Far more often, however, despite all the mandated federal safeguards, seatbelts, and preflight lectures, passengers suffer a wide variety of injuries as a result of everyday slips, falling luggage, and turbulence.
In many cases, passengers can recover compensation for injuries sustained during an airline flight, especially if the air carrier or manufacturer was proven to be negligent.
Frequent air travelers will recognize many of the items on the list of common airplane injuries:
Frequently, passengers are injured during boarding or deplaning, too.
Weitz & Luxenberg may be able to recover compensation for those who were injured at airports or while traveling on airliners. Indeed, passenger injuries are far more common than many would guess.
According to one industry report, as many as 4,500 passengers and flight attendants each year in the U.S. are injured by baggage falling from overhead compartments.(1)
Since most U.S. airlines charge passengers for checked baggage, more travelers than ever are trying to hoist carry-on luggage into tight overhead spaces, and the literal fallout has been hazardous, especially for those camped in an aisle seat, where concussions and lacerations from falling baggage are most common.
For example, if a flight attendant failed to properly close an overhead bin, and a passenger was hurt by a falling bag, the airline could be liable. However, if the design of the overhead bin was suspect, the airplane manufacturer might be held accountable for compensatory damages to injured passengers in a product liability claim.
Airlines are held to higher safety standards towards passengers on international flights. Most nations have agreed to an international treaty known as the Montreal Agreement, which makes airlines liable for any accident to passengers on board or while embarking or disembarking. The passenger can sue up to a limit of approximately $150,000 without having to prove negligence by the airline or its employees. The $150,000 limit can be exceeded if the passenger can prove negligence.
One of Weitz & Luxenberg’s lawyers is the author of a book on the subject of passengers’ rights on international flights.
Injured in an airplane or airport accident? Contact us now for a free consultation.
Get a Free Case ReviewMany injuries in the air result from flight turbulence, although airlines usually are not held accountable for unforeseen, unpredictable acts of nature. However, if the airline crew was aware that turbulence was a possibility — instrumentation often signals that rough air lies ahead — then an injured party may be able to recover compensation if passengers were not warned beforehand.
In short, if the pilot was aware of potential turbulence but failed to warn those in the cabin to fasten their seatbelts, the airline could be held legally responsible if passengers are injured. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, as many as 53 passengers annually in the U.S. have been injured by airliner turbulence since 2002.(2)
There are potential travel-related hazards for airline passengers once they are back on solid ground, too.
Airports can pose risks in multiple areas, including:
Members of Weitz & Luxenberg’s elite roster of attorneys specialize in aviation-related injuries and claims, and are available for a free, confidential analysis regarding potential suits against an airport, airline carrier, or manufacturer at (917) LAWYERS. Cases are accepted on a contingency basis, which means there is no cost to the client until the case is completed.
In fact, the number of workplace fatalities recorded in 2022 increased by 5.7% from 2021 to more than 5,486 in the United States. (1)
In New York City, where the law firm Weitz & Luxenberg is based, there were 83 workplace fatalities in 2022. Of these, 33% of the deaths were attributed to violence; 25% to falls, slips and trips; 23% to exposure to harmful substances; and 11% to transportation incidents. (2)
Of course, not all work-related trauma results in death. However, any employees who are injured or becomes ill as a result of employer negligence should immediately consult an attorney to consider their legal options.
As a nationally recognized personal injury law firm, Weitz & Luxenberg is dedicated to helping people who have been injured at work and assisting family members whose loved ones were killed on the job. Let our skilled attorneys help you get the compensation you deserve.
Injured in a workplace accident as a result of the negligence of others? Contact us now for a free consultation.
Get a Free Case ReviewWe examine every case carefully, ensuring all negligent parties — not just your direct employer — are held accountable for what they did or failed to do.
If a subcontractor at a construction site has an injured worker, for example, there may be opportunities to seek compensation from the property owner, general contractor, or even other subcontractors. Laws vary by state, so consult with our experienced attorneys to determine your options.
Weitz & Luxenberg has been fighting for the rights of injured and ailing workers since 1986. We have generated $19 billion in settlements and awards for clients across a variety of lawsuit types, including workplace-related cases.
