Personal Injury Lawyers in New York

A doctor has been charged with professional misconduct after prescribing diet pills to a woman with a 32-pound abdominal cyst. The victim, a 44-year-old mother of three visited the doctor four times between 2002 and 2004 complaining of pain and was told she needed to lose weight. After an emergency trip to the hospital, the woman had the cyst surgically removed.

Mike Heron, the woman’s lawyer, states the case is not about the doctor’s failure to diagnose an ovarian cyst, but it’s about failure to recognize she had an abnormal and very distended abdomen. Heron alleges the doctor did not follow proper procedures for assessing, examining and investigating the woman’s symptoms.

Following emergency surgery, the woman’s weight dropped from 163 pounds to 125 pounds. She was extremely malnourished at the time of her surgery.

If you or a loved one has suffered due to medical malpractice in Long Island or anywhere in New York, please contact the medical malpractice attorneys at Silberstein Awad & Miklos today to schedule an initial consultation.

The length of time that big rig truck drivers spend behind the wheel trying to make it to their destination on time has long been a topic of debate in the trucking industry. Many truckers and activists claim the federal regulations that went into effect in the past four years with the goal of reducing trucking accidents have actually made matters worse. How long truckers can drive, how long they can rest and how they should log their time have fueled debate among safety advocates and trucking companies.

For over 60 years, truckers have been guided by rules that prohibited them from driving more than 10 hours without an eight-hour break and banned them from driving more than 60 hours in a seven-day period. Drivers were required to keep logs of their driving and resting times.

In the late 1990's, Congress created the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to oversee the trucking industry and reduce the annual number of traffic fatalities involving large trucks and buses; it is estimated that 5,000 people are killed in trucking accidents yearly in the United States. The new regulations state that truckers can now stay behind the wheel for an 11-hour period but must rest 10 hours before driving again. Also, truckers can now drive 77 hours in a 7-day period.

For years, drivers have claimed logs are routinely falsified, so there is push now for electronic monitoring devices in trucks that would automatically record drive/stop times. Truckers are not happy about this; one veteran trucker actually had to pull over just 40 miles from his destination because he had driven the maximum of 11 hours already that day. The new law required that he "hang out" for ten hours before driving the last 40 miles of his trip.

One mother, whose son was killed, along with three friends, when a tired trucker fell asleep and rolled his rig over the teenager's car on a Maine highway in 1993, created Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT). Daphne Izer actually sympathizes with the drivers who work long hours, are stuck on docks for hours waiting to be weighed or unloaded and are not getting paid for that lost time.

Although the logs and electronic monitoring devices are efforts to keep truckers rested and safe, the number of truck-related deaths in the United States is not decreasing. We continue to hear stories in the news such as the 46-year-old truck driver with no violations on his driving record who fell asleep as he sped toward vehicles that were slowing for construction on a crowded South Carolina interstate killing a young mother and her 13-year-old daughter.

Clearly something must be done to guarantee the safety of our nation's truck drivers and the safety of those traveling the highways with them.

If you or a loved one has been involved in a truck accident and have suffered a serious injury or even death anywhere in New York, please contact the Truck Accident Attorneys at Silberstein, Awad & Miklos.

A 76-year-old woman smashed her car into a hospital entrance killing a doctor and a secretary. Jane Berghold, of Brockton, Massachusetts, recently had the brakes on her car worked on, and they may have failed at the time of the crash. Berghold was diagnosed with breast cancer in April and was going to the Brockton Hospital's Radiation Therapy Unit for a consultation.

The chief of radiation therapy, Dr. Mark Vasa, 58, died at the scene. Witnesses say he was trying to push people out of the way when he was hit. Susan Plante, 60, the center's secretary, died Monday night at a Boston hospital, and two other staff members were injured.

Berghold has not been charged in the incident.

If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in a vehicle accident in New York, please contact the car accident injury lawyers at Silberstein Awad & Miklos today to schedule your initial consultation.

Three New York children will never be the same due to lead poisoning, and their mother, Mary Vasquez, wants other mothers to know about it. Ten years after she found out all three of her children had lead poisoning. Mrs. Vasquez received record lead settlements for a family in upstate New York--$2.5 million.

Any house built prior to 1978 could potentially be a lead hazard. Finding out the risks in your home before your children are affected makes a huge difference.

Lead can cause the following in children:

Learning disabilities
Brain damage
Academic failure
Attention deficit disorder
Hyperactive behavior
Neurological problems
Major organ failure
Coma
Death

If you or a loved one has suffered lead poisoning in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, or Long Island, including Nassau and Suffolk counties, please contact the experienced lead poisoning attorneys at Silberstein Awad & Miklos today to schedule your initial consultation.

Many motorists who are in car accidents attribute the help of air bags to saving their lives, but recently, a motorcyclist can say the same thing regarding his air bag jacket. Joseph McPhatter, of Maryland, was injured in a crash on Interstate 83 after being cut off by another motorist. He was ejected 100 feet and hit the ground at an impact rate of 140 mph. Police said he probably would have been severely injured had it not been for the Impact Jacket he was wearing, a jacket that inflates like an air bag when motorcyclists crash.

McPhatter suffered sore ribs and knees and a few other minor injuries. This is the first crash in the U.S. where the jacket was used.

