Articles Posted in Personal Injury

MIAMI, FL— September 8, 2011 – One traffic fatality was reported following a horrific South Florida collision that occurred in close proximity to the Miami International Mall in Doral on the night of Sept. 6. Although the cause of the fatal car accident remained unclear, NBC Miami reports indicated a 67-year-old male pedestrian was sitting on a bus stop bench with his wife when a vehicle careened off the roadway and struck him.

Reports stated Michelle Soto, 42, was driving her Ford Mustang along Northwest 107 Avenue when it went out of control in the 1400 block for unknown reasons. It was approximately 9:45 p.m. when the vehicle swerved off the road and crashed into Giraldo Lopez, 67, as he sat on a bus stop bench with his wife, whose name was not released.

While Mrs. Lopez was able to avoid being struck by the out-of-control car, her husband succumbed to his severe injuries at the scene of the bus stop crash.

According to Roy Rutland, of the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD), “It’s an absolute tragedy, we have a wife that actually witnessed her husband get struck and killed while she was seated directly next to him… It’s a really sad case.” It was not clear if Soto sustained any wounds in the car crash.

Toxicology results are pending as a full investigation into the deadly Miami-area pedestrian accident appears to be underway.

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MIAMI, FL— September 05, 2011 – A driver and two pedestrians were killed in a violent South Florida collision that occurred along U.S. Route 1 in the Florida Keys. According to the Sun Sentinel, the triple-fatality pedestrian accident occurred in close proximity to Key West in Monroe County, Fla. during the early hours of Sept. 5.

Reports indicated an unidentified driver from Key West was behind the wheel of his/her vehicle when it careened off of U.S. 1 at Mile Marker 5 and slammed into two unidentified pedestrians. The deadly Florida pedestrian accident occurred at approximately 3:30 a.m.

Both the driver and the two male pedestrians, whom Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) Trooper Nelvys Hernandez said appeared to be homeless, were killed in the Keys accident. There did not appear to be any additional accident victims involved in the U.S. 1 crash, which likely remains under investigation.

According to statistical data included in Transportation for America’s 2011 Dangerous by Design study, Florida accidents claimed the lives of 5,163 pedestrians between the years 2000 and 2009. Crashes and accidents in the South Florida metropolitan area (Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach, FL metro area) resulted in 1,555 of those pedestrian deaths. Based on traffic statistics, Florida is the most hazardous state for both walkers and cyclists.

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MIAMI, FL—July 13, 2011 – While authorities from the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office deemed a toddler’s recent drowning to be accidental, the fatal swimming pool accident yet again sheds light on the dangers many children, and even inexperienced swimmers, face. According to information provided by the Tampa Tribune, a 19-month-old New Port Richie boy allegedly slipped past his sleeping mother before falling into the pool and drowning in his family’s pool on July 11, 2011.

Reports indicated Juan Bermudez’s mother was asleep when the 19-month-old managed to get to the pool area of his family’s home. Given that the pool did not have a child proof fence around it, the tot fell in and was found unconscious.

Though paramedics responded to the young drowning victim’s home, which is located at 3606 Heron Island Drive, and rushed him to Community Hospital just before 7 p.m., his condition ultimately proved fatal.

The toddler’s drowning death came only hours after a New Port Richie teen nearly drowned. Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel were contacted before 4 p.m., after a 14-year-old boy was discovered at the bottom of a residential swimming pool at  7007 Stone Road. Although the teen was apparently breathing upon being airlifted to an area hospital, his condition was not clear.

Department of Health (DOH) statistics suggested that among children between the ages of 1 and 4, drowning is the leading cause of death. Florida has the highest drowning death rate in the nation. In 2009, 48 Florida children in that age group drowned in swimming pools, specifically.

To help prevent potential drowning injuries and deaths in the future, the <Miami injury law firm of Gerson & Schwartz, P.A. provided the following tips:

·  Teach kids to swim at an early age
·  Make sure children understand basic pool safety rules before they step foot in any body of water
·  Never leave a child unattended
·  If a child does indeed wander away, check the pool area first
·  Set up child proof pool fences around residential swimming pools
·  Keep a phone nearby so authorities can be contacted in the event of an emergency
·  Cover and lock saunas when they are not in use

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MIAMI, FL—Boynton Beach Police officials are investigating the near drowning of a 1 ½-year-old boy, which occurred in a residential swimming pool on the morning of June 21, 2011. According to information provided by the Palm Beach Post, police told reporters that the toddler was transferred from Bethesda Memorial Hospital to St. Mary’s Hospital in West Palm Beach to receive additional medical attention following the swimming pool accident.

