In the movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, there is a point in the story where one of the main characters is involved in a life-changing accident.  There is a scene where the character of Benjamin Button, narrating the story, takes the viewer through the circumstances leading up to the accident.  He ultimately makes the point that, “…if only one thing had happened differently,” the accident would not have happened and the victim’s entire life would have proceeded differently, sparing her the trauma and agony of the ordeal.

Having spoken to thousands of accident victims about the details of their accident, I have had this same thought myself many times.  In speaking to clients who were seriously injured, I have heard them wonder aloud the same question.   I think it is a natural human reaction to any bad accident.  I would bet that you have had the same thought yourself.  If only one thing had been different…

My wish to you for the New Year is that you do everything in your power to do the one thing that will keep you and your loved ones safe.  Whether it is buckling a seat belt or asking someone to hold the ladder, or whatever that careful little voice inside of you suggests that you might otherwise dismiss with a “nah, I don’t need to do that, I’ll be fine.”

Like the lady who called our office after she had taken a ride, “only around the block,” on the back of her boyfriend’s new motorcycle without a helmet, only to suffer a head injury in the accident only a few hundred yards from her front door. If only they had checked their excitement about the new motorcycle until a second helmet was available.  There are far too many such examples.

We want you to enjoy the gifts of life.  Please be careful.  Please protect yourself.  Please be safe.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy & safe 2010 !

So frequently, a simple step taken as a precaution can prevent an accident with serious or even catastrophic results.  For example, children are often injured or even killed by television sets falling on them.

The concerns and appropriate measures are discussed here .  Below is an excerpt:

Furniture should be stable on its own. For added security, anchor chests or dressers, TV stands, bookcases and entertainment units to the floor or attach them to a wall.

Place TVs on a sturdy, low-rise base. Avoid flimsy shelves.

Push the TV as far back as possible.

Place electrical cords out of a child’s reach, and teach kids not to play with them.

Keep remote controls and other attractive items off the TV stand so kids won’t be tempted to grab for them and risk knocking the TV over.

Make sure free-standing ranges and stoves are installed with anti-tip brackets.

Recently I had the need to retain the services of a property inspection company.  As a personal injury attorney who has heard thousands of variations on how people get hurt, I tend to notice unsafe conditions such as  tripping hazards and other such dangers at a premises.

While my thought in retaining the company was to be advised of any structural issues at the property, (eg; condition of the roof, foundation, etc.,) I was delighted that a number of safety issues were brought to my attention.  I didn’t notice that the stairway railing uprights had been spaced too far apart, in violation of the building code, and presented an especially great threat to toddlers or small children who would naturally be drawn to sticking their head between the uprights.  A fall on the steps or twist of the body with the head lodged could spell disaster.  Improper wiring, a missing walkway flag and a few other concerns were also brought to my attention.

Almost all the premises liability cases presented to us involve serious or catostrophic injuries that could have been prevented with the appropriate level of care.  (In fact, that is the basis of the negligence claim that results from the absence of such care.)

If you own a property, you may wish to invest in a safety inspection for the safety of those you care about.

Below is a recent newsletter from the company I used.  If you call Jim at Safe Harbor, I’m sure he’ll be glad to add you to their e-mail list.  I find that it is a good resource.

Safe Harbor Inspections, Inc. Email: office@safeharborinspections.com Telephone: 631-275-8080 Visit us at safeharborinspections.com

I often think of law as an attempt to make the best out of a bad situation.  The solutions are often, if not almost always, far from perfect.

When a law is passed to serve some (purportedly,) greater good, it’s application in a given instance can often lead to a harsh, to say the least, outcome.  Here is a tragic instance.

Please stay safe !  Here is a valuable piece about gun saftey.

These tips on safe winter driving from the Washington State Department of Transportation make for some appropriate “words to the wise,” as winter approaches for New Yorkers.  Please drive safely !

Fortunately, no serious injury here

Although this scene out of “A Christmas Story” did not result in the child being badly hurt, the various celebrations of the season’s holidays do present some very real risks.  Please see this pamphlet from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commision.  Please do stay safe and enjoy the Holiday Season.

As per The American Heritage® Medical Dictionary (Copyright © 2007, 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company) “Iatrogenic” has the following definition:

“i·at·ro·gen·ic (-tr-jnk) adj.  Induced in a patient by a physician’s activity, manner, or therapy.”

Several years ago, an article from JAMA found, “evidence from a few studies indicating that as many as 20% to 30% of patients receive contraindicated care.¹ In addition, with the release of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report “To Err Is Human,”² millions of Americans learned, for the first time, that an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 among them die each year as a result of medical errors.”

