Toms River New Jersey Personal Injury Blog

How serious is whiplash?

On behalf of Rosenberg, Kirby, Cahill, Stankowitz & Richardson posted in Personal Injury on Wednesday, October 2, 2019.

If you are like a lot of people who live in New Jersey, you have heard others talk about whiplash injuries. Most of the time, conversations about whiplash arise after a car accident or when the topic of a car accident comes up. Whiplash is often thought of as a common and even a minor injury. This mindset may lead to some people being a bit dismissive about any symptoms that they associate with whiplash. It is important to understand whiplash so that it can be properly addressed.

As explained by WebMD, not every whiplash injury is something that just will magically clear up in a couple of days. Some people end up experiencing chronic and even life-long problems after incurring whiplash. Vehicle crashes are the most common cause of whiplash, especially wrecks that involve a person's vehicle being hit by another vehicle from the rear.

Workers' compensation can be claimed when an injury has worsened

On behalf of Rosenberg, Kirby, Cahill, Stankowitz & Richardson on Thursday, September 19, 2019.

Many people have issues such as back pain, muscle problems or trapped nerves that can flare up after certain activities. While these injuries may have been a frequent cause of pain for some time, your work activities may have caused the condition to worsen or to become more painful. As a result, you may need to seek medical attention or take time off of work to recover.

Since you will suffer financially as a result of not working or gaining medical assistance, you may consider filing for workers' compensation. However, you may be slightly cautious to do so, because the injury existed before you even started working for your current employer. It is, in fact, possible to file workers' compensation for the aggravation of pre-existing conditions through your working activities, but the process may encounter some challenges. The following are some tips for filing for workers' compensation for a pre-existing injury.

Report ranks New Jersey's driving laws

On behalf of Rosenberg, Kirby, Cahill, Stankowitz & Richardson posted in Motor Vehicle Accidents on Wednesday, September 18, 2019.

People who live in New Jersey should be able to trust that their state does as much as possible to keep its residents safe. This can include many things and parts of life, such as enacting laws to ensure that drivers, passengers, pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists are safe on area roads and highways. Every driver has the ability to make their own choices about how to operate a vehicle but the presence of laws and penalties for reckless or unsafe operation may help guide wise decisions.

A recent report by NJ1015.com provided some insights into the results of a study that took a look at the driving laws in each state across the nation. The study was conducted by the Governor's Highway Safety Administration. There were some areas in which New Jersey ranked very well in terms of protecting its residents. Other laws were found to be somewhat lacking in strength.

Understanding work-related asthma

On behalf of Rosenberg, Kirby, Cahill, Stankowitz & Richardson posted in Workers' Compensation on Monday, September 2, 2019.

Many people in New Jersey have jobs in which they are exposed to a variety of substances that may be harmful to their health. Employers are supposed to follow standards designed to avoid or minimize unhealthy exposure to keep workers safe yet this may not always happen. One condition that is of concern is work-related asthma. You may develop this illness due to exposure at work. Even if you had asthma before beginning a job, you might have work-related asthma if your symptoms worsen while at work.

According to the New Jersey Work-Related Asthma Surveillance, more than 650 people have contracted work-related asthma in the state since 1993. More than half of those people never had asthma previously. In addition, more than half of the people with work-related asthma were in their 40s or younger. The New Jersey Adult Asthma Call-Back Survey estimated the real number of work-related cases to be above 54,000. This disparity is concerning indeed.

Motorcycle fatalities in New Jersey

On behalf of Rosenberg, Kirby, Cahill, Stankowitz & Richardson posted in Motor Vehicle Accidents on Saturday, August 17, 2019.

If you or a member of your family loves to ride on a motorcycle, it is important that you remain aware of the unique risks associated with riding on two wheels. While a motorcycle offers an unparalleled experience and a great ability to enjoy the lovely New Jersey outdoors, it does not come without some potential dangers. The inherent lack of protection around a biker makes every accident potentially devastating. Opening car doors, car blind spots, poorly maintained roadways and more are just some of the things riders have to contend with.

Records from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that the number of motorcyclist fatalities across the state has increased from 2013 to 2017. In 2013, there were 56 recorded biker deaths. That increased to 62 the next year. Fortunately, 2015 saw a dip down to 50 deaths but that was tragically followed by two significant increases. First, in 2016, New Jersey lost 71 motorcyclists on its roads and highways. Then, in 2017, biker fatalities in the Garden State totaled 83.

Can you tell how severe a brain injury truly is?

