Near where a man was killed by a hit-and-run driver on Friday, (see Blog, December 29, 2007) a 65-year-old Brooklyn woman was struck by a livery car while crossing the street at 52nd Street and 6th Avenue in Sunset Park. The accident happened at around 10:00 A.M. Sunday morning, December 30, 2007.

Barbara Tjornhom was reportedly headed home from church when run down; she died from her injuries at Lutheran Medical Center.

The driver remained at the scene of the accident and there is no word as to whether he has been charged with any crime or traffic infraction.

Commentary: It’s not enough to look both ways before you cross the street, you must stay alert and pay attention while crossing. Don’t just look ahead to where you’re walking – watch for moving traffic.

It’s not enough to look both ways before you cross the street, you must stay alert and pay attention while crossing. Don’t just look ahead to where you’re walking – watch for moving traffic.

From: New York lawyer Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

New York lawyer Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Following the Giants’ loss to the New England Patriots Saturday night, a crowded escalator malfunctioned and collapsed, injuring seven people, several of whom fell off the escalator.

According to state police, some of the injured were taken to Hackensack University Medical Center and others were treated at the scene. Several suffered injuries to their legs and feet, including one or more broken bones or fractures, said officials of the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority, which operates Giants Stadium.

Commentary:  These type of accidents are usually due to improper maintenance of an elevator or escalator but can be difficult to prove, requiring examination of maintenance and repair records and reports of inspections by public agencies.

These accidents are usually due to improper maintenance of the escalator but can be difficult to prove, requiring examination of maintenance and repair records and reports of inspections by public agencies.

From: New York lawyer Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

New York lawyer Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

A man was arrested for running down an elderly man with his van, bouncing off some parked cars, then taking off. The driver tried to run, but bystanders chased him and held him for police.

The accident occurred on Fourth Avenue near 52^nd Street, in Brooklyn. Struck was pedestrian Francisco Guerrero, age 73, who died from his injuries at Lutheran Hospital.

Arrested was Lawrence Myers, age 38, who is charged with reckless endangerment, leaving the scene of an accident, and driving without a license, among other charges.

Commentary: Hope they lock up this guy and throw away the key; this stretches the definition of what is an "accident."

Hope they lock up this guy and throw away the key; this stretches the definition of what is an "accident."

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

A 3-year-old girl was severely burned Thursday night in a fire in her Brooklyn home. She was taken to the burn center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Firefighters found the girl in a bedroom in the back of a brownstone building located at 354 Stuyvesant Avenue, in Bedford-Stuyvesant,.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

No other injuries were reported.

Commentary: No word on who was caring for the girl at the time of the fire, or where that person was.

No word on who was caring for the girl at the time of the fire, or where that person was.

From: New York lawyer Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

No word on who was caring for the girl at the time of the fire, or where that person was.

I previously blogged on a Christmas Eve hit-and-run accident that occurred in the Chelsea area of Manhattan (see December 25, 2007) .

New York State Senator Eric Adams just made a statement from that hit-and-run accident scene, calling for legislation to punish for drivers who leave the scene of an accident by taking away their driver's license.

At present, if you flee the scene of an accident where no one is hurt, the police can only give you a ticket. The problem is that a driver who strikes another car or pedestrian has no way of knowing if his negligence has injured anyone.

Commentary: You may recall that the Christmas Eve hit-and-run accident injured two pedestrians and led to the fleeing driver’s arrest for drunk driving.

You may recall that the Christmas Eve hit-and-run accident injured two pedestrians and led to the fleeing driver’s arrest for drunk driving.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

A tractor trailer took a highway entrance too fast and overturned on a ramp heading towards Interstate Highway 87 in Rockland County on December 23, 2007. It spilled its liquid cargo, over 1,000 gallons of milk, onto the roadway.

The accident closed the ramp for several hours while HazardousMaterials teams cleaned up the spilled milk and leaking diesel fuel.

 

The driver was slightly injured and taken to Good Samaritan Hospital

Commentary: Now all we need is a cookie truck to overturn there.

Now all we need is a cookie truck to overturn there.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (New York personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Gary E. Rosenberg (New York personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Two women were injured by a hit-and-run driver at West 17^th Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan on Christmas Eve. They were taken to the hospital; the extent of their injuries is unknown.

A silver car left the scene, but its license plate was given to the police by witnesses. The police pulled the car over a few blocks away, where its driver was arrested for drunk driving and causing the accident.

 Commentary: Hope they sue his pants off.

 From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

From time to time we read about a dog electrocuted on the sidewalk, or a person getting an electric shock from a light pole. Dogs may be killed; pedestrians seriously injured. These are usually due to the age of the wires or broken ground wires.

Now it seems that the City of New York will be painting its lamp poles with a special nonconductive paint that it believes will lower the risk of stray voltage injuring or killing people or dogs.  So will this prevent these injuries?

Commentary: Seems to me the problem is bigger than just a coat of special paint. I believe that the age of the wires and lack of maintenance is behind a lot of these accidents. Also, if Con Edison supplies the power, why is the City of New York (us taxpayers) paying for corrective measures?

Seems to me the problem is bigger than just a coat of special paint. I believe that the age of the wires and lack of maintenance is behind a lot of these accidents. Also, if Con Edison supplies the power, why is the City of New York (us taxpayers) paying for corrective measures?

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

December 22, 2007;

A Dodge Durango SUV jumped the curb at Richards and Wolcott Streets in Brooklyn Friday night, injuring two girls, ages 4 and 10, who were walking with their mother. The accident occurred at around 8:00 P.M.

After the truck hit the girls, it struck a fence.

The girls and the truck driver were taken to Lutheran Hospital, in Brooklyn. The extent of their injuries is not known.

 

For more information:

Top News

• NY1 Living

Commentary: How the heck does an SUV jump the curb and injure two children? Were their injuries this really an accident? Was there drug or alcohol use by the driver? I’ll try to follow this story for you.

How the heck does an SUV jump the curb and injure two children? Were their injuries this really an accident? Was there drug or alcohol use by the driver? I’ll try to follow this story for you.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (Queens injury attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Saturday, December 22nd 2007-

Maricela Perea was hit by a cement truck while attempting to cross Queens Blvd.

A woman run over by a cement truck on Queens' "Boulevard of Death" was remembered Friday as a devoted single mother.

Maricela Perea, 60, was walking to the Queens Center Mall when she attempted to dash across Queens Blvd. at the intersection of Woodhaven Blvd. about 1 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

Investigators believe she stumbled and fell underneath the wheels of a Commercial Concrete Corp. truck. The driver was not charged with any wrongdoing, police said.

Between 1993 and 2000, Queens Blvd. has claimed 72 pedestrian lives, leading the Daily News to dub the street the Boulevard of Death.

http://www.nydailynews.com

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Friday, December 21st 2007 -

MINEOLA, N.Y. - The daughter of renowned horse jockey Jose Santos has become one of the first people charged under a new state law that aims to heighten penalties for some drunken drivers involved in deadly wrecks, a prosecutor said.

Sophia Santos, 20, pleaded not guilty Thursday to aggravated vehicular homicide in a Nov. 11 crash that killed a grandmother out celebrating her birthday. Santos was ordered held on $1 million cash bond until a Jan. 7 court date; an update on her bail status was not immediately available early Friday from the Nassau County Correctional Facility.

If convicted, Santos would face at least five and as many as 25 years in prison.

