Boston Injury Lawyer Blog

Sitting in Boston, the Massachusetts Senate passed a safe driving legislative package that bans texting while driving, requires elderly drivers to submit to license testing, and prohibits junior operators from both texting and talking on a cell phone while driving. The attorneys at the Law Office of Neil Burns have represented hundreds of plaintiffs injured as a result of unsafe driving.
The State Senate's legislation makes texting a primary offense, which means a driver can be pulled over specifically for texting while driving. It also establishes a fine of up to $200, two years in jail, or both for anyone who causes an accident while texting and driving.

The bill also prohibits "junior operators," or those under the age of 18, from both texting and talking on a cell phone while driving; and operators of public transit, including the Massachusetts Bus and Transit Authority and school buses - are prohibited from any use of cell phones, except in the case of an emergency.

Continue reading "Massachusetts Passes Safe Driver Legislation " »

In the Boston suburb of Plymouth, Massachusetts the overheating of a Law Office of Neil Burns. You can keep safe by following and staying up to date on recent product recalls: Product Recalls.

The laptop in question was later recalled by Hewlett-Packard, but this recall came too late for Mr. Norrie. Mr. Norrie's lawyers have now filed a products liability lawsuit against the laptop-maker, and are seeking more than $225,000 in damages. The suit, first filed in Plymouth Superior Court, was transferred to US District Court in Boston. According to court papers, the laptop - a gift Norrie received six months before the fire - was defective.

Since 2005, Hewlett-Packard has announced recalls of its lithium-ion batteries four times in conjunction with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and other regulators. Customers affected by the recalls were able to receive replacement batteries at no charge.
In recent years, other computer makers, including Dell and Compaq, have also recalled millions of lithium-ion batteries because they were prone to overheating and posed a fire hazard. In 2006, Apple Inc.recalled 1.8 million battery packs because of the same issue.

The problems with computer batteries have led to several deaths. For instance, a 56-year-old Vancouver man was killed last August when his Hewlett-Packard laptop burst into flames on a couch. Care should be taken with laptop's and the advise often given is that these devices should not be left on soft furniture because the material can block air vents and cause overheating.

The Boston Municipal Court, and all Massachusetts District and Housing Courts have implemented important changes to small-claims procedure effective October 1, 2009. The Law Office of Neil Burns knows the importance of keeping up to date with rules, practices and procedures. These changes create new burdens and, in some instances, pose dangers for small-claims plaintiffs.

The small-claims procedural changes were intended to give more protection to small-claims defendants. They include requiring plaintiffs (1) in all small-claims cases to provide more information in the initial small-claims Statement of Small Claim form and (2) in small-claims debt collection cases to provide details about the debt and to file a new additional form. Thus, in all small-claims cases, plaintiffs must now list "any amounts sought for damages, for multiple damages or statutory penalties, for attorneys' fees and for costs, as well as the total amount being sought, exclusive of any prejudgment interest being sought from the court pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 231, Sections 6B or 6C." Rule 2(a), Uniform Small Claims Rules.

There have also been changes regarding debt collection cases, specifically: (1) cases in which the plaintiff is "pursuing a claim incurred in the course of plaintiff's trade or commerce" (with those terms having the same meaning as in the consumer protection law, Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 93A, §1) and (2) cases in which the plaintiff is "pursuing a claim for assigned debt," i.e., where the plaintiff's right to collect the debt has been obtained by assignment. Rule 2(b), Uniform Small Claims Rules.

If you are being sued in Small Claims Court, then as the defendant, the new rules provide additional ways to defend your claim, and also provide possible grounds for dismissal or for other relief. A helpful guide to Small Claims Court procedure can be found online.

Boston Attorney Neil Burns has practiced law in Massachusetts for over 24 years. He is dedicated to providing effective legal information to the Boston, Massachusetts community.

