New York Legal Blog

This past week, our firm won a significant Westchester County car accident verdict in a case in which Allstate Insurance, as its custom, refused to make a reasonable offer. The case was simple. Our client, a woman in her late fifties, was hit by a car while walking to work and suffered a left hand injury, and other injuries of lesser severity. Allstate knows that attorneys are now fearful to go to trial in Westchester car accident cases, (not to mention slip and fall cases, dog bite cases or product liability cases as well), because Westchester juries tend to be very conservative and favor defendants, either because they think verdicts are too high in general, there are too many lawsuits, or their insurance rates will go up. Additionally, under the No-Fault Law in New York, plaintiffs must meet the "threshold", which generally means that they must have a fracture, a disfigurement, or some type of permanent injury to recover any compensation. Thus, Allstate, more than any other insurance company, has a practice of forcing plaintiff attorneys to go to trial (Allstate's strategy is well known and has been posted on various Internet sites) in the hope that plaintiffs won't sue and lawyers won't take cases when they see that Allstate is the insurance company for the wrongdoer.

We called Allstate's bluff, (they offered a measly $10,000) and the jury awarded our client a total verdict of $105,000 for past and future pain and suffering. In addition to the fact that this Westchester auto accident jury taught Allstate the lesson that they will be held accountable when the evidence is there, the other positive development from this case was our experience with the new "Summary Jury Trial Program", with Judge Gerald Loehr presiding.

Continue reading "Westchester County Car Accident Verdict" »

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: No-Fault Law In New York

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Our personal injury clients in New York slip and fall cases, automobile accidents, various premises liability cases and construction accidents are often contacted within a few days of the accident by "concerned" investigators hired by insurance companies (especially Allstate, State Farm, Progressive, New York Central Mutual and Countrywide) allegedly to "help" them or "assist you in any way we can." This is insurance code speak for destroy your case before you get a chance to hire a lawyer.

The usual ruse will be that the investigator goes to the residence of the injured person, or that of the neighbor or relative, because he has "important information" for the person who's been in the accident or needs to speak with them to make sure their case is "handled correctly." In fact, these duplicitous and deceitful insurance representatives are looking for the following: a way to discredit the person; establish that they are working; find out what kind of work they do; what type of car they drive; or their previous medical history (such as a prior accident or lawsuit) that could be helpful to the insurance company in denying the claim. These "helpful" insurance representatives will go so far as to leave their card with their e-mail and cell phone information that can be accessed 24/7 to be of "extra assistance."

We represent a client who suffered very serious leg injuries in a Westchester County car accident when an oil company van driver backed up his van in a gas station, knocking down our client, and then rolled over his leg, causing severe injuries. Despite the fact that we were immediately retained to represent our client, weeks after we notified the insurance company of our representation, they unethically sent one of these investigators to our client's brother's house, since it was "vital" that they speak with the client to make sure that he was "doing o.k." Luckily, in our client's case, the brother sent the lying investigator on his merry way with an admonition never to return, as we had warned our client ahead of time about this practice.

A word to the wise: When you are in an accident and are making a claim, make sure your friends, colleagues, neighbors and relatives "just say no" to the nice insurance investigators at the door that want to "be of whatever assistance they can"--they are lions in sheep's clothing.

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Successful Injury Case Strategies

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In the latest installment of our series on mothers driving while intoxicated with their children in the car, in a Westchester County DWI this week, a 35 year old teacher named Karen Kayser was charged with aggravated DWI, and two misdemeanor counts of child endangerment for driving with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.35 percent with her two children, ages 1 and 2 in the car.

The alleged incident occurred on April 7, 2008 when the 48 year old Newburgh resident and special education teacher at the Felix Festa Middle School in Clarkstown, New York was pulled over for aggravated driving while intoxicated on the Sprain Brook Parkway in Greenburgh. Luckily, Ms. Kayser's two infant children were not injured. Mrs. Kayser has been banned from any contact with her children and is due back in Greenburgh Town Court before Justice Doris Friedman on April 25, 2008.

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: DWI/DWAI in New York

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A Westchester County Corrections Officer was severely injured on April 6, 2008 when his car was rear ended by a drunk driver on the Sprain Brook Parkway, two miles north of the Jackson Avenue exit. Mr. White's Land Rover flipped over several times as a result of this Westchester County car accident. The officer, 42 year old Darren White of Poughkeepsie, was ejected from his vehicle in this New York DWI accident, and suffered severe head trauma. His wife, Tomasha Thomas-White, suffered back and neck injuries.

The driver of the other car, Paul DeBerry, was not injured. Mr. DeBerry was charged with second degree vehicular assault, a felony, and driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor. DeBerry was also cited for the traffic violations of following too closely and speeding.

