How to Determine Fault in a Construction Accident

Whether you’re working in a construction zone or just passing through, there’s always a chance of injury. These zones are dangerous, and if you needed to work in one or walk past or through one, you could have suffered a severe injury. The heavy machinery and use of chemicals alone can be lethal.

Once a construction injury happens, you could receive compensation for your accident; but who’s responsible for the injuries? Knowing how to determine fault in a construction accident is a vital part of getting your compensation, so be sure you’ve found the liable party before you begin. A personal injury attorney can make sure you have the right person, to make the process as smooth as possible.

When an Employer Is Liable

Your first thought might be that the employee who caused the accident is responsible. They were the ones who injured you, so they should be the ones to pay for it, right? Unfortunately, it might not be so simple. Instead, you may need to look at the employer for your compensation.

When we’re at work and we’re acting within the scope of our jobs, our employer is responsible for our actions. That’s why, if you’re injured on the job, your employer is often responsible for your injuries.

As such, when a construction company’s employees are doing their jobs and that injures someone, the company is liable for the damages.  In this case, you may need to contact an attorney to determine the company or employer responsible for the employee and their actions.

A Third Party May Be Responsible

But what if an employee of the site wasn’t the one who caused the accident? For example, if a driver passing through the construction site causes your injury, the person who caused your injuries might be the one responsible for your damages.

If you’re injured because of someone working for a third party, that same employer might not be the one responsible for the injuries. Your accident might have been caused because one of the third parties involved in the construction site created unsafe conditions.

If you’re not sure what third party or employer is responsible, a lawyer can help to determine fault in your construction accident. We’ll investigate your claim and find the person responsible so that you can act within the three-year time limit for construction injuries.

An Attorney Can Determine Fault

Dealing with the pain of a construction accident is tough, and worse, you might not know who’s responsible for those injuries. Fortunately, a lawyer can help when you’re unsure how to determine fault in a construction accident.

If you’re struggling to find the responsible party for your construction accident injuries, reach out to the lawyers at Greenstein & Milbauer, LLP. Our attorneys can help you determine who’s responsible for your claim so you can get the compensation you need as soon as possible.

Not sure where to begin with your case? Get started with a free consultation from our personal injury attorneys. We’ll review your claim and show you what we can do to make your claim succeed, before you pay anything. To get started, just give us a call at 1-800-VICTIM2 (842-8462) or complete the following online form.

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Avoiding Aggressive Drivers

Most people have been a little grouchy behind the wheel, and for some people, that makes them careless or reckless. When someone drives angry, however, and they act aggressively toward other drivers, there’s a chance for disaster. When you encounter an aggressive driver, you want to do everything in your power to avoid an accident. That can be tough, since an aggressive driver might be going at high speeds and can be easy to provoke. By following these tips, however, you might be able to avoid a crash and protect yourself from harm.  

Take It Slow

First, you’ll want to do everything in your power not to escalate the situation. Aggressive drivers are usually angry and not considering the safety of those around them, which can endanger you. As such, you’ll want to avoid eye contact and get away from them. But speeding up can make the situation worse. They may take this as aggressive and try to keep pace with you. Instead, slow down or pull over to an exit or business. This gives them time to move further away from you, and it lowers the chance of a high-speed crash. Often, a dangerous situation on the road can be avoided by taking it slow. When you put some distance between yourself and the aggressive driver, you can avoid the serious consequences that come with an accident.

Call for Help

Unfortunately, the aggressive driver might not leave you alone once you’ve slowed down and let them pass or put distance between your car and theirs. If they’re pursuing you or still driving dangerously, your next step might be to call the police. If you feel that you’re endangered, call 911. While many of us see emergency services as the people to call when an accident has already happened, they can get a police officer to your location quickly. While it may seem like a strong response, a police officer can stop the dangerous driver before a serious accident happens. The aggressive driver’s behavior endangers others, so the officer can help both you and other drivers by putting a stop to it. When an aggressive driver won’t leave you alone, don’t try to stop them on your own. This could lead to a crash, which leaves you in even worse shape. Instead, get help to defuse the situation before it worsens.

