New York Legal Blog

An expert witness in the Patterson, New York DWI trial of Raymond Knox testified this week that Knox's employee, Sandra Longchamps, was served with 12-14 drinks while she was at The Paddock Tavern on Super Bowl Sunday last February 4th. Southeast, New York prosecutors charge that as a result of Ms. Longchamps' intoxication, she drove her Ford Explorer on Route 22 head on into a minivan operated by 34 year old Kirsten Henry, who was driving with her three children and husband in the car. Both women were killed in the car accident, but Ms. Henry's three minor children ranging in age from 2 to 7 survived, as did her husband.

Mr. Knox was charged with two misdemeanors, allowing Ms. Longchamps to be served with alcohol while she was visibly intoxicated, and allowing her to drink while knowing that she "habitually drank too much." Mr. Knox pleaded not guilty in July.

There was very interesting testimony by Elizabeth Spratt, director of toxicology for the Westchester County Department of Laboratories and Research, based on an analysis of autopsy and toxicology reports. Spratt testified that she calculated that Longchamps had 12 drinks using the Widmark Factor, a standard scientific formula that assesses the victim's weight at autopsy (130 lbs.) and her blood alcohol content, which at 0.345 percent was more than 4 times the legal limit for driving while intoxicated in New York.

Continue reading "Putnam County Drunk Driver Had 12-14 Drinks Before Fatal Accident" »

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: DWI/DWAI in New York

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2007 continued a trend of numerous New York car accidents on suburban New York roadways dominated by aggressive, inattentive drivers causing numerous car accidents and fatalities. According to Captain John Hodges of the Westchester County Police, the main causes of these New York car crashes and auto deaths are: speeding, driving while intoxicated, following too closely, taking curves too fast and weaving in and out of traffic.

New York car accidents are also being caused by inattentive drivers who are speaking on cell phones, adjusting their global positioning devices, and listening to their IPods with earphones. Additionally, a new and shocking trend that has been observed by motorists and police patrols alike is young drivers text messaging while driving!

Fatal accidents in New York rose from 2005 to 2006 in the counties of Westchester, Rockland and Putnam. Statistics are not yet available for 2007. DWI arrests on Westchester County roadways increased from 470 to 494 in 2007 due to more aggressive enforcement, according to Capt. Hodges.

Continue reading "Westchester County Car Accidents Caused By Aggressive And Inattentive Drivers" »

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Car Accidents in New York

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Everyone in New York, and around the country, has shopped at the "big box stores"--Wal-Mart, Costco, Target, BJ's, Lowe's, and Home Depot, to name a few. Heavy merchandise is stacked high up on the shelves, as much as twenty to thirty feet in the air, and the question is: "Are these stores safe?" The answer for many of our personal injury clients in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, White Plains, and the entire lower Hudson Valley is a resounding "No!" Every day around the country, customers at these establishments are being seriously injured by falling merchandise, which has been improperly stacked, carelessly arranged, or placed without the necessary safety cables or other devices to prevent accidents. The ABC News program "20-20" highlighted the dangers of falling merchandise accidents a few years ago.

Continue reading "New York Accidents At "Big Box" Stores" »

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Dangerous Premises Accidents in New York

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There were two significant events involving drunk drivers in New York this week. First, this past Wednesday, continuing a troubling trend which we discussed on April 8, 2007 in a post entitled "Mothers Drunk Driving In New York--An Epidemic?", 44 year old Yorktown resident Almudena Paulstich lost control of her car, struck a stone pillar, and landed in a ditch with her three children ages 3, 10 and 12 in the vehicle. According to state police, Ms. Paulstich had a blood alcohol level of .16 at the time of the accident, double the legal limit of intoxication. Ms. Paulstich was charged with misdemeanor driving while intoxicated and appeared in Somers Town Court this week.

Continue reading "New York DWI Update" »

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: DWI/DWAI in New York

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New York Trials are structured differently in Manhattan and Bronx personal injury cases than they are in the remainder of the lower Hudson Valley and other boroughs of New York City. In a New York County construction accident, or a Bronx slip and fall case, for example, there are "full trials", meaning that all issues are litigated before a jury in the same trial: issues as to the fault of the parties, as well as the injuries suffered by the plaintiff, the treatment performed by the doctors involved and the all damages issues involving the permanency of the injuries.

Conversely, in Queens County, for example, as well as the lower Hudson Valley jurisdictions such as Westchester County, Dutchess County, Rockland County, and Orange County, to use some examples, except in rare instances, trials are "bifurcated." Bifurcated means split into two parts. So, as an example, in a Westchester County motor vehicle accident, the jury first hears testimony and considers evidence only of the negligence or fault of the parties involved in the car accident, and first makes a decision as to whether the defendant(s) and or the plaintiff are legally responsible for the accident. (For a description of how we prove the defendant's negligence in a personal injury case, please see our November 13, 2007 blog entitled "Burden of Proof in New York Personal Injury Cases"). It is only if a jury finds the defendant(s) partially or wholly at fault for the accident in a bifurcated trial that a jury then decides the amount of damages to award the plaintiff in a bifurcated case.

Continue reading "New York Trials" »

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Glossary of Personal Injury Law Terms

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In a joint study by the Fiscal Policy Institute and the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) , there were some interesting and surprising results which may give politicians who are demanding more border control and higher fences some hesitation in making those demands. Specifically, the study found that a typical New York immigrant lives in the United States legally, speaks English well, has attended some college and lives in a home owning family that earns $71,000 per year. The study found that foreign born residents contribute 229 billion into New York's economy, accounting for 22.4% of the state's gross domestic product. Other interesting and important findings are as follows: The great majority of the New York suburbs' immigrant population is in the United States legally; There are approximately 130,000 New York undocumented immigrants, from Westchester and Long Island combined, which make up only 21% of the overall immigrant population in New York; Despite a major focus on day laborers, they comprise less than 1/2 of one percent of the immigrant population in the New York suburbs;
Foreign born employees, legal and illegal, account for 82% of housekeepers, 58% of cooks and almost half of construction workers; importantly, foreign born workers make up 41% of physicians, 28% of professors, and 19% of financial managers--perhaps that statistic should be repeated to Rudolph Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Hillary Clinton as they fight over who will be the toughest "keeping our borders safe."

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Immigration A to Z

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The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that there will be substantial delays, of at least one year in some cases, in processing citizenship and green card applications. These delays were brought on by two significant events: First, early in 2007, the USCIS announced that fees for all applications would be increased on July 30, 2007. For example, the fee for submission of the N-400 Naturalization application went up 66% from $405.00 to $675.00 on July 30th of this year. As a result of this announcement, applications filed in July and August of 2007 were double that in the same two months in 2006. In all, USCIS received 2.5 million applications in July and August of 2007. The second major development prompting increased filings was the anti-immigration debate in Congress this year, which coincided with the USCIS announcing that they were preparing a more difficult test for aspiring citizens.

As of November 16th, the Texas and Vermont Processing Centers are just now acknowledging receipt of naturalization petitions received in July, 2007. The processing backlogs at present are completely different than those in the past involving immigrants seeking legal residency from countries like Mexico and the Philippines, in which annual limits on green cards have often resulted in delays of several years. The USCIS has announced that with the revenue from increased fees, it will hire 1,500 new employees, an increase of its current staff of 15,000, to assist in clearing the backlog. The goal is apparently to complete naturalization applications submitted this past summer in time for these applicants to vote in the November, 2008 elections.

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Immigration A to Z

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