Philadelphia Injury Attorney Blog

Onboard airline injury accidents and incidents have been growing in frequency. In general, the pilot in command is responsible for the safety of the passengers and crew as defined by the Federal Aviation Regulations. All airline pilots are required to receive crew resource management training which augments technical flight and ground training with human factor subjects. The pilot in command of the aircraft is the authority or sentry to provide a means of safety for all individuals on board the flight. If you are injured on an airplane during a flight and can prove that the resulting damages occurred solely as a result of the carelessness and negligence of the airline and its agents, servants or employees, you are entitled to financial recovery. The airline may be held responsible for the following non-inclusive violations:

1. All passengers must have a safe path of egress from their seat to the restrooms.

2. The airline shall not permit a dangerous condition to exist on the airplane where they knew or should have known of a defect.

3. All airplane agents, servants, or employees shall be properly trained, instructed, and informed with regard to safety issues and observing, detecting, and remedying possible hazardous conditions on the aircraft.

4. All passengers should be instructed concerning the safe use and storage of luggage and loose materials on the aircraft.

5. All passengers shall be prohibited from creating hazardous conditions for other passengers on the aircraft.

6. All aircraft shall have a sufficient number of flight attendants to ensure proper and safe management and inspection of the aircraft. The role played by cabin attendants on the aircraft is extraordinarily important because they are closest to passengers. They must and should be aware of safety issues and delegated with a degree of expertise regarding situations on each airline that give rise to potentially dangerous conditions.

The Pennsylvania airline accident law firm of Reiff & Bily recently was successful in representing a minister who sustained a permanent and catastrophic injury while falling on an airplane in mid-flight due to an aircraft premise defect and lack of proper supervision by the flight crew.

If you or a loved one has sustained an aviation accident, please feel free to contact one of our experienced aviation accident lawyers at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com for a free, no obligation consultation.

According to a recent story that I reviewed, a 6-year old passenger on a Delta airline flight dropped a toy and when he reached down the edge of his seat to retrieve it, he poked his finger. He pulled it out and showed the pointy thing to his Dad. It was a used syringe and additionally, he noticed that blood was oozing from his fingers. Obviously the parents of the young man are concerned that their child may have been exposed to disease and as anyone else who has flown recently in these days of airline cutbacks will note, planes are not the cleanest environments. In the old and golden days of flying, you were always provided with clean pillows, blankets, and one can only imagine the fear of being stuck with a dirty syringe.

The airline industry has a duty to promote a safe, reliable, clean and secure environment to passengers. Airlines by their servants, agents, or employees are responsible for the safety and personal comfort of airline passengers. Many of these procedures are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration and some duties vary by airline and type of aircraft. In today’s economy crunch, airlines are trying to turn flights around as quickly as possible limiting the ability of flight crews and maintenance staff to pick up trash and properly clean the aircraft. They do not have time to disinfect or carefully clean the plane. They claim they don’t have time to. I believe the issue of clean airplanes has reached its tipping point when in fact a young boy is able to stab himself with a used syringe giving rise to psychological trauma.

If you have been injured in flight, please contact one of our experienced Pennsylvania aviation accident lawyers for a free, no obligation consultation.

Recently I was contacted by a client who attended a party at a friend’s house and what turned out to be a pleasant evening ended up with catastrophic consequences. My client, a middle aged woman, attended a party where alcohol was being served. As she left the suburban home with her husband and walked down a pathway to her car, she tripped and fell into a hole in a poorly lit area sustaining multiple comminuted fractures of her legs, hip, and arms. She required multiple open reduction surgeries and the doctors have told her that she will have a permanent shortening of her leg and she has been unable to work. This case presents a not so uncommon situation for this experienced Pennsylvania premises liability or slip and fall lawyer.

Typically, the owner or renter of a premises where a slip and fall accident took place is liable for an accident under an area of law known as premise liability. If the slip and fall occurs as a result of a dangerous or hazardous condition on someone else’s property and it can be proven that the owner of the property knew or should have known of the defect, then the victim may be entitled to compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. The Pennsylvania premise liability firm of Reiff & Bily has an extraordinarily successful track record in obtaining substantial compensation for medical rehabilitation and loss of life’s pleasures for victims injured in slip and fall and unsafe property accidents.

Premise liability is a complex and specialized area of personal injury law and a slip and fall accident lawyer must carefully investigate this claim and prove the following:

1. That the property owner or management responsible for the property knew or should have known of the dangerous condition.

