Irene Gabo on the Morning Show at Davidzon Radio – November 30, 2020

1. I am being called for a medical exam in my case, but I am very concerned about covid, do I still have to go?

First of all those exams could be adjourned sometimes twice, sometimes three times, and if the person had covid or has someone in the house with covid and has a note, it can get rescheduled for even a later date. These days most of these medical facilities ask you to wait in the car until the doctor is ready to see you and then call or text you on your phone to come in and take you straight to the exam room. The ones without that procedure have chairs set up 6 feet apart and you can ask the front desk to let you know when the doctor is ready for you and stay outside the office. Wear a mask, and gloves, and you will be ok.

2. Do you take cases where someone gets injured because of a defective product?

Lawsuits concerning products liability are very difficult to prove, because a product usually has a lot of tests done before it is put in production and sold to customers. So the only cases I take are those there is a known issue. For example, a car manufacturer recalls all the vehicles for year 2005 due to a brake problem, but does not notify my client, or doesn’t fix the brakes properly and client gets into an accident. In many of these cases, prior repairs are very important to be able to prove your case. If you buy a warranty, always keep receipts of repairs for later.

3. My father was a crossing the street, but not in the intersection and got hit by a car. If he was not in a crosswalk can there still be a case?

Yes because New York adopts a formula called comparative negligence meaning a portion of fault may be attributed to your father. Lets say he was crossing in the middle of the street, but the other driver was speeding and had no chance to stop before striking the pedestrian, the larger fault may be on the driver. But if your dad for example ran in the middle of the street suddenly, he may carry a larger percentage of fault. Therefore, if for example your dad was found 50% at fault and the jury gave him $50,000.00, he will only be able to recover $25,000.00 or half.

4. I was hit by a car and had surgery and the attorney wants to take 20,000 offer. I don’t agree.  Can I refuse to settle the case?

It depends on how much insurance the other company has and other factors such as your possible fault in the matter. If the policy of the driver that hit you is $25,000.00 and that is the most you can get, even if you go to trial, the other company is probably trying to save $5,000.00 it will have to pay for the expert doctor in your case to testify. Don’t forget, you will have to pay your doctor to come to court as well if the case goes to trial. Also, it is possible there is a larger policy, but they find your mostly at fault, and therefore offering a lower amount. There could be many factors and I need to no more about the case.

5. I was walking with my child across the street and the police car hit his stroller as it was turning and he fell out of the stroller and broke his arm. Can we do anything?

Yes. NYPD is part of the City of New York so the initial claim to the City of New York should be filed within 90 days of the accident. Through the Freedom of Information request your attorney may be able to get more information about the officers who struck the stroller, why they were in the area, were they responding to an emergency and a lot of other information. I have seen arguments in cases like this from the City that oh we didn’t hit the child, just the stroller, but of course the counterargument is if you have not hit the stroller with a specific amount of force, the child would not have fallen out.

6. I fell on the stairs because the elevator was not working, as always and I had to use stairs. I don’t know why I fell but I should be able to use the elevator. Can you help?

It is important to investigate the location of the  accident to see if there were reasons you fell. For example, stairs over 48 inches in width many times need handrails on both sides. The older buildings also don’t have handrails that go all the way down, They stop two or three steps before the end of the staircase, so when the person is falling the argument is made that he could not grab onto anything because there was no handrail, causing him to fall. Therefore, it is vital to go to the location and review the condition of the stairs and the handrail. The department of buildings website also notes every time there is a complaint about an elevator not working, as well as other complaint about the building. It may be helpful to see how many times tenants complain about a particular building as it goes to show how badly the building is managed on the daily basis.