruction related accidentin New York City, representing 42% of all accidents reported to the Department in 2010. Since 2008, 16 construction workers have lost their lives due to the lack of basic fall protection. In February, two ironworkers, ages 49 and 51, were killed when they fell approximately 65 feet while installing a steel beam at a job site on West 83rd Street i

No, I didnt get a ticket for failing to obey the new Ambrose-Searles Move Over Act that requires drivers to exercise due care to avoid colliding with an authorized emergency vehicle which is parked, stopped or standing on the shoulder of a road or highway with its emergency lights activated. More specifically, on parkways, interstates, and other controlled access highways with multiple lanes, drivers are required to move from the lane immediately adjacent to the emergency vehicle, unless traffic or other hazards exist to prevent doing so safely. So there we w

We've stressed to our clients and in our writings the importance of protecting them and their families by obtaining as much Supplementary Uninsured Motorists ("SUM") Coverage as possible. SUM coverage provides the insured and their family with coverage when they are injured or killed in a motor vehicleaccident the fault of someone else who has no insurance or less liability insurance than the insured.In this way, you are not at the mercy of someone who not only causes harm, but also has no or little insurance to compensate their victim.Butis there coverageif the injured is the victim of an intentional crime? Yes, says New York's Court of Appeals inState Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Langan, 2011 WL 1118579 (March 29, 2011