Among other types of compensation, a civil lawsuit in many instances can result in payment to the injured parties for pain and suffering, medical bills, and losses in past and future wages. It also may include punitive damages in instances where companies acted with reckless disregard for worker safety.
Despite multiple safeguards required by entities such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and labor laws of many states, injuries and deaths in the workplace show no signs of significantly slowing anytime soon.
The Northeast Information Office of the Bureau notes, “Nationally, transportation incidents were the most frequent fatal event in 2022, accounting for 38 percent of fatal work injuries. Falls, slips, and trips was the second-most common fatal event (16 percent), followed by violence and other injuries by persons or animals along with exposure to harmful substances or equipment (15 percent each).” (5)
The Bureau went on to say, “The private construction industry sector had the highest number of fatalities in New York City with 23… . Falls, slips, and trips resulted in 15 of the 23 fatalities in the industry. The construction of buildings and specialty trade contractors subsectors each accounted for 11 of the 23 fatal workplace injuries in the construction industry.” (6)
Serious workplace injuries often are life-changing events, costing injured people your accustomed quality of living for months, if not forever. While worker compensation payments can offset some of the lost wages while an employee is recovering from an injury, they usually do not begin to cover the real costs of a workplace mishap. This is especially true in the event of serious physical issues.
Often, there are complications with insurance companies and employers when worker compensation claims are filed. This underscores the value of an experienced attorney, who can help maximize the benefits you — the injured party — are entitled to.
It doesn’t always take much for workers to become disabled, temporarily or permanently. While heavy industry accounts for many serious injuries related to lifting and moving freight and other items, sometimes injuries result from the smallest sources, like a slippery floor or wobbly ladder.
Sometimes, serious medical issues are directly related to improperly serviced equipment, breakdowns of machinery, and mistakes made by co-workers or customers.
National data for 2022 confirms there are still many work injuries happening. This includes nonfatal injuries case rates for private industries. These injuries were highest among healthcare and social assistance workers, with over 440 cases. Manufacturing had the second highest case rate, with over 345 cases. Retail came in third, with almost 340 cases reported. (7)
Hear From Our Clients
I’ve found it’s a rare thing when people go the extra mile all the time. That’s what my Weitz & Luxenberg attorneys did for me — went the extra mile continuously. It was obvious that they were working with me, not for themselves. That made me very happy. It was important to me that I could pick up the phone and call, and someone from my Weitz & Luxenberg team would be there to answer my questions or concerns. If they weren’t available to talk at that moment, I knew that I would hear back from them right away.”
Patricia Hynes
Whatever the cause and whoever was at fault, the common thread is if you were injured in the workplace, you should strongly consider seeking compensation for your injury, illness, and financial losses. Moreover, some workplace lawsuits also address the emotional issues created by an employer.
In some cases, successful workplace personal injury cases have helped injured or ailing employees recover compensation to help cover a broad spectrum of costs, including payment for past and future medical bills, medical devices, past and future lost income, expenses related to travel for medical purposes, debt or penalties accrued as a result of lost income or missed payments, pain and suffering, and any decrease in quality of life as a result of permanent injuries.
It’s important for you to understand the legal deadlines for filing cases, called statutes of limitation. These deadlines vary from state to state, and that time is sometimes a crucial element in pursuing compensation. Rest assured, the attorneys at Weitz & Luxenberg can handle the legal research and wrangling while our injured clients recover from your injury or illness. The firm handles the deadlines while you, our clients, concentrate on recovering.
However, that’s a small portion of the estimated 1.3 million Americans annually who are harmed or made ill because of improper medications or incorrect dosages administered by doctors or pharmacists.
The FDA classifies medication error as “any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health-care professional, patient or consumer.” No question, for any patient who suffered as a result of a medication mistake, the key word is “preventable.”
By whatever definition, thousands of mistakes are made on a daily basis by trusted health professionals, which is why litigation experts at Weitz & Luxenberg have been recovering compensation for their clients for decades through medical malpractice lawsuits.
Overall, medical errors are the third-leading cause of death in the United States, and prescription errors account for a notable percentage of the fatalities.
