New York Personal Injury Laws

Railroad Retirement Benefits

If you’re disabled and worked long enough for the railroad, you may be entitled to benefits from the Railroad Retirement Board. Applying for railroad retirement disability benefits can be difficult, long, and drawn out but it doesn’t have to be.

Disability Benefits Law FIrm

At Insler & Hermann, we navigate the process for you. We make it as easy as possible for you and your family. Call us today. The sooner you meet with us, the sooner we can help you receive the benefits you deserve. We don’t get paid unless you win. Be our next success story.

By: Lew Insler

World War Two Workers Exposed to Asbestos

70,000 workers worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War 2, and they were all exposed to asbestos. Hi. I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney here in New York City. I want to talk to you a little bit about the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Asbestos Exposure From Building Navy Ship

At the Brooklyn Navy Yard they were building ships since the time of the American Revolution. The site was 200 acres in size. Battleships like the USS Iowa and the Missouri were built there. The USS Antietam, an aircraft carrier was built and worked on there.

And I have a particular affinity for that ship because my father served on it during World War 2. In order to accomplish all of this work in the building and repair of US naval ships, there were foundries at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, with high heat and steam pipes insulated with asbestos.

 Asbestos Exposure In The Machine Shops

There was machine shops, where equipment was repaired and worked on for use in these giant US navy ships. There were warehouses where parts and equipment, including all manner of asbestos components were stored at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for use by the workers at the yard.

 Long Days of Exposure

During it’s height at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, ships were built and repaired around the clock, 24 hours a day. And that work using all kinds of asbestos insulation and asbestos containing products at the yard, exposed all of the workers to asbestos. These exposures to asbestos are especially important, because mesothelioma can be diagnosed up to 50 or 60 years after the time of exposure. So we have victims today who present with a diagnoses of mesothelioma. That happen because of exposures to asbestos decades and decades ago at the Brooklyn Navy Yard when those navy ships were being built. You have questions about mesothelioma, and exposures to asbestos. I’m Joe Williams, at our firm we answer questions for mesothelioma victims and their families every day. I invite you to call our office, we’ll answer your questions. Thank you.

Workers’ Compensation Laws

When you’re injured on the job, unless you work for the railroad industry, or you’ve been injured as a result of the negligence of someone other than your employer or a co-employee, you are not permitted to sue your employer. Workers’ compensation laws bar you from bringing that type of lawsuit. You need an experienced law firm, who understands what’s involved and how to analyze the facts and circumstances of your case to know if you, in fact, have a basis for a lawsuit.

Being injured on the job can leave you wondering what’s going to happen in your future. Contact me or visit my website

Mesothelioma Trust Fund

Asbestos companies that have filed for bankruptcy protection have been required by the courts to put in excess of $30 billion in trust for future mesothelioma victims, but how can you make a claim? Hi, I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney in New York City and I can give you some information about the process of making a claim to these asbestos bankruptcy trusts.

 Making A Claim on the Trust Fund

The first thing that we need to know is that each of the trusts has a plan, a system of rules and regulations, that have to be filed in order to make the claim, but all trusts require proof of asbestos exposure. Proof of exposure to that particular product that that particular company made before they filed for bankruptcy protection. And that proof can come in a few forms. It can come in the form of a deposition of our client, or a deposition transcript of a co-worker. It can come from work records. Records of the client’s work at a particular site or location where that product was used. It can come from military records. Perhaps our client served on a specific military ship and that product was used on that ship. It can also come in the form of signed affidavits.

 Proof of Mesothelioma

The next thing we have to prove to the trust in order to make a claim is proof of a specific asbestos disease. We have to prove to the trust that our client has mesothelioma. And how do we do that? Through medical records, through a pathology report, perhaps through CT scans or PET scans that show the level and extent of disease.

