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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Personal Injury Attorney Ben RubinowitzOur personal injury law firm is proud to announce that our managing partner, Ben Rubinowitz, was invited to be one of the 5 distinguished faculty members of “CLE with the Stars”, a seminar organized by the Connecticut Trial Lawyer Association.

The 4 other distinguished faculty members will travel from all over the country. They are Mark Davis from the Honolulu firm Davis Levin Livongston, Randy L. Kinard from the Nashville firm Kinnard, Clayton & Beveridge, Zoe Littlepage from the Houston law firm Littlepage Booth and Tyler Thompson from Dole, Thompson, Shepherd & Conway, PSC in Louisville, KY. The program will be chaired by Connecticut attorneys Kathleen Nastri and Michael Koskoff both from the firm Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, PC.

The seminar will take place Friday April 6th 2008 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm at The Trumbull Marriott, 180 Hawley Lane, Trumbull CT 06611.

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New York Personal Injury lawyer Anthony GairNew York Personal Injury Attorney Christopher DonadioOur NY Construction Accident law firm is proud to announce that our attorneys Anthony H. Gair and Christopher J. Donadio obtained a $1 million settlement in a construction accident that occurred in New York. The case involved an incident that occurred on a construction site in Manhattan. The plaintiff, who was a worker on the job site, suffered a crush injury to his thumb when a small crane (known as a “gin pole”) failed, and caused a several hundred pound motor to fall on to the plaintiff’s hand.

Due to the incident, the plaintiff was taken by ambulance to the hospital. At the hospital, the plaintiff was diagnosed with a crushed thumb on his non-dominant hand. As a result of the injury, the plaintiff required three surgical procedures to his thumb, including a revascularization procedure and a skin graft.

An action was brought in New York County, Supreme Court, against the general contractor of the construction project, and the owner of the construction site. The action was brought under New York Labor Law §240(1). The Labor Law of New York §240(1) provides that:

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Construction_AccidentAmong the 350,000 construction sites who were required by OSHA to electronically file their annual injury and illnesses log summary by December 31st only 153,653 complied.  61,000 construction sites that were not required to provide electronic records did it anyway. Almost 200,000 work sites  didn’t comply with OSHA’s new electronic record keeping rule. It is not exactly clear why so many companies didn’t comply with the new rule. Some companies may have believed they were exempted, some thought that the deadline would be extended one more time. Other employers didn’t want their data to be published online as the new rule requires it.

Technically OSHA now has  until June 15 to visit the 200,000 locations that violated the rule. Companies who didn’t file may risk up to $12,934  in penalties. Companies who can demonstrate they had difficulty filing electronically as well as companies who can provide a paper copy of their report may be exempted from a fine.

According to Construction Dive, some experts believe that OSHA wasn’t aggressive enough in its compliance effort.

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NYC personal Injury lawyer Richard SteigmanOur partner Richard Steigman and Hon. Rosalyn H. Richter, Appellate Division, First Department will be co-chairing the New York State Trial Lawyers Seminar “2018 CPLR Update”. This seminar will take place on Monday April 9  from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the NYTSLA office at 132 Nassau Street.

One of the key requirements of successfully managing a civil caseload is staying abreast of legislative changes and court decisions in the field of New York Civil Practice. This year in particular, there are substantial changes that every lawyer in this field needs to know. This seminar will provide an in-depth review of these new developments, including practice tips and pitfall warnings that are invaluable for the civil litigator.

Topics will include:

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NYC Fatal traffic accidents were at their lowest last January. During the first month of 2018, 11 people died in a traffic accident compared to respectively 18, 17, 13, 21 and 28 in January 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. The only months when the number of monthly fatal auto accidents in New York City was this low was in March 2016 and in May 2017. The monthly number of traffic deaths never went below 11 in the city.

While traffic fatalities have been on a declining trend since Vision Zero started, the opposite occurred with traffic injuries. They have been on a rising trend. However recent numbers seem to show some signs of stabilization.  4,351 people were injured in a car accident in New York City in January 2018. That’s a little bit less than the 4,383 people injured in January 2017 but more than respectively the 3,654, 3,449, 3,899 and 3,993 people injured in January 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.