According to police, DeBerry's blood alcohol content (BAC) was 0.12 percent, over the legal limit of 0.08 percent. DeBerry was to be arraigned in Greenburgh Town Court on April 8, 2008.

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: DWI/DWAI in New York

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A study conducted by The National Initiative For Children's Healthcare Quality, using a new scientific detection method, has determined that for every 100 hospitalized children, there are 11 drug-related harmful events. These include medicine mix-ups, accidental overdoses, and bad drug reactions. This new estimate translates to more than 7% of hospitalized children, or approximately 540,000 children annually, based on government data. The new method uses a list of 15 "triggers" on children's charts, including use of specific antidotes for drug overdoses, suspicious side effects and various lab tests.

The results will be made available to the public in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics. Experts say that the problem is larger than the study concludes, because it only reviewed selected charts, and didn't include results from general community hospitals, where most U.S. children are treated.

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Medical Malpractice

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Following up on our February 4, 2008 post "Fatal Putnam County DWI Crash Leads To Conviction Of Bar Owner", on February 24th, Paddock Tavern owner Ray Knox Jr. was sentenced to 9 months in the Putnam County jail for his conviction of allowing his off-duty bar manager Sandra Longchamps to be served alcohol while visibly intoxicated.

This fatal Putnam County DWI case arose from an accident on Super Bowl Sunday 2007 in which Longchamps drove her Ford Explorer (after being served 12-14 drinks at the Paddock) 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.

Knox' attorney requested that Town Justice John King not sentence Paddock to jail time, pointing out that it is unusual for a bar owner with no record to get jail time in a DWI misdemeanor case. However, the families of the late Ms. Henry and her surviving husband submitted victim impact statements to the Court, and the special prosecutor had urged the court to sentence Mr. Knox to the maximum one year sentence. Knox's attorney indicated that he would appeal the sentence, claiming that Knox did not serve Longchamps that evening or have direct interaction with her--essentially, a claim that Knox did not know Ms. Longchamps was intoxicated that fateful Sunday.

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: DWI/DWAI in New York

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Supplementing our February 29, 2008 post "Blood Thinner Heparin Tied To Several Deaths", the actor Dennis Quaid appeared on "60 Minutes" last Sunday to reveal every parent's nightmare: He and his wife almost lost their newborn twins last year at Cedar's Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles due to a massive overdose of the blood thinner Heparin, manufactured by Baxter International.

The nurses were supposed to give the twins a dosage of "Hep-Lock", a weak form of Heparin to keep IV lines open. Instead, they gave the twins Heparin in a dosage which Quaid described as "10,000 times the normal dosage", causing a drug overdose which could have been fatal. Apparently the almost tragic mistake was caused by the very similar blue backgrounds on the vials of Hep-Lock and Heparin. Quaid said that "our kids were bleeding from everyplace they were punctured...it was blood everywhere."

Shockingly, this same event occurred in Indianapolis a year earlier, which resulted in the deaths of three infants. Despite this fact, Baxter International, being sued by the Quaids in a multi-million dollar defective product lawsuit, did not change the colors of the two vials until after the Quaid twins incident--now, one vial is red and the other is blue, making a mistake by nurses much less likely.

Continue reading "Dennis Quaid's Twins Almost Die From Massive Overdose Of Heparin" »

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Dangerous Products

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In a Westchester County DWI case, this week Shaheed Emery became the first person convicted in Westchester County under the new First Degree Vehicular Manslaughter charge, as the result of a fatal New York drunk driving crash on the Sprain Brook Parkway last year. Mr. Emery pleaded guilty to the charges of Vehicular Manslaughter, a felony, felony charges of aggravated DWI and DWI with a previous conviction, and a misdemeanor DWI charge related to an August 24, 2007 accident which killed his friend Jamiel Neal of White Plains and caused Mr. Emery to break his leg.

On that date, Mr. Emery lost control of his 1999 BMW and crashed into a guardrail on the Sprain Brook Parkway near Jackson Avenue, causing the car to flip over and land on the other side of the parkway. Mr. Neal died of blunt force trauma to the head. In exchange for his guilty plea to all charges, Mr. Emery will serve 4-8 years in state prison, according to the Westchester District Attorney's Office.

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: DWI/DWAI in New York

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The Journal Archives of Surgery published a study on March 17th which found that a year after an injury in a car accident, slip and fall or other types of accidents, 63 percent reported that they still had substantial pain related to the injury. The over 3,000 patients studied were 18 to 84 years of age, who had survived a traumatic injury.

The people in the study suffered head injuries, broken limbs, chest or abdominal trauma and other injuries in motor vehicle crashes, slip/trip and fall accidents and other circumstances. The most common areas of pain were in the joints and limbs (44 %), the back (26 %), the head (12 %), and the neck (7 %).