Have you or a loved one suffered complications due to medication errors? Contact us for a free consultation.
Get a Free Case ReviewIf a patient’s condition hasn’t improved after starting medication treatment, or if it has worsened or led to other complications, it’s possible that the wrong drug has been prescribed.
Medication errors can happen in a variety of circumstances:
If that’s the case, the patient may be entitled to financial damages and should consult a specialized law firm with experience in the medical malpractice arena. Weitz & Luxenberg is an acknowledged national leader in the prosecution of cases involving medication mistakes that injured or killed unwitting patients.
The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention website includes a list of dangerous prescription abbreviations and potential handwriting errors that features a dozen examples. The NCCMERP in 2013 called for the elimination of prescription time guarantees at pharmacies because haste often leads to mistakes. The council also said that profit-driven pharmacies’ focus on speed and prescription volume can have “detrimental effects” on patient education and patient safety.
The FDA’s Division of Medication Error Prevention and Analysis even reviews the names of meds to help reduce the possibility of confusion. In some cases, a drug company’s “proprietary name” might be altered to lessen the chances of error.
That said, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices website features a list of commonly confused drug names that contains an astounding nine pages of citations, with dozens of drugs per page.
Considering those numbers, it’s not surprising that the FDA reviews about 1,400 claims of medication errors per month, then analyzes them to determine the cause and types of errors involved.
Bureaucratic classifications and hollow explanations don’t much matter to a patient who was left ill, injured or dead because of a preventable medication mistake.
With more than $26 billion in total verdicts and settlements in client-injury cases over three decades, Weitz & Luxenberg specializes in medically-related lawsuits and our staff would love to help you by discussing the details of any medication-related case in a free consultation.
Walking in America is becoming more dangerous every day. The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) estimates more than 7,300 pedestrian fatalities occurred on U.S. roadways in 2023. This represents a 14% increase from 2019. “Pedestrian fatalities accounted for nearly one in five traffic fatalities (17.8%) in the U.S. in 2022.” In cities with the largest populations, including New York, “pedestrian fatality counts are rising more quickly… compared to the country at large.” (1)
Data from New York indicates roughly 300 pedestrians were killed. Another 15,000 are injured each year. “Injuries to pedestrians are among the top 10 leading causes of injury-related hospital admissions and death for almost all age groups In New York State.” (2)
Highway safety professionals refer to the impact between a motor vehicle and a pedestrian as a crash rather than an accident, the distinction being that crashes are preventable.
A New York pedestrian safety plan report noted the behaviors contributing to pedestrian crashes in the state. “The most frequent behavioral factors include inattention, failure to yield, alcohol and pedestrian error.” (3)
The report also found the leading contributing factor was driver inattention. The second main factor was failure to yield. (4)
In N.Y., “Pedestrian crashes are widely dispersed but predominately urban,” according to the state’s report. The report notes, “most of the crashes in urban areas resulted in a fatality, injury or possible injury. (5)
If you’ve been injured by a driver’s negligence, you may benefit from talking with an attorney. Weitz & Luxenberg’s Personal Injury and Malpractice unit has decades of experience in seeking justice for people harmed in crashes in which pedestrians were the victims.
Were you or a loved one seriously injured after being hit by a car? Contact us now for a free consultation.
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By 2021 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates, one pedestrian is killed every 71 minutes and one injured every nine minutes in a traffic crash. (6)
The NHTSA reported over 67,000 pedestrians were injured in traffic crashes in 2022, and over 7,500 were killed. (7) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says data for 2021-2023 indicates emergency room visits for pedestrian related injuries reached over 137,000. (8)
Each year, millions more people report walking or biking for health benefits and as a means of transportation. Although more people are walking, people are also driving more miles — on average nearly 13,500 miles per driver each year. (9) This combines for a greater likelihood of motor vehicles and pedestrians literally crossing paths.
The speed of a vehicle can play a major role in the severity of injuries in a crash with a pedestrian. “At 20 mph, the likelihood of severe injury or fatality is 10%. At 40 mph, the likelihood of severe injury or fatality rises to 80%—meaning a pedestrian struck by a motorist at 40 mph is EIGHT times more likely to die than a pedestrian struck at 20 mph.” (10) But even at low speeds, the human body is no match for a car, truck, or bus.
