What makes a case winnable is often out of a client’s control. One of the most significant factors determining an outcome is its jurisdiction. The lines on a map that are invisible to us in everyday life can decide whether an injured person receives justice. One such case came through our doors recently. A woman was walking home from work on a rainy day. A piece of sidewalk in her path had a significant chunk missing, and someone had filled in the gap with asphalt. Over time, the asphalt recessed. Filled up with rain, the significantly lower portion of the sidewalk looked level. The client tripped and fell, creating severe scarring on her face that will require plastic surgery. But sidewalk cases can be tricky in New York. Towns have different rules regarding who maintains a sidewalk. For example, some property owners are responsible for clearing snow from public pathways bordering their homes, while others are not. Sidewalk liability can also extend to other forms of sidewalk maintenance. The threshold for holding the government liable when it is responsible for maintenance is incredibly high because protective laws are in place. An attorney will generally need to show someone noticed the defect and provided written notice to the town. Only in those circumstances does the law consider the government negligent if it doesn’t repair the damage. As a result, our client spoke to multiple personal injury attorneys before finding our firm, and each turned her down. Common sense dictated that the sidewalk was in a particular jurisdiction where the government was responsible for sidewalk maintenance. But our client didn’t give up. When she called us, we double-checked the jurisdiction of the faulty sidewalk. The location was not legally in the town the other attorneys thought it was. Thanks to the sidewalk’s actual location, the law shifted responsibility from the government to the property owner. These cases have a significantly lower standard of evidence, requiring only that the property owner should have known about the problem. We were happy to welcome the woman as a client. This story proves how persistence can pay off. While we invite you to make us your first call when searching for effective legal representation if another attorney doesn’t take your case, we urge you to review the matter with us. We will welcome your call, provide an in-depth case analysis and A CRITICAL FACTOR IN MANY PERSONAL INJURY CASES Location, Location, Location
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of people who work out of a home office has tripled between 2019 and 2021. This massive increase is mainly due to the pandemic. Prior to COVID-19, it was widely believed that if workers were not in an office setting, they would slack off while working remotely. However, many people believe that the opposite has proven to be true. In fact, some studies show that many employees working from home are overworked as their personal and professional lives start to blend. When their home is also their office, do they ever really transition out of work mode? Work From Home? Tips to Ensure You Aren’t Overworked
If you have adopted the remote work lifestyle, here are some tips to help ensure that you are not overdoing it.
STICK TO A START AND STOP TIME. In an office setting, employees are instructed when to show up and go home. Some even clock in and out, even for lunch breaks. If you are working from home, maintain regular working hours and avoid the urge to “check just one work thing” outside of your set hours. LOG ALL OVERTIME. On that note, if you do end up working after-hours or more than your slotted hours in the day, record it and “flex” your hours on a different day to balance out the overtime hours. Even if you are just putting in an extra 15 minutes on a Wednesday evening, mark it down — this way, you know just how much extra work you put into a particular task or project. BE VOCAL. If and when you become overwhelmed, it’s important to say something. When employees are outside of a traditional office setting and faces and body language can’t be observed throughout the day, it can be difficult to know when someone has too much on their plate and is on the verge of burning out. To bridge this gap, be vocal about your workload!
advise you as to your options. We will be relentless in our efforts to turn the outlook on your case from a negative to a positive and to win a successful outcome for you as we did for our client who fell on the rain-filled broken sidewalk.
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