This particular accident marked the second time in less than a week that the near drowning of a child was reported to Boynton Beach officials. On June 16, a 3-year-old boy fell into a pool and was knocked unconscious. Luckily, that near drowning victim was accompanied by his older sisters at the time and was able to get immediate help. That child was ultimately taken to the hospital, where medical personnel listed him in stable condition.

In the most recent swimming pool accident, the unidentified victim’s mother told reporters she was watching television with the 1 ½-year-old, as well as her 3-year-old child, when the toddler somehow snuck away. The toddler then made it beyond the confines of a baby gate that was installed in the kitchen before exiting the Boynton Beach home, which was situated along Fosters Mill Drive, through a sliding glass door that was open at the time. The toddler subsequently fell into the swimming pool, which did not have a childproof fence set up around it.

According to Stephanie Slater of the Boynton Beach Police Department (BBPD), a neighbor who called 911 upon hearing the child’s mother screaming was instructed to perform CPR pending the arrival of emergency medical services (EMS) crews. WPTV news reports stated that the child was listed in critical but stable condition following the near drowning incident.

State Department of Health (DOH) statistics suggest that drowning is the main cause of death among children between the ages of 1 and 4. Furthermore, Florida has the highest drowning death rate in the nation for kids in that age group, who accounted for 13 percent of the number of statewide drowning deaths—485—as well as 43 percent of the hospitalizations related to near drowning incidents—388—during the year 2009.

The Miami injury law firm of Gerson & Schwartz, P.A. provided the following tips to help Florida residents prevent potential drowning injuries and deaths in the coming summer months:

• Teach children to swim
• Share important pool safety guidelines before kids get in the water
• Never leave a child unattended. If a kid does wander off at some point, make sure to check the pool area before anywhere else
• Invest in childproof pool fences. The added barrier between swimming pools and young children can be lifesaving.
• Make sure to have an emergency phone in the immediate area
• Cover and lock hot tubs when they are not in use

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Miami, FL – June 21, 2011 – As revealed by a groundbreaking investigative report published by The Miami Herald in May, Florida’s assisted living facilities (ALFs) have seen scores — and perhaps hundreds — of deaths under questionable circumstances. The newspaper obtained the confidential records of 70 people who died in the past eight years due to the actions of their caregivers — and provided horrific details for some of these cases. But while uncovering egregious negligence within the Florida ALF community is to be commended, much more needs to be done, says Miami injury lawyer and victims rights advocate Philip M. Gerson. The lightly regulated industry, he warns, has become a recipe for disaster — and needless death.

“What the Herald article showed is something that injury lawyers and advocates for crime victims have known for a long time, that the ALF system is broken and dangerous in Florida,” says Gerson, who was interviewed by the Herald’s Michael Sallah as the story took form. “There is minimal regulation of ALFs and the state lacks the resources to enforce what rules do exist. That’s a deadly combination, as horror after horror exposed by the Herald — incapacitated patients not given necessary medicine, elderly residents not provided medical care after falls, mysteriously bruised and battered victims — made all too clear. Most of these cases were never prosecuted because Florida just doesn’t have the resources to police what is clearly an area that urgently needs to be policed.”
While tougher rules, stricter enforcement, and more investigators would be welcome, says Gerson, budget pressures and an administration that favors less regulation, not more, make those solutions difficult. “The politics of Florida see the state taking the ‘deregulate everything’ approach,” says Gerson, who has represented injury victims for more than 40 years, and is a board member of the National Center for Victims of Crime.

Indeed, given how he sees the current political climate in Florida, Gerson believes the best hope for exposing egregious ALF negligence — and helping to prevent future instances of it — lay in civil lawsuits, where victims of ALF abuse, or their families, take the facilities to court to account for their actions. “The reality is that state agencies and the criminal justice system lack the resources to investigate and prosecute the people causing the harm,” says Gerson. “So private rights of enforcement — filing a civil lawsuit and taking an ALF to court — is the only way to let the industry know that they can’t neglect the people entrusted to their care, and that they’re going to pay a price if they do.”
Gerson says simple regulatory steps could make a big difference, too, such as requiring ALFs to carry liability insurance. “It would add to the cost of running an ALF,” he notes, “but it would also mean insurance companies would be vetting these facilities and overseeing what they are doing, as they don’t want to be on the hook for needless injuries and death. If an ALF is not qualified, it wouldn’t be able to get insurance — and then it wouldn’t be in business.”
But with even simple regulatory enhancements uncertain in Florida today, Gerson isn’t holding out much hope for them. “In the end,” says the Miami injury lawyer, “it is going to come down to civil lawsuits and the crime victims themselves to show that we’ve seen enough negligence and harm in Florida ALFs — and we’re not going to see anymore.”

