TOYOTA   ACCIDENTS | PRIUS–LEXUS-TOYOTA  RECALLS | “SUDDEN ACCELERATION” Never before in the history of the automobile has there been a manufacturer’s recall even remotely approaching the 10,000,000 recall notices issued by the Toyota Motor Company.   It is a number that staggers the imagination and, inevitably, will lead to an avalanche of lawsuits. The lawsuits will [...]

TRIP & FALL CASES “UNKNOWN CAUSE” Countering the “Open and Obvious” and “Not Inherently Dangerous” Arguments If the victim of a slip or trip and fall accident is unable to identify the cause of the fall, then the general rule applied by virtually all attorneys is that there is no viable case.  It is ultimately [...]

NEGLIGENCE: DUTY AND FORESEEABILITY The overwhelming number of personal injury cases involve an act of “negligence” by one individual that results in an injury to another.   However, the fact that one individual’s negligent act results in another individual’s injury does not automatically create a valid basis for a lawsuit by the injured party against the [...]

STOP & FRISK In 2009 there were approximately 575,000 “Stop & Frisk” reports filed by NYPD officers. Of these, only about 6% resulted in arrests, and another 6% resulted in a summons being issued. The position of the Police Department is that Stop & Frisks are an effective crime-fighting tool.  The Department holds onto the [...]

MOTOR  VEHICLE  ACCIDENTS Since  records of the “rate of traffic fatalities” have been kept, 2009 has recorded the lowest rate ever! “Fatality rate” involves the number of traffic fatalities combined with the number of miles traveled. In just the last year alone, there was an 8.9% in the number of deaths reported:  37,261 in 2008 [...]

ACT  OF  GOD: NATURAL DISASTERS If, today, a tornado were to destroy your home, “who ya gonna sue?”  Hope that you had enough, and appropriate,  insurance  coverage? Just recently a fierce winter  storm caused ice to fall onto, and break through, a glass atrium of a New York office building.  Several people were injured, though [...]

FOOD  POISONING Just this month  (March, 2010) a coalition of health and consumer groups  put out a study that estimated the annual health related cost of  “food borne illnesses”  to be $152 BILLION ! While lately there have been a rash of well publicized outbreaks of contamination of everything from meat to  lettuce to peanuts, [...]

AUTOMOBILE INJURIES: HOPEFUL SIGNS | POTENTIAL DANGER A recent report by the Insurance Council of Texas indicated a steady seven year decline in Texas in the number of people injured or killed in automobile accidents. The decline is over 20%. The Texas Department of Transportation confirms a drop in five of the last six years. [...]