2. That the party failed to make either condition safe or warn the persons of the danger.

3. The victim did not have reason to know of the dangerous condition and suffered an injury as a result.

If you add alcohol into the equation, as was the case mentioned above, an additional duty may be imposed on the property owner under a social host doctrine. The Pennsylvania premise liability and slip and fall law firm of Reiff & Bily has recovered millions of dollars for victims of slip and fall accidents.

Many times sexual assaults, robberies, and attacks occur in hotels, motels, malls, shopping centers, apartment complexes, stores, amusement parks, parking garages, or other commercial facilities due to inadequate security, inadequate lighting, improper premise or building design.

Unfortunately, as an experienced Philadelphia premises liability and inadequate security lawyer, I have witnessed and investigated many cases involving catastrophic and permanent injuries and unfortunately the death of victims due to inadequate security or poor premise design. Most of the inadequate security and premise cases involve a crime or action that takes place on a property when the owner fails to take proper care and precautions to protect guests and visitors from a hazard which was known or should have been known by the owner.

In this tightening economy, many negligent owners, operators, and landlords take short cuts and do not take the proper steps to insure a safe, crime-free environment. The owner of the property has a duty to exercise reasonable care in the management of the premise to insure that visitors are protected from unreasonable risks of harm. Many people believe that there may not be a case due to the fact that the person who committed the crime may have no assets. However, a proper investigation by an experienced premises liability and inadequate security lawyer can focus on the responsibilities of the property owner and may prove the existence of a safety issue and further prove that the owner or operator failed to do something about it.

Premise liability and inadequate security cases can be extremely expensive to prosecute and require a degree of specialization. It is important to hire a lawyer that specializes in this type of case to make sure that the victim is fully compensated for the injuries sustained. The experienced Pennsylvania premise liability and inadequate security law firm of Reiff & Bily is available for a free no obligation consultation if you or a loved one is a victim of such an offense. For more information contact us online at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

As an experienced Pennsylvania product liability lawyer who has handled a fair share of thermal burn cases involving unregulated temperatures on boilers, I have become well aware that thermal burns of a significant and permanent nature can be caused by the transfer of high energy heat to the body due to an unregulated or faulty boiler. A thermal burn or hot water burn can be quite serious and severe. Temperatures of 140 degrees for only one second can result in a second degree burn. If the temperature goes higher, the protein of the skin is denatured and a full thickness burn can occur. If one remains under the hot water for a longer period, increased damage occurs.

Last year, we successfully concluded a claim for tenants in an apartment house where the temperature regulator was faulty resulting in permanent scarring burns to the inhabitants. Surprisingly, scald burns can account for almost two-thirds of burn-related hospitalizations of young children. Hot water burns caused by defective boilers cause more deaths and hospitalizations then any other hot liquid burn.

It is important to supervise children and elderly persons closely in baths, showers, and kitchens, and it is important to minimize hot water hazards by setting your water heater temperatures as low as is acceptable for your washing needs. If you notice that your water is excessively hot, it is time to contact a plumber to check out the thermostat.

If you have suffered a burn injury or the loss of a loved one due to a burn injury, you may need the assistance of an experienced burn injury lawyer to fully investigate and evaluate your claim. For a free, no obligation consultation, contact the Pennsylvania burn attorneys of Reiff & Bily at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

What I bet many of our readers didn’t know is that space heaters and heating equipment is the leading cause of home fires in the United States. As an experienced defective product lawyer, I am familiar with all too many cases involving civilian deaths and burns due to space heater fires. Statistics reveal that one out of every six space heater fires results in a fatality. If you must use a space heater, try to take the following safety precautions:

1. Look for one that has been tested and labeled by a nationally recognized testing company.

2. Keep the heater away from drapes, furniture, or other flammable materials.

3. If you are using an extension cord, make sure it is a heavy duty cord marked with a power rating as least as high as the label of the heater.

4. Never leave a space heater unattended or running while you sleep.

5. Keep electric heaters away from water.

6. If you are using a kerosene heater, make sure the area is vented to alleviate carbon monoxide poisoning.

Many older space heaters do not meet current safety standards. If you or a loved one has been involved in a fire caused by a defective space heater or portable heater, please contact one our Pennsylvania defective product lawyers at Reiff & Bily. For a free no obligation consultation contact us at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

According to a recent study from the National Insurance Crimes Bureau (NICB), Philadelphia and other cities are trending to reveal more slip and fall cases and premises liability cases targeting businesses, and henceforth, the insurance companies are scrutinizing these claims more carefully for potential fraud. Analysis of questionable slip and fall and premises liability cases showed a 57% increase in the number of fraud referrals for investigation over the past two and a half years.

