New Jersey Injury Attorney Blog

Children have been known to suffer harm or injury in a wide variety of accidents in New Jersey, with drowning and near-drowning accidents being one of the main causes of child injury and death during spring and summer months. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that out of all children 1 to 4-years-old throughout the United States who died in accidents in 2005, about thirty percent were killed in a drowning incident. While increases in pool safety and drowning prevention over the last few years have helped drowning rates decrease, drowning is still the second-leading cause of accidental injury-associated fatalities for children ages 1 to 14 years.

While any parent, sibling, family member or babysitter knows that children are at least a little accident-prone, serious accidents such as drowning may be caused by another person’s negligence. For instance, child drowning accidents in New Jersey may result from lack of adult supervision, faulty pool gates, inadequate pool/spa barriers and even intoxicated driving in an open water setting. In order to help prevent child drowning, it is important to make sure that either your pool or a friend/family member’s pool has an outside door alarm, pool covering, proper pool/spa barriers and that children are being monitored at all times. It only takes a second for a small child to get out of sight and put in harm’s way.

Child swimming pool accidents may raise several complex premises liability issues that would be best handled by a skilled attorney who has handled these types of cases and has personal injury and wrongful death litigation experience. If your child has suffered injury from a swimming pool accident, whether the incident took place at another person’s home or at a public pool, a New Jersey child injury attorney can help protect your child’s rights.

A near drowning accident may be emotionally traumatic as well as physically devastating for a child. With the experienced personal injury attorneys from Lependorf & Silverstein on your side, you and your family can seek compensation for medical expenses associated with your child’s injury as well as damages for pain and suffering. Please call (609) 240-0040 today for a free case evaluation regarding your child injury or drowning accident.

A court-appointed fact finder has determined that officials from the New Jersey Department of Corrections are responsible for the abuse of nearly two dozen Bayside State Prison inmates which occurred in 1997. The opinion is significant in that it means that the state of New Jersey will be accountable for monetary damages awarded to the inmates.

The abuse claims originally arose during a month long lockdown of the medium security prison in 1997 following the stabbing of a guard by an inmate. According to the a Philadelphia Inquirer story, during the lockdown, inmates were prohibited from receiving visitors, were confined to their cells and were routinely interrogated and searched by a Special Operations Group (SOG) dressed in riot gear and armed with batons and mace. After the lockdown was over, numerous inmates reported instances of abuse to the Department of Corrections. Inmates reported being beaten, dragged, threatened by attack dogs and forced to sit in handcuffs for hours.

In a March 29 opinion handed down by former U.S. District Chief Judge John W. Bissel, it was held that the lockdown was “not in itself improper” but rather in its design and execution it violated the inmates’ Eight Amendment rights. Corrections Commissioner William Fauver, Former Deputy Commissioner Gary Hilton and Scott Faunce, former administrator at Bayside, were each held to bear “supervisory liability” for all proven cases of abuse arising from the lockdown.

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A 43-year-old construction worker fell to his death on Monday, April 12, 2010 while working on a Seaside Heights hotel. According to a Star-Ledger story, the man was pronounced dead on the scene. The man, whose name is presently being withheld, was performing renovations on the hotel for his employer Murph Construction Co. Inc. The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration was immediately notified and will perform an investigation.

The construction industry continues to be responsible for an overwhelming number of on-the-job injuries and deaths per year in the United States. Construction is an extremely high risk industry. Although organizations like OSHA endeavor to improve the safety of workers, accidents like the aforementioned fall incident still routinely occur. While workers who suffer on-the-job injuries are entitled to worker’s compensation benefits, New Jersey construction accident attorneys can help you recover additional monetary settlements and/or awards beyond that which worker‘s compensation may cover.

Continue reading " Construction Worker Dies after Seaside Heights Four Story Fall " »

Effective April 1, 2010, New Jersey motorists will now face increased fines if they fail to stop for pedestrians. The new law mandates that motorists stop, and remain stopped, for pedestrians crossing in a crosswalk. Prior to the implementation of this new law, motorists were merely required to yield or slow for pedestrians. Failure to stop will now result in a $200 fine.

Presently, pedestrians account for approximately 25% of fatalities annually in the state of New Jersey, which is nearly double the national average. The new law was enacted in order to ensure that New Jersey motorists become more cognizant of pedestrians, and to provide a relative zone of safety for pedestrians in high traffic areas. The details of the new law can be found on the New Jersey Attorney General's Website.

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A New Jersey appeals court recently affirmed a $30.3 million personal-injury award to the family of a deceased Glen Ridge resident, Mark Buttitta, who sued his former employer for asbestos exposure. In February 2008, a Bergen County jury found that Buttitta’s cancer was caused by his exposure to asbestos at an auto parts warehouse in Englewood in the 1970’s, and awarded $30.3 million in damages to Buttitta’s wife and three daughters.

Defendants appealed the verdict on multiple grounds, but on Monday, April 5, a New Jersey appeals court affirmed the verdict in full, which legal observers believe is the largest ever mesothelioma verdict in the state. Defendants’ appeal touched on several aspects of the jury‘s verdict, including the argument that the $11,030,544 awarded for loss of spousal and parental services was excessive and should have been remitted to $1,088,754, the amount set by the plaintiff's expert. Notably, the court of appeals rejected this argument, finding that the award for loss of spousal and parental services "may have been generous, as recognized by the judge, but it was based on the undisputed evidence that Mark was an active and engaged father, and would have been expected to provide significant intangible services to his children such as guidance, training and counseling."

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