Globally, traffic accidents continue to increase in New York City. Despite being lower than most previous months, the number of traffic accidents in New York City reached 17,762 in January 2018 compared to respectively 17,126, 17,798, 15,977, 16,597, 15,599 in January 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. January  is usually a month during which traffic accidents are lower than other months. The number of accidents is usually below the trend line in January.

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Two people died and 9 were injured in a fire accident in New York City. The fire started on the first floor of a building located on Hoffman Street near 87th Street in Belmont, Bronx around 1:30 am on Monday morning. After the fire broke out in one of the apartments on the first floor, tenants ran away without closing the door behind them to prevent flames from spreading. The fire quickly engulfed the rest of the building trapping residents on the second floor.  The scene was extremely chaotic as firefighters had to fight the flames to make their way upstairs to save the residents. 11 of them including a 7 year old girl were transported to the hospital, some with critical burn injuries. Two of them died shortly after.

Last December a similar fire accident occurred in the same neighborhood killing 13 people. The fire propagated in a similar manner in the building after a door was left opened by tenants as they were escaping their burning apartment. (Read previous post).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9zX2HV5k7o

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church fails to maintain buildingA man scavenging for construction material in a half demolished building was seriously injured after he fell through the floor. The accident occurred at a dilapidated Brooklyn building located at the intersection of Rutland Road and Brooklyn Ave in Prospect Lefferts Gardens.  The floor gave way under the weight of the 33 year old man and he got trapped. It took an hour for the paramedics and the firefighters to shore up the basement to take him out. The man was then rushed to the hospital where he was listed in serious condition.

Before being bought by the church next door, the building was a lounge. The church received a violation from the city Environmental Control Board for failure to maintain the building  after it partially collapsed. Concerned neighbors told the DOB at the end of January that the structure “was leaning”. The owner was supposed to raze the entire building but only half of it was demolished.

After the accident the DOB issued 3 violations to the church:

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entrance of the German Masonic homeA hard hat was in critical condition after he was hit by debris at a NY construction site. 49 year old Arian Hila was working on the renovation of the Germanic Masonic Home at 120 Western Highway in Tappan, NY. On Friday afternoon one of the debris chutes became clogged with construction material. Arian and another construction worker went inside the dumpster and tried to clean the chute from there. As they were trying to unclog it, the clogged chute detached and fell onto Arian. He was crushed by the debris and could hardly breath. Police officers, firefighters and paramedics all jumped into the dumpster and removed the debris to free him. He could barely breath. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

Adrian Hila is an idenpendant contractor employed by Atria Consulting 3. The property is owned by Noble Ninth Inc. The renovation of the building started in 2016. The accident is being investigated.

Read more in the Lohud

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Personal Injury Attorney Ben RubinowitzOur managing partner, New York Personal Injury Lawyer Ben Rubinowitz, will be a member of the Faculty at the CLE Live Event “Case Framing, The Science and Art of Advocacy” that will take place May 4th and 5th at the Omni Parker House in Boston, MA.

Building a case a jury can believe in is fundamental to obtaining a favorable verdict. Renowned Rhode Island trial attorney Mark Mandell designed and built the Case Framing Model to do precisely that. This model is based on the idea that “just verdicts result when everything presented at trial is framed and sequenced to focus juror attention on the points you most want to make.” The key, then, is to focus the jury’s attention on what really matters.

Mark has created a two-day seminar to teach the fundamentals of Case Framing. The program begins with an introduction to Case Framing, then delves into the latest developments in decision science and psychology, and ultimately finishes with practical guidance on how to apply the model to your cases.

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location of the fatal accidentA man and a woman walking on Howard Street in New York City suffered critical injury after being hit on their heads by a falling piece of fire escape on Friday afternoon.

The man, identified as 58 year old Richard Marchhart from Long Island, succumbed to his injuries a day after his hospitalization. He left behind a wife and three children: a daughter going to high school and two sons going to college.

The injured woman is a 24 year old artist who was on her way to a studio at the New York Academy of Art on Franklin Street.