William D. Kickham
William D. Kickham
Construction Accident
Car Accident
Nursing Home

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Summer – it’s almost here. That’s when everyone enjoys summer barbecues, lemonade, and pool parties galore in the backyard.

I’ve written in this blog previously that swimming pools bring with them inherent risks. The risks of injury are very high. Depending on the type of swimming pool injury involved, an area of law known as “premises liability” or “product liability” will usually be involved. Whether the pool is an in-ground/built-in, or an above-ground portable pool, as a Boston/Dedham Massachusetts injury lawyer, I can assure you they can be very dangerous – if not fatal. Whatever type of pool is involved, numerous safety and liability prevention measures should be taken by all property owners who have a swimming pool on their premises.

Just last week, a Massachusetts judge upheld a $20 Million verdict that was returned by an Essex County Superior Court jury last fall in a swimming pool product liability case. The jury awarded the sum to the family of a Colorado woman who died after a Toys ‘R Us inflatable pool slide partially collapsed, as she attended a pool party in Andover.

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If you have placed someone that you love in a nursing home, signed a healthcare proxy on their behalf, and later decide you want to sue in court for Massachusetts nursing home abuse , or file a Massachusetts wrongful death suit, this blog post is for you. That’s because many Massachusetts nursing home contracts require the patient or the patient’s representative to submit to binding arbitration (outside of court) in the event of a legal dispute, instead of allowing the plaintiff to file a lawsuit in court, and argue his or her case to a jury. These are known as “binding arbitration clauses.” Are they always valid? No.

A recent court decision in Massachusetts illustrates that in some cases, these binding arbitration clauses in nursing home contracts can be defeated, allowing a plaintiff to bring his or her case in court, to a jury. This is important, because most nursing homes compel you to go to binding arbitration, waiving the right to a jury trial.

Here’s a brief version of the case that defeated such a nursing home binding arbitration clause. A man named Salvatore Licata admitted his mother to a hospital, as she was suffering from Alzheimer’s-type dementia. On the day after the hospital admission, Licata’s mother, Rita, signed a Massachusetts Healthcare Proxy appointing her son as her healthcare agent, with the authority to make all healthcare decisions for her, should a physician determine that she lacked the capacity to do so on her own.

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As a Norfolk County car-pedestrian accident attorney, I can tell you this for sure: while experiencing a Massachusetts car-to-car accident is always awful, there’s something even worse: a Massachusetts car-pedestrian accident. That is when a pedestrian is hit by a two-ton steel vehicle, and that person does not have the benefit of a car seatbelt or airbag to protect him or her.

Any pedestrian who is hit by a car is typically going to undergo serious injuries. Most victims, if they are not killed instantly, wind up with severe cuts and lacerations, broken bones, bleeding and bruising.

Car-pedestrian accidents most frequently occur in streets, parking lots and intersections.

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Here’s even more proof that you need to exercise extreme caution when you drive near any construction vehicles, if you want to avoid a Massachusetts car accident.

If you’ve ever been traveling behind a large trailer that is hauling heavy equipment and feared that the trailer might fall on top of your car, you’re right to be fearful. This past week a backhoe fell off a National Grid truck, crushing a woman to death, injuring three others, and invoking a Massachusetts wrongful death lawsuit alleging negligence.

Here are the reported facts: In 2011, National Grid had apparently replaced its fleet of heavy, 10-wheeled trucks with smaller, six-wheeled trucks. National Grid drivers soon complained that the smaller trucks didn’t have enough power to properly haul heavy equipment. They asserted that the smaller trucks were difficult to stop and control, especially when going down hills. Despite that, a foreman was instructed to test-drive one of the trucks – one towing a huge backhoe – on the day of the accident.

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As a Boston car accident attorney, I’m always saddened to hear about yet another death due to a car accident, especially one that has taken the life of three young people.

Another tragedy happened this past Tuesday morning at approximately 4:30 AM on Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester.

Two young men, and a young woman, all from Neponset, were in an automobile that left the road between two sections of the guardrail, then went up an embankment, before it rolled over and landed on its roof. The three occupants of the car – 19-year-old Samatha Pinson, 19-year old Paul Reagan, and 20-year-old John Carter – were trapped in the car and had to be rescued by the fire department. Paul Reagan and John Carter died at the scene, and Ms. Pinson was later pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.

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Financial compensation produced by a lawsuit can never take the place of a loved one who has died as a result of another party’s negligence.