Dennis Quaid, seeking to turn a personal near tragedy to a  public benefit, has undertaken a project to fight iatrogenic injuries and deaths.

We commend him for his good work and wish him great success.

The title of this post was the title of a recent article at NYTimes.com.  Here is the article.  Here is an excerpt:

… [W]hat’s your advice for pregnant women today on how best to protect themselves in a car?

The biggest thing is to wear your seat belt. Keep the lap belt by your legs and stay as far away from the steering wheel as you can. Some vehicles have a button to adjust the height of the brake and gas pedal so shorter people don’t have to sit so close to the steering wheel. And there are after-market pedal extenders. …Pedal extenders allow…a position further away from the steering wheel. It’s just three inches, but that’s a lot of distance in an accident.”

NYSTLA ( www.NYSTLA.org ) is the New York State Trial Lawyers Association.   At it’s web site NYSTLA states that the mission of the New York State Trial Lawyers is “To promote a safer and healthier society, to assure access to the civil justice system by those who are wrongfully injured and to advance representation of the public by ethical, well-trained lawyers.”

In furtherance of this mission, NYSTLA tirelessly supports the enactment of laws consistent with the mission statement above.  Recently, NYSTLA achieved a significant victory, for the benefit of people injured due to the fault of others.

Governor Signs Anti-Subrogation Law

NYSTLA achieved an extraordinary legislative victory when Governor Paterson signed into effect new General Obligations Law §5-335 on November 12, 2009. This law now bars any benefit provider, such as an HMO or private health insurer, from seeking any reimbursement or subrogation against any settling party to a personal injury or wrongful death action with respect to benefits it may have paid or is obligated to pay. The only exceptions are for claims for which there is a statutory right of reimbursement (e.g., Medicaid, Medicare, workers’ compensation) and subrogation claims to recover excess no-fault benefits.

This new law directly overrules two problematic Court of Appeals decisions, Teichman v. Community Hosp. Of Western Suffolk, 87 N.Y.2d 514 (1996), and Fasso v. Doerr, 12 N.Y.3d 80 (2009), to the extent they recognized non-statutory rights for reimbursement or subrogation against a settling party.

Moreover, this law takes effect immediately and applies both to future actions and all pending cases that have not settled or gone to trial as of today.

This law is a major victory in protecting our injured clients against the proliferation of unwarranted claims for windfalls by way of subrogation and reimbursement asserted by health insurers in recent years. It will significantly facilitate the prosecution of our cases and remove major obstacles to their resolution.

The bill also eliminates the exception under CPLR §4545 that barred a public employer sued by its employee from reducing a future lost earnings award by the amount of future pension benefits that plaintiff will receive (Iazzetti v. City of NY, 94 N.Y.2d 183, 701 N.Y.S.2d 332 [1999]). Under this new law, a public employer sued by its employee will now be entitled to the same collateral source setoff for future benefits as all other defendants are already entitled to receive. Even here, NYSTLA effectively rebuffed the City of New York’s overreaching attempts to have the law changed not only for new actions but also all those now pending. Thus, unlike the new GOL §5-335 above, this amendment to CPLR §4545 applies only to actions commenced on or after its effective date.

We salute the leaders and officers of NYSTLA who gave so much of their time and effort to arrive at this superb achievement. Those labors can especially be appreciated from the fact that the bill was passed with something as rare in Albany as it is in Washington – almost unanimous bipartisan support. The vote was 135-0 in the Assembly and 59-2 in the Senate.  (Text from www.NYSTLA.org)

As described in the New York Times recently, “On the evening of Dec. 2, 1984, methyl isocyanate gas escaped from the former Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, killing at least 3,000 people immediately. Thousands more are said to have since died or been injured as a result of the toxic cloud, although the exact death toll remains unclear.”

This tragedy was one of the most terrible industrial accidents in history.  ( I have read accounts that put the death toll in the tens of thousands.)

There is a cold hearted cynicism lurking in society that seeks to dismiss, minimize or even blame the victim of an accident who has the temerity to seek reasonable compensation for the harm suffered.

People who have been hurt deserve a fair hearing.  To marginalize their pain with a knee jerk reaction is a sure way to make a tragedy even worse.  To add, as the saying goes, insult to injury.

In the Op-Ed section of today’s NYTimes.com, Suketu Mehta describes the victims of Bhopal in language that echoes the sentiments of our clients.

The survivors of Bhopal want only to be treated as human beings — not victims, not greedy money-grabbers, just human beings who’ve gone through hell and are entitled to a measure of dignity. That includes concrete things like cleaning up the mess and providing health care for the sick, and also something more abstract but equally important — an acknowledgment that a wrong was done to them, and an apology, which Bhopalis have yet to receive.