New York City Liability Defense Legal Blog

How to prevent polypharmacy errors

On behalf of The Law firm of Connors & Connors, P.C. posted in pharmacy medication errors defense on Tuesday, May 14, 2019.

As a pharmacy professional in New York, you are fully aware of the care and attention to detail that must be given to your patients. Each person has a unique profile of medications given by physicians, nurses and a host of specialists, tailored to treating a certain condition or ailment. While some medications work better when taken in conjunction with other drugs, some medications can cause serious side effects and potential adverse reactions when taken together. It can be challenging to pick out these interactions, especially when the patient is taking many medications at once. Patients may go to several prescribing doctors and specialists, who may be unaware of what the other doctors are prescribing. In some cases, polypharmacy can lead to serious medication errors, patient harm and even death under certain circumstances.

Polypharmacy occurs when a patient takes multiple medications to treat various conditions, which are often prescribed by multiple doctors. For example, a patient’s primary care physician may prescribe a blood pressure medication. While the patient’s cardiologist may write a prescription for another blood pressure medication. The patient may be taking several medications for the same ailment, which could ultimately react with one another. In this case, it could cause the patient’s blood pressure to go too low and cause the patient to fall or get dizzy.

Class action litigation defense costs continue to rise

On behalf of The Law firm of Connors & Connors, P.C. on Tuesday, May 7, 2019.

The number of companies facing class action lawsuits may be on the decline, but the cost to defend those class action lawsuits is steadily rising. According to an article published on Insurance Journal, the defense cost increases can be attributed to more complex cases that are of higher risk to the business organization. In addition, many of the companies facing class action lawsuits are battling multiple suits at a time.

How data analysis helps smaller trucking companies manage risks.

On behalf of The Law firm of Connors & Connors, P.C. on Wednesday, May 1, 2019.

In the information age, data collection and analytics have affected best practices in every industry. From business decisions at the C-suite to basketball plays drawn up on a white board (or tablet), analytics have changed the way decision makers assess their landscapes. For risk management managers of trucking companies, data collection can be especially important to pre-emptively avoid common roadblocks for their companies.

Smaller and newer trucking companies may doubt the benefits of analytics, believing they do not have the fleet size or the historical data to justify the costs of implementing data collection methods. However, small trucking companies, should also be taking advantage of data analysis to limit accidents, stay compliant to safety standards and gain a competitive advantage.

Common pharmacy errors and how to prevent them

On behalf of The Law firm of Connors & Connors, P.C. posted in pharmacy medication errors defense on Thursday, April 25, 2019.

As someone who makes your living dispensing medication in New York, you probably understand quite well that even the most minor pharmacy errors can have major consequences. At the Law Firm of Connors & Connors, P.C., we recognize that prevention is often your best defense against medication error claims, and we have helped many people in similar positions of responsibility take steps to protect or defend themselves against such claims.

According to the Specialty Pharmacy Times, some of the most common pharmacy errors include prescribing an incorrect medication, prescribing too much or too little of a medication, or failing to give patients the full story in terms of the risks associated with a particular medication. Other common pharmacy mistakes that can land you in serious trouble include selling medications that are unsafe or defective or prescribing a combination of drugs that, together, can cause dangerous side effects.

Reviewing dosage recommendation guidelines

On behalf of The Law firm of Connors & Connors, P.C. posted in pharmacy medication errors defense on Sunday, April 14, 2019.

Most in New York assume that when they take medication prescribed to them by their doctors, their conditions will automatically improve. What is lost in this assumption is that medications are not guaranteed to work, along with the fact that they function by suppressing reactions within the body (which causes side effects). In any event, if you are the one who supplied them with medication, then the blame may be likely to fall to you. Your safeguard against liability is often to simply advise that patients follow the recommended dosage guidelines. Yet many in your same position often come to us here at The Law Firm of Connors & Connors, P.C. asking whose responsible for the validity of those recommendations.

In detailing its establishment of recommended dosages, the Food and Drug Administration points out that when it includes the word "should" in its guidelines, it is implying suggested or recommended standards, not something that is required. Thus, it assumes no legally enforceable responsibilities when setting forth its recommendations.