However, such compensation can, at the very least, provide a measure of justice to the victim’s survivors for the loss of companionship, affection and love that they will inevitably suffer as a result of the victim’s death. A lawsuit alleging Massachusetts wrongful death can arise from a number of different circumstances, ranging from Massachusetts medical malpractice, to Massachusetts motor vehicle accidents, to product liability and more. Another area of law that might give rise to a claim of wrongful death, is the law of Massachusetts premises liability. The law of premises liability governs the civil liability of owners of property, commercial or otherwise, when a lawful visitor to that property is injured or killed due to negligence of the property owner.

A very interesting Boston case involving a claim of wrongful death, is grounded in large measure on the principles of premises liability law. The case is the now-famous criminal case involving the “Craig’s List Killer,” where a woman who was renting a room in the Boston Marriott Copley Place Hotel for prostitution, was allegedly killed by Philip Markoff, who was accused of the killing. Mr. Markoff committed suicide while being held in jail awaiting his trial, and as a result was never convicted in the case. The victim was Julissa Brisman, a 25 year-old prostitute. Ms. Brisman’s mother, Carmen Guzman, recently filed the wrongful death suit in Suffolk Superior Court, naming the Boston Marriott Hotel as defendant.

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Think that your child is safe and secure when tucked away in a warm cozy crib?

Think again.

Baby cribs are a relatively common type of product that is typically subject to recalls, due to defects, along with toys and child car-safety harnesses. Just this week the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall of Rockland Furniture Drop-Side Cribs, manufactured by Nan Far Woodworking Company of Taiwan. They are sold at J.C. Penney. The hazard is that each crib’s drop side can detach, malfunction or otherwise fail, causing part of the drop side to fall out of position. The very serious problem that occurs with this product, is that a space is created in the side of the crib, into which an infant or toddler can roll and become wedged or trapped, which can lead to the child’s suffocation or strangulation.

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Most people that I know, if they were asked about how you could get injured by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA,) would not mention the word “bicycle.” But they’d be wrong. Last week. there was just such an accident – an MBTA-bicycle accident – in downtown Salem, Massachusetts. A Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) bus struck a man riding his bicycle and left him with serious injuries and trauma.

The injured man, Philip Moran, was crossing from Federal Street in Salem to Washington Street. He was struck by a Route 544 bus, whose right front end hit him. Making my point of just how serious such accidents can be, this man is now in critical condition at Massachusetts General Hospital. That should come as no surprise: In a bus-bicycle accident, you’ve got two tons of steel and glass slamming into an unprotected human body, riding something that weighs about two pounds.

As a Boston MBTA accident lawyer, I can tell you that accidents such as this one might have been caused by bad weather conditions or even operator, conductor and driver error, which can include cell phone usage, texting, and even operator intoxication.

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He was known for his Hollywood good looks, his skills as a motorcyclist, and was nothing but a positive force in the Norfolk County Sheriff’s office.

But Deputy Sheriff Ryan Tvelia, 42, was killed in a Walpole motorcycle accident this past Tuesday, on Interstate 95. Mr. Tvelia was in uniform, and was riding his department-issued Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He was enroute to Quincy, to serve in an honor guard at a funeral for the mother of a corrections officer. Mr. Tvelia’s motorcycle collided with one car, and then was also struck by a second car. The Walpole motor vehicle accidents occurred near Exit 11 on Interstate 95.

Mr. Tvelia had worked as a corrections officer, and was part of the transportation unit that transported inmates between the Dedham jail and courthouses.

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Here’s some bad news. If you’ve been injured in a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) accident, due to a bus and trolley crash, slip and fall, escalator mishap, or other accident, and you file a lawsuit against the transit agency, you may soon find that your damage awards may be capped at $100,000.

That’s because the “T” wants to limit its personal injury awards to the same cap of $100,000 that is imposed on similar judgments against other state agencies, towns, and cities. The damages would be capped if a bill, which is now before the Massachusetts Legislature, passes.

This proposed tort reform bill would assure that the T’s liability would be identical to anyone who, say, happened to sue the city of Boston due to getting hit by one of its police cars, for example. If this tort reform measure goes is passed into law, the cash-strapped transit agency claims it would save about $4 million annually. As a Boston MBTA accident lawyer, I highly doubt this claim. This agency, as anyone can see from its current and persistent budget woes, has never managed well any monies it has ever been given.

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