The most severe motor vehicle crashes with pedestrians tend to happen in urban areas, away from intersections, or while it is dark. Knowing this can help you take steps to protect yourself.
Texting and other cell phone use while driving are two examples of distracted driving on the rise. In fact, according to one study, “Increases in crash involvement associated with visual-manual tasks were greater for crashes in free-flow traffic. Rear-end crashes and run-off road crashes were more prevalent in the crash data than other types of crashes; drivers’ visual-manual cell phone interactions were associated with increased instances of both these crash types.” (17)
“In 2022 there were 3,308 people killed and an estimated additional 289,310 people injured in motor vehicle traffic crashes involving distracted drivers.” That same year, “there were 621 nonoccupants (pedestrians, pedalcyclists, and others) killed in distraction-affected traffic crashes.” (18)
Visual
Taking your eyes off the road
Manual
Taking your hands off the steering wheel
Cognitive
Taking your mind off driving
In essence, according to the NHTSA, “Texting is the most alarming distraction. Sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for 5 seconds. At 55 mph, that’s like driving the length of an entire football field with your eyes closed.” (20)
With thousands of deaths attributed to distracted driving each year, more and more states are legislating texting and other cell phone usage bans. For those harmed by distracted drivers, these laws may work in your favor.
Nicholas Wise, senior trial attorney with Weitz & Luxenberg’s Personal Injury and Malpractice unit, is committed to “the strongest, most aggressive representation possible.”
When a 79-year-old Holocaust survivor was struck and killed by a New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) bus making a left turn, her family turned to Weitz & Luxenberg for help. Mr. Wise secured a $1.5 million settlement from the MTA for the family.
“At the end of the day, this is about being a champion for those injured by others’ negligence,” Mr. Wise said.
“As attorneys we can’t undo acts of negligence,” Mr. Wise said at the time. “The best we can do is help survivors seek justice for their loved ones. Such a tragedy could have been avoided had the bus driver simply observed proper driving safety precautions.”
In another case, Mr. Wise secured an $800,000 settlement for a woman struck by a passing car as she stepped off a bus. The crash broke the woman’s ribs and pelvis, requiring surgery.
In a very disturbing case, a passenger in one vehicle was left paralyzed from his mid-chest down when the vehicle in which he was traveling was struck by a driver who had run a stop sign and then fled the scene. What makes this case particularly reprehensible is that the driver of that vehicle and his father concocted a story to avoid taking responsibility for the plaintiff’s injuries.
Learning that his son had been involved in an accident, the father reported that the car had been stolen recently. Both father and son not only lied to police, but also lied in their testimony on the stand to avoid being held accountable.
Once again, Weitz & Luxenberg’s Nicholas Wise, along with Adam Raffo, a Weitz & Luxenberg associate attorney in the firm’s Personal Injury and Malpractice unit, made it abundantly clear to jurors that this testimony was an elaborate cover-up.
The result: Mr. Wise and Mr. Raffo secured a phenomenal $20.5 million dollar verdict in favor of their client, who will need to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life. The firm’s attorneys also achieved an award of $3 million for their client’s past and future medical expenses.
This exceptional win earned Weitz & Luxenberg a coveted #1 verdict spot in the New York Law Journal’s Top Verdicts and Settlements for that year, placing number 1 in the category of Motor Vehicles and number 4 overall.
It is not only drivers of cars that can cause pedestrian injuries. There are accidents caused by the drivers of other vehicles as well. Accidents involving pedestrians also can be caused by motorcycles, electric scooters, and bicycles. This includes bicycle messengers and bicycle delivery people — bringing food or other products.
If the people riding these vehicles cause an injury by striking a pedestrian, they should be held responsible. If they are working for a company when the accident occurs, this can be a possible lawsuit against the rider’s employer.
