Zoltan Hersch, a double amputee from Brooklyn was dubbed ‘hell on wheels’ by the New York Post after filing 87 federal lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act in 2011. He returned this month to continue his suing spree, with a lawsuit against a New York City Ralph Lauren.

See report which reviews their political spending here. 

“This drive-by serial litigation that we see with ADA lawsuit abuse is despicable, often forcing small businesses to close their doors,” said Tom Stebbins, Executive Director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York.  Stebbins cited a recent case in Brooklyn where a personal injury lawyer sued a restaurant for a non-compliant bathroom, even though the restaurant had no bathroom at all. The lawyer could not even produce his client – evidence, says Stebbins, that these lawsuits are designed to benefit trial lawyers, not the person with a disability.

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An excerpt:

“Editor:

In his recent commentary, “Malpractice reform will help us all” on Aug. 5, Dr. Dow elucidated the problems plaguing our medical liability system as only one with first-hand experience could.

In our notoriously litigious country, New York bears the dubious distinction of being the worst of the worst. According to the most recent data, New York’s per capita medical malpractice payouts are the highest in the nation by an astounding margin — more than three times the national average, and almost double that of the next highest state. Our state now accounts for 20 percent of all payouts in the nation.”

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]]> https://nylawsuitreform.org/2014/08/glens-falls-post-star-medical-premiums-hurt-by-lawsuits/feed/ 0 https://nylawsuitreform.org/2014/08/statement-from-lrany-executive-director-regarding-the-rockefeller-institutes-scaffold-law-study/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=statement-from-lrany-executive-director-regarding-the-rockefeller-institutes-scaffold-law-study https://nylawsuitreform.org/2014/08/statement-from-lrany-executive-director-regarding-the-rockefeller-institutes-scaffold-law-study/#comments Mon, 11 Aug 2014 15:47:32 +0000 https://nylawsuitreform.org/?p=6942 A statement in response to the Times Union article regarding the Rockefeller Institute’s Scaffold Law Study.

“Facts are facts – and the facts show that the Scaffold Law causes injuries and costs millions – likely billions – in public infrastructure dollars. All of this data is publicly available and publicly verifiable. Those who oppose Scaffold Law reform offer no data that supports their position, because that data does not exist – so they instead attack the researchers.

In addition to the Rockefeller Institute study, several public institutions, including the Port Authority and School Construction Authority (SCA), have publicly disclosed hundreds of millions in costs related to Scaffold Law. Thousands of New York City school kids are forced to attend class in trailers adjacent to their overcrowded schools because the SCA simply cannot afford the insurance necessary to finance new construction due to the outdated, only-in-New-York anachronism that is the Scaffold Law.

It is clear that the special interests who profit from the 130-year old relic will stop at nothing to preserve the status quo, regardless of the collateral damage.”

Tom Stebbins
Executive Director
Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York 

The Martin Act was established in Albany in 1921, it granted the Attorney General broad powers to investigate and pursue alleged wrongdoing associated with the purchase and sale of securities. The Martin Act is one of the toughest securities laws in the nation as these powers of the AG are so extraordinary that this act does not require any elements of proof.

An excerpt:

“In an argument in favor of New York’s notorious scaffold law, a letter writer says his accident proves the law is necessary ["Scaffold law still much needed," July 18]. If anything, accidents like his show why the law needs to be fixed.

The scaffold law holds contractors and property owners 100 percent liable, even if they were only 1 percent at fault. My organization, and many others — including the New York State School Boards Association, Habitat for Humanity and the New York State Conference of Mayors — seek to reform the law to make liability proportional to fault. This is how it is done in every other state and every other aspect of our civil justice system.”

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This week, the Times Union reported a story about our alleged influence on a study conducted by the Rockefeller Institute at the University at Albany and Cornell University on the cost of the Scaffold Law. In an effort to discredit the study, the Labor-backed Center for Popular Democracy filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to get my emails with the researchers.

It backfired. In those emails, I clearly state “This is not a lobbying document. Your goal is to assess the problem.” Further, when the researchers came to the conclusion that the Scaffold Law causes injuries, I questioned the hypothesis, and suggested that the data did not indicate why the Scaffold Law causes injuries, only that it does: “As of now, it seems that the data confirms the presence of the scaffold law increases injuries, but I don’t think we have any data to show the reason why.”

Opponents of reform are obviously terrified by the fact that the Scaffold Law causes injuries. Rather than working with reformers to fix this law, enemies of this past due reform are simply attacking the messenger — or in this case, messengers, which included top researchers at two renowned universities.

The data speaks for itself. If the trial lawyers or labor had data that shows that the Scaffold Law improves safety, or costs less than the billions estimated by the Rockefeller Institute and Cornell, they would have released it. They don’t have that data, because it doesn’t exist.

We hope that they, the governor, and the legislature realize that we can no longer be the only state in the nation that has a law that costs billions and causes injuries.

You can read the complete story here.

An Excerpt:

“Re July 4 editorial ["Big money follows the powerful"]: Kudos to the Daily Gazette editorial team for exposing the potential corruption behind Speaker Sheldon Silver’s questionable salary from Weitz & Luxenberg. While Speaker Silver is undoubtedly the major player preventing common-sense reforms to our civil justice system, it is not costing New Yorkers $100 million annually. In fact, the tab is running much higher.

The Institute for Legal Reform estimates that the state of New York could save up to $4.3 billion in tort costs and create between 74,000 and 201,000 new jobs by improving its legal environment. And according to a study by the Rockefeller Institute at the University at Albany, our state’s failure to reform the “Scaffold Law” alone is costing taxpayers $785 million in public costs every year.”

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