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.

Articles Posted in Personal Injury

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Products%20with%20hidden%20drug%20ingredients%20Dr%20Mao.jpgHidden Drugs or Chemicals in dietary supplements or conventional food can cause severe personal injury and sometimes lead to death. According to the FDA, some products promoting sexual enhancement, weight loss, or bodybuilding and advertised as “all natural” may contain dangerous drugs or chemicals that have been previously removed from the market for safety reason.

For example, The FDA announced recently that Sibutramine was found in several weight loss products. These products go by the name of “Dr. Mao Slimming Capsules”, “Be Inspired”, “Perfect Body Solutions” and “Burn 7”, “Bella Vi Insane Amp’d” and “Bella Vi Amp’d Up”

Sibutramine is a controlled substance that was removed from the market in 2010 because it can increase blood pressure and/or pulse rate in some patients. Sibutramine can present a significant risk for patients with a history of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, or stroke. Sibutramine can also interact in life-threatening ways with other medications.

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Diagnostic errors are among the leading causes for Medical Malpractice Claims in the US. They cause personal injury to patients and waste resources.

Recently the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM) announced that the Institute Of Medicine (IOM) had accepted the SIDM’s proposal to undertake a report on diagnostic error as the next volume in the Crossing the Quality Chasm series. The “Quality Chasm Series” started in 2000 with the report “To Err is Human”. The publication of this report is often associated with the beginning of the patient safety movement.

Other IOM’s Quality Chasm series includes Health IT and Patient Safety (2012), Preventing Medication Errors (2006), and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001).

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426 personal injury incidents including 132 wrongful deaths related to bassinets and cradles have been reported to the CPSC between November 2007 and March 2013. Therefore the CPSC has approved a new federal mandatory standard to improve the safety of bassinets and cradles.

To create the new mandatory standard, the CSPC incorporated 5 modifications to the actual voluntary standard (ASTM F2194-13) Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Bassinets and Cradles. These modification are:

1. a clarification of the scope of the bassinet/cradle standard

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Cases of hepatitis B reactivation leading to serious personal injury and death after cancer patients have been prescribed Arzerra (ofatumumab) and Rituxan (rituximab) are still occurring even though the risk of HBV reactivation is already described in the Warnings and Precautions section of the labels for both drugs. For this reason the FDA has recently approved changes to the prescribing information of these two drugs.The revised labels also will include additional recommendations for screening, monitoring, and managing patients on these drugs to decrease this risk.
Go to the FDA website to learn more and listen to a podcast on this subject.

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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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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.

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super%20lawyers.jpg Peter J. Saghir has been selected to the 2013 New York Super Lawyers Rising Stars list. Each year, no more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in New York are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor.

Since joining the firm, Peter’s focus has been on the preparation of catastrophic personal injury cases, complex medical malpractice cases, construction accident cases, car accident cases product liability cases and wrongful death cases. His primary responsibilities include all aspects of the preparation of a case including taking depositions, drafting and arguing motions and trials.

Our congratulations to Peter on receiving this honor at this early point in his career. It is well deserved.

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1697 motorists, 2055 passengers, 470 cyclists and 855 pedestrians suffered personal injury while 10 motorists and 12 pedestrians died in traffic accidents in New York City during the month of July according to the most recent data from the NYPD.

The number of accidents amounted to a total of 17,548 for the month of July. “Driver inattention and distraction” was the biggest contributing factor of personal injuries and wrongful deaths followed by “following too closely” and “failure to yield the right of way”.

Looking at each borough, Brooklyn recorded the highest number of personal injuries with 517 motorists, 675 passengers, 295 pedestrians and 195 cyclists injured in traffic accidents. Queens recorded the most deaths with 5 motorists and 3 pedestrians killed.

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After a woman was struck by a truck causing her death at the Ocean Parkway Intersection in Brooklyn last June (see our previous blog), the New York Sate Department of Transportation finally approved a $200,000 crosswalk makeover that had been delayed since 2012.

A pedestrian island and other enhancements that will improve safety for all users will be installed on Ocean Parkway near Church Ave where cars funnel onto the expressway.

The construction is expected to start this fall.