Until the new law was enacted Nov. 1, most drunken drivers convicted in fatal collisions were eligible only for probation, said Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, who lobbied for the new statute. Tougher penalties required convictions on charges that entail proving drivers acted intentionally or with depraved indifference to human life, which was often difficult to do.

"When we were drafting this bill, I was hoping that my office would not have the unfortunate opportunity to be the first to use it," Rice said in a statement.

The new aggravated vehicular homicide charge requires prosecutors to prove a motorist guilty of driving while intoxicated, reckless driving and any one of several other criteria. They include having a blood-alcohol content of .18, more than twice the legal limit.

Santos' blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit when she ran a red light and plowed her Mercedes Benz into another car in Levittown, Rice said. The collision killed a passenger in the other car, Virginia Casazza-Urgo, 62. Two other passengers in that car were hospitalized.

Santos was treated for injuries and released.

Commentary: If Sophia Santos was served alcohol at a bar, her victim might be able to bring a personal injury (wrongful death) lawsuit under New York’s Dram Shop Act. This law holds businesses that sell alcohol to intoxicated persons or under-age (minor) drinkers responsible for harm they may cause as a result. Typically, this occurs when someone gets drunk and operates a car.

If Sophia Santos was served alcohol at a bar, her victim might be able to bring a personal injury (wrongful death) lawsuit under New York’s Dram Shop Act. This law holds businesses that sell alcohol to intoxicated persons or under-age (minor) drinkers responsible for harm they may cause as a result. Typically, this occurs when someone gets drunk and operates a car.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

The boulevard of Death claimed another life Wednesday when a woman walking toward a Queens mall was run over by a cement truck, police and witnesses said.

The woman had just stepped into a crosswalk on Queens Blvd. when a cement truck turned from Woodhaven Blvd. and crushed her, horrified witnesses said.

The victim, who was described by officials as a Latina in her 60s, was walking north along Woodhaven Blvd. toward the Queens Center Mall about 1p.m. when she tried to cross in front of the truck.

She may have stumbled and fallen beneath the Commercial Concrete Corp. truck's wheels, police said.

The impact scattered the contents of the woman's black purse across the street. She died at the scene.

Her name was not immediately released by police because her family had not yet been notified of her death.

The driver of the truck, who attempted to help the mortally injured woman after the impact, stayed at the scene and passed a Breathalyzer test, police said.

No charges were filed.

Between 1993 and 2000, Queens Blvd. claimed 72 pedestrian lives, leading the New York Daily News to dub the street the Boulevard of Death.

Commentary: The City of New York keeps fiddling with the road configuration and timing of the lights to try to make Queens Boulevard less deadly. Nevertheless, hit-and-run accidents are all too common; the injuries to pedestrians hit by cars tend to be severe -- broken bones, brain damage and such.

The City of New York keeps fiddling with the road configuration and timing of the lights to try to make Queens Boulevard less deadly. Nevertheless, hit-and-run accidents are all too common; the injuries to pedestrians hit by cars tend to be severe -- broken bones, brain damage and such.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

NYPD DETECTIVE CHARGED WITH PERJURY IN CONNECTION WITH HIS TESTIMONY AT THE TRIAL OF A BRONX MAN CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER 

December 6, 2007 -

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a New York City Police Detective has been arrested and charged with lying while under oath at the trial of a Bronx man who was charged with attempted murder, a felony.

The alleged crimes occurred on Thursday, April 12, 2007 and Friday, April 13, 2007 when Detective Perino testified at the trial of Erik Crespo who was charged with attempted murder and other offenses, including criminal possession of a weapon.

The charges concern Perino’s testimony about an interview with Crespo that was conducted on December 31, 2005 at the 44th Precinct. Crespo, who was 17 years old at the time, was a suspect in a shooting on Christmas Day 2005.

According to the indictment Perino perjured himself at least once in response to a question under direct examination by the Assistant District Attorney prosecuting the case and at least eleven times under cross examination by Crespo’s defense attorney. It is alleged that Perino testified falsely in denying that he had questioned Crespo during a particular time period when in fact the interview had lasted for an hour and fifteen minutes and included a series of questions about the gun that was used in the shooting. The alleged perjury came to light because Crespo recorded the entire interview on an MP3 player that he had been listening to when he was brought into the precinct.

Commenting on the initial case involving Erik Crespo Mr. Johnson said; "Fortunately in this case, the person at the center of Perino’s alleged wrong-doing is no innocent victim. Although the allegations of perjury undermined the attempted murder case against him, Erik Crespo ultimately pled guilty to the illegal gun charge and is currently serving a sentence of seven years in prison."

Commentary:  Its bizarre that the "bad guy" taped the interview and that the detective didn't notice.  From the above Bronx District Attorney press release it's not clear what advantage the prosecution gained from the detective's lies or why the detective felt the need to lie.  It's a shame that the detective pissed away his career on a criminal who was "guilty, guilty, guilty" anyway.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

 

Accident defendants' doctor reports are usually "affirmed under penalty of perjury."  That makes them admissible to the court for motions and other uses, short of trial.  This is a handy, dandy way to preserve doctors' findings, especially for the No-Fault "serious injury" or "threshold" motion, so common in car or automobile accident cases.

Lawyers for injured plaintiffs don't usually get doctors' reports affirmed.  Years later, when opposing a No-Fault threshold motion, we're in trouble if our doctor can't be found.  This is a particular problem with radiologists reading diagnostic films, who seem to move often if they are not owners of the testing facillty but merely employees.

I don't know why things work this way, they just do. 

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

 

 

do business, since a doctor may retire or omve and be hard to find, so that

NEW YORK REGION | August 2, 2007
New York:
A Manhattan lawyer pleaded guilty yesterday in State Supreme Court to obtaining clients in personal injury cases from a go-between and lying to the state Office of Court Administration to hide the arrangement, prosecutors said. The lawyer, David Sheeger, 50, was charged with offering a false instrument for filing by paying the go-between to bribe hospital workers to obtain information about patients who had been treated for accidents, typically car accidents, said Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney. The go-between, who was paid $500 per case, would contact the patients on behalf of Mr. Sheeger’s law firm, Mr. Morgenthau said. It is illegal in New York for lawyers to accept referrals from nonlawyers. Mr. Morgenthau said that Mr. Sheeger had obtained 67 cases using a go-between from April to November 2002. After his plea, Mr. Sheeger was disbarred, placed on probation and ordered to forfeit $110,000 obtained through the scheme, prosecutors said. www.NYTimes.com

Commentary: Personal injury attorney paying "runners" or "chasers" for cases: illegal and leads to fraud on a grand scale. Please hire an attorney you find yourself, through the recommendation of friends, family, or trusted professionals. For more information see my free book: GOOD LAWYERS DON’T CALL YOU FIRST available at www.GreatLegalBooks.com

Personal injury attorney paying "runners" or "chasers" for cases: illegal and leads to fraud on a grand scale. Please hire an attorney you find yourself, through the recommendation of friends, family, or trusted professionals. For more information see my free book: available at

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Joseph Levine, a 59-year-old recently disbarred attorney from Hewlett, Nassau County, New York is under arrest and has been charged with stealing in excess of $300,000 from two clients who he was supposed to be representing over the course of the past year. The charges against him are Second and Third Degree Grand Larceny and two counts of Second Degree Criminal Possession of a Forged Document

In evidence in the complaint states that in December of 2006, the defendant advised a resident of the Nassau County Village of Rockville Center to settle for $300,000 in relation to a personal injury lawsuit. Then on December 25, he visited the office of the insurance company in Pennsylvania and pressured them to issue a check because, according to him, the client had a daughter who needed the money to pay for heart surgery. They issued the check to the defendant in the name of his client. He then forged the signatures of both the client and her husband and proceeded to deposit the check into his bank account. The bank's records show that he did deposit $300,000 on December 28,2006.

