New York Personal Injury Laws

Auto Mechanic Asbestos Exposure

You were a professional auto mechanic, and you worked with asbestos-containing brakes your entire life. Now you’ve been diagnosed with Mesothelioma. Hi, I’m Joe Williams. I’m a Mesothelioma trial attorney here in New City, and I can answer your questions.

 How One Auto Mechanic Was Exposed

I can do that by talking to you about some clients I’ve represented in the past. One client in particular, who was a former auto mechanic, and changed thousands of brakes on automobiles. In his deposition, he testified about the work that he did. He talked about using both OEM, Original Equipment Manufactured brake linings, which are brake linings manufactured by the same company that made the car.

He also used after market brake linings, which are manufactured by companies who didn’t manufacture the car. They just manufactured brake linings. What he would do, this former client of mine, he would take off the four wheels of the car after the car was put on a lift. He would remove the brakes. He would blow out the drum with an air compressor, causing a lot of dust in the air.

He would then take the new metal shoe with the attached brake lining out of the box, and install it into the vehicle, wheel by wheel. This process of removing the old brake, blowing out the drum, handling the asbestos-containing brake lining, the new one, and installing them into the vehicle, exposed him to asbestos dust. He did this work every day, and he did it for many decades, and was exposed to asbestos dust thousands of times from working on asbestos-containing brake linings in automobiles.

Now, if you’re an auto mechanic, you’ve probably had some very similar exposures. I’m sure you have questions about Mesothelioma and how auto mechanics were exposed to asbestos. I’m Joe Williams, and in our firm we handle cases every day for Mesothelioma victims. We can answer your questions. I invite you to call our office at the number below, and we’ll answer your questions. Thank you.

Injured in a Motor Accident

Sometimes even a minor car or biking accident can result in severe long term injuries that can be costly. If you’ve been injured through no fault of your own, don’t go it alone. The legal team at Wilson Law has successfully resolved claims for severely injured individuals, by either negotiating with the insurance company or going to court. Don’t get overwhelmed. See the attorneys at Wilson Law for a free consultation. We’ll even come to you.

At Wilson Law we’re standing up to them and standing up for you.

Slip Or Trip And Fall

I’m Ira Maurer with a public service law tip regarding slip and fall or trip and fall accidents in New York.

 Liability For The Fall

What exactly do you have to prove if you’re a victim of such an injury? Property owners in the state of New York are liable for injuries if they created a dangerous condition, or they knew about an unsafe condition and failed to take reasonable steps to fix the condition, or they should have known about the condition had they conducted reasonable periodic inspections.

Once you establish that the defendant created the condition, or knew or should have known about the condition, the next thing you have to prove is what actually caused your injury. Juries are not allowed to speculate as to the cause of an injury. If the plaintiff – the injury victim – cannot prove exactly what caused the injury, their case will be dismissed.

 Example

In a snowstorm, for example, property owners are entitled to have a reasonable amount of time to respond to a dangerous condition, clean up the mess – the snow and the ice – after the storm. There’s something called the Storm in Progress Rule. Basically the property owner is not expected to get rid of a slipping hazard while the storm is in progress. They’re entitled to a reasonable amount of time to pass after the storm for them to clear up the slipping hazard. However, if they don’t wait until after the storm and they actually engage in cleanup during the storm, if they create an unsafe condition in the process, or they exacerbate a naturally unsafe condition as a result of what they do, they may still be liable even though the storm wasn’t over yet.

So, if you’re a slip and fall victim and you’ve had an injury in New York, these are some of the basic things you need to know about. For more information, contact the Maurer Law Firm website at maurerlaw.net.

Railroad Workers Exposed to Asbestos

How were railroad workers exposed to asbestos, and what can they do about it if they get mesothelioma? Hi, I’m Joe Williams, I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney and I want to talk to you about the types of exposures that workers on the railroad would have confronted during the course of their working career.

Protection With FELA statute

The first thing you need to know is that railroad employees are protected under the FELA statute. It’s a federal statute, the Federal Employers Liability Act, which requires the railroad to provide a safe working environment for their railroad employees. So if the railroad was negligent and not providing a safe working atmosphere, and if the employee gets sick and gets mesothelioma as a result, the railroad can be held legally responsible for that.

