New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog

Published on: May 1, 2014

New York Emergency Room Negligence: Bronx Residents and Elected Officials protested Today in front the Montefiore Weiler/Enstein Hopsital to complain about the Excessive Wait Times in the ER

Montefiore%20-%20wikipedia.jpg Excessive waiting time in an emergency room can be medical malpractice. Patients who are coming to an hospital ER with serious personal injury or disease and who have too wait an excessive time have a higher risk to suffer from permanent injuries or to die. At the Montefiore Weiler/Einstein Hospital the average waiting time for the Emergency Room is of 107 minutes. According to Propublica this is the second worst in the entire state of New York. The average wait time in New York is 37 minutes and nationnaly it’s 28 minutes.
Bronx Assemblyman Michael Benedetto will hold a conference Thursday outside the center to push the Montefiore-operated hospital to provide answers to the community.

Speed suspected as the probable cause of a car accident that killed the passenger and left the driver with head and body trauma in Pehlam Garden in the Bronx, NYC

By GGCRBHS&M

A woman died and a man was injured after their car flipped over, hit another car and struck a tree. The passenger, 26 year old Perla Reyes died while the 34 year old driver suffered body and head trauma. The police say speed was probably a factor in the accident. According to NYPD data, unsafe speed is a cited as a factor in an approximately 200 vehicle accidents every month in New York City.

Top 5 medical malpractice claims against internists

By GGCRBHS&M

What are the most common medical malpractice claims filed against internists? Which ones have the most chance to be paid? Which ones are the most expensive? A study published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine and led by Sandeep S. Mangalmurti, MD, JD, from the Bassett Heart Care Institute in Cooperstown, NY uses data from the Physician Insurers Association of America to analyze 250,000 lawsuits against internists that have been closed between 1985 and 2009 to answer these questions and others.

Diagnostic errors represent 26% of all closed lawsuits against internists, 36% of all paid claims and 43% of the total amount paid for medical malpractice by internists. Among the 8,925 closed claims only 34% of them were paid. The study also highlights that most frequent diagnostic errors claims are error in diagnosing lung cancer, myocardial infarction, colon cancer and breast cancer.

The second most common type of claims filed against internists are medical malpractice claims not related to a medical error but to a breach of care such as a failure to obtain consent or failure of medical equipment or other. 95% of these claims are rejected therefore even though they account for 25% of all closed claims they only represent 5% of paid lawsuits and 5% of the total amount paid toward internists medical malpractice claims.

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Published on: April 29, 2014

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says changes to the Scaffold Law are not on his priority list and are unlikely to happen this year

By GGCRBHS&M

Labor Law 240 known as The Scaffold Law protects New York construction workers from elevation related construction accidents. Recently the construction industry and real estate developers have been making another legislative push in Albany to change the law to their advantage. In response to this push, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said last week in an interview with the Crain’s editorial board that he had no intention to change the law. Cuomo said that changes to Labor Law 240 were not a top priority for business interests or for him.

Cuomo also added that the law couldn’t be changed because of the strength of its supporters, particularly the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. The trial lawyers as well as immigrant rights and community organizations support the law because even though it is not perfect it remains the only way to make sure construction workers are adequately protected from dangerous accidents.

Read the Crain’s article

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Published on: April 28, 2014

The FMCSA proposes a new rule that will allow truck and bus companies to sign and maintain documents eletronically

By GGCRBHS&M

A new rule proposed by the FMCSA would allow commercial carriers to use an electronic signature and to store their documents electronically. This new rule would apply to documents that trucking and bus companies are legally obligated to retain but not to forms and documents that have to be submitted directly to the FMCSA. This proposed rule responds in part to the President’s January 2011 Regulatory
Review and Reform initiative and would implement the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA) and the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN).

Read the complete rule proposal

Published on: April 28, 2014

FDNY fire dispatchers and supevisor suspended after an ambulance delay related to a fire that killed two children in Far Rockaway, Queens, NYC

By GGCRBHS&M

A preliminary investigation into the ambulance delay related to a deadly fire in Queens (see previous blog) lead to the suspension of 3 FDNY dispatchers and their supervisor.
Read more in New York CBS

Published on: April 28, 2014

Motorcyclist suffers personal injury after being struck by a police car rushing to a report of a robery in Queens, NYC

By GGCRBHS&M

A biker was injured after he was hit by a police car on the corner of Farmers Blvd and 120th Street. in St Albans, Queens. The police car had its lights and sirens on and was rushing to a report of a robbery. They apparently went through a red light when the accident happened.

Woman dies in NYC Subway Accident

By GGCRBHS&M

A woman died after being struck in the head by a subway in New York as she leaned over the platform to check if the train was coming. The 55 year old woman was waiting for the northbound 6 train at the Astor Place station when the fatal accident happened.

Today is Worker’s Memorial Day 2014: New York honors the memory of workers who have died or have been injured on the job and fight for the safety of those who are alive and in good health

By GGCRBHS&M

Worker%27s%20memorial%20day.jpg In New York City, a memorial including the Hardhat Procession into the Cathedral will be held this afternoon at St Patrick’s Cathedral during which OSHA’s Manhattan Area Office Director Kay Gee and Labor Liaison Laura Kenny will read names of construction workers killed on the job in New York City over the past year.

Other events will be held by OSHA and by other occupational safety activists and unions such as CSEA all around New York State and around the country.

Every year in New York close to 70,000 workers will suffer personal injury or illness related to their job and hundreds of them will die on the job.

Published on: April 25, 2014

Negligent truck driver hiring puts road users at risk of dangerous accidents and expose commercial cariers to expensive lawsuits

By GGCRBHS&M

With the actual growing shortage of qualified truck drivers, trucking companies may be tempted to lower their hiring standards to avoid turning down jobs. These companies should keep in mind that by scarifying safety for profit they put themselves at the mercy of a negligent hiring lawsuit.

Trucks are dangerous vehicles and motor carriers are responsible for any accident caused by their drivers. Therefore if the company was negligent in its hiring process in addition to the usual negligent driving claims it can also be held responsible for the personal injury, the death and the property damage resulting from an accident caused by its driver on a separate cause of action alleging negligent hiring. In some states based upon the driver’s record at the time of hiring punitive damages may be recoverable.

In his article “Negligent Driver Hiring Can Bite You in the Butt” , Don Jerrel, Associate Vice President at HNI, explains how hiring, training and keeping qualified and successful truck drivers will protect commercial carriers from expensive lawsuits and improve safety on the road by reducing truck accidents.