Medical misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose is far more common than you might imagine. Every year roughly 12 million adults could experience outpatient diagnostic mistakes. (3) Even worse, 50% of these “diagnostic errors have the potential to lead to severe harm.” Roughly 6 million patients may have received a wrong diagnosis.(4)
Depending on the source of information, anywhere from 5% to 17% of patients may be misdiagnosed or fail to receive a correct diagnosis each year. Also, fatal illnesses seem to be misdiagnosed more often than less severe medical conditions. One study found almost 25% of major medical diagnoses were missed. (5) (6) (7) A Harvard Medical review of “autopsy studies covering four decades found that approximately 9% of patients experienced a major diagnostic error that went undetected while the patient was alive.” (8)
Estimates suggest anywhere from 40,000 to 80,000 deaths in hospitals each year are related to medical misdiagnosis. In addition, “Estimates from national malpractice data suggest that serious morbidity is at least as common as death.” This means roughly 80,000 to 160,000 patients experience serious misdiagnosis-related harms each year. (9) Some studies indicate 33% of diagnostic errors in primary care alone resulted in significant permanent damage or inevitable death. According to these studies, 4 million or more patients were seriously harmed, including at least 1.7 million patients who died due to diagnostic error. (10)
Across the different medical practice settings, “missed vascular events, infections, and cancers … account for most of the morbidity and mortality attributable to diagnostic errors.”(11)
Some research suggests more than half of these high-severity harm cases (52.0%) involve claims against four major medical disciplines: internal medicine, emergency medicine, family medicine, and radiology. (13) Other research suggests nearly 6 in 10 medical malpractice lawsuits were due to a missed or delayed diagnosis of cancer, followed by infection, fracture, and myocardial infarction. Of these lawsuits, 24% involved breast cancer. (14)
Diagnostic error can be defined in different ways. It includes a mistake or failure when diagnosing, leading to a misdiagnosis. A missed or delayed diagnosis is also a diagnostic error. (15) The diagnostic process can be broken down into stages.
Mistakes can lead to a range of possible harm, including severe harm.
Some research suggests “failures in clinical judgment” may be a “leading identified cause of serious misdiagnosis-related harms.” Basically, this research suggests most “diagnostic process failures happen in bedside assessment and clinical reasoning.” (17) You may suffer from a medical professional’s failure to recognize complications. There might also be damage done to your health from a doctor’s failure to diagnose a related disease, or even a failure to diagnose an unrelated disease. Just one example of failure in clinical judgment would be diagnosing someone with cancer when they do not really have cancer. Overdiagnosing, and then prescribing unnecessary treatments, can be its own kind of medical misdiagnosis. (18) As another example, “A too-common missed diagnosis is the experience of a woman who is sent to a gastroenterologist for stomach symptoms, but her real problem is ovarian cancer, which requires a gynecologist.” (19) Injuries caused by the failure to diagnose cancer include inoperable cancer, premature death, significantly more expensive treatment, and an increased risk of cancer recurrence.
Medical misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose can occur in a variety of settings. You might automatically think of the seriousness of hospitals and the urgency of emergency rooms. However, diagnostic mistakes can also occur in primary and specialty care settings, retail clinics, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers. (20) Misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose can happen in any setting where there are health care professionals.
To help, know your symptoms and be able to tell your doctor exactly what they are. Make sure your doctor understands what you do — or don’t — feel. If your doctor says something and it does not sound right, ask questions. Get clarification on anything not making sense to you. Do your own research about the medical treatment you are receiving. Search the Internet for reputable health and medical sources like the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, or Johns Hopkins Medicine. Government sites, both state and federal, are reliable sources. Contact other doctors to get a second or third opinion regarding your treatment. If the answers you get do not seem to align with your symptoms, keep looking until you get answers and treatments appropriate for your illness.
Was your acute condition misdiagnosed? You may be eligible for compensation.
Get a Free Case ReviewIf you believe you have been misdiagnosed, you need to consider your options. Your first goal is to pursue accurate medical information and get the treatment you need to protect your health. Your second goal may be to get justice and compensation for any harm you suffered due to a failure to diagnose or a misdiagnosis. Ultimately, if you think health care professionals have misdiagnosed you or a loved one — and you have been harmed because of the misdiagnosis — seek guidance from a reputable attorney who handles medical malpractice lawsuits. You may be entitled to compensation.
