Philadelphia Injury Attorney Blog

ATVs are often a source of fun and relaxation but are also some of the most dangerous vehicles ever to be handled by individuals. Operation comes at the risk of life to the operator, passenger or others in the path of travel. Every year consecutively in Pennsylvania, there has been an increase in the number of ATV crash fatalities and catastrophic injuries.

The experienced Pennsylvania ATV accident and rollover lawyers of Reiff & Bily understand just how dangerous ATV operation can be. Expert analysis, accident reconstruction and the accident statistics in Pennsylvania reveal that many of ATVs are defectively designed resulting in serious injuries. They have a high center of gravity, small wheels and a narrow wheel base which may enable the vehicle to easily roll over, resulting in catastrophic injuries or fatalities. Many of the ATVs have powerful engines with quick acceleration and small turning radius. Additionally, the ATV provides inadequate passenger protection increasing the likelihood of a catastrophic injury or fatality as a result of a rollover accident. Statistics indicate that approximately 80% of all ATV accidents result in serious or catastrophic injury. Pennsylvania is one of the top five states for ATV fatalities.

An ATV accident involves several complex theories of liability and if you or a loved one has been injured or killed in an ATV accident, you should immediately seek the services of an experienced ATV accident or rollover lawyer and commence an immediate investigation of the surrounding circumstances. A person injured by a defective or dangerously designed product may be eligible to file a lawsuit for product liability. Additionally, if the accident happened on the property of another, the injured party may be able to collect from the property owner’s homeowner’s policy.

The experienced Philadelphia ATV and rollover accident lawyers of Reiff & Bily will be glad to offer a free no obligation consultation by contacting us at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

In a recent case students failed to follow orders of a substitute teacher and a fight broke out. The teacher failed to intervene in the fight despite being within sight of and earshot of the horseplay. A student was held upside down with his head pointing to the floor resulting in a spinal cord injury and was rendered a quadriplegic. Medical expenses were paid by his health insurance, a lien was asserted, and his future life care planning expenses were estimated to be more than $12,000,000, including $1.8 million in lost earning capacity.

A lawsuit was filed against the school district alleging improper supervision of the students. The case was settled for $18.4 million dollars, which included an $11.4 million dollar structure with the purchase of a single premium tax free annuity. Unfortunately accidents involving children which result in such catastrophic injuries in schools, colleges and universities are becoming more common. Many times we are approached by parents whose precious children have been injured by other students, teachers, as well as by visitors to the school premises.

If your child is injured at a school and the accident was the result of inadequate supervision or negligent security or is someone else’s fault, you may have a right to make an accident compensation claim. We know how much trauma a family goes through when a child is injured at a school that was supposed to be a place of safety. Serious injury to a child at school deserves maximum monetary damages and the responsible person or institution must be held accountable.

The experienced catastrophic injury and school accident lawyers at Reiff & Bily have been handling school injury cases for families whose children have been injured while at school. For a free, no-obligation consultation, please contact one of our experienced school accident lawyers at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

In early fall a number of farms and orchards turn into quasi-amusement parks by offering Halloween hay rides. Every year we receive a number of telephone calls from parents of children who have been seriously injured and sometimes killed as a result of a hay ride accident that has gone awry.

The experienced Philadelphia hay ride accident and amusement accident lawyers at the Pennsylvania catastrophic injury law firm of Reiff & Bily are currently involved and have been involved in a case where a young child fell off a hay ride and was trapped and pulled under the hay ride due to inadequate supervision or training of operators, as well as inadequate site and safety crowd control.

Many hay rides, as well as amusement park rides, are simply accidents waiting to happen when proper control mechanisms are not in place. These rides have the ability to crush, pin, and eject riders, causing catastrophic injuries. To make matters worse, many of the trailers used by hay rides and other utilities are less than 3,000 lbs. and consequently fall below federal guidelines requiring inspection. Anybody can build a trailer and use it themselves or sell it. There is very little safety regulation addressed with trailers and most state laws are silent regarding design or construction specifications for utility trailers used on hay rides. Obviously, a potentially dangerous situation exists using these trailers for hay rides on the fields and roads of Pennsylvania.

In many cases our experienced hay ride accident lawyers have found trailers have obvious violations of safety codes that relate to lighting, braking and inspection requirements. The lack of the hay ride and trailer regulation allows profit hungry operators to cut corners on safety often leading to preventable catastrophic injuries of innocent children and adults.