Get a Lawyer after an Accident

Unfortunately, you may not have been able to avoid the aggressive driver before they caused an accident, leaving you to deal with the expenses and pain for their mistakes. You’ll need help fighting back when you’re stuck in such a position. Fortunately, even if it’s too late to avoid aggressive drivers, you’ll have a chance to receive the compensation you need. To get compensated, you’ll need a car crash lawyer from Greenstein & Milbauer, LLP to help. If you’ve suffered from an aggressive driver’s actions, get the help you need, starting with a freNYC car accident lawyers. To get started, give us a call at 1-800-VICTIM2 (842-8462) or visit us at our website for more information.

Helping Someone Recover from Nursing Home Abuse

When we leave our loved ones in the care of a nursing home, we expect quality care that protects their health and safety. Unfortunately, many elderly residents find themselves suffering from physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. 

This is a serious problem, and you might now be tasked with helping someone recover from nursing home abuse. This isn’t easy, but with the right attorney and tools, you can get your loved one the help he or she needs to recover from the pain and suffering that comes from nursing home abuse.

Know Their Rights to Recovery

Your first step will likely be to move your loved one to a safe location—either a different nursing home or your own home.

Once your loved one is away from that situation, it’s important to document any changes he or she might be experiencing. These include injuries and signs of emotional and mental distress. The victim has a right to be compensated for these damages, and it will be easier for you and an attorney to calculate the value of the damages if you keep careful records.

Also keep in mind that you’ll have a limited amount of time to file a claim. For a personal injury claim against the nursing home, you’ll need to file within three years, or the claim may be dismissed.

Compensation After Nursing Home Abuse

Once you and your elderly loved one are ready to file a claim, you’ll need to determine how much compensation you deserve. Nursing home residents with fragile health may suffer greatly at the hands of an abusive caretaker. That’s why you’ll need to determine what losses the victim has suffered—and how much money each is worth.

This should include both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages cover all financial losses, which should be calculable by adding the expenses and estimating future inputs, but non-economic damages will be more complicated.

With these damages, you’ll more than likely need a lawyer to properly calculate how much your loved one’s compensation should be. Because non-economic damages are not tied to a direct financial cost, they’re difficult to calculate.

The following are some common damages that abused nursing home residents might suffer:

• Current and future medical care
• Emotional trauma
• Economic losses due to financial abuse
• Loss of consortium

An Attorney Can Help with the Recovery

Has your loved one been hurt by those who should have cared for him or her? Are you unsure of what to do next? Contact Greenstein & Milbauer, LLP for help recovering compensation for your loved one’s suffering. Nursing home abuse is a serious issue, and your elderly loved one may need help getting the compensation he or she truly deserves.

If you believe your loved one needs help after an incident at a nursing home, take advantage of a free consultation with our firm. Give us a call at 1-800-VICTIM2 (842-8462) or check out our website.

Seeking Justice for a Lost Limb

It’s not a pretty statistic to think about, but one of the potential results of a serious injury accident is the amputation of a body part. This might “only” be a finger (or part of a finger), but it can also be far more serious and disabling: a hand, a foot, or all or part of an arm or leg.

Believe it or not, somewhere between 75,000 and 100,000 Americans suffer some kind of trauma that leads to an amputation every year, on top of a similar or larger number due to medical problems such as diabetes and cancer. Roughly one American in 190 has had an amputation of some kind. When an amputation is caused by the actions of another, the victim should seek appropriate restitution.

Workers Compensation and “Grave Injuries”

If a worker is injured on the job, workers compensation might help defray the medical costs and other expenses and losses when an amputation is involved. Under New York state law, an amputation can also qualify as a “grave injury,” which allows the injured worker to sue outside the workers comp system (although there are exceptions to the exception, which is why you should always discuss your case with a knowledgeable injury attorney).

Car Accidents and the “Serious Injury” Threshold

Similar to the New York workers comp statute, the no-fault auto insurance law here imposes a restriction on what kind of injury must have happened before a victim can sue. The loss of a body part meets this “serious injury” criteria and doesn’t impose the same kind of strict limits seen with workers comp. The law recognizes “dismemberment” as reason enough to label an injury “serious” and allow a personal injury claim to proceed outside the no-fault system.

Personal Injury Considerations

Fortunately, for personal injury cases not in the workers comp or auto insurance systems, there aren’t as many conditions to meet or hoops to jump through. Every case is, of course, unique, but if an accident has led to an amputation, the victim may be able to win compensation by proving that the person who caused the loss was at fault.

