New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog

Ben Rubinowitz will be the Team Leader of Building Trial Skills: National Session, one of the preeminent programs of The National Institute for Trial Advocacy. The program will be held in Louisville, Colorado from July 10-24, 2010 at The NITA Education Center.

"During the two weeks you will practice, then perfect, your skills in direct/cross examinations, objections, opening statements/closing arguments, laying foundations, motion arguments, jury selection and dealing with both economic and technical expert witnesses. You can also expect to attend special presentations by noted authors and communications experts." For more information on the program click here.

NEW YORK (CBS) ― "The beauty of your balcony could have ugly consequences. The Department of Buildings said the balconies of 16 buildings in New York City are simply too dangerous to step on......"

"It cost 24-year-old Connor Donohue his life back in March, but New York City's Department of Buildings said they're taking steps to prevent another tragic fall.

What this department wants to make sure is that no tenant is put at a safety risk," said Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri.

Donohue fell to his death when a railing gave way on his 24th floor balcony at 330 E. 39th St. in Manhattan. The building owner failed to have the balconies inspected for 10 years. The death sparked the Department of Buildings to conduct sweeping facade inspections across the city."

Ben Rubinowitz, our partner in charge of the wrongful death suit on behalf of the Donohue family stated;

"Isn't it unfortunate that it takes a death for them to finally react, to step up and do the inspections they should have done in the first place?" click here for more.

In Wilson-Toby v. Bushkin, a New York Medical Malpractice case, our partner Rhonda Kay, obtained an affirmance of the lower Court's denial of defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the second cause of action to recover damages based upon lack of informed consent. The plaintiff underwent elective cosmetic breast surgery performed by the defendant doctors. The plaintiff alleged that the defendants performed the surgery improperly, causing disfigurement and significant scarring. The complaint alleged causes of action seeking to recover damages for medical malpractice and lack of informed consent. The defendants moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, and the Supreme Court denied their motion in its entirety. On appeal, the defendants challenged only the denial of that branch of their motion which was for summary judgment dismissing the cause of action sounding in lack of informed consent. The Court held;

"Contrary to the defendants' contention, the consent forms signed by the plaintiff "do not establish, as a matter of law, that the scarring that the plaintiff actually experienced as a result of the procedure was, in its nature and in its extent, consistent with the type of scarring that, prior to the procedure, the plaintiff had been told to consider as being among the reasonably forseeable risks of the proposed procedure, or that a reasonable, fully informed person in the plaintiff's position would have undergone the procedure despite the existence of such risk" (Colon v Klindt, 302 AD2d 551, 553 [internal quotation marks omitted]; see Rezvani v Somnay, 65 AD3d 537, 538-539). Nor did the defendants establish the content of additional disclosures made beyond those contained in the consent forms. The deposition testimony raises a factual dispute between the plaintiff and the defendants as to the content of additional warnings and information they may have given the plaintiff prior to surgery. The existence of triable issues of fact in the defendants' moving papers precludes a finding that they established their prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law sufficient to eliminate any material issues of fact (see Brown v Outback Steakhouse, 39 AD3d 450, 451; Gray v South Nassau Communities Hosp., 245 AD2d 337; Muscatello v City of New York, 215 AD2d 463, 464)."

On May 13, 2010 at 6:00 PM Ben Rubinowitz will be the featured speaker at the Nassau Suffolk Trial Lawyers Association to be held at Westbury Manor, Wesbury, New York. Ben will be speaking about Trial Practice Techniques from Jury Selection through Summation.

In a New York medical malpractice case our partner Rhonda Kay obtained a reversal of the lower court's granting of a motion to change venue. In SIMON v. USHER, 2010 NY Slip Op 03777, The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department held;

"Although the moving defendants made a timely demand for a change of venue, their motion for such relief was untimely. A defendant "may move to change the place of trial within fifteen days after service of the demand," unless the plaintiff consents to the change of venue within five days of service of the demand (CPLR 511[b]). Here, the motion for a change of venue, made 20 days after service of the demand, must be rejected as untimely (see Singh v Becher, 249 AD2d 154 [1998]). Contrary to moving defendants' claim, they were not entitled to the five-day extension in CPLR 2103(b)(2) for time periods measured from service by mail (see Thompson v Cuadrado, 277 AD2d 151 [2000]). Furthermore, the failure of the remaining defendants to serve a demand to change venue with or prior to their answer was fatal to their request to change venue (see Kurfis v Shore Towers Condominium, 48 AD3d 300 [2008]; CPLR 511[a])."