The hay ride and defective trailer accident lawyers of Reiff & Bily fight hard to keep innocent consumers’ rights protected. If you or a loved one has been injured as the result of a hay ride or defective trailer accident, please call one of our experienced hay ride and personal injury lawyers at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

On Monday, September 21, 2009, the operator of a motorcycle whose female passenger was ejected from the rear seat and thrown over the railing of a highway bridge into the Schuylkill River was charged with vehicular homicide in her death. According to police and prosecutors, Julian Tyrone Mansfield, 21, was speeding on a stolen motorcycle when he hit the rear of a car while trying to pass it on the right side of Route 202, Dannehower Bridge, on the night of June 23rd. Unfortunately, his passenger Ryan Bonita Banjomin of Norristown flew off the bike, over the side of the bridge, suffering fatal injuries in the fall and her body was later recovered from the river.

Of course our hearts and prayers go out to the family of Ryan Bonita Banjomin but this case calls to question the issue of how well a passenger on a motorcycle knows the driver. In this case, the operator of the motorcycle was charged with vehicular homicide, driving with a suspended license and other offenses.

Just last week, I had another consultation with another client who was catastrophically injured while also the passenger on a motorcycle. In her particular case, she had no idea that the operator had little or no experience operating a motorcycle. The operator, in fact, was intoxicated at the same time.

Continue reading " How Well Do You Know The Driver Of The Motorcycle You Are A Passenger On? - Your Life May Be in Extreme Danger " »

Imagine this scenario: You have never been on an ATV before or even if you have, you go to someone’s mountaintop estate or farm. Everybody is partying and drinking and then all of a sudden someone suggests, “Let’s take the ATVs out for a ride.” Yes, it is all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Not so surprisingly, many ATV accidents occur on someone’s property many times after occupants or drivers have been served alcohol and are in a partying mood ready for adventure. These accidents are often covered by the homeowner’s insurance for the property owner. ATVs are some of the most dangerous forms of recreation and transportation even for well trained operators.

If you have been involved in an ATV accident, it is important to immediately investigate your claim and contact an experienced Pennsylvania ATV accident lawyer. The experienced ATV accident lawyers of Reiff & Bily have been handling ATV cases for almost 30 years. They can determine which one of the parties may be responsible for your injuries including whether or not a product liability action would exist against the manufacturer, the vehicle operator, whether there was a poorly designed product with safety defects or if the property owner was liable for failing to warn of a known danger or for serving alcohol prior to the accident. Many homeowners’ policies provide coverage for ATV accidents.

The experienced Pennsylvania ATV rollover lawyers and Philadelphia car accident lawyers of Reiff & Bily also understand automobile insurance and personal injury protection coverage, as well as medical and health coverage issues and can review your policy at no charge to determine if coverage may exist. For a free no obligation consultation, please call one of our experienced ATV accident and Philadelphia car accident lawyers at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

Over 30 years ago, I was on vacation with my family in Jamaica when I witnessed a catastrophic parasailing accident. Since that date in time, I am amazed that many people embrace parasailing without questioning the safety of the same. Recently, a parasailing accident in Arizona on Lake Powell catastrophically injured a mother and left her with a traumatic brain injury. Her son who was accompanying her on the ride was also seriously injured. According to news sources, a 17-year old boy rigged to the parasail was attempting to take off from a ledge and the boy’s 42-year-old mother was standing nearby with bystanders watching the boy take off. As the boat began to pull away, the sail turned sideways and entangled the mother and dragged her a few feet before she fell off and struck her head along the shoreline. The boy hit a ledge several times before plummeting into the water.

Over the years, parasailing has been an extraordinarily popular vacation adventure. Similar to many amusements, they are often operated in an unregulated environment and many times by people with limited knowledge but for how to make a quick buck. I can personally attest to witnessing the same. Parasailing when not operated with stringent safety guidelines can be extraordinarily dangerous and lead to catastrophic injuries or fatalities. Not so surprisingly as is the case with the remainder of the amusement industry, there is extraordinarily little or no government oversight.

Continue reading " Is Parasailing Safe? - An Experienced Amusement Accident Attorney Speaks Out: More Regulation Is Necessary " »

The other day while watching The Today Show early in the morning, I heard a prominent Republican stalwart calling for legislation reform in order to terminate the healthcare crisis. Lately, as the Democrats and Republicans engage in healthcare debate, town hall meetings are filled with politicians and lobbyists adhering to an emotional script of talking points that are totally unrelated to the reality of the situation.

In a column in the Orlando Sentinel on September 6th, Scott Maxwell lavished strong praise on the United States legal system specifically on its provisions in which “a single man wronged by powerful interests could seek justice from a panel of his peers” or “a woman who lost her child and is worried that another woman might lose hers,” can bypass the bureaucrats and turn directly to their fellow Americans for help. Yet now after two hundred years, we have people trying to undo the system and block the roadways to the court. All in the name of health reform. A careful review of the facts indicates that reform would do little to actually help the common man and that these same individuals standing on their soapboxes and screaming in town halls would be limiting their own rights.

