Archive for the ‘Landlord Liabilities’ Category

How to Work Effectively With Your Lawyer

It is important to work effectively with your lawyer so you can have a satisfying working relationship with one another. This is an excellent article about the subject, which we wanted to both share and elaborate upon.

It is a good idea to bring a copy of your own insurance documents (declaration page), when you first meet with your attorney. Your attorney’s office can also obtain this information if necessary, but as the article above mentions, the client can sometimes access this information quicker.

You should also bring with you other information your attorney may need to begin working on your file. For instance, for a personal injury matter, this may include the names and contact information for all your treating physicians, or copies of police accident reports. There are often key deadlines early on in a potential lawsuit, so the more information your attorney has on hand from the outset of your case, the better.

Keep all documentation, including letters and bills from doctors and insurance companies. Discuss with your attorney early on what types of documents they may want you to forward to their office, and be sure to do so in a timely fashion. This will help to ensure the attorney will always have up to date information in your file when they need it. Sometimes it is as simple as mailing (or e-mailing) it to the office when you receive it, or leaving it with the assistant or paralegal in charge of your file.

Keep a list of questions you would like to discuss with your attorney, as well as notes about what happened since the last time you spoke, which will help you make the most of your next appointment.

For a personal injury or medical malpractice case, it can be useful to keep a calendar documenting symptoms and keeping track of all your medical appointments.

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Lead Poisoning a Concern for Older Buffalo Housing

In a world where we walk with computers in pocket, communicate with a single click and have access to infinite streams of information at our fingertips, finding an alternative to lead-based paint should have happened years ago. Unfortunately, much of Buffalo’s housing is stuck in a time-warp. The Nickel City’s unique architecture serves both as a spectacle and a burden. The New York State Department of Health estimates that 85% of Buffalo homes built prior to 1978 contain lead-based paint: the primary lead source in cases of lead poisoning. From 2006-2008, Erie County had the third highest percentage of new lead poisoning cases, 80% of which were children.

Children are more susceptible to lead poisoning due to an underdeveloped digestive system and ease of ingestion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry suggest that a child’s digestive system absorbs up to 10 times more lead than that of an adult, and will excrete only 32% of the absorbed lead, as opposed to 99% excreted by an adult. Children ingest lead through everyday behaviors like sucking their thumb, eating with their hands or even playing with certain toys, making lead poisoning difficult to prevent.

Once a child ingests lead, diagnosis of lead poisoning can be costly and mistimed. There are few, if any, external signals alerting parents that a child has ingested lead. A doctor administered blood test is the only conclusive way to tell if a child’s lead levels are elevated. Through early detection of lead ingestion from lead-based paint or from another lead source, parents alleviate I.Q. decline, physical and intellectual debility, attention deficit disorder, delayed reaction time,  and kidney damage that may occur to the child later in life.

Don’t let your child fall victim to lead poisoning at the hands of lead based paint in your home. If your child has tested positively for lead poisoning due to exposed lead paint, call a Buffalo personal injury lawyer today. Contact James Morris Law at 716-855-1118.

Making sense of tenant injuries and landlord liability

You rent your apartment or home. One day, without warning, you slip and fall down the stairs because of a lose railing. Or maybe you hurt yourself on your snow-covered front doorstep. Or you literally break your neck falling from a ladder trying to fix something outside the landlord promised to do weeks ago. Who’s responsible? Who’s liable? Your landlord? Who will pay your medical bills? What about lost wages? What are your rights?

And what if you need accident at work compensation? Or you’re a guest at your friend’s rented apartment and you get injured? What should you do? Questions often lead to more questions in tenant injury cases.

Common household injuries cover a wide range, including head injuries and broken bones. In some cases, certain tenant injuries can be extremely severe, sometimes even resulting in someone’s accidental death.

Each state has unique liability laws. In New York, the landlord is required by law to safely maintain common areas for tenants. Landlords can often be held liable if authorities determine the landlord was negligent in maintaining the property.

Your lease could also play a big role in what happens. Some leases include liability exemption clauses. Often, an exemption clause only applies to the tenant. That is the law in New York State. That means a landlord can be held liable for injuries to a third party on the property, even if there is an exemption clause. But such laws vary in other states.

Tenant injury cases are complicated. We can help. Contact the Law Offices of James Morris today. When you chose us, you get experienced tenant injury lawyers who thoroughly understand the law and know how to aggressively fight to get you the justice you deserve.

Don’t let insurance companies or landlords push you around. Take action. Contact James Morris Law today. You have rights. We’ll fight for them.

The information contained in this communication is provided for informational purposes only and should not be constituted as legal advice on any subject matter.