Category: Premises Liability

Who Is Responsible for Trimming the Trees in Front of My Property?

Changing seasons – Winter, in particular – can wreak havoc on the trees lining our city streets and neighborhoods.  Storms bring down branches, and sometimes entire trees, upon yards, cars, homes, and streets, causing incalculable hazards, inconveniences, and injuries.  Whose responsibility are these trees, though?

Per NYCGovParks.org, The Department of Parks & Recreation (DPR) in New York “has jurisdiction over all trees growing in the public right-of-way, including trees along streets, parkways, and in city parks.”  Further, DPR is responsible for routine annual pruning for these trees. However, DPR does not accept requests for routine maintenance of street trees, with the following request exceptions:

• Dead or damaged trees or limbs;
• Trees or branches that are blocking streetlights, traffic signs, or signals;
• Blocked street or sidewalk access;
• Property damage directly resulting from fallen trees or limbs;
• Trees, limbs, or branches are directly in contact with live power or telephone lines.

It is essential to understand that the City of New York is not responsible for any tree on private property.  On occasion, however, the New York Department of Transportation (DOT) may find it necessary to enter private property to remove a tree or limb posing a danger to the traveling public.  Before doing so, DOT will attempt to notify the landowner, whenever feasible, of their plan to remove the offending debris.

Whether requested or not, DPR, in cooperation with DOT, is responsible for removing hazardous trees and limbs as part of their regular day-to-day maintenance operations.  DOT, working through its staff and contractors, cuts or prunes trees to address the following safety concerns:

• Remove dead or dying trees or limbs that are likely to fall on the highway.
• Maintain sight distance at intersections and along the roads.
• Maintain clear zones along the roadside by removing trees/brush that are or could become dangerous fixed objects.
• Prevent growth from shading roads in winter.  Shading prevents the sun from melting ice, requiring extra salt and deicers.
• Remove growth that causes snow drifts on the right of way.
• Improve the roadside appearance and open vistas to the surrounding landscape.
• Remove trees that are invasive species.

DOT seeks the public’s assistance in promptly reporting any trees or limbs on the roadway that they consider potentially dangerous to travelers and workers.  DOT employees and contractors strive to achieve the highest level of safety when maintaining existing roads, designing new roads, and removing potentially hazardous conditions.^

Finally, per the New York City Administrative code:

§ 18-105 Trees under private or public ownership; care and cultivation.

“All trees in streets, which on the investigation are found to be without ownership, shall be under the exclusive care and cultivation of the commissioner, and such commissioner shall employ the most improved methods for the protection and cultivation of the trees selected for preservation, and remove those condemned as unfit for cultivation. Trees found to be in the care of individual owners, corporations, societies, or associations, shall not be subject to the commissioner’s jurisdiction unless the owners thereof make a written application to the commissioner to have such trees transferred to his or her care. If the commissioner approves the such transfer, he or she shall assume full control thereof, and the former owner shall be relieved of all expenses connected with the cultivation of such trees. In all cases where landowners, societies, or associations elect to plant and cultivate their trees in streets, such planting and cultivation must conform to the rules and regulations adopted by the commissioner. The commissioner may, however, on the written application of any land-owner, plant and cultivate trees on the streets adjoining his or her land and charge for such service an amount not to exceed the actual cost to the department for labor and materials.”

In short, the City of New York is responsible for reasonable and routine pruning and care of trees along the street in front of your house.  If, however, you experience personal injuries due to falling debris or trees due to the neglect of the City, we encourage you to call the legal team at Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C.  The premise liability lawyers at Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C. understand the effects of public nuisances upon New Yorkers in cases such as these.  Our legal team is here to help you get the attention, response, and benefits to which you are legally entitled.

^www.dot.ny.gov

About Daniella Levi & Associates P.C.

After a serious accident, many people are in desperate need of the financial support that comes from a successful result of their injury claim. To ensure you have the best chance at obtaining the compensation you deserve, your lawyer should be just as invested in your case as you are.

At Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C., headquartered in New York City, we believe strongly in upholding the rights of accident victims. We are dedicated advocates for our clients, fighting, and using every available resource, to obtain the compensation they deserve.

Daniella Levi & Associates P.C. has 3 Locations in NYC: Levi Law Queens | Levi Law The Bronx | Levi Law Mineola

What is the Difference Between Premises Liability and Personal Liability?

Premises liability pertains to injuries or damages which occur on another person’s property or business due to unsafe conditions.  There is an implicit premise in the law that states that property owners, managers, or occupiers must “exercise ordinary care in keeping the premises and approaches safe.”  Failure to do so, resulting in the injury of another, is the responsibility of that same owner, manager, or occupier, leaving them responsible for the expenses relative to the injury.