Curiously enough this experienced medical malpractice and catastrophic injury lawyer has seen the hardest core court reform advocates turn to the courts for redress when in fact a serious or catastrophic injury has occurred to them or members of their families.

If you or a loved one has been injured as a result of medical malpractice, please contact one of our experienced Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyers at Reiff & Bily at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

As an experienced Philadelphia inadequate security and premises liability lawyer, I have written many articles in the past advocating that the safety and privacy of hotel, motel, resort, cruise ship guests and restaurant and business guests should be the top priority for owners and operators. However, many times this is simply not the case. Usually when we hear news about assaults and crimes in many of these facilities, an easily avoidable tragedy has occurred. Crime analysis and mapping is an important process when conducting a security assessment on the lack of due diligence by a business owner. Many times crime data is available which will indicate that a locale is highly susceptible to criminal incidents. Business owners should take a proactive stance against possible crimes or assaults on their properties.

The experienced inadequate security lawyers at Reiff & Bily have been successful in alleging that safeguards were not proper or adequate to protect their clients who were injured or unfortunately killed from a tragic lack of attention to safety. In our careful evaluation of inadequate security and assault cases, we try to determine a history of similar incidents on the property, the surrounding area and whether or not the location is highly suspect for criminal activity, and if in fact the business knew or should have known of the problems, what they did to prevent an occurrence of a crime event or assault and what preventative measures they had taken, including but not limited to lights, cameras, gates, locks or security guards.

Continue reading " Crime Analysis and Crime Mapping: An Essential Element In The Proper Investigation And Prosecution of A Negligent Security Case " »

The Pennsylvania defective product liability lawyers of Reiff & Bily salute the Toys-R-Us trade in program which hopefully will raise awareness about unsafe children’s products. According to the Chairman of Toys-R-Us, “There have been many significant improvements in consumer product safety legislation in recent years but many of the products out there pre-exist current consumer product safety standards.”

For the last two years millions of baby cribs, toys and other items targeted for child use have been recalled for safety risks that included strangulation, suffocation and entrapment. Unfortunately, despite the recalls a safety advocacy group stated that consumers generally return less than 30% of defective items when a baby product is recalled. Many times they are not aware of the safety recall. Last year, for instance, the Consumer Product Safety Commission reissued an August 2008 recall for approximately 900,000 Simplicity Bassinets because two infants had died after becoming trapped between the product’s bars or in a pocket of fabric. The initial recall was prompted by the deaths of two other children.

The Pennsylvania product liability lawyers of Reiff & Bily are advocates of consumer safety. Unfortunately there are many products in the stream of commerce that can affect the safety of your family. If you or a loved one has been seriously injured or killed from the use of a defective product, please contact one of our experienced product liability lawyers for a free no obligation consultation at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

According to news sources, Philadelphia police made an arrest in the violent robbery of two tourist at the Philadelphia Marriott located at 12th and Market Streets. According to the news sources, police claimed that Anthony Thomas, 28, of West Philadelphia followed a 52-year old female guest from the elevator to her room shortly before 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 30th. Investigators claim that a knife was put to the throat of the hotel guest and she was robbed. Lt. Frank Vanore of the Philadelphia police stated “He drew knife, he cut the female across the mouth and face and proceeded to demand money from her and threatened to kill her during the course of the incident”. Police also reported that on August 6th, Mr. Thomas forced his way into the room of a Marriott guest from Sacramento, California and robbed her at knife point. Police suspect that the assailant may be involved in a number of other recent robberies in center city Philadelphia.

Inadequate security lawyer, Jeffrey Reiff, of the Philadelphia inadequate security and premises liability law firm of Reiff & Bily has been successfully representing the rights of negligent security cases on behalf of victims of physical assaults or robberies since 1979. The safety and privacy of hotel and motel guests should be the top priority for owners and operators of hotels. However, many times we find this is simply not the case. Because of inadequate security at hotels and motels many unsuspecting guests are robbed, shot, killed, raped, stabbed or assaulted in parking lots, corridors, hallways, rooms or other common areas. Many times there is a breakdown in the property owners security system which cannot only encourage criminal activity but can also result in the property owner’s liability to the crime victim for negligence. First and foremost, our thoughts go out the victims and their families, we hope that these fine and unsuspecting individuals recover quickly and completely from their injuries.

Continue reading " Prominent Philadelphia Hotel Is the Scene Of Violent Assault and Robbery Of Tourists " »