The American Pain Foundation, a Baltimore-based advocacy group, said the financial cost of chronic pain in the United States, including lost income, health care expenses and lost productivity in the workplace, is estimated to be $100 billion per year. According to this foundation, back pain is the leading cause of disability in Americans under 45 years old.

In our practice, we are frequently battling with insurance companies in New York car accidents who want to cut our clients off from No-Fault benefits based on a negative MRI despite the fact that it is abundantly clear that the client is still in significant pain--without any objective proof of this pain such as positive X-rays, CAT Scans, or MRI's. In these situations, our recommendation to our clients is simple: you must continue to treat with your chiropractor, physical therapist, physiatrist, or acupuncturist, in order to alleviate the pain and establish the evidence necessary to meet the "No-Fault Threshold"--the requirement in order to recover compensation for injuries in a New York car accident.

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Car Accidents in New York

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On March 15, 2008, in a fatal New York construction accident, a construction crane collapsed on East 51rst Street in Manhattan, killied seven people and injuring several others. Aides to the Manhattan borough president, Scott Stringer, said they had been told by the Office of Emergency Management that the crane fell on two buildings, destroying one at 305 East 50th Street and partly collapsing the building at 301 East 50th Street. The big white crane which fell appeared to be about 20 stories tall, according to onlookers. Firefighters carried stretchers at the scene of the accident, as people were feared to be trapped beneath the wreckage. Apparently, just before the crane collapsed, it was lifting material that apparently fell and struck a girder that connected the crane to the building.

Construction has increasingly become a deadly business -- especially in New York, where laborers routinely dangle from skyscrapers, all part of a building boom that has defied the national slowdown. In January, in another New York fatal construction accident, high-rise concrete forms collapsed at the site of Donald Trump's hotel and condo complex in Lower Manhattan. An Ukrainian immigrant worker who was the father of several children was decapitated as he plunged 42 stories to his death. Three others were injured.
Two months earlier, another immigrant worker was killed when he fell 15 stories, prompting the creation of a task force to cut down on scaffolding accidents.

Continue reading "New York Construction Accident Kills Seven People" »

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: New York Construction Accidents

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New York DWI Charges have been filed against three public officials in the last month: two drunk driving charges against prominent figures, and the third against a New York City police officer. On January 30, in a Rockland County DWI case, former Rockland legislator and State Assembly member Ryan Karben was arrested and charged with Driving While Intoxicated when he crashed his Acura into a utility pole in Ramapo, New York. Mr. Karben claimed to police that he veered off the road to avoid hitting a deer. He refused a Breathalyzer Test and failed the Field Sobriety Test according to Ramapo Police officials.

Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe says that he has no intention of offering Karben a reduced charge of Driving While Ability Impaired (DWAI) and that Karben's only options are to plead guilty to DWI or go to trial. Karben's attorneys intend to take the case to trial, possibly on May 12, 2008.

This past week, an off duty New York City police officer Robert N. Foley was charged with a Westchester County DWI when he crashed his car into the vehicle of a 70 year old man backing out of his driveway in Yonkers, causing the vehicle to careen into a parked car. The victim was taken to the hospital but his injuries are not believed to be life threatening. Officer Foley was observed by Yonkers police officers to have slurred speech, glassy eyes, an odor of alcohol on his breath, and was unsteady on his feet. He refused a chemical test. Officer Foley was charged with DWI and Refusing To Submit To A Chemical Test, both misdemeanors. The New York City Police Department has not yet indicated if Officer Foley has been suspended following the accident.

Continue reading "New York DWI Charges Against Public Officials" »

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: DWI/DWAI in New York

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The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services USCIS acknowledged that due to a huge increase in applications for green cards and citizenship in July of 2007, the average waiting time for legal residency and citizenship is now 18 months. The surge in applications in July of 2007 (7 times more than the average month), which resulted in the increased waiting time from approximately 7 months to 18 months, was due to applicants submitting their papers just before the almost 50% increase in fees on July 30, 2007.

The USCIS has been under fire for not anticipating and planning for the huge increase in applications last July, although they did hire 750 additional agents for the sole purpose of working on applications. Michael Aytes, the associate director of domestic operations of USCIS has pledged that the agency will keep its promise made at the time of the increase: that in return for the higher fees, by 2010, applications for U.S. citizenship will be processed within 5 months, and petitions for green cards will be handled within four months.

This writer is somewhat skeptical about these optimistic predictions from the USCIS, but we will give the agency the benefit of the doubt and hope that these 750 extra officers will make the difference once the July 2007 surge in applications is two years behind us.

Posted by Mark Siesel | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Dangerous Products , Immigration A to Z

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