 A Former Client

Let me illustrate this by talking to you about a former client of my office who was a railroad worker. Now, this railroad worker worked on locomotives and trains as well as the cars themselves and he was exposed to asbestos from the insulation on the exhaust system of the locomotives, to asbestos from the controls and switches in the electrical components of the cars themselves, and he was exposed to asbestos from the work that others did around him with asbestos containing brakes that existed on the cars. There was also iron brakes, but some of them were made of asbestos. All of these exposures contributed during the course of a working lifetime to, unfortunately, give this client mesothelioma, and when he was diagnosed with mesothelioma he wanted to know what he could do about it. After an understanding that the FELA statute was designed to protect him, he was able to bring a claim against the railroad under the FELA statute.

Now why am I telling you this? It’s because you have questions about mesothelioma and the types of exposures that railroad workers would confront on the job. I’m Joe Williams, at my law firm we represent mesothelioma victims each and every day, and we deal with issues like this every day. If you have questions I invite you to contact our office. We are here to answer your questions. Thank you for listening.

Suffolk County Asbestos Exposure

You’ve been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you worked in Suffolk County, New York, and you’re wondering how did you get this disease.

Hi, I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney, and I can give you information about asbestos exposures that occurred to workers in Suffolk County.

 Where Exactly Did This Exposure Occur

Now we know that in Suffolk County, New York, there were three major powerhouses, LILCO powerhouses. It’s now National Grid, but back when the workers were exposed to asbestos, they were LILCO powerhouses. The powerhouses were located in Port Jefferson, Northport, and Shoreham, and at these powerhouses, asbestos products were used. And workers – union tradesmen who built the powerhouses, who repaired and renovated these powerhouses over time – were exposed to asbesto during the course of their work.

We also know in Suffolk County, in both Bethpage and Farmingdale, there’s Grumman Aerospace, where military planes were built for the United States government using all manner of asbestos products, from asbestos gaskets in the machining of engines, to asbestos insulation products used throughout equipment and on the planes themselves. And also, during the course of the past century as the population migrated eastward to Suffolk County, there was a housing boom in Suffolk County. Houses were constructed, apartment buildings, which required the use of building products, many of which had asbestos-containing components, which exposed the workers – the builders who built Suffolk County – to asbestos.

Now you have questions about asbestos exposure and how you could have been exposed to asbestos in Suffolk County. I’m Joe Williams, and at our firm, we answer questions for mesothelioma victims and their families every day. I invite you to give us a call, and we’ll answer your questions.

Thanks.

Tylenol Health Risks

Previously on You Be the Judge, 37-year-old Antonio Benedi felt a case of the flu coming on. After taking the recommended dosage of Tylenol for three consecutive days he ended up in coma, near death, and was in desperate need of a liver transplant. One culprit and each year 450 deaths, 26,000 hospitalizations, 56,000 emergency room visits, 100,000 calls to Poison Control Centers. The suspect? A very common, everyday drug.

Acetaminophen Dosages

When people hear about the dangers of Tylenol or acetaminophen they often assume that Tylenol only harms people who abuse the medication or who don’t follow the directions. Is this true? And is the recommended dosage safe? It is widely asserted that a daily intake of 7,000 milligrams can severely damage an adult’s liver, but the level at which such damage begins to occur is predicted to be much lower. Levels as small as 2,000 to 4,000 milligrams have been implicated in approximately 10% of deaths related to acetaminophen, proving that the medication does not have to be abused to cause harm.

Considering that a single capsule of extra strength versions of acetaminophen is 500 milligrams, as few as four capsules might damage the liver. This is particularly concerning when you realize that bottles containing 500 milligram capsules of acetaminophen say that the maximum daily dosage is eight pills. 8 times 500 milligrams a total of 4,000 milligrams.

To add to the confusion around this medication, prescription drugs containing acetaminophen often have warnings about liver failure and even death, but the over-the-counter versions do not.  In 2009 the FDA recommended that the adult daily dosage for acetaminophen be reduced from the current maximum of 4,000 milligrams to no more than 3,250 milligrams.

McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary and the manufacturer of Tylenol, responded that they feared the recommendations could have the effect of steering consumers away from their drugs. To this day the company has not reduced the recommended dosage.

