Connecticut Injury Attorney Blog

A bicyclist from Fairfield Connecticut suffered traumatic head injuries after being thrown from her bike following a collision with a truck. She is currently in critical condition at a Bridgeport, Connecticut hospital.

The media reported that the victim was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. The accident thus highlights the need for stressing helmet safety for all bicyclists.

Continue reading "Connecticut Woman Severely Injured by Truck in Bicycle Accident" »

The big news this summer in the field of concussions and brain injuries was the lawsuit commenced in July by 75 former professional football players against the NFL alleging the league knew as early as the 1920s of the harmful effects of concussions on players' brains, but concealed the information from players, coaches, trainers and others until June 2010.

However, less well known is the quiet impact that Connecticut's student athlete concussion law, effective July 2010, has had on the safety of high school football players.

Among other requirements, the law requires interscholastic and intramural coaches in Connecticut to take a course on concussions. One of the key goals is to teach coaches how to identify the symptoms of a concussion after a player takes a hit to head, and to determine whether the player should be pulled from the game.

Continue reading "Connecticut Student Athlete Concussion Law Has Coaches Taking Courses on Head Injuries" »

One can hardly doubt that persons who have sustained serious work site injuries, some that have led to their Death, by their pursuit of lawsuits beyond the mere assertion of workers compensation claims have fostered awareness and safety for many. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that occurred in the year 1911 was one of the most tragic industrial accidents in U.S. history. 146 workers lost their lives, many were young female immigrants.
The factory conditions were so deplorable and unsafe that a criminal investigation and charges were filed but the owners of the Factory were acquitted. However, they were sued for civil damages-monetary compensation for those that lost their lives and brought wrongful death claims which they won. The American Society of Safety Engineers(ASSE) was also founded, in part, because of this event and made efforts to bring attention to the horrid conditions which the workers were having to work in.

Continue reading "Safety In The Work Place- " »

Investigating and pursuing truck accident claims involves both traditional methods of accident investigation and Legal Discovery with Federal Law and regulations that may affect the outcome of the lawsuit. Unfortunately, given the size and mass of Trucking rigs on our roads, resultant collisions with passenger cars are often tragic, yielding all manner of fatal injuries, Brain injuries, serious fractures and paralysis. Common experience and statistics detailed below bear this point out. What is not so commonly understood nor intuitively obvious is the impact that Federal law has on regulating the conduct of commercial Trucking operators and therefore, the Discovery needs of Plaintiff's lawyers litigating such claims on behalf of injured clients or the Estates of those who did not survive such accidents.

Continue reading "Trucking Accident Claims" »

Sometimes, unlikely events occur. Getting struck by a police cruiser on a street just blocks from the Police Department falls into that category. Having the Assistant Police Chief( Officer Melendez) behind the wheel at the time adds to the misfortune. Losing consciousness at the scene and being removed by ambulance with head and facial injuries only to awake from the fog of it all to find out that the accident investigation is likely being carried out by officers, junior in rank to the Assistant Chief with no evident referral to the State Police or some other mechanism offering a higher indicia of reliability as to the eventual findings and investigative deliberative process borders on the incomprehensible. That, however, is exactly what seems to have happened in the case of a recent client whose Family simply contacted my office to look into what may have happened and take any appropriate steps to pursue a personal injury claim on his behalf should the facts so warrant.

Continue reading "NEW HAVEN, CT PEDESTRIAN STRUCK BY A POLICE VEHICLE CRIES FOUL WHEN JUNIOR OFFICERS ARE PUT IN CHARGE OF ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION" »

In Theory, every work related injury should be documented in a timely manner by one's employer and there should be minimal dispute about whether an injured worker in Connecticut is entitled to Workers compensation benefits. In actuality though disputes about vocational injuries and disease , are often defended and administered by insurance companies and administrators in a manner which necessitates early retention of lawyer in order to obtain the benefits due and maintain entitlements to same throughout the life of the claim. The concept of a no fault based system of compensating injured workers appears to have its origin in Germany in the early 19th centruy. This development coincided with the advent of the industrial revolution which brought dangerous new workplaces into existence such as railroads, factories, mines and modern construction and engineering worksites. This in turn led to accompanying increases in injuries, deaths and new work-related diseases. The concept soon spread to other European countries and eventually the United States of America. Today, virtually every state has some type of workers' compensation system with the essential objective of providing a prompt mechanism of payment to an injured worker for medical bills, lost wages and longer term compensation for the impact of permanent loss of function to particular body parts. A worker inured in Connecticut does not assume the risk of injury and may receive benefits even if the injury was brought about as a result of their own carelessness. The test is whether the injury arose out of and in the course of employment. There are a few exceptions to this general rule and it is best to check with a Firm that handles workers compensation law to be on the safe side.

