Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.
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construction sites nycConstruction workers are going back to wok at 33,556 non-essential construction sites today as New York City enters phase 1 of NY State re-opening plan.  To prevent workers from getting contaminated by the coronavirus, any employer hiring workers for a a construction site requiring permits from the DOB or otherwise regulated by the NYC Construction Codes and the NYC Electrical Code must comply with the Interim Guidance for Construction Activities during the Covid-19 Public Health Emergency.

To make sure construction workers are adequately protected, DOB inspectors will conduct safety inspection sweeps  and periodic checks of NYC construction sites.

In New York State, the general contractor and/or the owner of the construction site are responsible for the safety of their employees and, in addition to the regular safety guidelines applicable on construction sites, they now will have to make sure that:

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Personal Injury Attorney Ben RubinowitzOur Managing partner Ben Rubinowitz and Evan Torgan will be presenting “Successful Trial Techniques from Jury Selection through Summation”, a live streaming Seminar organized by the New York Sate Academy of Trial Lawyers on Wednesday June 10.

This two hour seminar will feature some of the best known Trial Lawyers in New York. For more than 20 years, Evan Torgan and Ben Rubinowitz have provided guidance to lawyers throughout the state in their featured column in the New York Law Journal, Trial Advocacy. This seminar will take you through some of the techniques that have allowed these lawyers to obtain multiple seven- and eight-figure verdicts. They will not only talk about strategies they use but will provide demonstrations of the successful techniques that have allowed them to obtain such remarkable results. The two will be joined by Angélicque Moreno, President of the New York Academy of Trial Lawyers, another successful trial attorney who has numerous multimillion dollar verdicts and settlements to her credit.

Click here to register

 

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covid-19-2Dozens of resident at The Harlem Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation died from Covid-19 but the facility  failed to report them.  The nursing home was slapped with violations from the NY Health Department for hiding the deaths of 25 residents.

The facility was reported by a neighbor who recorded a video showing at least 20 bodies in black bags being transported out of the nursing home and piled into trucks. At the time, the nursing home had only reported 5 deaths. It is is now facing a fine for failing to protect its residents and under-reporting the number of deaths.

While nursing homes as well as hospitals are immune from most neglect lawsuits during the pandemic, they are legally obligated to disclose the number of  residents who died from the coronavirus. According to an executive order that was released by Andrew Cuomo on April 17,  nursing homes have to report coronavirus deaths to family members within 24h. Nursing homes that don’t comply can be fined $2,000 per undisclosed death and risk the revocation of their license as well as criminal prosecution.

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construction site NYAs New York construction workers are gradually heading back to work, OSHA only provided minimal  “safety guidance” in regards to Covid-19 safety and it is mostly up to the construction companies to create their own Covid-19 safety rules to protect construction workers from contracting the Coronaivirus.

In a recent article, The New Yorker followed Putrelo Building Enterprises, a small family construction business in the Mohawk Valley, in their efforts to re-open their business while making sure their employees are safe.  As they were looking at re-opening, the Putrelos realized that no Covid-19 related protocol was in place in regards to construction workers safety  and that OSHA guidance was so minimal that it was mostly up to them to make sure that their employees were protected from Covid-19 as they restarted work.

The construction company created its own safety protocols

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MTD_Lawn_MowerAn estimated 9,400 children sustain lawnmower injuries  every year in the US. Injuries are often catastrophic, sometimes deadly. They often require multiple treatments and hospital stays and can have life long consequences. 4 year old boys in rural areas are the most at risk of getting injured in a lawnmower accident.

A study by the Department of Orthopaedics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA (Mr. Shah, Dr. Talwar, Mr. Aoyama, and Dr. Ganley), the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas City, Kansas City, MO (Dr. Schwend), and the Division of Pediatric Orthopaedics, Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, Baltimore, MD (Dr. Sponseller) and recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons studied lawnmower injuries in the US over 13 years.