By the time March rolled around, his bank account stood at -$139.44 and the clients never received any of their settlement money. The Nassau County's District Attorney's Office was notified on March 19, 2007.

Also, in May of 2007 a woman from the town of Elmont in Nassau County was buying a house and the real estate agent gave her a list of attorneys to select from and she choose Levine. She gave him $10,000 to hold as a down payment on the house, but the sale did not go through and she asked for the return of her money. Levine said he wanted to hold on to the money just in case he could resurrect the deal, She continued to keep in contact with him throughout the summer, but as of yet has not received a refund. The District Attorney received a complaint on September 12, 2007.

Levine filed an affidavit of resignation form the Bar on April 6, 2007 and he was disbarred on June 26,2007. If he is convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 15 years.

Source: Nassau County DA http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/

Commentary: Levine had already quit as a lawyer in the face of allegations against him of theft, but kept acting as an attorney and stealing. He couldn’t have thought for even a second that he would get away with this. The whole story of why he did this remains to be told. Let him tell it from a prison cell, during a long incarceration.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Common in "soft tissue" car accident cases is a defense motion seeking summary judgment for the injured plaintiff’s supposed failure to have injuries in excess of New York’s No-Fault "serious injury" threshold. This motion, commonly known as a Licari motion – after the appellate case that heralded the motion’s popularity – carries little or no downside to the defendant bringing it. If the motion is lost, the defense attorney gets a second chance at trial to renew the attack on plaintiff’s injuries as being insufficient.

Many of these motions are ill-conceived or supported by insufficient evidence and are winnable, and are in fact won, by plaintiffs whose attorneys know the ins and outs of the current case law on this subject.

I propose that every defense Licari motion be countered by a plaintiff’s cross-motion to dismiss the defense of "no serious injury." If the defense motion is soundly beaten, than the Court should consider removing the defense entirely, removing a potential hazard from plaintiff’s path to a successful trial verdict. This would raise the stakes for defense law firms that routinely make and appeal denials of these motions and, just maybe, make them hesitant to bring them in almost all soft-tissue cases.

Commentary: For more about these motions and soft-tissue injuries, see my book, WARNING! THINGS THAT CAN DESTROY YOUR N.Y. CAR ACCIDENT CASE (And the Insurance Companies Already Know These Things), available for free from: www.GreatLegalBooks.com.

For more about these motions and soft-tissue injuries, see my book, available for free from:

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

 

Matter of Thomas A. Bruno;

Second Dept.;
Admitted to Bar: 1968;

Discipline imposed: Two year suspension;

THE FACTS:

The Grievance Committee served the respondent (Bruno) with a petition dated Aug. 2, 2005, containing two counts of professional misconduct, related to his handling of a divorce case.

The respondent represented the husband in a matrimonial action pending in the Supreme Court, Suffolk County. He was served with discovery demands pertaining to his client’s business.

In his reply, the Bruno stated that his client’s business "went under" for lack of contracts and work. He failed to provide any requested business documents, claiming that the corporate records were already in possession of the wife inasmuch as the marital residence was the former place of business.

After the commencement of trial, the wife’s lawyer claimed to have recently ascertained that the husband had received in excess of $105,000 in accounts receivable subsequent to the commencement of the divorce action and that those funds were received as checks payable to the respondent, as attorney for the husband's business. That information was allegedly never disclosed during discovery.

On or about Oct. 7, 2002, the wife’s attorney moved for sanctions against (asked the Court to punish) the husband and Bruno (his lawyer).

By order dated Nov. 22, 2002, the divorce judge found that the husband's responses to the wife's discovery demands were inaccurate and evasive and that both the husband and Bruno knew of the existence of certain business records concerning, at least, the admitted "collection efforts" and "winding up" of the business, and failed to comply with clear requests for disclosure of same. The court found the husband's failure to disclose information concerning the requested receipts of the corporation to be willful and contumacious and awarded an attorney's fee in the sum of $5,000 to the wife

THE PUNISHMENT:

Attorney’s mitigating factors to be considered:

Bruno asked the Disciplinary Committee to consider the following factors in mitigation of any discipline to be imposed:

the stress experienced in representing his client throughout a contentious matrimonial litigation and numerous civil suits relating to the client's corporate and business dealings, including defending him in a lawsuit for $2,000,000 in the Supreme Court, Nassau County;

the respondent's emergency hospitalization in August 2000 for an aortic aneurysm with mild emphysema;

his insistence that his client was not conducting any business at the time his responses to the discovery requests were made;

his denial of any knowledge of the $200,000 in accounts receivable supposedly collected by his client; his good faith belief that all of the answers he submitted were accurate and truthful when made;

complications arising from the fact that pertinent records were located at the marital premises and were, at all times, within the possession of his adversary and her client;

and the fact that the divorce judge did not refer to his actions as willful and contumacious and did not impose monetary sanctions upon him.

Bruno indicated that he relocated to Texas for health and family reasons and did not expect to return to New York.

Disciplinary Committee’s aggravating factors to be considered:

He was suspended from the practice of law from 1981 to 1986 "due to a mental disability."

He was issued four Letters of Caution between Oct. 19, 1991, and May 23, 2003, for failing to re-register; lack of diligence in completing matters entrusted to him and in responding to reasonable client requests for information or for specific action to be taken on their behalf; failing to attend to client matters in a prompt, professional fashion and neglecting his obligation to do so; and for failing to cooperate with the legitimate investigations of the Grievance Committee for the 10th Judicial District.

The respondent was also issued three Letters of Admonition, dated May 23, 2003, for: (1) failing to cooperate with both the Suffolk County Matrimonial Fee Arbitration Panel and the Grievance Committee for the 10th Judicial District, (2) failing to promptly refund an unearned fee and failing to cooperate with both the Suffolk County Matrimonial Fee Arbitration Panel and the Grievance Committee for the 10th Judicial District, and (3) failing to communicate with the complainant and to provide her with a status update and, again, failing to cooperate with the Grievance Committee. Most recently, the respondent was issued a Letter of Caution on Jan. 5, 2005, for failure to register.

THE HOLDING:

While the wife's settlement allegedly was not unduly jeopardized by the respondent's failure to properly disclose, the respondent's conduct delayed the proceeding and should not be condoned. The respondent's move to Texas does not absolve him from liability for professional misconduct committed while he was practicing law in New York.

In view of the mitigation advanced as well as the respondent's prior disciplinary history, the respondent is suspended from the practice of law for two years.

Commentary: If the discipline seems a little harsh, I believe it is. This attorney has a long history of minor disciplinary actions against him, including his 5-year mental health hiatus (suspension) which an attorney only does if there are complaints against him or her. Furthermore, the Disciplinary Committee may have felt that the attorney was trying "to pull a fast one" with his Texas move. Really, there is nothing to prevent his coming back to New York and re-starting his practice; the court’s decision noted that he was not licensed to practice law in Texas.

