NY Malpractice Lawyers Blog

Crains New York Business reported today that, get this, “The impasse that blocked a new urgent care center serving the neighborhood around St. Vincent’s Hospital has been broken by leaving bankrupt Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers out of the equation.”  Representatives worked diligently on the original proposal to locate the urgent care center in the hospital’s former Emergency Department,

Meanwhile, while all this — pardon my French — bullshit is happening behind the scenes, sick people that the great old hospital used to care for are left without a good local healthcare center to go to quickly in case of emergencies.

More bullshit.  Get this:  ”Restrictions placed by SVCMC held up the urgent care center, which the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System originally had hoped would open next week. But SVCMC wanted to hold the health center to Catholic directives on birth control, and tried to negotiate a high rent and rigorous lease terms for space in the former emergency department.”  Who says religion isn’t the single biggest scourge on civilization?

Instead, the North Shore-LIJ system and VillageCare struck what’s called a clinical affiliation agreement to deliver health services in lower Manhattan, including an urgent care center that could open in the early fall if approved by the state.  I say good for LIJ.   North Shore-LIJ said it will collaborate with VillageCare to enhance the existing primary care services at the site, adding outpatient pediatric care, imaging services and sub-specialty care such as urology, cardiology, neurology and ear, nose and throat.

The affiliation also provides a new referral base for VillageCare’s services, including adult day health care, day treatment, short-stay rehabilitation and palliative care. Renovations will start once the proposal receives state approval.

I wish them lots of success in this venture.  In my discussions with many New York personal injury lawyers over the years, I have rarely, if ever, heard a bad word said about the old St. Vincents.  And, these folks are the ones who really know the good places from the bad.

It seems like all everyone is talking about these days is the state of the the economy and jobs.  Everyone seems to be searching for answers to these intractable problems and nobody seems to have any answers.  Not the President, not Congress, not Mayor Bloomberg.

The fact is, in order to solve a problem, you first have to be able to identify it.  Then, when you have figured out exactly what’s broken, you might be able to fix it.   So you ask: O.K. so what’s wrong with the country?  Read the following article in today’s Daily News.  Then think about how this example applies to the state of the USA at large:

……….

It takes NYC Transit an average 11 days to fix broken emergency intercoms in the subways, according to numbers provided by the agency.

“That’s just terrible,” said Andrew Albert, the riders’ representative on the MTA board. “It’s unacceptable. There’s a real safety concern. What if someone is attacking you, God forbid.”

There are about 940 emergency intercoms in the system, generally located near turnstile banks, and hundreds more inside and around elevators.

They’re supposed to be a lifeline for anyone in trouble.

Passengers should be able to push a button that calls the booth in the station that is staffed full-time. If the call goes unanswered, it is forwarded to dispatchers in the rail control center.

One wheelchair user and vice president with the advocacy group Disabled in Action, said she once was stuck in an elevator with a broken intercom for 15 minutes.

“You get incredibly angry,” she said. “You want to know why they can’t make the damn things work.”

Between January and June, reports of faulty intercoms led to 1,264 “trouble tickets” requesting attention by repairmen.

I maintain, and have believed for a while now that if it wasn’t for New York personal injury lawyers suing on behalf of people who become victims of what I call ‘governmental malpractice’, nothing would work.

It seems that the only time something of any real value gets done in this city — save the occasional building of a lovely park on an elevated platform in downtown Manhattan — is when legislators are forced into action by the best New York personal injury lawyers, or risk paying a steep price.

According to The New York Daily News today, Gov. Patterson has vowed to send up permanent budget bills covering economic development, transportation and public safety for lawmakers to pass tomorrow.  He seems to be trying desperately to avoid a statewide shut-down that could reek havoc on life as we know it in this state.

Why is it that the folks in Albany just can’t get their acts together?  And, why is it that we, the taxpayers, have never filed a civil suit against said pols for Legislative Malpractice?

But no, here we are again at yet another budget impass.  This time the governor has to dig into his bag of tricks to avoid a problem with next week’s emergency appropriation.

New York has been operating on weekly emergency budget extenders since April 1. Lawmakers and the governor have been bickering over the best way to close a $9.2 budget gap.

I’ve got an idea that might help break the stalemate.  Sue the bums!

The New York Daily News reported today that the Brooklyn district attorney’s office announced it would not retry a man wrongfully convicted of murdering a rabbi 15 years ago – canceling a hearing into allegations of misconduct by a top prosecutor.

Assistant District Attorney Kevin Richardson who had insisted two weeks ago that the office remained committed to pursuing a new trial against Jabbar Collins informed a judge of the flip-flop just as the hearing was about to get underway in Brooklyn Federal Court.

I’m no lawyer but it seems to me this man should hire a top New York personal injury lawyer and go after the City for taking away 15 years of his life.