Premises liability accidents often occur at locations including:

• Retail stores
• Grocery stores
• Shopping malls
• Big box stores
• Restaurants
• Sports venues
• Private residences

Premises liability claims frequently result from slips and fall on wet floors, wrinkled carpets, cracked sidewalks or pitted parking lots, cluttered walkways, or negligence.  If, for example, you slipped and fell due to water on the floor in the produce department at your local grocery store, any injuries you may suffer are the responsibility of the store due to the store and their employees’ negligence.

It is important to note that property owners and businesses are not always responsible for accidents.  Property owners and employees must be careful to maintain an implied duty of care, or they may be held liable for damages due to the following:

• Spills, breakages, outages, and hazards on their property
• Dangerous conditions and endangering situations left unrepaired beyond a reasonable amount of time
• A failure to post adequate signage warning patrons, customers, and the public at large of perilous conditions under construction or repair
• A complete lack of due diligence to avoid accidents or damage to others

Establishment premises liability can be tricky.  Each individual is responsible for exercising carefulness.  Even so, accidents do happen.  When they do, having proper legal representation is vital to a successful compensatory outcome.  In New York, you need to look no further than Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C.

If you were injured, you would likely experience personal and financial losses like:

• Property damage
• Medical Bills
• Medication and after-care services
• Loss of income & earning ability
• Diminished enjoyment of life
• Pain & Suffering

Parsing out whose actions caused your injuries and losses can be lengthy, costly, and extremely confusing.  Insurance companies and faults are murky waters to navigate on your own.  In New York, you can gain clarity and a timely settlement with the help of the legal experts at Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C.

Our qualified staff will provide you with the expertise and experience necessary to establish your case successfully, the circumstances surrounding it, and a winning outcome encompassing all elements of your claim with consideration for now and in your future.  We specialize in premises and personal injury, and we are prepared to stay the course to win you the compensation you deserve.  Call us today for a free, in-person consultation.

About Daniella Levi & Associates P.C.

After a serious accident, many people are in desperate need of the financial support that comes from a successful result of their injury claim. To ensure you have the best chance at obtaining the compensation you deserve, your lawyer should be just as invested in your case as you are.

At Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C., headquartered in New York City, we believe strongly in upholding the rights of accident victims. We are dedicated advocates for our clients, fighting, and using every available resource, to obtain the compensation they deserve.

Daniella Levi & Associates P.C. has 3 Locations in NYC: Levi Law Queens | Levi Law The Bronx | Levi Law Mineola

Can I Sue the Store?

You park your car, grab your bags, hit the lock button on the key fob, and dash into the store for just a few items, but when you run back out again – hands full – you discover your car has been broken into! What do you do? Who do you call? There aren’t any witnesses around… is it the store’s fault?

Sadly, the answer is more than likely no. Unless the store had prior notice of an unusual number of break-ins in their lot for the time period immediately prior to your car’s damage and they did not take reasonable action in response to them, it is very difficult to hold them responsible. If, however, your vehicle was harmed as a result of the facility’s neglect or misconduct and/or they did not act with the care necessary under these circumstances, you may have a legitimate negligence claim.

Immediately following the discovery of damage or theft from your car in a grocery store parking lot, call 911 and notify store management. Ask to see if they have any security cameras of the area where your car was parked, and scan for witnesses who may have seen something and can provide an eyewitness account of the incident. Take photos of the area and the damage as you discovered it. Ask the store to fill out an incident report and request a copy to provide to the police and to your automobile insurance company. You’ll want to contact them to inquire how they recommend handling the damages, and you’ll want to call the legal professionals at Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C.

We are dedicated advocates for our clients, fighting to get to the truth of what happened and using every available resource to obtain the compensation they deserve. We are proud to provide personal attention through our team of dedicated professionals, aggressive advocacy, open communication, and caring guidance. We understand the fundamentals of automobile insurance, personal loss, and financial challenges that arise following an incident resulting in unexpected damages. We work with you and for you to help you recover that which you deserve.

Seldom does the store readily assume responsibility. Proving negligence on their part can be difficult. Your committed legal specialists at Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C. are uniquely qualified in the state of New York to pursue those at fault for your losses, ensure quality repair to your damaged vehicle, and get you safely back on the road as soon as possible. We will reconstruct and analyze the conditions that led to the damage to your vehicle in order to acquire the maximum compensation for the harm you’ve sustained and any losses from theft you may have incurred. Our mission is to make you – and your vehicle – whole again.