And another thing that we have to prove is what’s called causation – a link between the asbestos exposure to that particular product and the disease, in this circumstance mesothelioma. And we do that through a report from an expert – from a doctor – who looks at the medical records and gives an opinion as to whether the exposure evidence regarding a particular product caused this particular disease. It’s important to know that these claims are usually made electronically and all this information is uploaded to different trusts electronically.

Now, you have questions about the claims process as it relates to mesothelioma victims and the asbestos bankruptcy trusts. Well, I’m Joe Williams, at our firm we handle these claims every day and I invite you to give us a call. We can answer your questions. Thank you.

 Car Accident Attorney

When you’re in a car accident, there are many parties involved sometimes. There is the insurance company to deal with, the police department, your doctors. You need to have an experienced lawyer to help you work through your case who has your best interests in mind. Hire the Moore Law Firm. We have the experience and the resources to guide you through the process, and enable you to have piece of mind.

Mesothelioma Diagnosis

How is mesothelioma diagnosed? Hi, I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney in New York City and I can tell you that there’s generally two ways that physicians – doctors – diagnose mesothelioma.

Clinical Diagnosis

The first way of diagnosing mesothelioma is a clinical diagnosis. That means that a doctor is evaluating a patient’s presenting symptoms to draw a picture as to what this patient could be suffering from. So the things that are evaluated are things like shortness of breath. Often with mesothelioma victims fluid builds up – it’s called a pleural effusion – but it’s basically just a build up of fluid between the bony rib cage and the lungs and when the fluid builds up it pushes on both the ribs and the lungs. The ribs don’t move, they’re made of bone, so it pushes in and impacts the lungs, makes it harder for the patient to breathe. Shortness of breath is a known symptom of mesothelioma. General fatigue and weakness, weight loss – substantial weight loss, unexplained, in a short period of time – is another factor, another symptom that physicians will use to clinically diagnose or be suspicious of mesothelioma.

Definitive Diagnosis

For mesothelioma victims, the definitive diagnosis comes in the form of a biopsy, and for pleural mesothelioma it’s a biopsy of the pleura. The pleura is the lining on the outside of the lung sometimes referred to as a saran wrap like substance that lines the exterior – the outside – of the lung and doctors will take a biopsy of that surface to determine if a patient has mesothelioma. And how is that biopsy taken? Well, it’s usually taken through a surgical technique and I’d say the most common one would be a video-assisted thoracostomy sometimes known as a vat, V-A-T, a video-assisted thoracostomy. The doctors go in with several instruments, one of which has a camera on it, and the surgeon – the doctor – can visualize the area in the chest where the mesothelioma could be, and with other instruments – and again this is a minimally invasive technique – the physicians can take a biopsy, a piece of flesh.

That biopsy material is then taken and sent to a pathology lab within the hospital. And the pathologist, they’re a specialized doctor who deals with diagnosing disease from looking at a slide. The flesh is put onto a slide and for mesothelioma victims the slides are often stained in certain ways so that different cell types can be visualized when the pathologist looks under a microscope at the slide. That pathologist then writes out a report – it’s called a pathology report – and the pathology report is a very important piece of paper that becomes part of that patient’s medical case because it definitively diagnoses their disease, and it becomes a very important part of their legal case because it definitively diagnoses them as having been a victim of pleural mesothelioma.

I’m sure you have many other questions about how mesothelioma is diagnosed. I’m Joe Williams, and at our firm we handle cases every day for mesothelioma victims. This is what we do every day and we can answer your questions. I encourage you to call our office at the number below and we’d be happy to answer your questions. Thank you.

Steamfitter Exposed to Asbestos

You’re a steamfitter. You’ve been working your entire life with asbestos gaskets and pipe covering, and now you’ve been diagnosed with mesothelioma. And you’re struggling with how you’re going to handle your case.

Hi. I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney in New York City, and I’ve represented many, many steamfitters over the years. And I can tell you that their exposures are always the same. Steamfitters work with pipes and gaskets each and every day, and steamfitters help to build this city.

