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Are you a construction or demolition worker who got injured on the job? You need to read this. New York State has a remarkable trio of laws intending to protect workers and laborers involved in the construction, erection, demolition, repairing, altering, painting, cleaning or pointing of buildings.

This trio of powerful protections is well-known to commercial property owners and general contractors in New York by their statutory names: N.Y. Labor Law §§ 200, 240(1) and 241(6). I want to discuss each protective statute, and related case law, over the next several weeks in this blog. Let’s begin by talking about the first and probably most renowned: Labor Law § 240(1), also known as New York’s “Scaffold Law.”

Think you’re safe in litigation from discovery of your Facebook or other social media information just by switching your Facebook pages from publicly-accessible to private?  You’d be wrong. 

In a classic case of “be careful what you ask for,” an injured plaintiff snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in a recent New York State Court of Appeals decision, Forman v. Henkin, 30 N.Y.3d 656 (2018), regarding discovery of photographs and pictures posted in plaintiff’s “private” portion of her Facebook social media pages during litigation.

It has been the coldest, snowiest spring ever here in Central New York.  But that has not stopped our good friends and neighbors -- motorcycle riders -- from getting out on their bikes when the roads have been reasonably dry and the temperatures “warm” in the 40’s and 50’s.  However, their appearance has been shocking and unexpected to everyone else driving on the roadways, who have been thinking more about seeing snowplows than motorcycles.  That shock and lack of expectation by car and truck operators is always bad news for motorcyclists in the spring, because this year cagers are totally unprepared mentally to see a motorcycle on the road while snowbanks or freezing cold temperatures are still present.

Consider this remarkable and sobering fact about traumatic brain injury (known as “TBI”) in the United States, as stated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:  “In 2013, about 2.8 million TBI-related emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations, and deaths occurred in the United States.  TBI contributed to the deaths of nearly 50,000 people.  TBI was a diagnosis in more than 282,000 hospitalizations and 2.5 million ED visits.  These consisted of TBI alone or TBI in combination with other injuries.”  

People have the wrong idea about TBIs.  Most believe a TBI is something that leaves a person in a vegetative state; it can, but it does not have to ... According to the CDC on its website, the leading causes of TBI include falls, being struck by or against an object, and motor vehicle collisions -- all extremely common risks and occurrences in the life of every American.

Now we know in much greater detail how seriously President John F. Kennedy suffered from a bad back and chronic back pain.  In a recent Journal of Neurosurgery article, two neurosurgeons, T. Glenn Pait, M.D., and Justin T. Dowdy, M.D., wrote a fascinating article about President Kennedy’s severe and debilitating back issues, and how it affected his life and presidency -- even possibly the cause of his remaining upright in the seat of his limousine in Dallas on November 22, 1963, by wearing a canvas corset worn around his hips and lower back that “played a role in setting up Oswald’s final shot.”

As we’ve discussed in previous blog posts, if you’re injured in a car or truck collision in New York State, you’re covered by New York No-Fault insurance for your medical bills, lost wages, and out-of-pocket incidentals/necessities arising from your injuries ... On a motorcycle and get injured in a collision?  No such luck.

I have a special interest in electronic discovery in New York State litigation actions.  As part of my on-going discussion of important litigation issues in the New York State courts, let’s examine a fairly-recent case from the New York State Court of Appeal