New York Accident Lawyers

Published on: August 12, 2017

Big Rig Collisions Causing More Suffering Than Necessary, And How We Can Fix It

A collision between a personal vehicle and a big rig can be devastating. Those involved may experience injury or death, while their loved ones are tasked with caring for them (if they’re lucky), or making arrangements for a memorial service (if they’re not). Under such tragic circumstances, the victims and their families should be provided with fair and adequate compensation to aid with their expenses. However, many commercial trucks carry the absolute minimum amount of insurance coverage— and typically, that’s not nearly enough.

The federal minimum for liability insurance for truckers is $750,000. Although that may sound like a lot of money, the damage that tractor trailers inflict in a collision often dwarfs this minimal sum. Congress set the minimum at $750,000 back in 1985, and has not been changed it since. It has not even been adjusted for inflation. If it were, the minimum would now be $2.2 million. Needless to say, the victims of collisions caused by negligent truck drivers are increasingly finding themselves fighting for compensation that is woefully insufficient to cover their medical bills.

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Published on: July 9, 2017

How a Florida Governor Robbed His Constituents Of Their Constitutional Right

By Caesar, Napoli & Spivak PLLC

Susan Kalitan was undergoing carpal tunnel surgery in a Florida hospital when the anesthesia tube administered by her doctor punctured her esophagus. Susan awoke after the surgery and immediately told her doctors that she was experiencing severe pain in her back and chest, but they dismissed her complaints. The doctors gave Susan pain medication and sent her home.

The following day, a neighbor found Susan unconscious in her home. Susan was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery and was put in a medically induced coma for several weeks. The treatment saved Susan’s life, but to this day she experiences significant pain and struggles to live a normal life.

Susan filed a lawsuit against the North Broward Hospital District and other liable parties in 2008. She was awarded $4 million in non-economic damages. However, when it came time for Susan to receive her compensation, it was reduced to a fraction of the original number.

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Published on: July 9, 2017

Whistleblowing – Do A Public Service And Earn Up To $600 Million

By Caesar, Napoli & Spivak PLLC

It is not unheard of for companies go to extreme lengths to avoid paying taxes. From the collapse of Enron to the leaking of the Panama Papers, stories of corporations violating laws to avoid taxes are constantly in the news. Fortunately, a little-known law has given the U.S. government a powerful tool to uncover these crimes, recover ill-gotten gains, and reward the “whistleblower” at the same time.

The False Claims Act, aptly nicknamed Whistleblower Law, rewards citizens for informing the government when they have evidence of corporations committing fraud. Under the False Claims Act, these whistleblowers are eligible to receive 15 to 30 percent of the amount the government recovers.

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Published on: May 14, 2017

Used Car Dealers Allowed to Sell ‘Deathtrap’ Cars Under Current NY Laws

By Caesar, Napoli & Spivak PLLC

It seems as though every time we turn on the news, we’re met with another story about an auto recall. Some of the most infamous include GM’s faulty ignition devices, responsible for the deaths of at least 169 Americans, and the defective airbags manufactured by Takata, which killed 14 and injured over 180 Americans. In 2016 alone, 53.2 million cars were recalled.

It is illegal to sell new cars if they have not been repaired after a recall. However, there is no federal regulation that specifically prohibits used car dealers from selling recalled vehicles as “safe”— even if they have not been repaired.

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Published on: May 8, 2017

The Five Most Deadly Places to Drive in NYC

By Caesar, Napoli & Spivak PLLC

Mayor Bill de Blasio brought the Vision Zero plan to New York City in 2014, with the goal of reducing the number of deaths caused by traffic collisions to zero by 2014. While the first two years of Vision Zero led to fewer traffic deaths, the initiative has not been as effective as many New Yorkers hoped.

Every day, auto collisions still occur by the hundreds throughout New York, totaling 53,000 since the start of 2017. Last year, the city actually saw a rise in the number of pedestrian deaths.
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Published on: April 9, 2017

How Living In The Largest Sanctuary City In The Country Affects You

By Caesar, Napoli & Spivak PLLC

President Donald Trump, though his executive order on immigration released on January 25, 2017, prioritized for deportation any “alien” accused of or convicted of a crime. Since crossing the border without proper documentation and using a false social security number — as many undocumented immigrants do in order to obtain work — are both crimes, Trump essentially put all “aliens” on notice.

Understandably, this order has sent shock waves through immigrant communities. “Right now, the paranoia and sense of fear is overwhelming,” said Ramiro Orozco, an immigration attorney. “All the raids and the rhetoric… have created so much anxiety… people are pulling their children out of school, they’re not going to work.”

In the face of these threats to undocumented immigrants, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, along with the mayors of many other major cities, has promised hope: “We’re going to defend all of our people regardless of where they come from, regardless of their immigration status.”

Immigrant communities are left asking: To what extent is this promise legitimate, and on what grounds?
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Published on: March 13, 2017

6 Steps Every Non-Union Worker Should Take if Injured on the Job

By Caesar, Napoli & Spivak PLLC

Construction work is one of the most dangerous professions in New York City. As we detailed in our last blog, in New York City alone, 31 construction workers were killed on the job in the last two years. 29 of those deaths occurred on non-union work sites. This statistic bears out what we commonly see in our law practice: non-union workers risk their life and limb every time they step on a work site.

Though insurance carriers and contractors would like to refer to these injuries as “accidents,” most construction-related injuries are the direct result of a manager’s or company’s negligence. Safety violations were found at 90 percent of fatality sites inspected by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 2015.
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Published on: February 10, 2017

Most NYC Construction Deaths Preventable, Report Finds

By Caesar, Napoli & Spivak PLLC

2015 and 2016 were two of the most devastating years in history for the New York City construction industry. 31 men and women died on the job, meaning that on average, one worker did not come home from a construction site about every three weeks.

The last death of 2016 occurred on December 23rd, when a worker, whose safety belt was not attached to any cable, fell down an elevator shaft. Just weeks prior, another worker, also not wearing a connected safety belt, fell to his death in Brooklyn at the Old Domino Sugar Factory. These two fatalities, heartbreaking in themselves, portray a larger problem: 29 of the 31 deaths happened at non-union sites. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), almost all of the deaths were preventable.
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Published on: December 28, 2016

The Sugar Industry Has Been Lying To Us For 50 Years, New Report Finds

By Caesar, Napoli & Spivak PLLC

Cristin Kearns, a fellow at University of California, San Francisco, recently uncovered documents that reveal decades of deception and bribery in the sugar industry that implicates elite professors and the United States government. These revelations not only shed light on the way corporations wield power in American politics and culture; they also have significant legal ramifications.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys have struggled for years to hold the sugar and sugar-sweetened beverage industries accountable for their misleading advertising, targeting of children, and disproportionate effect on the United States’ obesity epidemic. In case after case, Big Sugar has successfully argued that consumers need to take responsibility for their own nutritional choices, even bad ones.

This report by Ms. Kearns adds a new element to the story: deception.
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Published on: December 10, 2016

Uber “Terms and Conditions” Depriving Users of Constitutional Rights

By Caesar, Napoli & Spivak PLLC

When you click “accept” under the multi-paragraph “Terms and Conditions” portion of the Uber app, are you really bound by those terms? How about if those terms strip you of your constitutional rights?

Uber, the cell-phone based transportation company, is working to make sure the answer to both of those questions is an unambiguous “Yes.” Now, with their new terms of use, which became effective on November 21, 2016, Uber may have succeeded.

At stake is nothing less than your constitutional right to sue a wrongdoer in court. Uber is once again seeking to waive the customer’s right to seek justice in a court of law even in such cases of death or passenger sexual assault.
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