In their Trial Advocacy column in the New York Law Journal, Personal Injury Attorneys Ben Rubinowitz, and Evan Torgan write: There is an old adage that every trial lawyer should accept as gospel: “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.” Keeping this maxim in mind, attorneys must strive to make a winning impression early on in the trial so they can use that impression to set the tone for each phase of the remainder of the trial. Read more in the New York Law Journal .
Download a PDF document of the complete article
Doctors who are communicating well with their patients decrease their risk of being sued for medical malpractice
Unfortunately many doctors are not very good at communication with their patients and to protect themselves from medical malpractice, they increase the number of office visits and perform additional but often unnecessary procedures and tests. They call it “defensive medicine” but according to a recent article in the New York Times written by Aarron E. Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, all these extra precautions don’t reduce the risk of being sued. Better communication with the patients does. Previous studies and statistics clearly demonstrate that doctors who are willing to change their behavior and become better communicators will significantly decrease their risk of being sued for medical malpractice. Read the complete article
Andrew Cuomo endorses “Lavern’s Law”, a bill that strengthens the rights of victims of medical malpractice by extending the statute of limitations to run from date of discovery
The law in New York State requires victims of medical malpractice to file their claim within 15 months after medical malpractice occurs at a public hospital and 2 1/2 years against a private hospital or physician. Lavern’s Law proposes to start the statute of limitations from the time a patient discovers the malpractice rather than from the time the medical malpractice occurs. Lavern’s Law is named after Lavern Wilkinson who died from a curable form of lung cancer after doctors at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, NYC, failed to tell her that a chest X-ray they took in 2010 showed a small, suspicious mass on her right lung and instead sent her back home with Motrin. Lavern only discovered that she had cancer when she was terminal. By that time, the statute of limitations had expired and she wasn’t able to sue the hospital for failure to diagnose lung cancer. She died leaving behind her a daughter who was severely autistic. The city settled Wilkinson’s lawsuit, for $625,000 the day she died, March 7, 2013. Medical malpractice experts said her case would have netted over $10 million had it not been for the statute of limitations. Yesterday Governor Cuomo gave his support to the law. Read more in the NY Daily News
A young pedestrian suffered minor injury in a car accident at the intersection of Prospect Park West and Third St in Brooklyn, NYC, where another boy was killed in 2013
Lowering the speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph on Prospect Park West may have saved the life of 5 year old Roark Bennett who was hit by a car at the exact same spot where 12-year-old Sammy Cohen Eckstein was fatally struck by a car two years earlier. After the death of her son, Amy Cohen became a Vision Zero activist and successfully campaigned to lower the speed limit on Prospect Park West from 30 mph to 25 mph. Yesterday when Roark Bennett escaped from his parents and ran out in the street against the light, the driver who hit him was travelling at the speed limit and thankfully Roark suffered only minor injuries. Read more in the NY Daily News
Random survey shows nearly 1 in 10 motorists ignore red lights in New York City which puts pedestrians at risk of dangerous accidents resulting in personal injury or death
Every day in New York City pedestrians and other road users are endangered by reckless drivers who are running red lights. A study just released by Hunter College indicates that nearly one out of 10 motorists don’t follow the most basic rule of the road. Lead by Professor Peter Tuckel of Hunter’s sociology department, the study analyzes the behavior of 3,259 motorists at 50 different intersections in New York City. The intersections are all within a few blocks from subway stations.
A total of 283 drivers were caught ignoring red lights. Half of them didn’t even reduce their speed. 85 of them ran the red light as they were turning.
The intersection of Gates and Evergreens Avenues in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NYC, was the most dangerous of all intersections analyzed during the study followed by W50th and Seventh Ave in Manhattan and New Lots and Miller Avenues in Brooklyn.