On behalf of Rosenberg, Kirby, Cahill, Stankowitz & Richardson posted in Personal Injury on Monday, August 12, 2019.

In the immediate aftermath of your loved one suffering a traumatic brain injury in Toms River, you may assume that they will require significant around-the-clock care for the rest of their lives. Such knowledge might certainly influence your decision to seek legal action following such an incident. Yet not all TBI’s will leave one needing extensive care. How can you know what your family member or friend’s prognosis may be so soon after their injury.

There may indeed be a way of estimating this, thanks to a clinical test known as the Glasgow Coma Scale. A TBI will affect certain functions whose impairment is immediately noticeable, and such observations might serve as indicators of how extensive an injury is. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the indicators used in this test include how your loved one responds to external stimuli, how well they can verbally communicate, and how visually responsive they are.

Massive devastation follows Medford accident

On behalf of Rosenberg, Kirby, Cahill, Stankowitz & Richardson posted in Motor Vehicle Accidents on Monday, July 29, 2019.

No one in Toms River ever anticipates being involved in a car accident, yet given the number of vehicles on the road, the possibility is ever present. If and when an accident does occur, most might hope for a minor "fender-bender" that causes minimal damages to a vehicle and no serious injuries. Sadly, people cannot pick and choose what the results of the auto accidents they are involved in will be. Often, the damage (both to oneself and their vehicle) is catastrophic, leaving them to have to deal with enormous financial costs.

Such may be the result of a collision between a dump truck and an SUV in Medford. The exact circumstances of the accident were not reported (nor was who might have been at fault), yet witnesses say that the resulting damage to both vehicles was extensive. Following the collision, the dump truck caught fire (yet fire officials were able to quickly contain the blaze). One of the SUV's occupants had to be extracted by rescue personnel and taken to a local hospital by ambulance. Yet despite the devastation that the accident caused, no one else was reported to be seriously injured.

Who's responsible for denying your New Jersey workers' comp claim

On behalf of Rosenberg, Kirby, Cahill, Stankowitz & Richardson on Wednesday, July 24, 2019.

As a working adult, you are probably aware that you have the right to seek workers' compensation benefits in the event that you get hurt on the job. You probably assume that filing for benefits is a mere formality to connecting with the medical benefits and wage replacement you need to make it through your recovery time as an injured worker.

Sadly, a portion of the people who seek workers' compensation benefits every year will wind up receiving a denial instead of an approval, even if they have an injury or illness directly connected to their employment. If you are one of those people, you will likely find yourself wondering who denied your workers' compensation claim and what you can do about it.

Detailing product recall classifications

On behalf of Rosenberg, Kirby, Cahill, Stankowitz & Richardson posted in Personal Injury on Monday, July 15, 2019.

News of product recalls can easily send people in Toms River into a panic, particular when those recalls involve products such as food items or medications. The common school of thought is that if an item is being recalled, it is extremely dangerous and those that have used or consumed it are at risk of serious injury (or worse). Yet many may be surprised at just how common recalls can be (indeed, per information shared by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, 9199 products were recalled by that agency in 2017 alone). Understanding the details of a product recall might help people avoid suffering undue stress from it.

The FDA breaks down product recalls into three classifications according to their severity. These are:

Classification I: Products whose use or exposure to presents a reasonable possibility of serious adverse health consequences or death
Classification II: Products for which the probability of serious injury or death from their use or exposure is remote, but for which the possibility of users experiencing temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences is present
Classification III: Products whose use or exposure to is unlikely to result in any adverse health consequences

Detailing a survival action

On behalf of Rosenberg, Kirby, Cahill, Stankowitz & Richardson posted in Personal Injury on Monday, July 1, 2019.

If you have a family member or friend in Tom's River who may have reason to initiate legal action against another, your advice to them would likely be to not wait to do so. After all, one never knows what tomorrow may bring, and if said family member or friend dies before bringing action, then the opportunity to do so would be lost. That is the opinion held by many who come to see us here at Rosenberg Kirby Cahill Stankowitz & Richardson. Like the, however, you may be surprised to learn that is not the case.

Section 2A.15-3 of New Jersey's state statutes says that any cause of action that your loved one may have had during their life survives their death. This allows you (if you are the executor or administrator of their estate) to bring action against the party that trespassed against them in their stead. If any injuries that resulted from the negligent action being argued in your lawsuit were the cause of your loved one's death, their estate can also be rewarded funds to cover the cost of their funeral and compensate them for their pain and suffering.