Boston and all Massachusetts drivers will continue to see managed auto insurance competition in the state. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of the Massachusetts Division of Insurance's decision to temporarily exempt auto insurance companies that are new to the Bay State from having to cover high-risk motorists. The Massachusetts Division of Insurance recently allowed managed competition as a way to allow auto insurer companies to compete for good drivers, giving consumer more choices than ever before. The argument is that competition results in better rates for better drivers across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Law Office of Neil Burns wants to inform Massachusetts residents that they should now compare auto insurance rates before buying or renewing their auto insurance policy.

The Supreme Judicial Court's ruling was the result of a 2008 lawsuit filed by Arbella Mutual Insurance challenging the fact that national insurance companies that are new to the Massachusetts insurance market did not have to cover high-risk drivers for two years. Arbella argued that exemption put Massachusetts insurers like Arbella at a disadvantage, because they are required to insure high-risk motorists and split the losses, based on their market shares in the state. The court ruled that although the new companies don't incur the losses of insuring bad drivers, they contribute administrative costs to the Massachusetts Automobile Insurance Plan, which provides insurance for high-risk drivers. In effect, the Court said that that was good enough to allow the exemption to stand.

Continue reading "New Massachusetts Insurers Avoid High Risk Drivers " »

In the Boston suburb of Plainville, Massachusetts, a mother recently filed a lawsuit following the death of her teenage daughter. There are serious risks associated with underage drinking. The Law Office of Neil Burns is dedicated to keeping our children safe, and in zealously representing families whose child suffers injury or death.

The deceased teen, Taylor Meyer, was a senior at King Philip Regional High School in Wrentham, Massachusetts, when she drowned in a local swamp. It was later discovered she had attended at least three parties the night of Oct. 17, 2008, resulting in her severe intoxication. Taylor Meyer's mother is suing 2 adults and 5 young people for the wrongful death of her child, claiming they provided her with alcohol.

Continue reading "Injuries to Children in Massachusetts and Boston's Suburbs" »

Massachusetts and the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security located in Boston, recently announced the third annual "Dance. Don't Chance." video contest, and is encouraging all Massachusetts juniors and seniors to participate. In representing children injured in automobile accidents, The Law Office of Neil Burns is encouraged that Massachusetts continues to promote childhood safety. Contestants are asked to write and produce one-minute videos that promote safe driving by discouraging speeding, drag racing, distracted driving (such as texting or iPod use) and underage drinking.

According to the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, teenagers aged 16 to 19 account for a disproportionate number of motor vehicle fatalities, and the months of May and June, during prom season, show ever higher crash and injury rates in Massachusetts. According to the Center for Disease Control, teenagers are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as all other drivers.

Continue reading "Massachusetts Holding Public Safety Student Video Contest" »

On highways outside of Boston and Route 128, Massachusetts raised the posted speed limit to 65 miles per hour. This was a result of legislation passed in 1995 whereby Congress allowed Massachusetts and other states to raise the posted speed limit. The Law Office of Neil Burns has represented hundreds of individuals injured as a result of speeding vehicles. Massachusetts raised the posted speed limit to 65 mph first on the Massachusetts Turnpike. President Richard M. Nixon established a 55 mph national speed limit on highways during the oil crisis in the 1970s to reduce the country's reliance on imported crude oil. He signed the legislation on Jan. 2, 1974. Thus, some 20 years later, states were then able to set their own speed limits.

Fifteen years after the national speed limit was repealed, some believe going slower on highways is a way to conserve energy and fuel consumption, and remain safer on the roadways. Meanwhile, others maintain that increasing the speed limit has not increased speed-related crashes and does not conserve energy. According to a 2008 study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, of the 34,017 fatal crashes in 2008, 6,908 were reported at speed limits at 60 mph or higher, and 9,794 at 55 mph. In Massachusetts, the number of traffic fatalities went down 16 percent in 2008, from 434 in 2007 to 363. Of that number, there were seven speed-related fatalities reported on interstates with speed limits above, at or below 55 mph. The highest number of speed-related fatalities -- 30 -- were reported at speeds of less than 35 mph.

Continue reading "Massachusetts Speed Limits and Traffic Safety" »

The New Year brought good news to Boston and Massachusetts residents. The Massachusetts state fire marshal says 35 people were killed by fire in Massachusetts last year, the lowest number in nearly seven decades. As Massachusetts attorneys, we have represented victims of fire in wrongful death cases and serious burn cases.