Defending yourself against fraudulent premises liability claims

On behalf of The Law firm of Connors & Connors, P.C. posted in premises liability defense on Wednesday, March 27, 2019.

These days, most residents of New York have probably seen at least one of those videos where someone intentionally falls so he or she can file a fraudulent premises liability claim, and such claims cost today’s home and business owners a substantial amount of time and money every year. At the Law Firm of Connors & Connors, P.C., we understand that some people regrettably fall on someone else’s property intentionally, and we have helped many people and businesses facing false premises liability claims get the full story on what transpired.

According to Elevanta Health, fraudulent premises liability claims are especially common in New York, which saw more questionable fall claims than any other state in the nation in 2010 and 2011, other than California. Fake slip-and-fall-accident claims also tend to increase during times of economic duress, with some people seeing a potential settlement as their ticket out of financial distress.

What are some common prescription errors?

On behalf of The Law firm of Connors & Connors, P.C. posted in pharmacy medication errors defense on Sunday, March 17, 2019.

Even a minor error when prescribing a drug can have major consequences. Along with prescribing the wrong medication, a doctor or pharmacy might get the dosage wrong or mistake one drug for another. Medscape.com explains some of the most common prescription errors so that patients can plan an active role in their health.

Misread prescriptions

What is the attractive nuisance doctrine?

On behalf of The Law firm of Connors & Connors, P.C. posted in premises liability defense on Sunday, March 3, 2019.

As spring arrives in New York, children start to emerge in greater numbers from their homes and resume those outdoor activities that the cold weather often prevents. With more children outside playing comes the added responsibility for property owners to see to their safety. You may go to great lengths to ensure that the children in the neighborhoods where you live or own property understand if there is anything on those properties that may be a danger to them. Often, however, your warnings may not be enough to extinguish their curiosity.

This prompts the question of what degree of liability can be attributed to you if a child is harmed on your property. Teens and pre-teens may have the comprehension needed to understand whatever written or verbal warnings that you offer to protect them from any dangerous features of your property. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for smaller children. They might be able to read or comprehend warning signs, or the nature of the attraction on your property may prove too enticing to them. For example, if you own construction equipment that is stored on a job site, they may not comprehend the risk that may come from playing on it (or with it).

Understanding staged accidents and injuries

On behalf of The Law firm of Connors & Connors, P.C. posted in trucking and transportation liability defense on Sunday, February 10, 2019.

If you are a commercial truck driver in New York or if you work for a commercial transportation company, you know that other motorists may try to put the responsibility for a crash on you even when you did nothing wrong. It is important for you to know about some of the common scenarios involving staged accidents or other incidents that may result in you being improperly accused of something.

As described by Automotive Fleet magazine, one maneuver known to be implemented when staging an accident is to have a driver accelerate in front of a truck and then stop or slow down suddenly. This is done to force the truck to hit the vehicle from the rear and try to put the onus for the accident on the trucker. Another trick often used by fraudsters is to have a driver wave or otherwise signal the right of way to a trucker. Once the trucker proceeds based on the other driver's signal, that driver then runs into the truck and accuses the trucker of proceeding illegally and thereby causing the crash.

Are you liable for the actions of your drivers?

On behalf of The Law firm of Connors & Connors, P.C. posted in trucking and transportation liability defense on Sunday, February 3, 2019.

As a business owner in New York, you likely understand that you will often be viewed as being responsible for the actions of your employees. The nature of certain professions may ensure that the potential for it practitioners to cause extensive damage is limited. Yet if you work in the trucking or transportation injuries, then negligent actions on the part of your employees could potentially be catastrophic. The question then becomes in what scenarios would you be liable for it.

According to the Cornell Law School, the legal principle of respondeat superior allows employers to be held responsible for the actions of their employees. Such third-party liability is conditional, however. Your employee must be acting within the scope of his or her employment in order for you to be liable. Indeed, the New York Supreme Court has established the test of applying to respondeat superior to a case the be when "the tortious conduct is generally foreseeable and a natural incident of the employment."