New York Law Blog

An editorial ran last week in The Buffalo News by Jacqualine Berger, a faculty member at Empire State College and a member of the DIsability Rights and Concerns Committie of United University Professions, speaking about the way each presidential candidate would address disability in this country. According to Ms. Berger, the Obama-Biden ticket went a long way into exploring and addressing disability issues in their platform while the McCain-Palin camp did not. Senior partner Jeffrey Lichtman sees clients every day who are fighting disability matters, and had these comments to add to the opinion column:

Following the result of the 2008 Presidential Election, many  Americans are hoping for policy changes for disabled citizens and their families. Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s "Plan to Empower People with Disabilities" is one that we can expect will enhance the lives of those living and coping with disabilities on a daily basis. The most important component of this plan is the Community Choice Act, which will end the current institutional biases and instead provide disabled individuals and their families the opportunity to choose how and where their care is administered.

The significance of reform for disabled people is that now, many of the people I represent will receive adequate and appropriate care. All too often I see people of all ages come into my office who have been poorly treated, mis-diagnosed, and suffering unnecessarily. If the president elect keeps these promises, the hope is that the rights of the disabled will be ensured and protected.

With New York City being a hot spot for crane accidents this year, construction accident experts met recently in Manhattan to deliberate on national standards for crane safety. Seeing how so much is at stake for the construction community at large, senior partner Jeffrey Lichtman of Trolman, Glaser and Lichtman had this to say on the meetings:

Again we are reminded of the dangers involved in many of the City’s construction sites. Crane accidents, which are among the most deadly facing construction workers, are more often than not the result of negligence and non compliance with safety standards by those utilizing cranes around the city. Failure to make the work site safe leaves the construction companies and/or the City liable for damages, pain and suffering, and wrongful death.

Following the amount of deaths crossing over into the double digits this year alone, we certainly hope that elected officials in the City of New York take some initiative to improve the standards of safety for crane operation and construction sites.

 

Yet another fatal construction accident took place in New York City this month as a building maintenance worker fell 30 feet from a ceiling he was repairing on Third Avenue in Midtown. The worker fell from a loading dock lift and proceeded to strike his head on a garbage compactor below. According to a friend of the worker, the man was simply reaching for a light switch when he fell, and the friend classified the incident as a “freak accident”. But in reality, do freak accidents really exist? Even a benign accident of this nature could mean that safety codes were not taken into consideration in the area of the accident. Jeffery Lichtman, senior partner at Trolman, Glaser, and Lichtman, weighs in on the nature of such accidents:

As shocking as a story like this may initially appear to be, the reality is that these kinds of “freak accidents” occur in our city quite frequently. The simple fact that this building maintenance worker was inside a loading dock area and was able to fall out while reaching for a light is indicative of improper safety regulations.

From the investigations thus far, it is unclear exactly who was at fault here, but given my own experience with these kinds of accidents, it is typically due to a failure to adhere to the mandates of the labor law of the state of New York.