New York Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

The worst oil spill in U.S. history was set off last year by the Deepwater Horizon disaster which claimed 11 men at sea. The tragedy exposed several weaknesses, including severely outdated limited liability laws that have protected the very players who should be claiming responsibility, according to a Brooklyn Personal Injury Lawyer.

Because the wrongful death of the 11 men occurred offshore, the corporations and its contractors were shielded by maritime laws of limited liability. According to these laws, the companies can only be sued for future wages, minus taxes and expected living expenses – not for pain and suffering and other damages commonly sued for in the case of fatal onshore activities.

Congress has been called upon to raise or completely lift the limit; it wasn’t long before Congressmen and women were being chastised for their inactivity in the affair. One champion of the victims’ families stated, “It hasn’t been changed in 20 years. It really shows you how inadequate it is. You’re in a situation where either taxpayers end up footing the bill, or injured parties do, which seems fundamentally unfair.”

The Oil Pollution Act caps the amount of damages a corporation has to pay out. Fortunately, under public pressure, some companies volunteer not to invoke those limits. This highlights the possible problem that is likely to arise again, stated a New York Personal Injury Lawyer. Another accident at sea will happen, but if the next affair is not highly publicized, the corporation at fault may then see it possible to maintain protection behind the liability limit. Without public opinion against them, companies will not feel it politically expedient to repair grievances to their full capacity; they will not make voluntarily larger settlements.

“It needs to be changed,” the father of one victim exclaims. “If all these companies can care about is money, then they need to keep in mind that when they put men at risk, that costs money too. If you can’t bring yourself to consider it for any other reason, think of it this way.”

Continue reading "One Year Later: Oil Companies Remain Shielded by Offshore Liability Limits" »

Back in June, a retired school teacher was making a left hand turn in her 1965 Thunderbird when she was broadsided by a police car that was in pursuit of a speeding vehicle. The 91 year old woman was killed in the crash. Her family has filed a wrongful death suit against the city and is seeking $534,000 in the claim, says a New York Injury Lawyer. 

The 28 year old officer who was driving the patrol car that killed the woman will not face criminal charges resulting from the accident, but that is not good enough for the family of the woman who was killed. 

According to reports, investigators determined that the woman driving the Thunderbird was solely at fault because she failed to yield to a police vehicle. Had the officer been blaring his lights and sirens, perhaps that determination would have merit. There are specific laws regarding this situation if it occurs in The Bronx or Brooklyn. But the fact is the officer had no lights or sirens on at the time of the accident, and so it is easily assumed that the woman would not realize that there was a patrol car headed towards her. 

The family alleges that the city failed to provide appropriate training to its officers in the case of high speed pursuits and it was this negligence that caused the accident that killed their loved one, claims the Injury Lawyer of New York. The officer involved in the crash has been back at work since January and says that he has no recollection of the accident at all. 

Negligence can lead to accidents and injuries. People’s lives can change as a result of lack of training and simple mistakes.

Continue reading "Family files wrongful death suit against city of Oak Ridge Oregon" »