At the Pennsylvania premises liability law firm of Reiff & Bily, we are well aware that many individuals will try to beat the system with a fraudulent claim. Insurance fraud is a serious criminal offense with stiff punishment if the perpetrator is proven guilty. This is the reason that we screen each case so carefully and perform a diligent background check on every client that comes into our office. We recognize that most people have legitimate accidents in stores and businesses and we take the prevention of insurance fraud claims very seriously.

I have met many lawyers who fail to carefully investigate their case and will settle a case for nuisance value making a small win/win for the lawyer and client. Many times insurance companies or businesses will pay a small claim to avoid the cost of litigation. Often after a case is settled, a fraud investigation continues and if it can be proven that the recipient knowingly or intentionally defrauded any insurer or self-insured, they may be prosecuted. However, any responsible and experienced personal injury lawyer or premises liability lawyer will recognize that legitimate slip and fall cases are often very difficult to prove and will not commit the firm’s resources without proper analysis or background information.

At the Philadelphia premise liability and slip and fall accident law firm of Reiff & Bily, we offer a no fee, no recovery guarantee which means we don’t get paid unless there is a successful recovery, and therefore, we must be extremely selective in the cases we accept.

As the autumn and fall season embrace our lives, church hayrides, haunted Halloween quasi-amusement hayrides and other seemingly innocent but dangerous quasi-amusement activities become popular and have the potential to catastrophically injure or kill innocent victims – unaware of hidden dangers.

Recently the mother of a hayride accident victim spoke out about dangers involving hayrides after her son’s tragic accident which left him with brain damage and other catastrophic physical injuries. According to a news article published by Steven Howard and Heritage newspapers, a high school student, Jordan Hogg, was a passenger on a hayride as part a of seasonal outing with his church youth group. “Jordan was sitting on top of a utility trailer on top of a bale of hay," mother Amy Hogg said citing the presence of other family members participating in the ride. After traveling over a bump at a low speed, something went wrong. Jordan fell off the trailer and attempted to hang on to a bale of hay that went with him in the fall. Once on the ground, he was run over by the wheel of the wagon which struck his head and tangled his leg in the spokes.

Given the extent of his injuries, Amy Hogg stated that Jordan was not expected to survive and responding emergency personnel told her that the prognosis was not good and that they did not expect him to live. Jordan was lucky to survive but struggles to this day with brain damage and other physical problems associated with the accident. He sees various doctors almost every day. Ms. Hogg stated that she does not want others to have to go through the struggle that Jordan and her family have dealt with for the last year and she has become a consumer advocate noting her concerns and cautions as fall hayride season gets underway.

As an experienced hayride and trailer accident lawyer, I am very much aware of the multitude of accidents that occur on Halloween hayrides and utility trailers that are not regulated the way other vehicles are. Many times there is inadequate supervision and the wagon is not safe for children and other precious cargo. Our hearts and prayers go out to the Hogg family and I salute Ms. Hogg for her efforts in bringing more public attention to this potentially hazard and dangerous situation.

At the Philadelphia amusement accident, defective trailer and hayride accident law firm of Reiff & Bily, we have handled and investigated many hayride and defective trailer accidents with great success. If you or a loved one is a victim of a defective trailer, amusement, or hayride accident, please feel free to contact one of our experienced lawyers for a free, no obligation consultation at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

It’s fall and Halloween hayrides are in full swing. Unfortunately, a 19-year old Nicholls State University student was killed in a hayride accident when he fell from the front of a fraternity homecoming hayride trailer and was run over. According to news sources, the driver of the pickup truck pulling the hayride did not realize that the student had fallen. Although some news sources have described this as a “freak accident," the experienced hayride accident lawyers of Reiff & Bily are all too familiar with this type of scenario.

Halloween hayrides are simply accidents waiting to happen when proper control mechanisms are not in place. Many times hayrides have the ability to crush or eject riders causing catastrophic injuries and unfortunately, wrongful deaths. Often the hayride accidents result from inadequate supervision or improper training of ride operators and inadequate safety and site control. These accidents, which one describes as freak accidents, seem to be increasing with frequency and the operators of such hayrides must be held responsible for the injuries and losses they have caused. Unfortunately in most states very little regulation is addressed with regard to hayrides and other defective trailers that are under 3,000 lbs. Many hayride operators cut corners on safety, proper staffing, and loading and unloading of rides, as well as positioning of the individuals on the rides. Often the operators do not pay attention to the precious cargo on the rides.

The hayride accident lawyers of Reiff & Bily have an experienced team of investigators and experts that can determine how an accident occurred and who is liable and offer a free no obligation consultation. For more information, contact us at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.