Details

Created: 24 May 2019

Wrongful death is the legal and medical term used to describe your death, or the death of someone you know, due to the negligence or reckless behavior of other people or institutions. In the medical context, and in medical malpractice law, these people are doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, and other healthcare professionals or healthcare organizations.

Wrongful Death Claims

Generally, it is your immediate family who will seek a wrongful death claim in the instance of your wrongful death. The most common reason for your family wanting to file a wrongful death lawsuit is to obtain compensation for the damages that have occurred as a result of your death. These damages can be financial and/or emotional.

Read more: Wrongful Death and Civil Law

Details

Created: 26 April 2019

What Is Wrongful Death?

Wrongful Death occurs when you, or someone you know, is killed because of a healthcare practitioner’s negligence or misconduct - whether intentional or not.

It is different from medical malpractice in that medical malpractice occurs when your healthcare provider is negligent, and you are harmed but your injury isn’t fatal. Wrongful death, on the other hand, occurs when you, or someone you know, dies as a direct result of medical negligence.

Read more: Wrongful Death

Details

Created: 14 July 2017

New York City wrongful death lawyers can provide legal representation whenever someone has been killed due to negligence or wrongdoing. A wrongful death attorney can also help families of workers killed on-the-job by any cause, as a workers' compensation wrongful death claim can ensure benefits are available to dependents even if no negligence was involved on the part of an employer. Unfortunately, many families are shattered by worker deaths or by workplace injuries every year. The AFL-CIO released its annual Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect report in April of 2017. The 2017 edition of this report covers worker fatalities during the year 2015, which is the most recent year that statistics are available. This report shows that, while there have been around 553,000 fewer workers killed since 1970 when the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed, there are still thousands of employees who lose their lives each year while doing work tasks.

Determining the Risks

According to the AFL-CIO's report on worker fatalities in 2015:

• A total of 4,836 workers died in a year in the United States while doing job-related tasks.
• Close to 3.7 million injuries and illnesses related to job duties were reported.
• The fatality rate across all industries was calculated to be 3.4 deaths for each 100,000 workers.
• Latino workers had a fatality rate that was 18 percent higher than the national average. Their fatality rate was four deaths per 100,000 workers and 67 percent of the Latinos who died on-the-job were immigrants.
• Workers who are at least 65 have 2.5 times the chances of dying at work compared with the rest of the workforce, with a fatality rate of 9.4 deaths per 100,000 workers.
• More construction workers were killed than workers in any other industry. A total of 937 construction workers died on-the-job.
• The industry considered the most dangerous was agriculture, fishing and forestry, which had a fatality rate of 22.8 workers killed for every 100,000 workers. Transportation and warehouse workers also had a high fatality rate of 13.8 deaths per 100,000 workers.
• The mining and excavations sector is getting safer, as the fatality rate in this industry hit a record low this year.
• Workplace violence is increasingly a cause of worker fatalities, and a total of 703 workers killed during the course of the year died as a result of violence.
• The total cost associated with job-related deaths and job-related illnesses was estimated at between $250 billion and $360 billion annually.
• OSHA is understaffed and cannot perform needed inspections. There are enough state OSHA workers to inspect each business once every 99 years and enough federal OSHA inspectors to inspect each business once every 150 years.

New York City wrongful death lawyers can provide help in making a workers' comp claim for death benefits and can also assist in filing a wrongful death claim against any defendants who could potentially be at fault for causing the fatality. Give Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff a call today to find out more about the assistance that we can provide.

Details

Created: 16 June 2017

If you are a cyclist in New York City, chances are good that you may have heard about the Citi Bike ride-sharing program that has been in effect for the past four years.

Read more: Man on bike killed after colliding with charter bus

Details

Created: 17 April 2017

After a pedestrian collision that causes a fatality, family members of the victim who was killed in the accident should talk with New York City wrongful death lawyers to find out what legal rights they have. Unfortunately, fatal pedestrian accidents occur far too commonly and families are left facing shattered lives as they try to pick up the pieces. According to AM New York, the risk of a pedestrian accident is not the same throughout the city and some people are far more likely than others to die in a fatal pedestrian accident. In particular, statistics show that people in lower income neighborhoods within the city are more likely to be hit by a car and killed than people in wealthier areas.

Pedestrian Accidents Disproportionately Occur in Lower Income Neighborhoods

AM New York reported on data from the New York City Departments of Health and the New York City Department of Transportation. The data revealed that the rate of pedestrian accident fatalities in high poverty neighborhoods is close to three times higher than the rate of pedestrian accident fatalities in wealthier neighborhoods. In New York City, data on pedestrian death collected from 2012 to 2014 shows that for every 100 miles of roads, there were nine pedestrian fatalities in high-poverty neighborhoods. However, for every 100 miles of road, there were just three pedestrian fatalities in low poverty neighborhoods. This data confirms the discrepancy between pedestrian accident deaths in rich and poor neighborhoods that has been revealed in other research that has been conducted in various cities throughout the United States. Similar research virtually all shows a correlation between living in a high poverty area and having a higher risk of dying as a pedestrian in a motor vehicle collision. There may be more fatalities in these higher poverty areas because these locales are not able to afford infrastructure to create safer streets. One report on child pedestrian fatalities, for example, revealed especially high rates of fatalities among children around public housing areas. The high fatality rates in these locales were attributed to more people crossing mid-block due to the way that streets are laid out. There were also a disproportionate number of people speeding in the area. Unfortunately, the research suggests that lower income areas simply tend to have wider and faster streets, both of which make pedestrian fatalities more likely to occur. The executive director of Transportation Alternatives, who conducted the earlier research into child fatalities, indicates that it is not the actions of individuals causing higher fatality rates; instead, it is “streets that are dangerous by design.” Hopefully, new planned safety initiatives will help to improve conditions in higher risk areas so something can be done about the disproportionate risk. When accidents do happen, it is important for the families of victims to know what their rights are. Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff can help those who were harmed, so contact an attorney as soon as your loved one is killed or as soon as you are injured in a collision.