The researchers used the Pediatric Health Information System database to identify 1,302 Americans between 1 and 18 years old who checked into the ER to be treated for a lawnmower injury. While, the Pediatric Health Information System database does not record all children injuries in the country,  it is nationally representative as it contains a varied selection of 49 participating children’s hospitals located around the regions and locales.

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Personal Injury Attorney Ben RubinowitzJoin our managing partner  Ben Rubinowitz  as he is co-chairing with Judy Livingston and Jeff Korek  this two part webinar: Openings & Summations. They have assembled an All-Star panel of Trial Attorneys who will demonstrate what they do and say in Opening Statements and Closing Arguments to achieve spectacular results. Trial demonstrations are what this program is all about. Each member of the faculty will demonstrate an opening or summation.

This webinar  organized by the New York State Trial Association is free for all NYSTLA members and non-members. It has been approved for transitional & non-transitional credits. Participants will receive 4 Skills CLE credits.

Part 1 will take place on May 26th from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm

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Johnson and Johnson talcThe sale of a dangerous product that has been used for years by American families and women is being discontinued in the US and in Canada. Johnson & Johnson announced yesterday that it was removing its talc based baby powder from the market. The decision to remove this product from the store shelves is coming after thousands of women sued the company claiming the powder that was tainted with asbestos was responsible for their ovarian cancer.

Johnsons & Johnson always denied the claims and announced in a statement yesterday that its decision to remove the talc baby powder from the market was based on a decline in sale that was due to changing consumer habits and a misinformation campaign about the safety of the product.

While the company  always defended publicly that the baby powder was safe, internal documents dating from as early as 1973 and produced by attorneys in lawsuits,  indicate that the company was worried about the carcinogenic effects of the product. A company official wrote in a memo “If Johnson’s Baby Powder contained asbestos at a concentration of 1 percent, how much of the cancer-causing substance might a baby inhale when dusted with the powder?”

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E-bike now legal in NYCSafety and the risk of an increase in bicycle accident injuries have  long been the main worry in legalizing e-bikes and e-scooters in New York.

While pedal assists bicycles that travels at an average 20 mph speed were not much of an issue for legislators, throttle-controlled e-bikes that do not require pedaling and travel at an average 25 mph were more controversial. Despite being illegal until recently, throttle-controlled e-bikes were  widely used by restaurant delivery workers in the city. Food delivery workers were frequently harassed by the police who have been ticketing them and confiscating their bikes.

However in mid-march as food delivery workers became crucial in feeding New Yorkers during the pandemic, the city decided to suspend enforcement on e-bikes as long as restaurants would be able to operate as a take-out and delivery only. Following this decision, two weeks later, NY State finally legalized e-bikes ad e-scooters.

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truck back up accident locationA charity worker was crushed to death by a truck backing up  yesterday. Morales Cruseno Florentino was delivering milk to a school for a charity with his co-worker. As they arrived at the Bais Yaakov Academy of Queens on Metropolitan Ave near 125th St. in Kew Gardens, Morales stepped out of the truck and went to the back of the truck to direct the truck driver while he backed up to park. As the driver was backing up, Morales got pinned between the truck and another vehicle. Video surveillance of the scene depicts the truck moving back with the back up alarm on and Morales not moving out of the way. Maybe he thought the truck would not back all the way?

When EMS arrived, Morales was still alive but was critically injured. He was transported to the hospital where he later died from his injuries.

Morales and his coworkers had been delivering milk for people in need for the last two months.

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Failure to diagnose skin cancer can be fatalSkin cancer is the most common cancer in the US with more than 5 million Americans diagnosed every year.  Skin cancer, if detected early, can be cured. 90% of patients diagnosed with skin cancer get cured.

Failure to diagnose skin cancer can be fatal and like all cancers, early detection is key. The good news is that unlike other types of cancer, skin cancer is visible and early detection starts with you. Doctors recommend a self-exam every month.

How to screen yourself for skin cancer?