New Jersey Injury Attorney Blog

Property owners are responsible for the incidents that occur on their premises. When a property has a pool, for example, the owner has a legal obligation to provide reasonably safe conditions around the pool. When a dangerous condition around the pool leads to an injury accident, the property owner may be held liable for the damages suffered. However, the process of filing a premises liability claim in New Jersey may become complicated when the property owner is a friend of the victim or a member of the victim's family.

No one wants to be put in a situation where they have to sue a friend. Unfortunately, there are cases in which the only way to receive compensation is by holding the negligent property owner accountable for an accident that occurred on their property. Here are some questions to ask immediately after a swimming pool accident. Does the pool have adequate fencing around it? Do the doors that lead to the pool have locks or an alarm? Are there unsafe conditions such as cracked pathways around the pool? Does the pool owner leave toys around the pool that may draw a child near it? The answers to these questions may help determine if the pool owner or homeowner was negligent in any way.

It is important to remember that a settlement from a premises liability claim will come directly from the property owner's insurance policy. They should not personally suffer financially from a lawsuit. The most a homeowner with adequate insurance may suffer financially is the potential hike in insurance premiums.

The skilled Princeton premises liability lawyers at Lependorf & Silverstein handle many different types of injury accidents in New Jersey. If you or a loved has been injured in a swimming pool accident or are looking to file a premises liability claim, call our law offices at 609-240-0040 to discuss your legal rights and options.

All property owners n New Jersey have a legal obligation to provide reasonably safe conditions for visitors to and residents of the premises. When an apartment fire occurs, for example, investigators will have to determine what role the property owner or property manager may have played in failing to prevent the fire. Depending on the circumstances, victims of apartment fires may be able to pursue financial compensation for the injuries and losses they have suffered.

There are many questions that investigators must ask following an apartment fire in New Jersey. Was the building constructed using dangerous materials? Is the wiring in the building up to code? Did each apartment have working smoke detectors, fire alarms and fire extinguishers? Were the residents provided information on the fire escape routes in case of an emergency? If the investigation shows that the injuries suffered were connected to a property owner's negligence, the victims may be able to seek compensation by filing a premises liability claim.

It is common for injured victims to have to file a civil lawsuit to receive fair and full compensation for their injuries and related losses. Negligent property owners may be held responsible for damages including medical bills, time away from work, hospitalization, continued treatments, surgeries, pain and suffering, and emotional distress. It is common for property owners to deny responsibility, to fail to have adequate insurance, and to claim that the victim was the one responsible for the fire.

The skilled premises liability lawyers in New Jersey at Lependorf & Silverstein know how to hold at-fault property owners accountable for the incidents that occur on their properties. Usually, these are incidents that can be prevented. If you have been seriously injured in an accident on a property due to negligence, we will fight hard for your rights and ensure that you are fairly and fully compensated. Call us today at 609-240-0040 to find out how we can help you.

Under New Jersey premises liability laws, property owners are required to offer reasonably safe conditions to any and all visitors. When someone is injured on a person’s property, the owner may be held liable for the damages, particularly if their negligence contributed to the accident. Under certain circumstances, a property owner may even be held liable for an injury that occurs during a criminal act on their property. Anyone injured on public property would be well-advised to speak to a skilled attorney about their legal rights and options.

Not all criminal activity on public property provides the basis for a valid premises liability claim. In many cases, the injured victim will have to prove that negligence on the part of the property owner caused or contributed to the incident. An experienced lawyer will ask the following questions: Were there similar acts on the premises in recent years? Did the property owner beef up security after those incidents? Were any other steps taken to improve security and safety such as the use of surveillance cameras? What other crime prevention measures were taken by the property owner?

If a property owner was negligent and took no steps to secure the premises despite several incidents on the property, they may be held responsible for the damages suffered. A successful New Jersey premises liability claim could result in compensation for medical bills related to the incident, wages lost while healing, and pain and suffering.

The Princeton premises liability attorneys at Lependorf & Silverstein provide free consultations to injured victims and their families. We have had a successful track record of holding negligent parties liable for the accidents they cause or failed to prevent. Call us at 609-240-0040 to find out how we can help.