More Than Trauma at Issue

It’s obvious that someone else’s reckless or negligent behavior can be the foundation for a civil suit when a serious injury results. But a victim might have a case even when the amputation is not due to a traumatic injury. Even a diabetes amputee might have a claim. Did someone misdiagnose, fail to treat, or neglect a person, leading to a worsening condition that could only be addressed by amputation? Doctors recognize six steps in the progression of problems that eventually lead to a diabetic amputation, and medical professionals agree that each step is preventable. An amputation, even in someone with advanced diabetes, is only necessary after a series of avoidable circumstances has been allowed to unfold.

New York City Amputation Lawyer

When you’ve suffered an amputation, the circumstances may allow you to recover damages from the persons responsible. The team at Greenstein & Milbauer, LLP has experience helping victims of amputations, whether they’re the result of a car accident, a construction accident, or any other cause. Give us a call today at 1-800-VICTIM2 (842-8462) or contact us online through the form below to schedule a free appointment to discuss your case.

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New York Pedestrians Safer Than Ever?

There was good news earlier this year when the Mayor’s Office released data showing that in 2017 the city experienced the smallest number of pedestrian fatalities since it began keeping records on them, way back in 1910. Last year, a total of 214 people died in traffic crashes in New York City, 101 of them pedestrians. The year before, those numbers totaled 231, with 148 pedestrians.

Improvements Still Sought

The city credits the improvement to both the broad focus of its Vision Zero project, which aims to ultimately reach zero fatalities on city streets, and also on specific initiatives. In this case, many have credited the small change of leading pedestrian intervals with saving many pedestrian lives.

While the numbers are encouraging, it’s still disturbing to realize that more than one hundred of our fellow New Yorkers died last year simply while crossing the street or otherwise going about their business on foot.

Part of a National Problem

It’s true that we should keep the numbers in perspective: In terms of overall fatal accidents to people on foot, New York City is a hotspot that few others compare to. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that there were 5,987 pedestrian fatalities in the United States in 2016. New York City saw 148 pedestrian deaths that year, which means that more than one out of every forty pedestrian fatalities nationwide happened on the streets of the Big Apple.

Preliminary national data for 2017 estimate that the number of pedestrian fatalities was almost exactly that of the year before (New York’s share declined to only about one in sixty). But even more disturbing, pedestrian deaths are up 27 percent over the past decade, while other traffic deaths have declined.

Pedestrians Don’t Kill People . . .

People sometimes overlook the fact that pedestrians—or walking—aren’t the real problem. The problem is cars. No one ever died in a pedestrian-on-pedestrian collision.

In fact, at low speeds (under 20 mph), very few pedestrians are killed even in collisions with cars and trucks. The danger comes from drivers not looking out for others and often driving faster than they should. Increasing speed to just over 30 mph increases the pedestrian fatality rate to nearly 50 percent. The old cliché that speed kills turns out to be true.

New York City Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

We can’t focus only on fatalities: More than 1,000 New York City pedestrians are injured seriously enough to require medical treatment every month. These victims often have no recourse other than to sue the drivers who struck them in civil court.

If you’re a pedestrian who has been hurt in a collision with a motor vehicle, Greenstein & Milbauer, LLP may be able to help. Our experienced car accident attorneys have helped many of those harmed in crashes recover the damages they need to cover medical expenses, lost wages and income, and other costs related to the accident. Give us a call at 1-800-VICTIM2 (842-8462) or contact us online through the form below to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation consultation to discuss your case.

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Defining and Understanding Premises Liability

Premises liability is an important part of civil law in New York State. However, what it actually covers is unfamiliar to most people, both those who own property (potential defendants) and those who use it (potential plaintiffs).

Here’s a very brief introduction to some of the most important concepts used in premises liability cases.

Premises and Liability

A premises is a legally defined area. It’s the land or the structures on it—or a combination thereof. It might cover a lot of ground, such as an entire shopping mall and its parking lots, or only a small amount, such as a single apartment or a small stretch of sidewalk.

It’s the area that someone is in legal control of. There’s no single strict definition, and determining what qualifies as the premises in question is sometimes an important part of a case.

Liability is the idea of legal responsibility. It includes the actions that a person takes and, just as important, the actions a person is required to take—but doesn’t.