Prosecutors reached the conclusion that Collins could not be found guilty with the destruction of evidence and problems with witnesses after so many years.

Collins was convicted in 1995 of gunning down Rabbi Abraham Pollack as he collected rent money in a Williamsburg building.

The case has been gutted by revelations that prosecutors allegedly coerced witnesses to testify and failed to turn over evidence to the defense.

On a somewhat lighter note this beautiful Friday afternoon, I had to wonder if the day would ever come when one celebrity player sues another in civil court for “relationship malpractice.”

And, then would the spurned lover then hire a top New York personal injury lawyer to represent them against the scoundrel, or scoundrel-ette, who did them wrong?  You know, for something like, mental anguish?

The New York Post ran a item today on-again-off-again beau of Paris Hilton, Doug Reinhardt. Apparently he’s been getting friendly with 2009 Miss USA Kristen Dalton.  The Post reported that the couple have been chatting about TV projects since being introduced by friends in LA.

Despite a false report in a downmarket magazine that Reinhardt was dating new Miss USA Rima Fakih, Reinhardt has in fact been getting friendly with her predecessor, at least over the phone. Dalton has dated “The Bachelorette” star Reid Rosenthal on and off for seven months. Rosenthal was at the Miss USA Pageant at Planet Hollywood last weekend to support her, with a Tiffany gift in hand.

This could get messy.

But, what do they say?  Only in New York kids, only in New York.

It was reported today by the Associated Press that New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is suing a hedge fund management firm he alleges was in cahoots with scam-king Bernie Madoff.  Apparently, the boys at Ivy Asset Management, who bet millions with Madoff, knew the high-roller, now jailbird, was up to no good for years, but kept their mouths shut about it

Surprise.  Surprise.  According to the AP, the suits at Ivy said nothing to their clients for fear of losing out on lucrative management fees.

I’m just happy I wasn’t one of poison Ivy’s clients.  But if I was, Cuomo wouldn’t be the only Italo-American after their gold-platted asses.

I’d hire me a top flight New York personal injury lawyer and go after the bastards for professional negligence and fraud.

I know I don’t carry as big a stick as the AG, but as a citizen with rights I would expect the courts to bat these Ivy-leaguers around good and hard for me.

I wonder how the proposed change in the laws regarding the reading of a suspect’s Miranda rights will effect the practice of personal injury law in New York City, especially as it relates to incidences of police brutality and wrongful arrest?

The White House signaled Sunday it wants to work with Congress to change the way terrorists are interrogated, a hot-button issue made hotter by the attempted Times Square bombing.

Specifically, Attorney General Erik Holder said the White House wants to review the public safety exception to the Miranda warning, which advises suspects of their right to an attorney and to remain silent.

The exception has long allowed law enforcement agencies to question suspects before reading their rights if they believe a public safety threat is imminent – the so-called “ticking time bomb” scenario. The exception was carved out in 1984, but left unresolved is whether prosecutors can use in court information gained from suspects before they were read their rights.

Who pays the price when bankrupt St. Vincent’s Hospital slams the doors shut on its emergency room this Friday? People in the neighborhood who get sick and need emergency care, that’s who.  I want to know who will be held liable should someone die as a result of  the closing of this once venerable healthcare institution?  It’s a crime of a different order against all New Yorkers.

The Daily News reported today that the Greenwich Village institution will start turning away walk-in patients and close the emergency department as of 8 a.m. A handful of patients remain in the hospital but no new ones will be admitted.

People in need of emergency care are advised to go to other area hospitals, includingBellevue, New York Downtown Hospital or Beth Israel Medical Center.

The bad news was tempered Monday night when Gov. Paterson said state grants will fund a less-comprehensive “urgent care facility” in the area.  But, the facility is only a stop-gap measure, according to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

“Only a full-service hospital can fully replace St. Vincent’s,” she said.

The urgent care facility will generally only treat nonlife-threatening injuries and illnesses.North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health Care Inc. will operate round-the-clock ambulances from the center to other hospitals for patients with more dire needs.

The Daily News reported today that the Environmental Protection Agency might scrap a 30-year-old safety standard because it’s likely too expensive to enforce in schools.

According to the report, just months after the agency ordered the city education department to study the risk of toxin exposure to students, the EPA has scheduled a hearing to change the amount of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) allowed in caulking.

PCBs, known to cause cancer and birth defects, were routinely used in caulking before they were banned for most uses in 1979. Since then, anything with more than 50 parts-per-million has been considered toxic.

A 2008 News investigation found PCB levels as high as 225,000 ppm in the caulk of several public schools. The city’s own tests have since found levels more than twice that high.

So now if a child becomes ill due to exposure to PCB’s in the classroom, couldn’t the EPA be held liable for negligence?  And, won’t the government agency end up paying out far more in settlements to injured students than it would cost the agency to do a proper job of enforcing the law, rather than trying t6 weaken them?