Premises liability is a practice area of law that deals with a property owner's responsibility to keep their premises safe and free of obstructions that could cause harm to another person. The most common injuries in regards to premises liability in New Jersey are sustained through slip and fall accidents. Slip and fall accidents can occur when property is not maintained adequately or a spilled substance is left unattended. Injuries that can occur due to a slip and fall accident in New Jersey may include:

• Broken bones


• Head/brain injuries


• Cuts/scrapes


• Burns


• Paralysis


• Soft tissue injuries

Other types of premises liability include inadequate lighting that could invite crime, poor training of security guards, leaving debris in a construction zone or not properly marking the construction zone at all, not removing ice or snow which causes someone to slip, improperly restraining guard dogs, among many other types of negligence.

Whether you're going out to pick up groceries at the market or spending time at a friend's house, it is the responsibility of the property owner to ensure that their business, home or other property is up to code and safe. Should injury occur because of failure to maintain a property, the owner of that business or home could be held liable for expenses incurred to the injured party. If you find yourself in a position where a property owner's negligence caused you harm, an experienced Princeton premises liability attorney like those at Lependorf & Silverstein can help. Contact us today for a free consultation.

An investigation was launched on February 8, 2010 for determining the cause of a recent explosion at a Middletown, Connecticut power plant that killed at least five people and injured a dozen or more others. Based on a northjersey.com story, the huge explosion of the under-construction power plant occurred on February 7, 2010 at 11:15 a.m. and was so massive that residents heard and felt the boom as far as 20 miles away. Approximately 50 to 60 people were in the area at the time of the blast, and while hospital officials have not released the conditions of all of those injured in the power plant explosion, the report mentioned that one pipefitter injured in the explosion suffered a broken leg and wounds ranged from minor to very serious.

Construction for the 620-megawatt power plant was almost complete prior to the explosion. It was being built to produce energy mainly using natural gas, which, according to the report, accounts for almost a fifth of the nation’s electricity. The Connecticut Fire Marshalls and Colorado members of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, which investigates industrial chemical accidents, are currently working together in determining exactly what happened. The explosion took place while workers for the O&G Industries construction company were purging a gas line and clearing it of air.

Continue reading "Cause of CT Power Plant Explosion under Investigation" »

A chemical plant worker in DuPont, West Virginia has died from exposure to phosgene that took place on January 23, 2010, according to a money.ca.msn.com article. The federal Occupation Health and Safety Administration stated that inspectors are examining a series of leaks that shut down the eastern Kanawha County plant and caused the employee to die. The plant was closed temporarily due to three leaks being reported; however, one leak went undetected for an entire week. The plant is currently reviewing operating procedures and there are no pressing plans to begin production.

Phosgene is a colorless gas that, as demonstrated in this particular incident, can be extremely dangerous because its odor may not be noticed and symptoms of exposure are usually gradual to appear. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those who have been exposed to an unsafe amount of phosgene are typically observed by doctors for up to 48 hours since it may take that long for symptoms to develop or re-emerge. Some delayed effects of phosgene exposure may include difficulty breathing, low blood pressure, coughing up white to pink-colored fluid as a sign of pulmonary edema, or heart failure. While most individuals who survive phosgene exposure experience a full recovery, many of those affected develop emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Continue reading "Worker Dies after Exposure to Poisonous Gas Phosgene from Chemical Plant Leaks" »

On January 25, 2010 an Appellate Division panel of Judges ruled in the case entitled Bennett v. B.J. Lounge and Jeffrey Newton. In this case, the plaintiff sued for personal injuries he sustained while performing work at a tavern in Upper Deerfield Township New Jersey. The plaintiff was hanging a Philadelphia Eagles football team banner on an interior wall of the tavern. The plaintiff pushed a metal chair from the floor of the tavern against the wall and stepped onto the chair to hang the banner. The chair collapsed and the plaintiff sustained significant personal injuries. The plaintiff filed his cause of action and alleged that the metal chair was a dangerous condition that existed on the tavern’s premises and that the plaintiff had not been warned of this dangerous condition. Both the trial court and the Appellate Division dismissed this claim. Both Courts reasoned that the plaintiff failed to provide expert testimony to show that a reasonable inspection of the chair before the accident would have prevented the accident.

