We are pleased to announce that the National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers has extended an invitation to James Morris. This is an elite group of the top lawyers in New York. Membership in the organization is by invitation only and is extended to individuals who exemplify superior qualifications, trial results and leadership in their respective state. The Top 100 Trial Lawyers list is based on and limited to an average of 100 lawyers in each state. Membership in this organization allows the attorney to attend legal education conferences and share information and tactics with the country’s leading trial lawyers.
While the perils of drunk driving are apparent to everyone, the number of people who still commit this act is discouraging. In late December, an impaired driver claimed the life of a South Buffalo man just ten houses from the victim’s home. The driver, a West Seneca native, now faces upwards of seven years in prison, charged with driving while intoxicated and vehicular man slaughter. The victim was crossing a neighborhood intersection that he’d presumably passed an immeasurable number of times when the intoxicated driver struck. Paramedics rushed the man to the Erie County Medical Center where he died early the following morning.
Drunk-driving accidents can be prevented by both impaired drivers and pedestrians. If you’ve been drinking, avoid operating a vehicle at all costs, regardless of whether you’re below the legal limit. As a general rule, if you’ve had anything to drink, find a different ride home. For pedestrians, be aware that drivers do take the risk of driving impaired, so stay alert of your surroundings and avoid walking on roads, especially dim lit roads at night. If you’re interested in testing your BAC purely for informational purposes, consult the sources below:
New York State Trial Lawyers Association President Leslie Kelmachter testifies at a city council hearing:
President Kelmachter stressed that there is no malpractice “crisis” in New York, pointing out that since 1991 insurance premiums have risen less than the rate of healthcare cost inflation. President Kelmachter advocated for greater efforts to reduce medical errors, stating that “the biggest driver of malpractice insurance costs is tragic and preventable medical errors themselves.”
A woman finds herself still at the mercy of her caretakers at ECMC five months after a car accident stole her ability to walk, speak, eat on her own or even move her head. The August accident involving an impaired driver and his 40-year-old female passenger resulted not only in the woman’s injuries, but a vehicular assault charge and a four-year prison sentence for the driver.
The pair was returning to Buffalo from Indiana. The woman drove from Indiana to Pennsylvania until she grew weary, at which point the man took the wheel. The man, driving under the influence of drugs, lost control of the vehicle between Exits 55 and 56 on a Hamburg highway and was struck by a passing vehicle. The passenger side took the brunt of the collision, resulting in the woman’s devastating injuries. In addition to his impairment, the man operated the vehicle with a suspended license.
In a statement to the Supreme Court, the driver said “I didn’t mean for this to happen. . . I cry myself to sleep every night. I’m sorry, that’s all I can say.” Despite the man’s remorse, in addition to the vehicular assault charge, the court charged him with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and possession of marijuana. In a statement to the Buffalo News, the victim’s husband stated “Everything my wife loved to do, she can no longer do because of this accident… She can’t do anything by herself.”
You can avoid accidents like this. Do not drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or allow anyone in that condition to drive your vehicle. If you’ve suffered due to someone else’s recklessness, call James Morris Law today 716-855-1118.
In a world where we walk with computers in pocket, communicate with a single click and have access to infinite streams of information at our fingertips, finding an alternative to lead-based paint should have happened years ago. Unfortunately, much of Buffalo’s housing is stuck in a time-warp. The Nickel City’s unique architecture serves both as a spectacle and a burden. The New York State Department of Health estimates that 85% of Buffalo homes built prior to 1978 contain lead-based paint: the primary lead source in cases of lead poisoning. From 2006-2008, Erie County had the third highest percentage of new lead poisoning cases, 80% of which were children.
Children are more susceptible to lead poisoning due to an underdeveloped digestive system and ease of ingestion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry suggest that a child’s digestive system absorbs up to 10 times more lead than that of an adult, and will excrete only 32% of the absorbed lead, as opposed to 99% excreted by an adult. Children ingest lead through everyday behaviors like sucking their thumb, eating with their hands or even playing with certain toys, making lead poisoning difficult to prevent.
Once a child ingests lead, diagnosis of lead poisoning can be costly and mistimed. There are few, if any, external signals alerting parents that a child has ingested lead. A doctor administered blood test is the only conclusive way to tell if a child’s lead levels are elevated. Through early detection of lead ingestion from lead-based paint or from another lead source, parents alleviate I.Q. decline, physical and intellectual debility, attention deficit disorder, delayed reaction time, and kidney damage that may occur to the child later in life.