If the discipline seems a little harsh, I believe it is. This attorney has a long history of minor disciplinary actions against him, including his 5-year mental health hiatus (suspension) which an attorney only does if there are complaints against him or her. Furthermore, the Disciplinary Committee may have felt that the attorney was trying "to pull a fast one" with his Texas move. Really, there is nothing to prevent his coming back to New York and re-starting his practice; the court’s decision noted that he was not licensed to practice law in Texas.

In light of the attorney’s age (he was admitted to the practice of law in 1968) a 2-year suspension may be the Disciplinary Committee’s indirect way of urging him to retire from the practice of law forever.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Note: A deposition is an oral question and answer session where one side asks the other side questions about its position in a lawsuit. It is a common procedure in most civil (non-criminal) litigation.

 

---

 

A NEW YORK judge has ordered court supervision of a lawyer for "objectionable conduct" toward a female opposing counsel who he said had a "cute little thing going on" during a deposition.

According to transcripts of the deposition, Thomas B. Decea of Danzig Fishman & Decea in White Plains also called Michelle A. Rice of Arkin Kaplan & Rice "hon" and "girl" and asked her why she was not wearing a wedding ring.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead ruled last week that a special referee would oversee all future depositions in the case to monitor Mr. Decea's conduct and that all depositions would take place in the courthouse.

The judge said Mr. Decea's behavior reflected gender bias as well as "a lack of civility, good manners and common courtesy." She said the appointment of a referee was a means of "guarding against future objectionable conduct" by Mr. Decea.

Ms. Rice moved for the appointment of a special referee a few days after the end of the depositions, arguing that Mr. Decea's conduct was intended to intimidate her and interfere with her advocacy in violation of New York's Code of Professional Responsibility as well as court rules adopted last year proscribing obstructive behavior at depositions (NYLJ, July 26, 2006).

Mr. Decea had opposed the motion on the grounds that he was "not aware of any rule or law which requires civility between counsel." The judge described his contention as "baffling."

She also noted that a number of judges had in the past been publicly reprimanded for referring to female lawyers as "little girl" or "young girl." She pointed out that the Commission on Judicial Conduct had said such words were "calculated to demean the lawyer."

Though the judge pointed out that conduct like that of Mr. Decea had been found sanctionable in the past, Ms. Rice did not seek sanctions against Mr. Decea. "We felt the most measured response to his inappropriate behavior was supervision of his behavior going forward," she said yesterday.

Commentary: Mr. Decea is lucky that his adversary did not ask for monetary sanctions, his conduct was outrageous enough that the judge might have granted them. As it is, he will likely have to pay the cost of the referee, a lawyer or retired judge who will likely charge a healthy hourly fee. What he really needs is a good lesson in manners, and perhaps a spanking by his mother.

Mr. Decea is lucky that his adversary did not ask for monetary sanctions, his conduct was outrageous enough that the judge might have granted them. As it is, he will likely have to pay the cost of the referee, a lawyer or retired judge who will likely charge a healthy hourly fee. What he really needs is a good lesson in manners, and perhaps a spanking by his mother.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

The two brothers that fell hundreds of feet in a window washing accident on Friday reportedly told a family member they were concerned about a mechanical problem just two hours before.

The New York Times says an in-law warned Edgar and Alcides Moreno not to go to work on the Upper East Side Friday because of problems with the scaffolding.

According to the paper, the brothers told him their boss said the problem had been fixed. About two hours later, the Morenos fell 47 stories when permanent scaffolding on the roof failed, causing the window washer's rigging to give way.

Edgar died instantly. Alcides is clinging to life at a Manhattan hospital. Investigators say neither man was wearing proper safety equipment.

Commentary: As I suspected, these window washers were not wearing safety harnesses, which is required New York law. Workers on scaffolds and ladders are required to have access to safety devices. These mens’ death and injury likely could have been prevented.

As I suspected, these window washers were not wearing safety harnesses, which is required New York law. Workers on scaffolds and ladders are required to have access to safety devices. These mens’ death and injury likely could have been prevented.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

December 11, 2007 -- He came to sit on a jury. Now he could be judged by one.

A would-be juror reported yesterday to do his civic duty in Brooklyn armed with a trick cane that concealed a 21/2-foot- long sword and a 6-inch dagger, court officials said.

Vladislav Lisetskiy, 40, attracted no suspicion as he waited in line to pass through security just before 9:30 a.m. at the Brooklyn Supreme Court building at 360 Adams St.

Official procedure calls for court officers to X-ray all canes, but the officers handling the security post - Michael Bleiberg, Gavin Timoney and John Petrovits - were on their guard as soon as they laid eyes on this one.

"This one attracted attention because of the way it looked," said Maj. Luz Bryan, who commands the officers at the courthouse.

"It had two metal bands. It's an indication that something is concealed. My officers noticed it right away." A source familiar with the incident said that when the officers scanned the cane, one of them said, "That looks like a sword."

Lisetskiy allegedly replied, "That's all right. You can keep it."

"We are going to keep it," an officer said. "And we're going to arrest you."

The officers were shocked enough when they pulled out the lengthy double-edged sword concealed in the body of the cane, but were positively floored when they discovered the smaller dagger inside the handle.

Lisetskiy, an employee of the city's Human Resources Administration, briefly protested as officers began to examine the walking stick, but offered no further resistance, Bryan said.

"He kept saying that he didn't know it was illegal," Bryan said.

A source said Lisetskiy repeatedly told the officers, "I use it as a cane," and also claimed he purchased the item on Amazon.com.

A check of the retailer's Web site showed scores of sword canes for sale - including the "34 Inch Gentleman's Double Blade Sword Cane," which appeared to be the exact model Lisetskiy allegedly carried.

An Amazon spokesman did not immediately return a phone message. Sword canes are not illegal in every state - but they are illegal in New York.

Lisetskiy was taken to the nearby 84th Precinct station house and charged with misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon. State law prohibits concealed blades or knives.

"It's outstanding work by the court officers, who were on alert, and their training paid off," said state courts spokesman David Bookstaver.

"There are bulletins that come out about these type of weapons that are disguised. The officers are made aware, and this is proof that they are paying attention."

WWW.NYPOST.COM

Commentary:  Seems like my blog is finding its theme: stupid crimes that people do, and stupid crimes and ethical violations by attorneys.  I mean, really, when called for jury duty this guy brought a sword cane to the courthouse!  Who was he planning to fight? The human capacity to do dumb stuff never ceases to amaze me. Hope he gets a good lawyer.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

RICHMOND, Dec. 10 — Michael Vick, once one of the highest paid and highest profile players in the National Football League, was sentenced to 23 months in prison Monday for his role in a dog fighting ring that was based on his property in rural southeastern Virginia.

The sentence was longer than the government’s recommended sentence, which it changed from 12-to-18 months to 18-to-24 months before Monday’s proceedings citing a positive drug test by Vick for marijuana and conflicting statements he made about his involvement with killing dogs since his plea agreement.

Vick, who had a 10-year, $130 million contract with the Falcons, is struggling financially because of this case. He has lost lucrative endorsements and several financial institutions have also started legal proceedings against him because he has defaulted on his loans. The Falcons are trying to get back $20 million in bonuses they had given Vick. Already, Vick has been forced to sell two homes, including the one in Surry, Va., where his dogfighting operation was based. The home, a 4,600-square foot white brick house on 15-acres, is scheduled to be sold at auction this Saturday.