In order to prevail in a case such as this it is important to show that the defendant had either actual knowledge or constructive knowledge of a dangerous condition that could result on injury. It is not enough merely to demonstrate that the injury occurred. By employing an expert who specializes in these types of accidents, the plaintiff could have shown that the tavern should have been aware of this dangerous condition on the tavern premises. If you have been injured in a fall, Contact an attorney at the Princeton, New Jersey law firm of Lependorf & Silverstein, P.C. for a free consultation regarding your legal rights. The personal injury attorneys at the Princeton, New Jersey law firm of Lependorf & Silverstein, P.C. have extensive experience in litigating these types of personal injury claims. Let the personal injury attorneys at the Princeton, NJ law firm of Lependorf & Silverstein, P.C. go to work for you today.

Whether a family decides to place a loved one in a nursing home, a developmental disability facility, or any other professional or medical center, the choice to trust that other people will provide your loved one with the attention, treatment, and care they need and deserve can often be difficult and even emotional. When this trust is breached and wrongful death takes place at such facilities, the consequences can be devastating for a family to endure, and frequently leaves those involved with many questions, particularly whether or not negligence or wrongdoing led to the death taking place.

According to an article from nj.com, an employee at the New Lisbon Developmental Center in Pemberton Township, Burlington County, has been put on unpaid leave after the choking death of one of the patients under the caretaker’s observation. A spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services stated that the deceased man choked on a sandwich and had lived at the facility for almost 20 years.

The New Lisbon facility is one of seven New Jersey-run centers that provide care for individuals with developmental disabilities such as cerebral palsy and autism. What many residents may not know, however, is that the Burlington County facility has a history of problems that led the Department of Justice to open its own investigation in 2002. The state even agreed in 2004 to the independent monitoring of practices at the New Lisbon center for a span of four years, which was later extended one more year, which ended in August.

Continue reading "Choking Death at Burlington County Developmental Disability Facility" »

As one of the most silent and invisible forms of personal injury, lead poisoning has put far too many children at risk throughout the State of New Jersey. Based on a nj.com report, health officials have proposed new and stricter standards that should allow children suffering from lead poisoning quicker access to health services in addition to having their homes (as the site of exposure ) examined sooner. A major change made by New Jersey health officials is the proposed lowering of the blood-level threshold said to determine whether a child exposed to toxic lead requires follow-up care and whether an environmental investigation is needed to determine its source.

According to the article, health officials are now aware that lead levels once thought to be tolerable are now known to be far too dangerous, especially when it comes to children. Depending on the level of lead exposure, some of the injuries children could encounter from lead poisoning may include, but are not limited to:

• Developmental problems


• Damage to normal growth


• Severe brain damage


• Seizure


• Coma


• Wrongful death

Continue reading "New Jersey Strengthens Combat against Lead Poisoning" »

A Mercer County Jury awarded a woman $1.64 million dollars in damages as a result of injuries she sustained when she was locked in the Mercer Cemetery Park in Trenton, New Jersey on November 26, 2001. The Park can be accessed through two iron gates. The Park is open to the public on weekdays from 7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Before locking the gates of the Cemetery, Park employees are to check to make sure no one is inside the Park prior to locking the gates. In this case, the Park gates were locked before 4:30 p.m., thereby locking the plaintiff inside. In order to exit the Cemetery, the plaintiff attempted to climb over a brick wall and drop to the ground outside. In attempting this exit, she fractured her right tibia. New Jersey’s Tort Claims Act requires plaintiff’s to demonstrate that public entity defendants acted “palpably unreasonably,” and that their injuries are permanent.

