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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The number of deaths resulting from Medical Errors in Hospitals have been grossly underestimated according to new estimates developed by John T. James, a toxicologist at NASA’s space center in Houston. James runs an advocacy organization called Patient Safety America that he created after his 19 year old son died as a result of medical malpractice in a Texas Hospital.

In 1999, “To Err is Human Report“, estimated the number of deaths resulting from medical errors in hospitals at 98,000. In 2010, The Office of the Inspector General for Health and Human Services said that bad hospital care contributed to the deaths of 180,000 in Medicare patients alone in a given year.

According to the study published in the current issue of “Journal of Patient Safety” these numbers are too low and the true number of premature deaths associated with preventable harm to patients is estimated at more than 400,000 per year.

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Haile%20Burns.jpg Our partner, New York Personal Injury Lawyer Howard Hershenhorn, represents the Bronx family of a four-year old girl who has been severely burned (see picture of Haile Martinez) and her seven year old sister who died from smoke inhalation and burns covering 80 percent of her body after a kitchen fire was sparked by an improperly installed stove.

Two weeks before the deadly accident, the super installed a new stove in the apartment. According to Hershenhorn, “The super positioned the appliance so close to the wall, it crushed the electrical cord, damaging it to the point where it ignited”. This was confirmed by the FDNY Bureau of Fire Investigation incident report that listed “Appliance Cord” as the cause of the fire.

The family’s lawsuit additionally faults the landlord for not installing the required kitchen smoke alarm, and for “spoilating the evidence” by dismantling the charred kitchen the day after the fire.

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New York Personal Injury Lawyers are invited to attend the The Flagship Program of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association “DECISIONS” that gets underway this coming Friday and Saturday, September 27 & 28th.

Gair Gair Conason Steigman Mackauf Bloom and Rubinowitz is pleased to announce that two of their partners, Ben Rubinowitz and Richard Steigman, will be lecturing on Trial Practice in many of the venues where the program is being held. ” Not only will we be speaking about recent developments in the law but we intend to give concrete examples of methods for successfully dealing with these new issues” said Rubinowitz. “All attorneys need to continually update their knowledge in the field or they run the risk of putting their clients at a severe disadvantage while trying cases. I recommend that all practicing attorneys attend this program — I can assure you, it will be well worth your time.” Both Rubinowitz and Steigman have had numerous multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements throughout their careers and have been recognized as Experts in the field by the New York Law Journal and Continuing Legal Education Programs throughout the State.

To attend Live or Order CDs go to New York State Trial Lawyers Association website.

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This Fall, Justice Douglas McKeon, the Administrative Judge of Bronx County, is heading up the Moore Advocates lecture series at Fordham Law School. This program features some of the finest and most successful trial lawyers in New York State lecturing about their field and demonstrating Trial Techniques to students and alumni of Fordham Law School. In addition to those who attended Fordham Law, the program is open to all practicing attorneys in New York. On September 12th Ben Rubinowitz and Evan Torgan joined Justice McKeon in speaking about Direct and Cross Examination. “Not only does Judge McKeon run one of the busiest Courts in the country but he still manages to find time to share his expertise with students and lawyers” said Rubinowitz. “I am delighted to have been asked to participate in the Program. It’s programs like these that make the Bar of the State of New York that much better.” Future speakers include, among others, Judy Livingston and Herald Price Fahringer.

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From Left to right: Evan Torgan, Honorable Douglas McKeon and Ben Rubinowitz

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2008_bmw_m5.jpegMore than 134,000 BMW cars are being recalled because defective rear lights connections can cause the rear lights to fail and increase the risk of a crash.
BMW experienced a similar issue in 2011 and had to recall 241,000 defective cars from the 3-Series.
Owners will be notified by mail to contact their dealer for a partial replacement of the rear lamp connections.

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A defective computer chip in the airbag control unit may lead to an inadvertent deployment of the driver and passenger seat airbags.

The recall include 342,000 Odyssey minivans from 2003 and 2004 in the United States and in Canada as well as 63,400 Acura MDXs from 2003 in the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia.

Honda will repair this defect by installing an electrical signal filter in the recalled cars. Click here for more info

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Defective%20water%20cooler.jpgDefective%20water%20cooler%202.jpgSome water dispensers from Waterlogic are defective and pose a fire hazard. These products have been recalled after consumers reported that the hot water tank would stop functioning and cause the machine to overheat and catch fire.

Consumers who leased or bought a warm and cold water dispenser branded AquaMark, Coolersmart, Culligan, Innowave, Waterlogic or Xstream Water between January 2005 and December 2008 should check the complete list of recalled models here.

Consumers should stop to use the recalled products immediately and contact Waterlogic for repair

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These defective products, manufactured in China, have been recalled after 165 incidents, 46 fires and more than $2.15 million in property damage were reported in the United States and Canada.

The recalls include more than 60 different models of 12 different brands that have been sold at AAFES, HH Gregg, Home Depot, Kmart, Lowe’s, Menards, Mills Fleet Farm, Sam’s Club, Sears and other stores nationwide and in Canada, and online at Amazon.com and Ebay.com, from January 2005 through August 2013.

The complete list of recalled models can be found here.

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$ 91.7 million was paid for more than 400 medical malpractice claims against the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2012. Cases included missed diagnoses, delayed treatment and procedures performed on wrong body parts. The highest settlement which was also the largest in 12 years was for $17.5 million to the family of Christopher Ellison who was left permanently incapacitated after getting teeth extracted at a Veterans Medical Center in Philadelphia.

Veterans%20Medical%20Malpractice%20Claims.pngFollowing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the number of veterans taking advantage of VA medical care has risen significantly. Last year, the 152 VA hospitals and 190,000 doctors treated 5.6 million veterans, an increase of more than 30% compared to 10 years ago.

In the next 4 years, 1.2 million soldiers will become veterans. Some of them who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering post traumatic stress disorder while others survived injuries that would have been fatal during World War II or the Vietnam War.

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10 Lawyers from Gair Gair Conason Steigman Mackauf Bloom&Rubinowitz were recently selected by their peers as New York Super Lawyers for 2013. Our primary practice area is personal injury. We handle all types of personal injury cases including medical malpractice, car accident, product liability, construction accident and wrongful death cases. Those selected are Jeffrey B. Bloom, Seymour Boyers, Anthony H. Gair, Howard S. Hershenhorn(Top 100) ,Jerome I. Katz, Stephen H. Mackauf, Ben B. Rubinowitz(Top100), Christopher L. Sallay, Ernest R. Steigman and Richard M. Steigman.

The sum of the verdicts and settlements our attorneys have obtained approaches $1 billion dollars. We believe the key to achieving these results is to limit our case intake to approximately 80-100 cases per year so that extensive personal attention and meticulous trial preparation are afforded to each of our clients on all matters. Because we are selective in the cases we accept, we are able to immerse ourselves in our cases and as a result, we are able to resolve our clients’ cases more quickly than other plaintiff’s personal injury firms.

We operate what some might call a “boutique firm”-which means we limit our practice to a select group of serious and substantial tort cases, but our results speak for themselves. As a personal injury firm, we spend a significant amount of time deciding whether we will accept a case, and, because we only accept a select few cases, we are able to spend more resources than other firms to secure the most knowledgeable experts and to get the best results for our clients.