Commentary: I am presenting a shortened version of this article from the New York Times (www.NYTimes.com). It goes without saying that decent people everywhere are appalled at what Michael Vick did. As an animal lover and vegetarian, I applaud the harshness of the sentence that the law imposed on him. Now that this talented athlete has lost everything maybe the word will spread and people will hesitate before supporting the barbaric sport of dog fighting. I hope so, but I doubt it.

I am presenting a shortened version of this article from the New York Times (). It goes without saying that decent people everywhere are appalled at what Michael Vick did. As an animal lover and vegetarian, I applaud the harshness of the sentence that the law imposed on him. Now that this talented athlete has lost everything maybe the word will spread and people will hesitate before supporting the barbaric sport of dog fighting. I hope so, but I doubt it.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Snap-Happy Criminals A Boon for Prosecutors; Don't Forget the Charger;

December 8, 2007;

Last year, Morgan Kipper was booked on charges of stealing cars and reselling their parts. He declared his innocence, but his cellphone suggested otherwise: Its screensaver pictured Mr. Kipper behind the wheel of a stolen yellow Ferrari.

Mr. Kipper, 27, joined a growing group of camera-phone owners who can't seem to resist capturing themselves breaking the law. "As a criminal defense attorney, it's very difficult when a client proclaims his innocence but incriminates himself by taking photos of the stolen items," says William Korman, the Boston attorney who represented Mr. Kipper. The snap-happy chop-shop owner, who pleaded guilty in April, is now serving a sentence of two-and-a-half to five years and couldn't be reached for comment.

Cellphones, which often contain personal information like contact lists and call histories, have long served as a valuable police tool in criminal investigations. But the spread of built-in cameras -- which in some newer phones can even record video -- is providing investigators with new ammunition, thanks to simple human behavior. Apparently even criminals like snapping cellphone photos of themselves.

The result in many police precincts is an unexpected windfall. In the small city of Nashua, N.H., one prosecutor estimates that cellphone photos provide useful evidence 40 or 50 times a year. At least a half-dozen small software companies are now peddling programs designed to help investigators download data from suspects' cellphones without compromising the evidence. Earlier this year, the federal government's National Institute of Standards and Technology issued a paper outlining techniques for doing forensic work on cellphones.

Cellphone forensics do present some challenges. Unlike personal computers, cellphones feature a multitude of proprietary operating systems, requiring investigators to use different methods for extracting data from different phones. By law, police making an arrest aren't allowed to examine a phone's photos without a search warrant. And police must remember to obtain the phone's charger; retrieving information isn't easy if the battery goes dead.

By and large, however, the cellphone photo trend is welcomed by police and prosecutors. "We pray for those kinds of cases," says Debra Collins, an assistant state attorney in New Britain, Conn. Last spring, Ms. Collins obtained guilty pleas from two young men who had used a friend's camera phone to record one of them igniting a car by tossing fireworks into an open window.

Camera-phone images frequently help win convictions in sexual-assault cases. "Once a defense attorney sees them, they no longer quibble about the charges," says Gary Kessler, who teaches digital forensics at Champlain College in Burlington, Vt., and consults for state police. University of Cincinnati criminal-law professor Mark Godsey, who writes a blog called CrimProfLaw, says suspects give up their constitutional protection against self-incrimination when their own camera phones show them breaking the law. "They do it voluntarily. No one is making them," he says.

Of course, dumb crooks have long found ways to inadvertently establish their guilt. Before the onset of camera phones, vain criminals occasionally got turned in by photo-processing technicians who notified police of suspicious behavior caught on film cameras.

But camera-phones seem particularly well-suited to spontaneous self-incrimination. Unlike traditional cameras, cellphones are always brought along, increasing the temptation to snap a picture and boosting the likelihood the phone will be on or near the criminal upon arrest.

Plus, many camera-phone owners seem to think outsiders won't have access to the photos, says Mike Schirling, deputy chief of the Burlington, Vt., police department. He says he recently helped convict a juvenile on weapons charges based on cellphone images of him brandishing a rifle at night on the roof of a school building. "Drug dealers just naturally take pictures of their drugs and their money and their significant others," he adds.

Adds Champlain College's Mr. Kessler: "If you give someone a camera-phone, it's an inviolable rule of nature that they will take a picture with it."

Some criminals are nabbed for taking the next technical step: distributing their camera-phone shots over the Internet. Ms. Collins, the assistant state attorney in Connecticut, says she obtained restitution payments for dozens of residents whose mailboxes had been destroyed with baseball bats. The evidence: The perpetrators -- some local high school students -- had posted camera-phone pictures of the deed on the MySpace Web site.

Pamela Rogers, a McMinnville, Tenn., middle-school gym teacher went to jail for having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old student. She was released on probation after six months and ordered to avoid contact with her victim. But within weeks, she sent the boy a camera-phone video of herself dancing in a bikini.

The boy sent it to friends, and eventually it wound up in the hands of Bob Reno, a Michigan man who operates a Web site called "Badjocks.com" that documents athletes' foibles. Mr. Reno, who had been covering Ms. Rogers's case extensively, posted the video on his Web site. "We were lucky enough to get it first. It's still a big draw to this day," he says.

After prosecutors learned of the video, Ms. Rogers's probation was revoked and she returned to jail. In January, she received two more years, extending her original term to a decade.

Peter Strianse, a Nashville criminal attorney who represented Ms. Rogers, says, "The cam-phone was a tool that was there. It gave her an opportunity she wouldn't have otherwise had, and a temptation she might not have succumbed to."

"She has been kicking herself about making a series of incredibly bad judgments," he added.

Commentary: Not much to say here except that we want our criminals to be stupid and document their breaking of the law. And if you’re a criminal that photographed himself or herself, better call an attorney that excels at criminal law.

Not much to say here except that we want our criminals to be stupid and document their breaking of the law. And if you’re a criminal that photographed himself or herself, better call an attorney that excels at criminal law.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

From The Wall Street Journal Online

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- Naira Costa, a 27-year-old housekeeper, met her husband at Message of Peace, an evangelical church that is a spiritual and social haven for Brazilians in the Bay Area. When the couple considered buying a house a few years ago, the church's head deacon, Soario Santos, ministered to that need, too.

Mr. Santos, a fellow Brazilian, served the Pentecostal church on nights and weekends. During the day, he worked as a loan officer at a mortgage brokerage owned by a Brazilian immigrant. Mr. Santos and other church officers also working at the same real-estate business routinely approached churchgoers to encourage them to buy homes.

Weak credit and low wages weren't barriers, Ms. Costa recalls. "He told us that a house easily would appreciate $100,000 in a year," enabling the owner to refinance, says Ms. Costa. "We trusted him implicitly. Everyone at the church was buying houses from him."

Today, Ms. Costa and other former Message of Peace parishioners claim that Mr. Santos was a key part of a mostly Brazilian ring that allegedly conspired to defraud people by persuading them to buy homes they couldn't afford. Ms. Costa, the housekeeper, secured a $713,000 sub-prime mortgage. In another instance, a Brazilian baby sitter borrowed $495,000. Now, the home buyers are beset by foreclosures and additional stains on their already-tainted credit.