If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in a motorcycle accident in Long Island or anywhere in New York, please contact the experienced motorcycle accident injury attorneys at Silberstein Awad & Miklos today to schedule your initial consultation

Almost all significant injuries suffered in construction site accidents give rise to workers' compensation rights, also. Under workers' compensation, benefits are provided to workers who are injured while on the job. However, workers' compensation alone may not be sufficient compensation for an injured worker, especially in the case of very serious catastrophic injuries. Rights of the injured depend on the application of various complex laws and the individual circumstances of the construction site accident.

Limited workers' compensation rights may be supplemented by legal actions against others who have responsibility for various activities on a construction site including foremen, general contractors, subcontractors, equipment manufacturers, owners, etc. When an accident occurs on a construction site, any one of a number of people and companies may be held responsible for inadequate safety provisions.

For example, in many construction projects, multiple contractors may be involved. If any contractor other than the direct employer has responsibility for your injuries, full damages can be recovered. Also, if a defective machine or tool caused the injury, an injured worker can be fully compensated.

An experienced construction site accident attorney at Silberstein Awad & Miklos in New York can work with you to get you the compensation you deserve following your on-the-job accident in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx or Long Island. Please contact one of our attorneys today to schedule your initial consultation.

It has been announced that a painted, plastic badge commonly worn by some of the Boy Scouts of America youngest members is being recalled after a test revealed dangerously high levels of lead in the paint. Nearly 2 million badges, which were made in China, will be affected by the recall.

The recalled badge is the plastic totem badge that is given to Cub Scouts who are usually 7 or 8 years old; the badge has a yellow and blue border and includes a picture of a bear and wolf. The badge reads "Progress Toward Ranks." So far, no illnesses directly related to the badge have been reported.

The high levels of lead were discovered during a testing of Boy Scout products. The badges are supplied by Kahoot Products, based in Roswell, Georgia, and the company is calling for a voluntary recall of the badge and asking parents to take them away from their children.

This recall happens just one day after the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced recalls of over 500,000 other Chinese-made products including "Pirates of the Caribbean" and Baby Einstein toys, also containing dangerously high levels of lead.

If you or a loved one has been exposed to lead in Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island or anywhere in New York, please contact the lead poisoning attorneys at Silberstein Awad & Miklos today to schedule your free consultation.

On October 4, 2007, more than half a million Chinese-made products were recalled because they contain dangerous levels of lead. The coin-shaped "Pirates of the Caribbean" flashlights and soft, textured Baby Einstein blocks were among the 544,000 products recalled according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

The recall also includes Totally Me! Funky Room Décor Set decorating kits sold by Toys R Us, Inc. and a variety of wooden toys imported and sold by KB Toys, Inc.

Lead is toxic if ingested by children. Under current regulations, children's products found to have more than .06 % lead accessible to users are subject to recall.

If you or a loved one has suffered after being exposed to lead in New York, please contact the lead poisoning attorneys at Silberstein Awad & Miklos today.

A 35-year-old Long Island woman had a double mastectomy after being told she had breast cancer when, in fact, she did not have breast cancer. After her surgery, she was told the lab made a mistake. The single mother is now suing. Her attorney says she was the victim of a mix-up at the CBLPath Medical Lab in Rye Brook, New York. Eason is seeking an undisclosed amount of money.

A state report blames the mix-up on a technician who admitted cutting corners while labeling tissue specimens. The doctor who signed off on Eason's diagnosis and the lab tech no longer work with the company.

If you or a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice in Long Island, New York, please contact the medical malpractice attorneys at Silberstein Awad & Miklos today to schedule your initial consultation.

An ATM that was not properly secured fell on a customer's foot in a CVS store recently. The suit claims the ATM became unsecured and came to rest on the customer's foot and that CVS failed to properly operate, manage and control the machine. Allegedly, screws were missing from the ATM. The plaintiff in this case is seeking over $50,000 in damages for the injuries he sustained.

In a separate premises liability suit also filed in the circuit court, a woman alleges that a Wal-Mart store negligently placed a cart near a plant display, leading to her fall. The woman is suing Wal-Mart for damages totaling more than $30,000. The suit specifically alleges that Wal-Mart failed to keep its aisles clear of anything that could cause a fall. The plaintiff claims the cart was in an unsafe area near a table of plants.

Premises Liability Law deals with the body of law which makes the person in possession of land responsible for injuries suffered by persons present on the premises. These cases are sometimes referred to as "slip and fall" cases and often require the advice of a lawyer.

If you or a loved one has suffered an injury on someone else’s property in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens or anywhere in Manhattan, please contact the Premises Liability Law Offices of Awad, Silberstein & Miklos.

A child conceived but not yet born at the time of a negligent act can later sue over the negligence, a Wisconsin state appeals court has ruled. When a county judge dismissed a medical malpractice lawsuit brought on behalf of a 2-year-old boy whose father died from colon cancer, his decision was erroneous according to the District 2 Court of Appeals.

Judge Michael Gibbs wrongly concluded that Joseph Brusa, Jr. could not sue because he wasn't born until 18 months after Joseph Sr.'s cancer was misdiagnosed by Dr. Robert Fasano as "probable diverticulitis." Dr. Fasano recommended a follow up colonoscopy that revealed a tumor. The lawsuit filed on behalf of Joseph Jr. claims Dr. Fasano was negligent because he did not immediately diagnose Brusa's colon cancer. Joseph Sr. died four months after his son was born.

The appeals court ruled that a child conceived but not yet born at the time of the negligent act can later sue for loss of companionship due to medical malpractice.

If you or a loved one has suffered from medical negligence in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, or anywhere in Manhattan, please contact the Medical Malpractice Law Offices of Silberstein Awad & Miklos today to schedule your initial consultation.