Just because a doctor misdiagnosed you or failed to diagnose you correctly does not necessarily mean you have a medical malpractice legal case. First, you have to determine if a doctor-patient relationship existed between you and the medical professional who diagnosed you. If the relationship did not exist, you may not be able to file a lawsuit against the doctor. You may still, however, be able to file one against the facility where you received care. Next, your attorney needs to discover if your doctor was negligent. It’s necessary to determine if your doctor failed to provide you with appropriate treatment in a reasonably skillful and competent manner.
Your attorney needs to evaluate the success of the diagnosis method the doctor used in deciding how to treat your condition. Typically, in a differential diagnosis method, your doctor considers at least two conditions possibly causing your symptoms.
The doctors often order tests to help determine their diagnoses. Your attorney looks for possible errors in the diagnosis and the diagnostic tests. If your doctor’s negligence caused you actual injury, you may have a case of medical malpractice. Your attorney can help you evaluate your specific situation and whether it is a misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose. An experienced attorney knows what to do when it comes to filing a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Every state in the country has its own specific deadlines for filing personal injury lawsuits. The same is true for medical malpractice statutes of limitations. In New York State, the statute of limitations is two years and six months from the time you were injured. For children (those younger than 18), this two-and-a-half-year time period begins after the patient becomes 18. (21)
In civil actions, such as medical malpractice lawsuits, “parties use the pre-trial discovery process to gather information in preparation for trial.” (22) Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, “plaintiffs who strongly suspect that they were wronged can file a lawsuit, even if they do not have solid evidence.” This means your attorney can legally force the doctors, hospitals, and health care providers who harmed you to provide evidence. Your attorneys can use this evidence to build your case against the medical professionals who misdiagnosed you. (23) The Federal Rules also allow your medical malpractice attorneys “to get information from other parties, including interrogatories, depositions, and requests for admission.” Your attorneys “may also compel other parties to give them access to documents, real property, or other things for review or testing.” (24)
A statute of repose is, “Any law that bars claims after some action by the defendant, even if the plaintiff has not yet been injured.” In this case, “the time period begins to run from the date of the defendant’s action even if the injury is yet to occur.” (25) Because of the varying statutes and requirements, you need experienced, reputable medical malpractice attorneys who know exactly what they are doing. Attorneys who have handled hundreds, and even thousands, of personal injury lawsuits. Attorneys who know the ins and outs of legal strategy and proceedings.
Diagnostic errors are “the most common, most catastrophic, and most costly of serious medical errors in closed malpractice claims.” (26) The doctors and other health care professionals or facilities causing you harm through their misdiagnoses have some of the best attorneys defending them. To go up against them, you need a firm with a solid history of squaring off against these medical institutions and winning. Weitz & Luxenberg is one such firm. We are recognized nationally and have a solid legal reputation. Our attorneys know New York medical malpractice law inside and out. Even more importantly, we have a history of winning. Over the years, we have won more than $26 billion on behalf of our clients.
Hydrocephalus can occur at any age, but it is more common among infants and older adults. This condition can be present at birth or occur following a stroke, disease or brain injury, especially in the elderly.
Its causes are not always clear. In infants, however, hydrocephalus may develop as a result of birth injury — a physical trauma.
Symptoms of this condition in infants include an unusually large head or head that is rapidly increasing in size. There may also be a bulging spot on the top of the head. Children with hydrocephalus are often subject to vomiting, seizures and poor feeding.
If you experienced a difficult delivery and your child develops symptoms characteristic of hydrocephalus, you may be entitled to compensation.
If your child developed symptoms of hydrocephalus after a difficult delivery, you may be entitled to compensation.
Get a Free Case ReviewAs a nationally recognized personal injury law firm, Weitz & Luxenberg is committed to helping clients win cases. For nearly 40 years, we have dedicated ourselves to holding irresponsible practitioners accountable, and we have won more than $26 billion for our clients.
We would feel privileged to assist you. For a free consultation and more information about your legal options, please call us at (917) LAWYERS. If you prefer, you can complete our form, and our client relations representative will contact you shortly.?