Massachusetts State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan attributed the low number to a variety of factors, including the widespread use of smoke detectors; fire-safe cigarette laws; public education campaigns that also target children; better training of firefighters and paramedics; and better burn treatment at hospitals. Coan said smoke detectors are the first ingredient in home fire safety. Also important is holding home fire drills so everyone knows how to leave safely, he said.

Coan's office says 17 men, 13 women, and five children died in residential, car and outdoor fires in 2009. That was down from 49 in 2008, and the lowest number since the early 1940s. Coan said smoking remains the leading cause of fire deaths. The number of smoking-related fire fatalities dropped from 17 in 2007 to eight in 2009.

Remarkably, Boston, the largest city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, reported no fire-related deaths in 2009, the fire marshal's office reported. There were four in Springfield, the state's third-largest city, and one in Worcester, the second-largest city. In addition, there were no fire-related deaths of firefighters in 2009, Coan said.

The U.S. Fire Safety Administration says Massachusetts has one of the lowest fire death rates in the nation. We remain dedicated to keeping our clients informed of any and all safety information.

Safety Insurance Group, Inc., a leading Boston based writer of personal automobile insurance in Massachusetts, recently announced that it has reached an agreement with the Massachusetts Attorney General's office to change the way in which it calculated motorcycle insurance premiums for certain types of coverage dating back to January 1, 2002. Wherefore, our clients and all Massachusetts residents who own and insure their motorcycles in the Commonwealth may be getting a refund.

Policyholders whose premiums would have been greater under the method agreed with the Attorney General will not be billed for additional premiums. Policyholders who would have been charged less will receive a refund in exchange for a release of any claims they might have against Safety related to the premium calculations.

According to Safety's outside counsel, Peter Rice, "Although we disagreed with the Attorney General on a number of points, we believe that after extensive discussions Safety has arrived at a resolution of the issue and an agreement with the Attorney General's office that provides for the best interests of Safety's policyholders. Safety had followed standard practices generally used by many Massachusetts insurance companies to calculate appropriate premiums for motorcycle coverages. It cooperated fully with the Attorney General's review of those industry-wide practices and participated in the development of the new method."

Safety is working with the Attorney General's office to identify the policies on which refunds will be issued and the amount of the refunds to each individual policyholder. Safety will notify policyholders of the amount of any refunds offered and, upon receipt of the appropriate releases from the policyholders, intends to issue the refund checks in August 2010.

If you have any questions regarding your right to a refund and how the refunds are calculated, contact your insurance agent. At the Law Office of Neil Burns, we are committed to insuring our clients remained informed regarding insurance policies and practices whereby the consumer's best interest may have been jeopardized.

Choose a qualified lawyer if you have been injured as the result of the negligence of a landlord, restaurant, parking lot owner and other private business owner. These cases include slip and fall injuries, burn injuries, and many other type of injuries our clients are the victims of.

Attorney Neil Burns has represented families and loved ones who are victims as a result of negligent maintenance of premises for decades. Massachusetts law protects victims who are injured as a result of accidents caused by the negligence of land and business owners: especially when they knew or should have know about the condition causing the injury.

Often our clients need to recover damages for pain and suffering, loss of earning capacity, hospital and medical bills, and emotional losses.

We are experienced in working with clients who have suffered injuries from a host of accident sites - buildings where they live or work, stores where they shop, inadequate security, and falling products. We work aggressively to gather information and fight the insurance companies who often blame the victim.

Slip and fall victims in Massachusetts are the beneficiary of new law. Massachusetts has adopted a new standard regarding premises liability law with regard to grocery stores, for example, and other self-service retailers. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, the state's highest court, sitting in Boston, Massachusetts, decided Sheehan v. Roche Brothers Supermarkets, Inc., which lightens the victim's burden of proof in slip and fall cases.

