5 Common Scenarios in New York City That Cause Lawsuits

New York City, the Big Apple, sees plenty of lawsuits. They work their way through the court system the same as in any other major city. However, you may find that if you look at some of these lawsuits, you will notice they have some commonalities.

We will look at some of the most common ones right now. If you decide to sue someone in New York, maybe your case will fall into one of these categories.

Drunk Driving Cases 

You might sometimes see an unusual court case in New York civil court. For instance, maybe you contact a lawyer because you need help understanding whether minors have standing to sue. However, drunk driving cases happen much more often.

Nearly every driver knows you shouldn’t drink alcohol and then get behind the wheel. However, that does not stop everyone from doing it. 

Some individuals feel that if they’re an experienced driver, and they have never caused an accident, then they can drink till they’re over the legal limit and they don’t pose any danger. However, that’s not true. Even the most careful drivers can cause accidents, and if you’re over the legal limit of alcohol consumption, you should designate a driver or call for an Uber.

If a drunk driver strikes another vehicle and injures someone, or if they hit a cyclist or a pedestrian, that might very well cause a lawsuit. You see such cases in New York civil court all the time. 

Medical Malpractice Cases

New York City has some of the nation’s largest and busiest hospitals. They might deal with injuries from traffic accidents, gunshot wounds, heart attack victims, or just about anything else. 

Doctors and other medical professionals who work in New York City hospitals must move quickly when someone appears in the emergency room with a potentially life-threatening injury or illness. If a doctor or medical professional makes a serious mistake, though, they might find themselves facing a medical malpractice case.

A doctor might operate on the wrong body part by accident if they’re not paying close enough attention. A nurse might administer the wrong medication. 

If something like that happens, then the doctor, nurse, or orderly will probably end up in court. A medical malpractice lawsuit might cause them to lose their job or license. 

In the medical field, a patient should expect what the courts call the standard of care. If a patient doesn’t get that, then it’s highly likely that the doctor or other medical professional the plaintiff sued will win their case or collect a settlement offer.   

Product Liability Lawsuits

Product liability lawsuits also occur often in New York City courtrooms. Think about all of the products that you might find on store shelves in the Big Apple. The average hardware store will have thousands of products. It’s the same with a grocery store, a toy store, or any other brick-and-mortar store location.

When you buy any one of those products, you hope that it’s safe and does exactly what the directions on the package say. However, you might have a product from time to time that injures a consumer or makes them ill.

If that happens, then you can potentially sue the manufacturer. You might collect a large payout, particularly if the product you bought injured you severely or even permanently. 

Companies should test each of their products thoroughly before they ship and stock them in stores. However, you might have a company occasionally that did not test their products very well. Maybe they tried to get those products into stores quickly, so they rushed their tests or did not even do them.

If so, you should get financial compensation for that. Companies must learn to respect their customers. If that requires a lawsuit sometimes, then so be it. 

Dog Bite Cases

You will find thousands of dogs in New York City. If you go to Central Park on a nice day, you might see them going on walks with their owners. Others might even run around unrestrained by leashes. 

If you encounter a friendly dog while you’re out and about in New York, then that’s fine. But what if you encounter a dangerous or ill-tempered dog that bites you? 

If so, then you might try to locate the owner. You have little recourse if a stray dog bites you than to get a rabies shot and call animal control. If you can locate a vicious dog’s owner, though, and you can establish their dog bit you, then you might collect some money via a civil case.

Dog owners need to keep their dogs on leashes, especially in a densely populated city like New York. Even if you’re a dog lover, you will probably feel that you should get financial compensation if someone’s pet injures you due to the owner’s negligence or inattention. 

Premises Liability Lawsuits 

You might also injure yourself while in a store in New York City. Maybe you’ll have the classic slip-and-fall injury case. If an employee mops the floor and then doesn’t put up a wet floor sign, and you slip and hurt yourself, then you can potentially sue the property owner.

These cases also happen fairly often. Premises liability goes beyond slip-and-fall cases, though. You might have a situation where you walked by a store display and something fell from it and hit you. If anything happens to you in a store or some other locale, and you can point to structural instability or a similar factor, then that falls into the premises liability lawsuit category. 

No matter which of these situations occurs, you will need to find yourself a skilled lawyer if you hope to win your lawsuit. In New York City, you should have no trouble locating many attorneys, all of whom might have an interest in your case. 

Try to pick one with an excellent track record. You also want to go with one who has won many cases similar to yours.

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