Continue reading "Connecticut Workers Compensation Overview" »

From the standpoint of having seen first hand the impact that a bicycle collision with a motor vehicle produces some thoughts come to mind about reducing the frequency and severity of the crashes. Motor vehicle - Bicycle crashes occur most often when either the cyclist or driver is turning or crossing an intersection or driveway. Accordingly, the cyclist needs to avoid a number of risk factors that can add to the probability of the collision occuring in the first instance. These would include cycling against traffic, running red lights and reducing speed at intersections where oncoming traffic might decide to turn and thereby unexpectingly crossing one's path. With that said, it should be at least noted that in Connecticut, a bicyclist is entitled to the same protections, privileges and rights of way as a motor vehicle operators. The same traffic rules apply to each.

Continue reading "Reducing Bicycle accident injuries" »

One of the more challenging categories of cases within the field of personal injury are Head injuries, Sometimes alternatively referred to as Brain injuries or Traumatic Brain Injury claims (TBI) these cases are often challenging and complex to pursue. For the Law Firm entrusted with this task of proving these claims while their clients are adjusting to all manner of symptoms ranging from Memory and speech to dizziness and headaches, the effort must be continuous. The importance of monitoring and studying the medical reports, assisting where necessary with making sure that the right specialists are evaluating and treating the clients cannot be overstated. In Connecticut, we have detected to some extent the existence of an institutional bias, even within the medical profession, where the more subtle types of Brain trauma are involved. My office has taken the deposition of well known neurologists tasked with performing an independent medical exam where they insisted that in the absence of evidence on an MRI or CT Scan of a brain injury that post concussive syndrome would simply not be a credible explanation for ongoing neuro psychological difficulties. That expert opinion, much like another, suggesting that a loss of consciousness was necessary to even have a brain injury , is not supportable under current guidlines nor peer reviewed clinical literature.

Continue reading "PROVING AND LITIGATING HEAD INJURY LAWSUITS" »

Medication Errors of a wide variety and levels of seriousness continue to occur with alarming regularity. This affects patient populations across all spectrums of ages and circumstances. Unfortunately, what it comes down to is that human error and lack of uniform safety and redundant verification procedures. There is a certain statistical frequency that such mistakes re-occur so that in smaller States like Connecticut this effects a smaller number of people versus someone living in New York or New Jersey for example. Such episodes are not confined to the administration of medicines while in Hospitals as the error may be at the phamacy or even a physician's office. The latter events seem to happen when certain medical offices fail to take account of other medicines that a patient is already taking and sometimes those medicines have in fact been prescribed by a different medical specialty. Reactions to being over medicated or being provided the wrong medicataions can be fatal but more often than not are close calls. Because of the difficulty and expense involved in bringing a medical malpractice claim or a products liability claim, only the more serious injuries tend to make their way into a lawsuit. This does not minimize the impact of the close calls though and if lawsuit avoidance really becomes one of luck in terms of how badly harmed the particular patient is then the problem is obviously not going away as the incentives to be more careful and implement better procedures and technology is lacking.

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September 19, 2009
Posted In: Recent News , Nursing Home Abuse And Neglect , Fractures , Brain Injury , Wrongful Death

By Paul Levin on September 19, 2009 12:18 PM | Permalink
The consequences of Nursing Home abuse and neglect to Connecticut's elderly and most vulnerable residents does not often make headlines in Connecticut's newspapers and television broadcasts. Perhaps some of the reason for this is that when an elderly resident of a Nursing Home or rehabilitation facility falls and fractures their hip or sustains a serious head injury the intial reaction is too often a misplaced sense that "these things happen when one gets old." The same reaction might occur when an elderly person chokes on their food which may actually stem from a diet not sufficiently monitored for reduced mastication function or develops painful bed sores and skin ulcers as a result of an insufficient physcial activity plan and/or inadequate interventions related to periodic position changes while resting in bed. The problem is that these sorts of events while commonplace occurences are not supposed to happen while in the protective custody of a qualified Nursing Home or Rehab facility.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Abuse And Neglect- A Growing Problem in Connecticut" »