Various immigrant groups have long been subject to financial scams. The subprime-mortgage boom offered new avenues for mischief -- by real-estate professionals as well as home shoppers. Potential buyers, especially those paying high rents, became embroiled in schemes to take advantage of banks' easy-money policies.

Housing counselors say they have seen this type of activity across the U.S. Among the vulnerable groups: Latinos throughout California, Caribbean and African borrowers in the New York area, and Russian immigrants in Philadelphia.

"Immigrants with limited English just trusted what people from their country told them," says Katrina Vizinau, a counselor at Community Housing Development Corp. of North Richmond, a nonprofit organization that educates homeowners in the East Bay area.

A lawsuit filed by Ms. Costa and several others in California superior court alleges that a network of real-estate agents, loan officers and mortgage brokers targeted "vulnerable immigrants," falsified financial records, forged documents and misled the home buyers about the real costs of their mortgages. The suit seeks unspecified damages for the plaintiffs.

The 15 defendants deny any wrongdoing. A formal response to the complaint, made by Mr. Santos and four other defendants, claims, among other things, that the plaintiffs committed fraud and made misrepresentations in their mortgage applications.

A key defendant -- Gabriela Tigges, owner of a local Re/Max real-estate office as well as a mortgage-brokering business -- doesn't hide her contempt for the plaintiffs. She brands them as "ignorants" who wanted to make a quick buck buying and abandoning homes, then sued for more. "I am trapped in the intrigue of a telenovela," she says, referring to Brazil's saucy soap operas.

An attorney for Mr. Santos and Ms. Tigges, who were business associates, declined to comment on the case further.

Mr. Santos drives a black Mercedes, wears a gold watch and owns more than one property himself. Now a pastor at the San Jose, Calif., branch of Message of Peace, he recently bellowed from the pulpit: "Forgive us, Lord, if we put faith in some extra dollars...when true faith lies in you."

A portly man in his forties, Mr. Santos came to the U.S. in the 1990s and started out delivering newspapers and driving a taxi. By night, he studied to become a pastor. During the day, he held down a job as a mortgage-loan officer, a position that, unlike that of real-estate broker, didn't require a license.

In a local Christian Portuguese-language magazine, "Vem Pra Vida," or "Come to Life," a dapper Mr. Santos stands in the center of an advertisement. "Financing up to 100%. Zero down payment. No proof of income necessary," reads the copy.

He learned the business from Ms. Tigges. Her Re/Max real-estate agency and sister mortgage brokerage in the nearby town of El Sobrante had prospered by tapping immigrant customers. Ms. Tigges, who moved to the U.S. from Brazil about 20 years ago, ranked among the top 6% of all Re/Max agents in 2004 by total value of commissions earned. In March 2006 she was the company's eighth-best producer in California.

"I like to hire pastors," Ms. Tigges said recently in her office. "They are trusted, and churches are very important to the communities."

In summer of 2005, Ms. Costa and her husband, Samir Abdelnur, agreed with Mr. Santos to start house hunting. The first thing he did was give Ms. Costa several blank forms to sign, she says.

Mr. Abdelnur, a taxi driver at the time, earned $4,000 a month, twice as much as his wife. But his credit was weaker, so he says that Mr. Santos advised them to buy a house in Ms. Costa's name. Her FICO credit score at the time was 585, which placed her in the subprime range.

Mr. Santos introduced the couple to Suzel Serafim, a Brazilian real-estate agent. Ms. Costa says Ms. Serafim offered to add Ms. Costa's name to her personal credit-card account to help boost the buyer's credit score. When contacted for comment, Ms. Serafim confirmed that she had added Ms. Costa to her credit card. "I helped her," she said. (A spokesman for the National Association of Realtors, a trade group, says that such a practice amounts to misrepresentation.)

Ms. Costa's credit report from the time shows her as an authorized user of another person's credit card.

The couple says they told the agent and loan officer that they could afford a monthly mortgage payment of $3,500. Ms. Serafim and Mr. Santos steered the couple to Contra Costa County, across the bay from San Francisco. Ms. Costa and her husband chose a remodeled single-story, three-bedroom house in the town of Hercules. Mr. Santos said they would get a cash incentive at closing to help pay for repairs and any appliances they needed. Ms. Costa recalls him telling her, "Everyone who buys gets $20,000 back. I did."

But first, says Ms. Costa, the couple needed to find $5,000 to make a deposit on the house, listed at $688,000. Ms. Costa says she borrowed $3,000 from her father and another $2,000 from Ms. Serafim. Such assistance from a real-estate agent is improper, lawyers say, because it deceives the lender about the borrower's ability to afford the house.

Ms. Costa says she tried to back out a week later, when Ms. Serafim said they would need to offer more than $700,000 to get the house. But the couple decided to go ahead, says Ms. Costa, because Ms. Serafim said they would lose the deposit.

Mr. Santos handled the mortgage application and never discussed financing options, Ms. Costa says. On the day she was to close escrow, Ms. Costa learned that she would be receiving far less than the $20,000 in cash that Mr. Santos had promised. Ms. Costa says she again wanted to walk away from the deal.

But after a telephone exchange with Mr. Santos, who wasn't present at the title company's office, she signed the loan documents. As part of the closing settlement, she was refunded most of her deposit, and she says she also received about $8,000 from the seller for repairs.

The latter payment would later become a contentious point in the lawsuit. In recent sworn testimony, Ms. Costa acknowledged that she had prepared a bogus receipt for repairs in order to get the cash back. She said that the brokers urged her to do so and that she now regrets making the receipt.

Ms. Costa also maintains that no one ever explained to her that she was actually signing on to two loans to cover 100% of the home price: a $570,400 primary mortgage and a $142,600 so-called piggyback loan for the remaining 20% of the house's price. The primary adjustable-rate mortgage had an initial rate of 7.15% for two years, after which it could eventually rise to as high as 13.65%. Both loans were risky because they entailed huge final installments -- so-called balloon payments -- totaling nearly $500,000.

Ms. Costa says she didn't understand the actual costs involved, although she admits she didn't read all the loan documents. The couple moved into the house in October 2005. They say they ended up spending most of the $8,000 on electrical and plumbing repairs and new appliances such as a refrigerator.

Then the first set of mortgage bills arrived: one for about $3,600 and another for nearly $1,400. The total was almost the equivalent of the couple's combined monthly income. A property-tax bill followed. "I panicked," recalls Ms. Costa, who says repeated calls to Mr. Santos went unanswered. At Sunday church services, she says, he avoided the couple. They quit the congregation.

Barely three weeks after moving into the house, the couple decided to abandon it and left without making any payments. Eventually, the house slipped into foreclosure.

About a month after their departure, Ms. Costa says, Mr. Santos called hurling threats. "I can prove you are the one who brought me fake papers," she recalls him telling her.

When Ms. Costa said she had done nothing wrong and would find a lawyer, she says he warned: "If the FBI or Immigration gets involved, you're done with because you're illegal."

Ms. Costa, who originally entered the U.S. as a teenager, had overstayed her tourist visa. Her husband was awaiting approval for a green card after being sponsored by his brother, a naturalized U.S. citizen.

During the call with Mr. Santos, Ms. Costa says she refused an offer of $5,000 from him in exchange for keeping quiet. She says his last words were "Get smart."

