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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Triborough_Bridge were the accident occuredThankfully nobody was seriously injured in an accident involving multiple cars  after a NY State trooper opened fire on two suspects fleeing in a stolen car  on the RFK bridge that was packed with holiday travelers.  The bridge was closed  for hours creating major traffic delays.

The hunt for the car, a 2021 Acura Sedan, started the day before when the owner of the car reported to the police that the vehicle was stolen. On Sunday afternoon, the owner of the Acura contacted the police again and told them that his tracking app was showing the vehicle on the RFK bridge. The car was spotted by the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority officials who contacted the NY State Police.

According to a witness the State troopers were able to localize the car and get close to it. One of the troopers knocked on the window of the stolen car. After a while the driver opened it and the officer grabbed him by the neck.  The driver took off, hitting another car that struck the trooper. The trooper then opened fire on the fleeing suspects who hit multiple other cars as they were fleeing from the police.   Two people were hurt including the State Trooper and the thieves were arrested in Harlem after they got off the bridge.

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Personal Injury attorney Rubinowitz gala honoree
Congratulations to our managing partner Ben Rubinowitz for being among the 50 alumni who will be inducted to the Hofstra Law Hall of Fame as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the  Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University.  Ben and 49 other alumni as well as 15 distinguished alumni on the bench will be recognized at the Law School’s 50th anniversary gala on April 5, 2022, at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Recognized as a top trial attorney nationally, Ben graduated from  Hofstra Law and started his career as a prosecutor where where he honed the trial skills that would become his hallmark. He joined the Personal Injury Law Firm of Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf  and throughout his 30-year legal career he made his mark as a leading trial lawyer devoting his career to helping those in need. Results speak for themselves as through his hard work, meticulous trial preparation and his outstanding courtroom skills and presence, Ben has obtained 200 verdicts and settlements in excess of one million dollars. Among the most recent outstanding results was the largest pain and suffering award ever affirmed in New York State history by the Appellate Division. This record setting award was based on a $60 Million jury award in which a 16 year old student was severely burned in his Chemistry class when his teacher negligently performed a demonstration in violation of the school’s own science safety manual.

Throughout his brilliant career, Ben received multiple prestigious awards such as the prestigious Prentice Marshall Award and Robert E. Keeton Award for Trial Practice, and was voted “Lawyer of the Year by “Best Lawyers in America” four times. He was also invited to be a member of the Inner Circles of Advocates whose membership is limited to 100 trial lawyers in the country.

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Alonzo Yanes suffered devastating injuriesThe Appellate Division of New York just allowed the largest award for Pain and Suffering ever in New York State History. Although the jury verdict was reduced, the Appeals court allowed $29 million for Pain and Suffering. This award represents an almost 50% increase from the next highest award — $20 million which was a recent decision from the same court.

The case was one that sparked national attention. A 10th grade student, Alonzo Yanes, was severely burned in his 10th grade chemistry class due to the negligence of his teacher Anna Poole and the New York City Board of Education.  The teacher, who had been performing the “rainbow experiment,” failed to take necessary safety precautions to protect the students in her class. In the experiment the teacher was using methanol, a highly flammable substance, and failed to ensure that the students were kept at a safe distance from the demonstration table, failed to provide goggles to the students, failed to ensure there was a fire blanket was in the classroom and conducted the experiment in a classroom which did not have proper ventilation or showers.

Alonzo was burned alive. As the teacher poured the methanol from a gallon jug into a beaker a large  fireball erupted and coated this young student with millions of droplets of burning methanol. Alonzo was screaming in agony —  but because there was no protective equipment in the classroom and no shower or fire blanket he kept burning while a teacher from another classroom finally entered the classroom with a fire blanket to smother the flames.

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injured hand of an elderly patientSadly elder abuse is quite common in the US. It is estimated that 5 to 10% of elders suffer abuse of various types such as physical or psychological abuse, financial exploitation  or neglect. Often those who are abused suffer multiple types of abuse together. Depression, chronic illness hospitalization and placement in nursing homes are often the direct consequences of these abuses. When an elder has little contact with the outside world except for his or her oppressors, the physicians are often the only ones who can determine if abuse occurs and raise the alarm. When physical abuse occurs, elder patients who show up at the emergency room often pretend they fell.  A good emergency physician should be able to differentiate between fall injuries and abuse injuries and raise the alert if necessary.