 How Steamfitters Became Exposed

And in so doing they worked at every powerhouse, built the powerhouses. And were exposed to those asbestos gaskets, they’re in-between the flanges of every pipe in those powerhouses. The pre-fabricated gaskets as well as the sheet gaskets that you cut with thick shears to fit over those flanges.

And then you take a hammer and pound through the flange where the bolt hole is, so that you can make that gasket fit securely. While you were doing your work, other trades were working around you. Insulators were insulating some of the very same pipes that you were working on.

And they were insulating equipment that was nearby to your work. And while you were working on these pipes and dealing with these flanges, you were attaching these pipes to large pieces of equipment like boilers or pumps.

And those pieces of equipment were covered with asbestos, causing you to be exposed again. Well, there are many ways that steamfitters were exposed to asbestos, both from their work and from the work of others in their working vicinity.

Why am I telling you this? Because you’ve been exposed to asbestos. Over the years I’ve represented many members of the local 638 steamfitters union here in New York City. And each of them has talked to me and talked in their deposition in their case about their exposures to asbestos gaskets, to asbestos insulation, asbestos pipe covering.

And if you’re a steamfitter, I’m sure you had many of the same exposures. I’m sure you have many questions about mesothelioma. Well, I have the answers to those questions. I’m Joe Williams, and I invite you to call me at my office at the number below, and we’ll answer your questions. We represent mesothelioma victims every day. This is what we do, and I’ll be happy to speak to you. Thank you.

Pleural Mesothelioma

How does a person get pleural mesothelioma? Hi, I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney in New York City and in order to explain to you the general ways in which mesothelioma forms in the human body, I need to talk to you a little bit about the process of how those fibers get into the system.

The Steps to Proving a Mesothelioma Case

How do we prove a case for a mesothelioma victim in court? Hi, I’m Joe Williams, I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney in New York City. I can tell you that in order to prove a mesothelioma case, a legal case for a victim in court the first thing that we have to do is we have to be able to prove that a particular company is responsible to that particular victim. So how do we do that? Well one of the primary ways that we establish that proof is through the victim’s own testimony at a pretrial deposition. Also, through their testimony at trial in which they talk about that particular company’s products and how they believe that product exposed them to asbestos. They generally talk about the dust that was created from the work that they did with that product. There’s also other ways that we prove that that particular company is responsible to our client. That’s in the form of employment records, work records, for navy seamen, men who served on navy ships. We get records from the US Naval Archive in Washington D.C. for that particular ship. Often these records show every piece of equipment that was ever put on those ships. So there’s many ways to prove one particular company’s responsibility to our client. The next thing we have to show is that that company new or should have known that asbestos was dangerous and that they never warned our clients about these dangerous. How do we do that? Well we do that through company documents, documents from that same company that failed to warn our clients about the dangers of asbestos through internal memorandums, through internal research documents. All of which that show that that company either knew or that they certainly should have known that asbestos was a danger and that they never warned our clients about the dangers of asbestos. The last thing generally that we have to show in a legal case for a mesothelioma victim is that our client was injured. Of course every mesothelioma victim suffers greatly. It’s not just them but their spouses and family suffer as well. We document that through the use of medical experts who talk about mesothelioma and it’s course on the human body. Also through that individual victim’s medical records. Also through the testimony of physicians sometimes the treating. Physicians who actually treated out client were able to document all of the different medical treatments and really all of the suffering that our client has gone through from the time of their first symptoms until the present day when we’re in court dealing with that mesothelioma case in front of a judge and jury. Now, you may have many more questions about all the ways that we seek to prove a mesothelioma case on behave of our client and we can answer those questions for you. I’m Joe Williams and in our firm we handle cases for mesothelioma victims everyday. This is what we do. It’s who we are. I encourage you to call the number on your screen below. That’s our office number and we’ll answer you questions as well. Thank you.