These ideas come together in premises liability cases when a person is harmed while on another’s property. When that harm happens because the property owner (or other person responsible for the premises) either caused a dangerous condition or failed to correct a dangerous condition, then the victim can make a claim for compensation for the harm caused.

A Duty of Reasonable Care

The law in New York states that the person in control of a premises has a duty to keep it in a safe condition for those who use or visit that premises.

Following this idea, landlords need to keep common areas free of hazards; grocery store owners need to make sure that spills are cleaned from floors to prevent slip-and-falls; parking garage operators need to make sure that their facilities are well lit to deter crime and reduce injury; and businesses of all kinds need to clear snow and ice from their sidewalks to prevent conditions that could lead to injury.

Liability Not Unlimited

It might seem like these guidelines put an unreasonable burden on premises owners, but the law isn’t indifferent to reality. Liable defects can’t be trivial, nor can they be so obvious that any thinking person should have avoided them.

Premises owners also aren’t expected to fix conditions instantaneously, nor are they responsible for harm that happens in areas not publicly accessible: Trespassers are not usually covered. Owners also might be off the hook for conditions created by others without their knowledge.

New York Premises Liability Lawyers

Every premises liability case is unique. The location, the circumstances, the liability of the defendant, and the harm to the plaintiff are all different in every situation. That’s why when you’ve been injured because of someone else’s negligence, it’s important to work with a firm that understands all the ins and outs of premises liability law.

Whether your case involves a sidewalk, an elevator, an accident at a restaurant or a retail store, or an incident of landlord negligence, Greenstein & Milbauer, LLP has the experience you need. Call us today at 1-800-VICTIM2 (842-8462) or contact us online to schedule a free consultation to discuss your one-of-a-kind situation.

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Defining Wrongful Death in New York

What does the term “wrongful death” mean under New York state law, and who is eligible to file this kind of lawsuit? The answers to these questions are relatively straightforward, but as with most legal issues, there are details to be aware of that can complicate matters. If a claimant doesn’t pay attention to these details, even the strongest wrongful death claim can be scuttled before it has a chance.

 

“Wrongful Act, Neglect, or Default”

Those three terms are the actual wording in the statute, and they mean that there are three basic circumstances which allow for a wrongful death lawsuit. A wrongful act is possibly the most obvious: Someone takes an action that is intended to cause harm. This covers violent crimes against a victim which lead to death, such as robbery or assault, as well as murder or manslaughter. In addition to any criminal charges (and penalties, such as prison time) that the law might impose, the survivors of the victim can file a wrongful death suit.

Neglect and default cover a range of actions (or inaction) that led to harm the victim. These cover situations in which a person allowed a dangerous condition to continue to exist, such as, in an extreme hypothetical situation, a property owner knowing that a stairway was about to collapse but not fixing it and not warning users.

Default might include a person watching another walk onto that stairway and not telling him about the risk. Negligence is frequently a factor in wrongful death suits, but default is less common since it’s often difficult to prove.

 

Limitations on New York Wrongful Death Suits

Civil actions for wrongful death have restrictions. The most important might be that the victim must be survived by a family member or legal representative who can prove standing to recover for the wrong done. Distant relations might not be eligible. There’s also a two-year time limit to make a claim, with very few exceptions (one being that if there is also a criminal case, an extension might be allowed).

The damages that a victim’s survivors can collect are limited to purely economic losses. They can seek recovery of costs that can be calculated: funeral expenses, medical costs related to the death, lost wages and income, a value for services to the family by the deceased, and some other measurable amounts. But the survivors can’t claim damages for their pain and suffering from the loss of the victim, as they can in some other states.

However, New York law does allow recovery of damages for the pain and suffering of victims themselves, if that can be proven. One case last year awarded significant damages for exactly that reason.

 

New York Wrongful Death Lawyer

If you believe that the loss of a close family member was due to the wrongful act or negligence of another, a wrongful death claim may be in order. At Greenstein & Milbauer, LLP, our team of attorneys has extensive experience helping clients navigate the often complicated issues involved in their wrongful death cases. We offer every client a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss their case and help them understand the options available, so give us a call at 1-800-VICTIM2 (842-8462) or contact us online through the form below to schedule yours.

 

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