A recent study  published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine and led by Tony Rosen, Department of Emergency Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College / NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, in New York compares the injuries of 78 elder patients who were physically abused with the injuries of 78 elder patients who unintentionally fell. Here are some of the findings:

  • Bruises could be a sign of abuse. 78% of elders who were physically abused suffered bruises compared to 54% of those who fell
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Travis-ScottOur partner, New York Personal Injury Attorney Howard Hershenhorn  talked to Rolling Stone Magazine and the New York Times on behalf of our client Kyle Green who was left partially paralyzed after attending a Travis Scott Concert at Terminal 5 in New York in 2017 (see previous blog).

“Our client, Kyle Green, is devastated and heartbroken for the families of those who were killed and for those individuals who were severely injured. He’s even more incensed by the fact that it could have been avoided had Travis learned his lesson in the past and changed his attitude about inciting people to behave in such a reckless manner,” Hershenhorn said.

Kyle Green was attending a Travis Scott concert in Manhattan when he was pushed over a balcony by a surging crowd. He hit the ground and could not move anymore. Instead of being proprely taken care of by paramedics, Green was picked up by security guards who lifted him up  “without a cervical collar, backboard and other safety precautions” and dragged him toward the stage.

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golf-cart63,501 children and teenagers sustained personal injury in golf cart accidents in the US between 2010 and 2019 according to a recent study lead by Theodore J. Ganley, MD, Director of the Sports Medicine and Performance Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Chair of the AAP Section on Orthopedics.

Golf carts are being used in social events and driven by teenagers as young as 14 year old with minimal supervision

More and more, golf carts are being used outside the golf course for social events such as festivals or recreational use on farm land or community events.

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Best Law Firms - Standard BadgeOur New York Personal Injury Law Firm is proud to announce that Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf has been named a Tier 1 firm in New York City for 5 practices by U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” 2022. These practices are:

  • Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs
  • Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
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During the third quarter of 2021, a total of 71 people died in crashes in New York City including 24 pedestrians, 5 cyclists, 9 passengers and 33 motorists. Since the Covid19 crisis started, auto accident fatalities in New York City have peaked and  street safety activists are pointing fingers at the de Blasio administration for failing to keep the streets safe.

A total of 14,335 people were injured in traffic accidents in New York City during Q3 2021 compared to respectively 13,437, 16,083, 16,300, 15,860, 16,048, 13,998, 13,472, 14,900 during Q3 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013. Before 2015, the passengers category  was the one with the most injuries with usually between 5,000 and 6,000 passenger injuries during Q3. In 2015 after the introduction of the Vision Zero program, passenger injuries significantly declined to 4,121 while motorist injuries jumped from 4,502 to 6,043. The increase in motorist injuries is linked to an increase in accidents related to distracted driving and more and more people using their cellphone while driving. After the first year of Vision Zero, passenger injuries during Q3 went back above 5,000 and then, back below 5,000 after the Covid19 crisis hit in 2020. Motorist injuries, mostly linked to distracted driving continued to rise reaching a record high in 2019 with 7,437 motorists injured during Q3.

New York Auto Accident injuries by category during Q3
6,349  motorists were injured in car accidents in New York City during the third quarter of 2021 compared to 5,931 for the same period of 2020 and 7,437 for the same period of 2019. Motor vehicle accident injuries reached a peak during Q3 2019 in New York City and then dropped to levels never seen since 2014 when the Covid19 crisis hit.  They were up during this year’s Q3 but not as high as what they used to be during Q3 2019.

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New York Personal Injury Attorneys Rubinowitz and TorganTrial work is not for the faint of heart. Personal Injury Attorneys, well aware their clients are relying on them to help overcome life-altering events, must do everything within the bounds of ethics and the law to win their case—while also anticipating and properly handling any challenges created by their own clients’ actions. In their recent Trial Advocacy column in the New York Law Journal, Ben Rubinowitz and Evan Torgan explore issues which may arise during client intake and witness preparation, as well as the duty to correct potentially false testimony.

Read the column here

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Most of the time in high schools and colleges, athletic trainers are the first to diagnose and provide care to a young athlete when he or she suffers injury.  Traumatic brain injury or concussion is one of the most common injuries suffered by young athletes during fall sports. Proper diagnostic and response are crucial to prevent further injury or even death.

Researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have been working for several years on finding a test that can be quick, efficient and easy to use for busy athletic trainers and other healthcare providers.  So far they found that the Visio-Vestibular Exam is a  reliable test that can be performed in a few minutes to find out if someone suffers from concussion. Last year we wrote a blog about the various elements of this test and recently researchers at the CIRP confirmed its efficiency. Researchees made additional research  to detect if the visio vestibular performances in healthy athletes might change between the beginning and the end of sport season. They found that there was no difference in the performance of the visio vestibular of  healthy athletes before the sport season and after the sport season, therefore supporting the previous findings that visio vestibular deficiencies can be attributed to concussion.

Quick and efficient