Don’t let your child fall victim to lead poisoning at the hands of lead based paint in your home. If your child has tested positively for lead poisoning due to exposed lead paint, call a Buffalo personal injury lawyer today. Contact James Morris Law at 716-855-1118.
Fatal auto accidents happen far too often in the Buffalo, N.Y. area. Just recently, a 24-year-old Colden, N.Y., resident was killed in a one-car accident. According to WKBW Eyewitness News 7, the victim was pronounced dead at the scene and appeared to be ejected from the vehicle, in which he was a passenger at the time of the early-morning auto accident.
Statistically, like most of America, the number of auto accident fatalities in New York State has declined steadily since 1990. That year, there were 2,217 traffic fatalities in New York State; in 2000, there were 1,460 deaths; in 2005, a total of 1,434 deaths; in 2009, there were 1,156 deaths statewide. But while the number of fatalities has decreased by 47.8 percent during a 19-year period, the financial impact of a fatal motor vehicle accident has soared higher nationwide in recent years. In 2009, the cost of a single motor vehicle fatality exceeded $6 million nationwide, according to federal accident data analyzed by AAA. That figure is 85 percent – or $2.76 million – higher compared to 2005, when the estimated cost of a single motor vehicle fatality was $3.24 million.
And here’s another figure to consider from the same study conducted by AAA. The overall cost of fatal auto accidents each year nationwide is $299.5 billion. That’s equal to $1,522 per person each year, according to the study. How did the study come up with such figures? The report used Federal Highway Administration data and assigned a monetary value to a variety of components, including medical and emergency services, lost earnings, property damage and diminished quality of life.
Fatal auto accidents in New York State happen fast. If your family has lost a loved one due to another driver’s irresponsible behavior, don’t give up hope. Contact a New York auto accident attorney who puts people first. Contact the Law Offices of James Morris.
A trip to the doctor’s office means there’s a problem. Bum knee? Take some painkillers. Strep throat? Some antibiotics. Overbearing husband or wife? Well, you’re on your own for that one. Doctor visits are straight forward: you’re sick, he cures. But what happens when a doctor causes more harm than good? And how should you react?
Literally speaking, the health care industry delivers lethal blows every year. Negligence cases occur around every corner. Medical malpractice statistics from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine suggest that more than half a million people die yearly from health care harm, rivaling the death rates of both cancer and heart disease. Causes range from fatal drug reactions (137,000 deaths), to misdiagnosis (100,000 deaths), blood clots (200,000 deaths) and facility-related infections (100,000 deaths). Doctors dub the majority of these negligence cases “iatrogenic,” meaning inadvertently caused by medical treatment or, more simply, just part of the job. Some doctors even blame patients, citing noncompliance with medical advice or lack of responsibility for personal health as reasons for patient mortality. In a medical malpractice complaint, Rarely do you hear an M.D. hold him or herself accountable.
A personal injury lawyer in Buffalo may be able to assist you. Call 716-855-1118 if you or a loved one was injured due to professional negligence. At the Law Offices of James Morris, we are dedicated to fighting for clients injured due to medical malpractice in Buffalo as well as other types of negligence.
Unfortunately, no established system exists for collecting proper data on wrongful deaths caused by health care hazards; health care organizations don’t often reveal when they make a mistake. According to a 2011 Health Affairs study, when a doctor or nurse does own up to a mistake, self-reports disclose a trifle of the actual complications that occur. Health care hazards produce grieving families with few places left to turn.
If you’ve been a victim of a wrongful death due to health care hazards, or have a medical malpractice complaint don’t let it impede your happiness or search for justice any longer. Report medical malpractice by calling James Morris Law today, 716-855-1118.
A recent survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that, despite increased legislation forbidding it, texting while driving is on the rise. The survey estimated that roughly 1 in every 100 drivers on the road at a given moment was texting, e-mailing, surfing the web or using some other feature of their portable handheld devices in 2010: a year that amassed nearly 3100 deaths in automobile accidents due to distracted driving.
The results of the survey are cause for alarm. At the Law Offices of James Morris, our Buffalo car accident lawyers have seen first-hand the devastation of distracted driving crashes in New York. Our attorneys have represented clients who were seriously injured in auto accidents due to the negligence of other drivers.
The data unveiled a drastic dissonance between driver beliefs and behavior. According to the NHTSA survey, those polled acknowledged very few circumstances where they would NOT talk or text on their cell phone while behind the wheel, despite supporting greater restrictions on both behaviors (seventy-one percent of survey participants supported bans on using handheld devices behind the wheel, while a whopping 94% supported bans on texting while driving). Seventy-five percent of those same drivers polled said they would answer their ringing phone while driving, without regard to driving conditions at the time of the phone call.