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MIAMI, FL— June 17 2011 – As temperatures continue to rise here in South Florida, adults and children alike will be making their way to swimming pools and beaches as a means of escaping the looming summer heat. While the simple acts of jumping into the ocean or a swimming in a pool have long been a considered some of Florida’s most enjoyable pastimes, the Miami injury attorneys of Gerson & Schwartz urge residents to take extra safety precautions to ensure safe swimming, especially when young children are involved.

According to data provided by the state Department of Health (DOH), during the year 2009, 69 percent of drowning deaths and non-fatal drowning hospitalizations occurred between the months of April and September (spring through summer).

DOH statistics also indicated children between the ages of 1 and 4 are more likely to die as a result of drowning than any other cause of death. For children in that age group, Florida has the highest drowning death rate in the country. Those kids made up 13 percent of the total number of drowning deaths—485—as well as 43 percent of the non-fatal drowning hospitalizations—388— in the state during the year 2009.

By combining all drowning fatalities and non-fatal drowning hospitalizations recorded that year, the Department of Health found that 67 percent of the victims were males.

Furthermore, statistical data suggested that while Florida children under the age of 10 have a higher risk of drowning in a swimming pool, residents above the age of 10 were more prone to drown in a natural, open body of water such as the ocean or a lake.

During the year 2009, 48 Florida residents under the age of 5 (68 percent of drowning victims in that age group) drowned in swimming pools. Six kids (8 percent of the total) drowned in bathtubs, and nine (13 percent) drowned natural bodies of water.

Seven kids between the ages of five and nine (58 percent of the victims within that age group) reportedly drowned in open water, while five others (42 percent) drowned in swimming pools.

A total of 210 Florida drowning victims who were at least 10 years of age (52 percent of the total tally of victims within that particular age group) drowned in open water. Ninety-two others (23 percent of the total) drowned in swimming pools.

The Miami injury law firm of Gerson & Schwartz, P.A. provided the following tips to help Floridians prevent drowning injuries and deaths in the impending summer months:

• Take the initiative to teach children to swim
• Make sure kids understand basic pool safety guidelines before they enter the water
• Never leave a child unattendedIf a child does wander off, make sure to check the pool area first
• Install child proof pool fences around home swimming pools
• Make sure to have a phone nearby, in case of emergency
• Cover and lock hot tubs when they are not being used

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Skill and experience mark a good law firm. But the best firms – the ones that take, and win, the cases that seem impossible – have something else, too: creativity and determination. With the insurance industry eliminating coverage for assault-and-battery incidents at commercial establishments, too many crime victims are finding that lawyers won’t take their case. It’s easy to understand why: Without insurance coverage, recovery may be non-existent. And for crime victims, this seems to further the injustice.

It’s a trend we don’t like – and we’re fighting back. We’re doing so by taking these cases. And through creativity and determination, we’re winning them. In numerous uninsured cases, we’ve recovered substantial damages from business and property owners – vindicating the rights of our clients and helping them obtain the recovery, and accountability, they deserve.

We’ve been successful because we’ve changed the game. By looking to the owner of the property – rather than the lessee or operator of the business on the premises – we’ve been able to establish their duty to our clients, and their failure to meet it. In some cases, we’ve shown that the owner knew, or should have known, that violence that began inside an establishment – such as a bar fight – would spill out into common areas, like a parking lot, and reasonable measures, including adequate security, should have been taken.

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Two people were injured on early Sunday morning in a shooting outside the Chances Night Club in Lake Worth, Florida. The victims were identified by authorities as in their early 20’s but further details about the case such as motive or if a claim for negligent security could be made against the night club remain unknown. Gerson & Schwartz, P.A. has over 40 years of experience representing crime victims and other accident victims in the State of Florida. For more information about our firm contact Gerson & Schwartz, P.A. We offer a free initial consultation. Call 305-371-6000, or email us at info@gslawusa.com

The Third District Court of Appeal upheld a 24.8 million dollar tobacco verdict against cigarette manufacturers. This comes nearly 8 years after the trial court found in 2002 that Defendants Philip Morris, Liggett Group, and Brown & Williamson were legally responsible for misrepresentation, fraud, civil conspiracy, and for knowingly manufacturing a dangerous and defective product.

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