Selling Tylenol & Acetaminophen Over-The-Counter

Consider the following facts:

One, hundreds of the drug users die annually and tens of thousands are hospitalized. Two, over-the-counter forms do not warn of liver failure or death while prescription forms often do. Three, acetaminophen is the number one cause of acute liver failure. Four, the maximum dosage and the manufacturer’s recommended safe dosage leave no room for human error. Five, warnings on the label about alcohol are not very clear. Six, there are no warnings on the label about taking the medication while fasting. See the previous episode for details about taking acetaminophen with alcohol or while fasting. Seven, alternative medications are available that yield the same benefits and far fewer risks. Eight, many experts believe if Tylenol were introduced as a new drug today it would not be approved.

The damaging effects of acetaminophen are linked to over 100,000 Poison Control Center calls, 56,000 emergency room visits, 26,000 hospitalizations, and more than 450 deaths each year.   One final thought, if the side effects and risks linked with acetaminophen were associated with a dietary supplement, it would be pulled from the market immediately.

By: Edward Lake

Legal Rights and Evaluating Your Past for Evidence

A family member has been diagnosed with mesothelioma and you’re wondering do they have any legal rights? Hi, I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney in New York City, and I can give you some information about this topic and it’s a very important one, because workers in industry and in various trades throughout the course of the past century often worked for decades with their hands building America and working with asbestos products. These same workers are the folks who 30, 40, 50, 60 years later, have been now diagnosed with mesothelioma. They are put in the position of taking this path down into their history, into their past to try to figure out how they could have been exposed to asbestos. What I can tell you is that everyday at my office, we represent individuals who are suffering with mesothelioma. We represent them and their families as they take this journey to try to figure out how they contracted this terrible disease. What we do in all of these cases is we look for the companies, the defendants as they are called, who could have exposed our client to asbestos. When we’re able to find who those companies were through a very thorough investigation and lot of research into these cases, we then proceed to demonstrate in court how those companies failed to warn our clients about the dangers of asbestos. You see under the law in various states and certainly in New York State, there is a duty to warn of known dangers to end users, perhaps like you or your family member who work with these asbestos products and that failure to warn about the known hazard, the hazard being cancer, mesothelioma creates liability on these corporate entities. Why am I telling you this? I’m telling you this because you have questions about mesothelioma and the legal process as it relates to mesothelioma, and we can provide answers to those questions. I’m Joe Williams and every day we represent victims of mesothelioma. We can answer your questions as well. I hope you found this video informative, and I thank you very much for watching.

Manhattan Workers Vulnerable to Asbestos

You’ve been diagnosed with mesothelioma, and you worked in Manhattan, in New York City, New York. And you’re wondering, where did you get this disease from? Hi. I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney, and I am in New York City, New York.

I have some information for you about asbestos exposure sites in Manhattan. Now, every discussion about asbestos exposure in Manhattan starts with a discussion about building and construction. Here in New York City, the skyscrapers and the Manhattan skyline that we all know so well, were built primarily throughout the course of the last century.

Where The Exposure Came From

The World Trade Center was built in the late ’60s and into the 1970s, and at the time was the largest construction project in the world, creating the tallest buildings in the world at the time. The Brooklyn Navy Yard is just a stone’s throw away across the East River to Brooklyn.

Where ships were constructed and built using all manner of asbestos products. Other famous buildings like the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, as well as lesser known high-rises, multi multi story buildings were constructed during the course of the last century with union tradesmen’s hands, which exposed those workers to asbestos dust.

Large hospitals, perhaps even hospitals that you are being treated at such as Memorial Sloan Kettering, New York-Presbyterian, Weill Cornell, NYU, Columbia Presbyterian. These hospitals are large medical facilities which were built during the course of the past century.

The subway and transit system, has been built and worked on during the course of the last century by union hands. All of this work exposed workers to asbestos. Now you have mesothelioma, and if you worked in New York City, you could have been exposed at these job sites.

We have information about these job sites and about asbestos exposure. I’m Joe Williams, and at our firm we handle cases for mesothelioma victims and their families every day. If you have questions, we can answer those questions. I invite you to look at the number on the screen below, and give us a call. We’ll answer your questions. Thank you.

Two Different Judicial Systems

Here in the United States, we have two separate and distinct judicial systems. Each state has its own court system, and the US Government has its own federal court system. An experienced attorney is going to know exactly whether or not your case belongs in state or federal court. At the Maurer Law Firm, we will be able to evaluate your case and tell you what’s in your best interest. If you have questions about where your case needs to be brought, call the Maurer Law Firm. I’ll be able to tell you exactly whether or not your case should be in state or federal court.