With more than 75 years of combined experience, Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C. have successfully recovered more than $100 million for our valued clientele. We ask nothing of you to take your case, and we never collect anything unless we recover compensation on your behalf. If your car was broken into in a grocery store parking lot, give us a call today.

About Daniella Levi & Associates P.C.

After a serious accident, many people are in desperate need of the financial support that comes from a successful result of their personal injury claim. To ensure that you have the best chance at obtaining the compensation you deserve, your lawyer should be just as invested in your case as you are.

At Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C., headquartered in New York City, we believe strongly in upholding the rights of accident victims. We are dedicated advocates for our clients, fighting, and using every available resource, to obtain the compensation they deserve.

Daniella Levi & Associates P.C. has 3 Locations in NYC: Levi Law Queens | Levi Law The Bronx | Levi Law Mineola

Premises liability in New York deals with unsafe property conditions due to the owner’s lack of maintenance or care, resulting in injury to someone who enters the property. In a premises liability case, such as slip-and-fall, the injured party may need to supply proof that the property owner is liable. The first step involves the injured party proving he or she was legally on the property. The second step in a premises liability claim is proving that the owner failed to fix or block off danger on the property that a reasonable person would recognize.

If someone is injured while legally on someone’s property and the property is dangerous in some way in which the owner is aware but did not warn the guest or fix the problem, the owner is liable. Generally, this is if the owner permitted access to the property. For instance, if an object goes into someone’s yard, which is locked with warnings to stay out, and the owner allows the object’s owner to retrieve it, the property owner is granted entrance. If a dog waits inside the fence and the object’s owner is bitten, the property owner is liable.

If a worker is injured due to dangers on a property known to the owner, the property owner is responsible. If someone trespasses and is unknown to the owner, the owner may not be liable for injuries that the trespasser suffered. The exception to this is if there is a danger on the property that the property owner knows would attract children, such as an unfenced pool.

An attorney could help someone prove that their injury was due to an owner’s negligence by reviewing the circumstances surrounding the incident. The attorney may file a personal injury claim to help the individual recover financial damages from medical care and time lost at work.

What you should know about slip-and-falls

Most people fall at least once in a while. At times, falls happen when a person isn’t paying attention to the environment around them and as a result, they lose their footing. Some falls happen to people who have a medical condition that affects their concentration or balance. Most of the time falls that happen for these reasons do not qualify for slip and fall personal injury insurance claims. However, if the reason for your fall can be directly connected to some mismanagement of property by the property owner, it is possible that you will be able to gain compensation for your injuries.

Deciding Whether Your Fall Is Your Fault

Before you file a personal injury case against a property owner, it is important to go through the details of your accident in order to determine whether you should have reasonably been able to avoid the fall. Slip-and-fall accidents aren’t limited to people who slip on some surface, such as an icy sidewalk or wet floor in a shopping mall. Other causes may include broken floor tiles, uneven sidewalks, potholes, objects on stairs, lighting lower than expected, and more.

Reasonable Expectations

If the accident happened at least partly because of your own carelessness or clumsiness, there is a good chance that the court and/or insurance company will base compensation on a certain level of comparative negligence. People are generally expected to conduct themselves in a way that will mostly keep them safe. If you tripped on an uneven sidewalk and sustained injuries from the fall in part because you were reading text messages on your phone, fault will likely be determined based partly on your own inattention and the property owner responsible for that particular patch of sidewalk. As a person walking, you should reasonably be able to expect the sidewalk to be relatively smooth, but you should also be expected to watch where you are walking.

Rules Of Negligence

Whether a person is eligible to make a claim, basic rules of negligence need to be looked at and the claimant needs to show that the property owner had the power to prevent the accident by being more attentive to the condition of their property. Some things you need to prove are:

• The property owner or manager either knew about a hazard, or should have known, and did not take steps to correct the issue
• The property owner or manager could have prevented the accident, but did not
• Someone else put in a similar situation would likely suffer injuries as well

Framing A Claim Or Lawsuit

If it is determined that a slip-and-fall lawsuit is plausible, the claimant (person who fell) and their attorney need to identify who should be held responsible and prepare their case as to why. While this may be the property owner, it may also be a landlord or business order or an employee or tenant. If you’ve been injured in a slip and fall accident in the New York City area, an experienced Accident Attorney can discuss the circumstances of that accident and help you determine whether pursuing a lawsuit is the best course of action for your situation.

About Daniella Levi & Associates P.C.

After a serious accident, many people are in desperate need of the financial support that comes from a successful result of their personal injury claim. To ensure that you have the best chance at obtaining the compensation you deserve, your lawyer should be just as invested in your case as you are.

At Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C., headquartered in New York City, we believe strongly in upholding the rights of accident victims. We are dedicated advocates for our clients, fighting, and using every available resource, to obtain the compensation they deserve.