In Sheehan, the plaintiff slipped on a grape inside a supermarket sustaining significant injuries that required a month of hospitalization. In reversing a decision for the defendant, the Supreme Judicial Court adopted a new approach to premises liability. Previously, Massachusetts followed the traditional approach for premises liability cases. That is, a store owner simply had to "maintain its property in a reasonably safe condition in view of all of the circumstances, including the likelihood of injury to others, the seriousness of the injury, and the burden of avoiding the risk." Thus, a store owner could only be held liable for an injury if the store owner knew or should of known of the dangerous condition and had sufficient time to fix the condition.

In deciding against this approach, however, the Court stated that stores had changed the way they do business from individualized clerk-assisted retail stores to self-service retailers. Due to this change, the Court stated that focus should be on the reasonable foreseeability of a patron's carelessness. Consequently, where a store's chosen mode of operation makes it reasonably foreseeable that a dangerous condition will occur, a store owner may be held liable for injuries if the plaintiff proves that the store owner failed to take reasonable precautions necessary to protect him or her from the foreseeable dangerous condition.

Thus, in order to prove a claim the plaintiff must do the following: (1) show the injury was attributable to a reasonably foreseeable dangerous condition on the owner's premises that is related to the owner's self-service mode of operation; (2) show the owner failed to take reasonable measures, commensurate with the risk involved, to prevent the injury; and (3) persuade a jury that the owner acted unreasonably. At the Law Office of Neil Burns, we represent clients injured in slip and fall accidents and are dedicated to protecting their rights.

In 2008, Boston, Massachusetts was the twenty-first largest city in the United States. We have seen our share of this in our personal injury practice. Because Boston is such a large city, a number of pedestrian accidents happen each year. In fact, more than 5,000 pedestrians die each year in the United States because they are hit by motor vehicles or bicycles.

To be safe when sharing sidewalks and streets, it's important to be aware of your surroundings. By taking simple precautions, you can prevent injuries and possible death. Three of the most common accidents involving vehicles and pedestrians are caused when pedestrians make the following mistakes:

Continue reading "Avoiding Pedestrian Injuries in Massachusetts" »

Our blog normally does not comment on pending legislation and the political process, however, the bill passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives in Boston on February 4, 2010, would make it safer for drivers. Period. We would be the seventh state to outlaw the use of cell phones without a hands free device. Thus, drivers would be able to keeps their hands on the wheel and their attention on the road.

While the bill now faces the Massachusetts Senate, and the various lobbyists for and against the proposed law will present their focus there. For example, the AARP will oppose the portion of the bill that imposes a greater penalty on younger and older drivers; the bill imposes a fine of $100 for the first offense on all drivers; however, drivers under 18 who violate the law would have their licenses suspended. The proposed legislation also allows insurance companies to impose surcharges on violators. We would submit to the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys as to how to respond to new powers to the local insurance industry.

Notwithstanding the process, we would urge our readers and our legislators to hammer out any problems and pass a law that makes our roads safer for all of us.

Under new Department of Transportation regulations, truckers in Massachusetts may not use any device to text message others while operating commercial vehicles. This new federal regulation has come about (not because of common sense, as you would think) but as a result of numerous fatal accidents. The most notorious offense was when two Washington, D.C Metro workers were struck and killed by a maintenance truck, the driver of which was found to be texting; other collisions occur with distractions as well. Fines can be imposed up to $2,750 for truck drivers caught texting. The DOT noted a study that found that while texting, drivers remove their eyes from the road for 4.6 seconds out of 6 seconds.

This follows an Executive Order of October 1, 2009 stating that federal employees "shall not engage in text messaging" when driving. The Order applies to all civilian federal employees. The law existed in California since January 1, 2009.

The new law, however, is broader, as it applies to all citizens, public and private. The DOT has ample research on texting and other driver distraction issues for public use.

I have been representing children who are victims of personal injury in Boston, and throughout Massachusetts, since 1985. Each case is different, however, we have drafted this column for general reference for our clients.

Children are victims of others' negligence in the same ways that adults are. In addition, however, they are often victims because others do not even think that a child will be attracted to a dangerous object or animal.

The following are resources that we have found helpful.

Continue reading "A2Z Injuries to Children Law℠ Blog in Boston, Massachusetts" »