Ms. Costa turned to lawyer Daniel Iannitelli, whom she met through friends, for help. Her loan application, which the lawyer had obtained from lender WMC Mortgage Corp., included bogus claims and documents intended to qualify the housekeeper for a loan that was far beyond her means to pay. In sworn testimony, Ms. Costa said she had no knowledge of the fake documents and hadn't seen all the completed forms.

The loan application falsely stated that Ms. Costa was a "U.S. person" and earned $12,500 a month -- six times her actual wages. Ms. Costa, who had given Mr. Santos her Bank of America statements, says she was shocked to see them altered to fabricate how long she had been a depositor and how much she held in assets. One checking-account statement, dated July 19, 2005, showed a balance of $50,180.33. Her actual statement from that period showed just $42.22 on hand.

WMC Mortgage, a unit of General Electric Co., declined to comment on specific loans. The company says it stopped doing business with Ms. Tigges's mortgage company in early 2006 because of concerns about the quality of the firm's loan applications.

Last spring, shortly after defendants in the lawsuit had been served, agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement knocked on the door of Ms. Costa and Mr. Abdelnur's apartment at 6 a.m. The couple was placed in removal proceedings, with an immigration-court hearing set for June 7.

But on the day of the hearing, the judge abruptly dismissed the case, court documents show. People familiar with the situation say the case was closed because Ms. Costa and Mr. Abdelnur agreed to cooperate with a federal criminal investigation into some of the defendants in the civil lawsuit. The couple decline to comment on the matter.

At least one defendant in the civil lawsuit has fled to Brazil. Others are under scrutiny in an investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Suspected crimes range from money laundering to visa fraud, including abuse of religious visas, according to people familiar with the matter.

An ICE spokeswoman declined to comment on specifics of the probe. In a written statement, the agency said: "ICE works aggressively to ensure that this type of criminal scheme involving fraud and exploitation does not go unchecked or unpunished."

In September, Ms. Costa was deposed for two days with Ms. Tigges and Mr. Santos present. The defendants' lawyer sought to undercut Ms. Costa's claim for damages by establishing that she didn't lose money on the house because she never made any mortgage payments.

Fernando Carvalho, the founder of Message of Peace, praises Mr. Santos as a "wonderful student" of religion and a person of integrity. "I haven't seen any proof he has done something illegal or against the word of God," he says.

Ms. Tigges is shifting out of real estate and into a new moneymaking venture: YTB International Inc., a multilevel-marketing enterprise to create online travel agencies.

In a largely deserted office that once hummed with 30 to 40 property and mortgage agents, Ms. Tigges lamented that the real-estate business is dead. The only growth in the sector, she said, is lawsuits.

-- December 07, 2007

COMMENTARY: When you put your faith in a trusted professional and the professional fails you, is your only remedy to bring a lawsuit?

 From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

 

December 07, 2007  - 

A window washer was killed and another seriously wounded when their scaffolding plunged 45 floors to the ground off the side of an Upper East Side building this morning.

The accident happened at around 10:30 a.m. at a luxury residential building called the Solow Tower at 265 East 66th Street, between Second and Third Avenues.

One man was pronounced dead at the scene and the other was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. The two window washers were brothers from Ecuador.

The scaffolding was just one story from the roof when it collapsed. It's unclear what caused it to give way.

Fire officials and building inspectors are on the scene.

A window washer was killed and another seriously wounded when their scaffolding plunged 45 floors to the ground off the side of an Upper East Side building this morning. The accident happened at around 10:30 a.m. at a luxury residential building called the Solow Tower at 265 East 66th Street, between Second and Third Avenues. One man was pronounced dead at the scene and the other was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. The two window washers were brothers from Ecuador. The scaffolding was just one story from the roof when it collapsed. It's unclear what caused it to give way. Fire officials and building inspectors are on the scene.

 

Top News • NY1 Living

GER Commentary: There are very specific rules and regulations in New York City to protect window washers and other workers on scaffolds or who work at great heights. Why the workers were not caught by their harnesses, or protected by other safety equipment, remains to be seen. These types of accidents have been happening less frequently, as employers (hopefully) get more safety conscious and follow the law.

There are very specific rules and regulations in New York City to protect window washers and other workers on scaffolds or who work at great heights. Why the workers were not caught by their harnesses, or protected by other safety equipment, remains to be seen. These types of accidents have been happening less frequently, as employers (hopefully) get more safety conscious and follow the law.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Law enforcement authorities have discovered that people are willing to go to great lengths to get high, including a troubling new method that features a frightened toad.

"Toad smoking," which is a substitute for "toad licking," is done by extracting venom from the Sonoran Desert toad of the Colorado River. The toad's venom — which is secreted when the toad gets angry or scared — contains a hallucinogen called bufotenine that can be dried and smoked to produce a buzz.

In October, a Kansas City man was charged with possessing a controlled substance after Clay County authorities determined he possessed a toad with the intent to use its venom to get high.

Clay County Prosecutor Daniel White said possessing the toad is not illegal, but using it to get high off its venom is.

"It is easier to get it, and law enforcement might not immediately know you use it to get high," White said. "It's sort of a New Age way to get high. You convince yourself it is OK because it is something you get naturally from our environment.

"There are a lot of things that are created naturally but they are still not legal," he said.

White said that for years people experimented with "toad licking," and now toad smoking is considered a substitute. To do so, a person heats up the frog's venom to break down its toxins and preserve the hallucinogen, which is dried.

He said some Internet sites feature an instructional video on how to extract the toad's venom.

Police found the toad when they went to a northern Kansas City home to investigate a suspected meth lab. They later arrested David S. Theiss, 21, and charged him with three counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count of possessing drug paraphernalia — the toad.

Theiss also is accused of possessing mescaline, a controlled substance extracted from a cactus.

While smoking toad venom might sound extreme, an even more disturbing method to get high possibly includes sniffing fermented human waste. Vicky Ward, manager of prevention services at Tri-County Mental Health Services in Kansas City, said she has read e-mail warnings about a drug called jenkem.

The drug is made from fermented feces and urine.

"We work with a lot of youths and we ask them whether anyone has tried it and they said no," Ward said. "They (the youths) have heard about it because of the Internet."

But whether people actually use of jenkem has not been determined, Ward said, noting that a Web site that investigates urban legends isn't clear on the matter.

"Kids get ideas that later turn out to be unfounded, but you will get some idiots who will try anything," she said.

Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.comCommentary:

   just when you thought you'd heard it all!

 From: Gary E. Rosenberg, Queens injury lawyer

 DAYTON, OH—In a decision that senior partner Bob Davis called "long overdue," local law firm Davis, Cassini & Snyder confirmed Tuesday its intentions to purchase one of those big leather chairs—the burgundy-colored ones with the gold buttons and the thick, fancy armrests—sometime in the upcoming weeks.

Despite the prior acquisition of several big wooden legal bookshelves, a half-dozen of those gold-colored desk lamps with the green plastic panels covering the light bulbs, and several portraits of serious-looking lawyers and judges from the 1800s, the office has reportedly lacked a big leather chair since its opening in 2005.

"We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of the chair," junior partner John Cassini told reporters. "As a respectable law firm, the office of Davis, Cassini & Snyder needs an expensive leather chair that doesn't swivel, raise, or lower, but just sits there in the office."

Cassini stated that he couldn't describe the exact name or brand of chair he was referring to, but confirmed that he had sat in a similar chair before. He further insisted that, as a registered member of the bar, he would "definitely know one if [he] saw it," and that a lot of law offices have them.