Daniella Levi & Associates P.C. has 3 Locations in NYC: Levi Law Queens | Levi Law The Bronx | Levi Law Mineola

I Was Stuck in an Elevator in Queens for Hours! Can I Sue the Business?

A stuck-in-an-elevator lawsuit is possible, and you can sue the elevator manufacturer, the maintenance company, or the building owner for negligence and emotional distress if you were stuck in an elevator. This type of litigation would be considered a personal injury and you may be able to receive compensation for any medical bills, lost income, or emotional stress.

In many elevator lawsuits, the elevator manufacturer, the elevator maintenance company, or the building owner may all be sued for negligent infliction of emotional distress. To win such a claim, victims will have to show:

• Duty — The defendant owed some kind of duty, usually the duty to maintain, to the victim.
• Breach — The defendant failed to do his duty. Usually, this means the manufacturer created a dangerous and unsafe elevator, or the maintenance company failed to make necessary repairs.
• Causation — The elevator’s malfunction caused the victim’s injuries.
• Damages — The victim suffered harm, such as mental distress, and damages.

Usually, the question of damages is the hardest to prove. To get damages for emotional distress, courts often require the distress to be connected to or manifested as some kind of physical injury. So, unless you suffered an injury such as a broken bone when the elevator dropped abruptly, or an ulcer caused by stress and fear, you may not be able to win any compensation.

If the elevator incident resulted in the death of someone, that would typically be covered under a wrongful death claim, and several factors will need to be investigated. Was there someone responsible for the accident that could have been prevented? Was the duty or negligence the responsibility of the business, owner, or manufacturer? These are all different factors than just being stuck for several hours.

We don’t diminish the effect that being trapped in an elevator can have on someone, while some people will consider it a minor inconvenience, there are people who will no doubt suffer a level of stress and anxiety that was brought on by the event. If you can show that being stuck caused mental anguish that was not previously there prior to the time trapped then we may potentially have a case.

It’s important to have documentation of not only your mental state prior but how this had affected you since the time you were stuck. Has this affected your work? Your relationships? How has traveling and visiting businesses been different for you? Do you have anything to help support that you have been unable to effectively cope with the undue mental stress that was placed upon you as a result of the incident where you were stuck in an elevator for hours?

We welcome you to share your experience with us and are dedicated to helping you uncover who is ultimately responsible for the elevator event, how can it have been prevented, and how you can overcome the burden that was placed on you through the ordeal.

If you’re ever injured after being stuck in an elevator, consult an experienced personal injury attorney like Daniella Levi & Associates P.C. for help.

About Daniella Levi & Associates P.C.

After a serious accident, many people are in desperate need of the financial support that comes from a successful result of their personal injury claim. To ensure that you have the best chance at obtaining the compensation you deserve, your lawyer should be just as invested in your case as you are.

At Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C., headquartered in New York City, we believe strongly in upholding the rights of accident victims. We are dedicated advocates for our clients, fighting, and using every available resource, to obtain the compensation they deserve.

Daniella Levi & Associates P.C. has 3 Locations in NYC: Levi Law Queens | Levi Law The Bronx | Levi Law Mineola

Can I Sue the Store? What is The Responsibility of the Store?

Yes, you may be able to sue the owner of the store, however, there are a few things to consider. First, was the attacker an employee of the store or a store patron. Depending on the answer, there would be different things you would need to show to prove that the store owner was negligent and therefore responsible. Having an experienced legal team on your side will be fundamental to your victory in court.

Were you attacked in a store?  Who perpetrated your assault?  Was it a random stranger?  Another customer?  An employee?  This element of your case will be important in determining whether the store had any responsibility in the attack.

Suing the grocery store after getting attacked by someone in it can be a complex endeavor. You will need an experienced personal injury lawyer on your side to prove that the store was negligent in the attack. Contact the legal team of Daniella Levi & Associates.

New York personal injury legal team

If you are attacked in a grocery store in New York, contact the top premise injury lawyer team in New York – Daniella Levi & Associates. You will have an entire firm dedicated to your case. Your legal team will work persistently to secure the maximum compensation for your injuries. Call us today for your free consultation.

At your first visit to our office, you will meet the team you will work with throughout your case.  Together, we will carefully review the details of your case so we can advise you of your rights every step of the way. In addition, we will be in constant communication with you, so you will always know the progress in your case.  We will be available to answer any questions regarding your case when you have them.

We know you want a resolution to your case as soon as possible; we believe it’s best to work proactively rather than reactively.  Our goal is not simply a quick and easy settlement – we won’t rest until we have secured a win for you.