A motorcyclist died and his passenger suffered personal injury after they collided with a car making a left turn in Brooklyn, NYC
34 year old Ashmeade Rohan died in a motorcycle accident in Brooklyn, New York City, yesterday night around 9;30 pm. Ashmeade and a 20 year old female passenger were riding North on Rockaway Parkway In Canarsie, Brooklyn, New York, when he collided with a car making a left turn on Avenue J. The two bikers were ejected from the motorcycle. Ashmeade was severely injured and died later on at the hospital while his passenger suffered only minor injuries. The driver of the car wasn’t hurt. Read more in the New York Daily News. Vehicles making left turns in front of motorcycles are one of the most, if not most common cause of motorcycle accidents. Having ridden since I was a teenager I always am extra alert when entering intersections for vehicles about to turn left. Another word of advise if you are older and want to start riding, take intensive lessons and don’t make a Harley your first bike. Rule number one, your first Bike should be one that matches your capabilities. If you are over 40 and riding for the first time, a Harley does not. Nor does a racing bike. Make a shaft driven bike no more than 750cc’s your first one.
The new Electronic Stability Control (ESC) final rule issued by the National Transportation Highway Traffic Safety Administration may prevent as many as 1759 bus and truck accidents as well as 649 personal injuries and 49 deaths every year
A long awaited NHTSA rule has the potential to decrease by 56% untripped rollover crashes (rollover crashes that are not caused by striking an obstacle or leaving the road) of large trucks and big buses. This new rule requires that all Class 7-8 trucks and large buses be equipped with electronic stability control (ESC) system. According to the NHTSA “ESC works instantly and automatically to maintain directional control in situations where the driver’s own steering and braking cannot be accomplished quickly enough to prevent the crash.”
This new rule has been a long time coming. The first recommendation to equip large truck and buses with ESC was issued by the NHTSA in 2011.
Read the press release from the NHTSA
Woman dies from medical malpractice in New York during a silicone butt lift performed by a phony doctor who took off while she was dying
A 34 year old woman died from a botched butt lift in Queens, NYC. The woman traveled from Maryland with her mother to receive silicon injections in a basement apartment that a phony plastic surgeon was using as her office. After she received the injection, the patient started gurgling and struggling to breath. Her mother tried to resuscitate her with CPR. She asked the unlicensed doctor to call 911. Instead of calling for help the doctor grabbed her car keys, ran out of the apartment and took off in a gray SUV. The police are still looking for her.
This is the second time that a woman died after a botched butt lift in New York. In July 2013, 22 year old Tamara Blain died after unlicensed beautician Tamira Mobley allegedly filled her with butt-enhancing injections inside the Liberty Inn Hotel on W. 10th St.
Last year, Liliana Coello was sentenced to two years in jail after she gave a botched butt lift to a patient and injected her buttocks with Krazy Glue (see previous blog).
New study found that firefighters have an increased risk of developing numerous types of cancer with Black and Hispanic firefighters having increased risks for more types of cancer than whites
Firefighters are exposed on a regular basis to known carcinogens. A recent study by the The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) that includes data from 1988 to 2007 assessed the association between firefighters and the development of 32 different types of cancer. The study found that firefighters have a greater risk to develop certain types of cancers such as melanoma, acute myeloid leukemia, multiple myeloma, and cancers of the esophagus, prostate, brain, and kidney. Black and Hispanic firefighters, unlike white firefighters, were also found to have increased risks for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, chronic myeloid leukemia and cancers of the tongue, testis, and bladder. Read more here
A hit and run Bronx driver critically injured Robert Ray, the subway motorman who drunkenly nodded off and crashed a No. 4 train in Union Square in 1991, killing five passengers
61 year old Robert Ray who served 10 years in prison after admitting he was drunk when he crashed a train in Union Square in 1991 was hit by a car and suffered critical personal injury as he was crossing The Grand Concourse from east to west at E.182 St in the Bronx last Thursday night. The driver sped off and disappeared in the night. Police who don’t have a description of the car haven’t made an arrest. Read more in the NY Daily News