The decision to purchase the chair, office sources said, came after Bob Davis made a visit to the nearby law firm Berkman & Berkman. Davis reported back to his associates that the rival firm had one of those leather chairs where the material "poofs out" due to the indents in the fabric, thereby creating what Davis referred to as the chair's signature diamond-shaped leather pouches.

"It also had the gold buttons that embroider the armrests," said Davis, who later went on to note Berkman & Berkman's recent courtroom success. "And the [big leather] chair had that claw-foot design on its legs."

"Great chair," he added.

Davis told reporters that, as senior partner, the final decision on the chair would ultimately go through him, but that he planned to delegate the responsibility of locating the chair to the firm's administrative assistant, Kathy Plaitano.

"I told Kathy that if she is having trouble finding exactly what we want, she should watch The Firm or Philadelphia," Davis said. "Those movies definitely have the kind of chairs we're talking about."

According to members of the legal team, even if the chair Plaitano finds fulfills the requirements for both color and seat width, the firm will not, under any circumstance, accept a leather chair that has metal legs, is on wheels, or has a medium-height back.

In addition, the attorneys were adamant that any potential client who sits in the chair should "sink in just a little" so that only the individual's head would be visible if someone was to approach the chair from behind.

"It has to be that kind of chair," Cassini said. "We won't settle for anything less."

Though the attorneys unanimously agreed to purchase the chair, concerns have been raised as to the chair's ultimate location in the office.

"If I know Davis, he'll want to put it in the waiting room next to the fern," Snyder said. "But if it's the kind of chair I'm thinking of, I think we should put it across from my desk to give my clients a nice place to sit during their appointments."

Davis and Cassini refused to respond to Snyder's statement, but when pressed for comment stated that it might be in the law firm's best interest to purchase more than one chair."

 COMMENTARY:  We all know that this is satire (humor), RIGHT?!?!?!

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (Queens injury lawyer and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Mayor Calls For Raises For State Judges
December 02, 2007 -

Mayor Michael Bloomberg used his weekly radio address to call on leaders in Albany to move on the first pay raises for state judges in eight years.

The mayor says without the increases, state courts can't attract the best candidates for the job. He says Albany politics have left the process at a standstill.

"In a court room, each case must be considered on its own merits, and the facts of each case must be carefully considered," said the mayor. "But in Albany, too often good legislation gets held hostage to horse trading. The result is that even when everyone agrees, nothing gets done."

Raises for judges, as well as state lawmakers, have been proposed. Governor Eliot Spitzer had said he would not sign off until the legislature agreed to overhaul campaign finance laws, though last week he indicated he may change his tune.

Other court employees such as clerks and court officers have seen their wages go up 33 percent since the last judicial pay raise in 1999.

COMMENTARY:

Why Our Judges Deserve a Raise:

New York State Supreme Court justices are paid $136,700 a year; upstate Family Court and other judges receive $119,000 or less.

Although these salaries are higher than that of many New Yorkers, judges, with seven or more years of higher education, have given up far more lucrative opportunities that go along with careers in the legal profession.

New York’s judicial salaries are among the lowest in the nation. The state’s judges have had only two salary increases in the last 20 years, the last one eight years ago. Since then, the cost-of-living has risen by 26 percent.

Why it Matters for New York:

For the low-earners of the legal profession, living in New York City has become a daunting challenge. Many judges, who went to law school with the dream of serving the public from the bench and rejected opportunities to follow the money, now question that decision.

Every day judges throughout the state accept the profound responsibilities of deciding who is imprisoned and who goes free, deciding when a feeding tube should be discontinued, and deciding who should have custody of a child. Such work is essential to a democratic, civilized society.

The risk the public and the judiciary face is that only lawyers with independent wealth will become judges, causing severe damage to diversity and to a bench that reflects the community.

I want our judges well-paid and happy, not worrying how they’ll pay their children’s college tuition.

 

---

 

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

MoneyNews
Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007

LOS ANGELES -- U.S. foreclosure filings nearly doubled in October from the same month last year, the latest sign many homeowners are falling behind on mortgage payments and increasingly losing their homes, according to a mortgage research company.

A total of 224,451 foreclosure filings were reported in October, up 94 percent from 115,568 in the same month a year ago, Irvine-based RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

The number of filings in October rose 2 percent from September's 223,538.

The U.S. had one foreclosure filing for every 555 households in October, RealtyTrac said.

The filings include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. Some properties might have received more than one notice if the owners have multiple mortgages.

In all, 45 states saw an increase in foreclosure filings over last year.

While the number of filings is still up year-over-year, it has leveled off in the last two months after hitting a high for the year in August.

Efforts by lenders under pressure to modify loan terms for at-risk borrowers could explain the slower sequential increase in filings, but the trend is likely more a result of a lag in filings after interest rate changes on adjustable-rate mortgages, said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's vice president for marketing.

"What we probably did was come out of a reset cycle, but (the filings) have leveled off at a much higher level than before we got this point," Sharga said.

It typically takes two to three months after a rate reset before a borrower who fails to make payments is considered in default.

Tighter lending standards and the ongoing housing slump are making it harder for homeowners who can't afford their mortgage payments to sell their homes or refinance.

Many homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages are also facing steep monthly payment hikes. Experts estimate some 2 million of the loans are due to reset at higher rates in the next eight months, which could lead to more foreclosures.

One alarming trend in October was an increase in the number of homes that were repossessed by lenders after they failed to sell at trustee auctions.

"About 35 percent of the total filings we collected this month were notices of bank repossession," Sharga said. "Historically, on average, that number is more like 20 percent."

That means more borrowers who entered foreclosure ended up losing their homes.

The trend was particularly evident in Ohio, where 45 percent of all foreclosure filings during the month were notices of bank repossessions. The repossessions represented 46 percent of all filings in Missouri and 37 percent in Michigan.

Economic woes and job losses have exacerbated the housing slump in the Midwest.

Nevada, California, Florida and Ohio had the highest foreclosure filing rates in the country last month, RealtyTrac said.

Nevada reported one foreclosure filing for every 154 households, earning the state the highest rate in the nation for the 10th month in a row. The state had 6,618 filings in October, up 20 percent from September and nearly triple from October 2006.

California's rate was one filing for every 258 households. The state reported the most foreclosure filings of any single state with 50,401, down 2 percent from September but more than triple the number from October of last year.

The state's foreclosures were primarily driven by adjustable mortgages resetting to sharply higher monthly payments, RealtyTrac said.

Florida had one foreclosure filing for every 273 households. The state reported 30,190 foreclosure filings last month, down more than 9 percent from September, but up nearly 165 percent from October 2006's total.

Ohio reported one foreclosure filing for every 290 households. The state had 17,276 filings last month, up nearly 10 percent from September and 136 percent from October 2006.

Rounding out the states with the top 10 foreclosure filing rates in October were Georgia, Michigan, Colorado, Arizona, Indiana and Illinois.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Commentary: You may recall that this human piece of garbage helped slaughter several people at a Wendy’s in Flushing on May 24, 2000. Better than the death penalty or life in prison, I think the court should sentence him to ten minutes alone with the victims’ families.

From: Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

You may recall that this human piece of garbage helped slaughter several people at a Wendy’s in Flushing on May 24, 2000. Better than the death penalty or life in prison, I think the court should sentence him to ten minutes alone with the victims’ families.