Irene Gabo on Rusa Radio 105.1 FM – March 03, 2021
-
I fell on the boardwalk and broken 2 ribs, but only went to the hospital once because I am afraid of covid. Is this enough to make a case? I don’t want to treat because I am scared.
If the City knew of this defect 90 days prior to your accident and failed to fix it, then yes, because you have a fracture that was diagnosed on an xray and fracture is always considered a serious injury. Plus, how do you really treat a broken ribs? There is really no physical therapy for it. Now how to you find out if the City knew about the defect that caused your fall? Your attorney sends a request to the City’s Department of Parks for the records and several months later they send a printout of all the inspections done on the boardwalk in the area where you fell prior to the accident, all the notes inspectors made, photographs they took and all the repair orders they issued. You can also see if the repair was done, because the repair would be marked as completed and then the question becomes if the repair was done in the area where you fell was the repair done properly to fix the defect.
-
My mom got hurt in a nursing home and I want to order her nursing home records but she has been there for a while and they want 75 cents a page for over 2000 pages, which is like $1500. Can you take her case and order the records? I cannot afford that.
Your mom or you if you have her power of attorney can request her entire medical record as a patient using the federal HiTech form request. It is essentially a cover letter asking for these records. Under the Federal Rules the medical facility only charge $6.50 if the records were requested by the patient or someone with patient’s power of attorney. Once the records are received, you can forward them to me for review, all our reviews are free. All incident reports and investigation that follows should be in the records. For example if the person fell out of bed during transfer to another bed, there are certain protocols on how many people and how to transfer a patient: the beds must be aligned together, the bed must be on the brake. These records can be useful to see if the incident report finds that something was not done that was supposed to and if safety precautions weren’t followed your mom can hire an attorney. Everything can be done by mail, so for example, if she hires my office, I can mail her all forms that I need to start, for her to sign and mail back to me in a pre stamped envelope. For those interested in consultation via zoom to avoid traveling into the office, we do those as well.
-
I was doing a video camera installation for a condo building and a wire pocked my eye and not I cannot see out of it. I am receiving Worker’s compensation but Its not enough to survive on, can you help?
There are certain safety precautions that must be taken on the construction site. For example, when doing wire installation you need to wear safety glasses and the fact that you got pocked in the eye tells me that you either a) didn’t have those glasses or b) were not wearing them while working. Failing to take proper safety measures and to enforce them on the construction site, may expose not only your employer to liability, which would limit you to worker’s compensation, but also bring in general contractor and even owner of the building where construction is taking place. Industrial Code of New York is a good site to review to see what violations may be found, also Section 241 part 6 of the labor labor discusses safety on construction site, especially during excavation or demolition. Also Industrial Code of New York section 23 is very helpful in instances like these.
-
What is the best way to find a doctor for a case? I never know who is good or bad, and its so hard to choose. Can you recommend someone?
I am not in the business of recommending doctors to people, because everyone’s tastes are different. What I can recommend is that a person does a thorough research about a doctor and reads reviews about this doctor online. However, my website does have a very helpful link to profiles of all New York doctors, you can find it on my website in resources. By typing a doctor’s name you will be able to see if any complaints were made against the doctor, what insurance they take, what college they went to, what hospitals they have done their residence or worked in, and if they are board certified. This is a good way to learn about your options, and I urge you to use it for your benefit.
-
I am a home attendant and I fell down the stairs in the building where I worked. I started a case and now landlord is threatening to throw out my patient because of my suit. Can he do that?
The housing court in New York is very helpful toward tenants and if the landlord is harassing the tenant a complaint can be filed in court against that landlord and believe me if the judge hears that they are being thrown out simply because of your lawsuit, he is not going to be very happy with the landlord. In addition, the new General Obligations Law that went into effect last year in response to the covid crisis, was meant to protect tenants from abuses by the landlord. For example, the landlord cannot now charge more than one month rent for a new rental, so the security deposit must be limited to one month and I believe the application is now limited to $20 dollars, no other fees can be taken for credit or background check. Landlord can also not reject you because you previously sued another landlord in the past and he may be subject to penalties if he denies you rental for no good reason. In other words if you asked a landlord to make repairs and he didn’t and you took him to court, your next landlord cannot deny you the apartment based on these facts. If you go on my facebook page under Gabo Law you will find the new landlord tenant rules.