Thirty-five states currently have a ban in effect for drivers who text and drive, while only 9 ban the use of handheld devices altogether (New York included). These statistics beg the question, should drivers face stricter penalties for using cell phones behind the wheel? The majority of the 6000 drivers surveyed believed that issued fines should be at least $100 and a quarter of them felt that $200-$500 was a sufficient penalty to pay. Ironically, the very same drivers who support increased fines are the ones paying the price.
If you’ve been injured in a texting while driving related accident, call James Morris Law today. 716-855-1118. Our personal injury lawyers in New York put experience and resources to work for clients.
Upon entering secondary education, every child fears the worst; getting picked on. Images of being chosen last for dodge ball or being stuffed in a locker used to correspond with the word “bully.” Today however, bullying leaves a much more lasting effect on teenagers, causing serious emotional and physical issues. Bullying destroys lives long after the bullying stops.
The modern bully is a lion, pouncing on its prey at the mere scent of weakness and attacking any flaw of character or lifestyle. The trouble with this lion is that it hunted its way out from the confines of the classroom jungle and into the open world of the internet. While we’re all familiar with the tragic tale of Jamey Rodemeyer—a 14-year-old boy from Williamsville who cut his life short in the bloom of his youth due to years of psychological abuse both in person and online throughout middle and high school—his story is one fish in a sea of recent teen suicides at the hands (and words) of bullies. Even more disturbing is the account of Ashley Billasano. Huffington Post reported last week that Ashley, a victim of molestation and forced prostitution by her own family, tweeted 144 cries for help before killing herself, receiving not a single response from any of her 500 Twitter followers. And if you think it can’t get much worse than that, Huffington reported just days ago that 10-year-old Ashlynn Connor hung herself with a scarf in her closet after being called a “slut” by her elementary school classmates. Amidst these tragedies however, peeks a ray of sunlight.
Parents are beginning to turn to the justice system to combat this incessant wave of bullying. After their son suffered a traumatic brain injury, the parents of David Osama Hadaad pressed charges against Lake Central School in Indiana for not intervening while David was brutally attacked in the hallway due to his Middle Eastern descent. According to the Huffington article that ran last week, the family has accused the school of not only failing to intervene, but of violating David’s civil rights as well. None of the attackers faced punishment and David was suspended 10 days for the single defensive punch he threw.
Don’t let your children be victims any longer. It’s time to stand up against bullying. Call the Law Offices of James Morris now, 716-855-1118.
Buffalo hones the title “City of Good Neighbors.” Walking downtown, smiles greet you on strangers faces and “How do you do?’ follows. The intimacy of personal relationships in this city is like a Reese’s cup; better with every bite. Some Buffaloians though, take advantage of this hospitable instinct, maybe by parking their car in your driveway. . . or dining room for that matter. I bleed cordiality, but if you wish to come in, use your fist to knock, not your bumper.
Since the end of August, an astounding 25 drivers have crashed into local businesses, many of which have resulted in death and serious injury. The most recent came this week when an SUV struck the front rail of Laughlin’s on Franklin Street, causing noteworthy damage to the neighborhood pub. Another highly publicized crash occurred in mid-September, when an elderly woman barreled into the side of Chee Burger Chee Burger, killing two and injuring several more. The list goes on from there. With this latest accident, a pandemic can only describe what’s happening. Can we really pin 25 separate car-fights-building incidents on absent mindedness alone? One leading psychologist thinks not.
Though many of these cases involve elderly drivers, personality plays a role too according to Psychologist Dr. Amy Beth Taublib. She told WKBW that a common delusion among people, namely senior citizens, suggests that their perceived driving skills supersede their actual driving skills, which she believes has contributed greatly to the surge in building-front crashes. “I certainly don’t think it’s coincidental,” Taublib told channel 7, “I think people who do these things have a certain psychological mindset.” Another theory discussed by Taublib recalls the “copy-cat” phenomenon, which implies that an accident like this occurring once increases the likelihood of it occurring again because violent incidents have a way of embedding themselves in the collective unconscious.
The Amherst Town Board has taken preventive action toward limiting the frequency of these accidents. In September, the board passed an ordinance requiring local businesses to implant concrete pillars in front of their buildings if the building lies within a certain number of feet from the roadside. Since the passing of this ordinance, there have been at least 10 more accidents of this nature. Glumly enough, if any truth exists in the “copycat” phenomenon, expect more of these crashes to come.