In this case the defendant, Mercer Cemetery Corporation, appealed the jury’s verdict claiming that the Trial Court applied the traditional ordinary negligence standard and not the more stringent “palpably unreasonable” standard. Both the Appellate Division and the New Jersey Supreme Court have ruled that in this case the “palpably unreasonable” standard should have been used by the Trial Court and the case has been remanded for retrial. Thus, the question for the jury at the time of retrial will be if the defendant in this case acted in a palpably unreasonable manner by locking this woman in the cemetery before the cemetery closed and without first checking to make sure nobody was in the cemetery before locking the iron gates. Interestingly, the New Jersey Supreme Court also determined that the jury’s award of $1.64 million dollars in damages was not excessive and refused to Order a new trial on the issue of damages.

If you have been injured in the State of New Jersey you have certain rights and may be entitled to a monetary damages award for your injury. Also, if your claim is against a Public Entity, as was the case here, you MUST put that entity on notice of your intent to file a claim within 90 days of the incident. Contact a New Jersey Personal Injury attorney at the law firm of Lependorf & Silverstein for a free consultation regarding your rights.

An Irvington, New Jersey resident was returning from a family Christmas party to his residence in the early hours of December 26, 2008 when he was caused to slip and fall on an accumulation of snow and ice on an untreated sidewalk in front of his apartment rental. The man’s three year old daughter had fallen asleep in the car on the way home. The man was carrying his sleeping daughter in his arms when he fell. The man suffered no serious injury after the fall. Unfortunately, his daughter sustained a significant laceration to her forehead that required over two hours of plastic surgery at nearby Saint Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, New Jersey. The scar to her forehead likely will be permanent. In this case, the property management company responsible for clearing any ice and snow from the premises clearly failed to live up to the duty of care required to its tenants. Lawful visitors are also owed a duty of care.

Often, a property management company will hire a snow removal company to handle this responsibility. Regardless of the arrangement, injured tenants or visitors can recover damages for pain and suffering and for a loss of wages. Outstanding medical bills also can be included in a claim. If you have been injured due to a property owner’s failure to fulfill its duty of care, you may be entitled to damages. Please call a New Jersey premises injury attorney at the law firm of Lependorf & Silverstein, P.C. for a free consultation. It is important to inquire as to your rights shortly following the New Jersey slip and fall accident. Consult with an attorney at the law firm of Lependorf & Silverstein, P.C. for a free consultation before insurance companies begin to obtain written or recorded statements that could damage your claim later on.

In 2004, a 9 year old boy broke his femur in a collision with another child as they ran to line up after recess. A Passaic County jury decided that the school was negligent in supervising the children because the school only had one teacher supervising 400 children. The child suffered permanent debilitating injuries. According to the boy’s attorney, the school system only offered $5,000 to settle the case. A jury felt otherwise and awarded $500,000 for the child’s pain and suffering.

Minor injuries to our children are an inevitable part of the growing up process. When those injuries, however, are the result of the negligence of another party, it can be very unsettling. An unsafe swimming pool or faulty playground equipment can lead to injuries that were similar to the ones the Passaic County youth suffered from. Additionally, unsafe child products, such as defective car seats, strollers, cribs, and toys can play a large role in injuries sustained by our children.

If your child has been injured at school or summer camp or by an unsafe toy or product, you should contact an attorney as soon as possible to determine if there is any liability. Contact the attorneys at Lependorf & Silverstein if you have any questions.

A 10 year old boy was seriously injured while riding the Psycho Swing and Blackbeard’s Cave in Bayville when a faulty restraining belt broke, causing the boy to be knocked around the inside of the ride’s cockpit. This child suffered two broken ankles which will permanently impair his mobility for the rest of his life. The amusement park agreed to pay $1 million to compensate the boy and his family.

Regardless of the cause of these types of dangerous amusement park accidents, be it mechanical failure, operator error, or design defects and limitations, the park must be held accountable for the injuries any patron suffers while enjoying the venues attractions. Premises liability injuries like this one occur everyday and are not limited to amusement parks. Dangerous accidents can occur anywhere; in businesses, like a store or restaurant; on public streets or other government properties; or even a private home.

Amusement parks, wave parks, ballparks, and all other places that entertain the public have certain legal duties to make sure rides and attractions are safe. If you or a family member is injured during summer activities, it is important to contact an experienced New Jersey personal injury attorney as soon as possible to determine if there is any liability.

Contact the attorneys at Lependorf & Silverstein if you have any questions.