“No civil action shall be maintained against the city for damage to property or injury to person or death sustained in consequence of any street, highway, bridge, wharf, culvert, sidewalk or crosswalk, or any part or portion of any of the foregoing including any encumbrances thereon or attachments thereto, being out of repair, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed, unless it appears that written notice of the defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed condition, was actually given to the commissioner of transportation or any person or department authorized by the commissioner to receive such notice, or where there was previous injury to person or property as a result of the existence of the defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed condition, and written notice thereof was given to a city agency, or there was written acknowledgement from the city of the defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed condition, and there was a failure or neglect within fifteen days after the receipt of such notice to repair or remove the defect, danger or obstruction complained of, or the place otherwise made reasonably safe.” – New York City Administrative Code § 7-201(c)(2)
According to criminal defense law, what this essentially does is makes it so that no one who has had a slip and fall injury in New York can bring a lawsuit for personal injury against the city, unless the city had been informed of the potential hazard at least 15 days before the accident occurred.
On one hand, there can be an appreciation for the fact that the city is doing its best to protect its coffers from indiscriminate lawsuits and, in a sense, is protecting the tax payer’s dollars. This law was passed because the city was forced to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars in claims prior to 2003. Simultaneously There were 2,729 sidewalk injury suits against the city in 2006 (resulting in $55.5 million in recovery), compared to 3,482 in 2003 ($68 million). Recoveries between 1997 and 2006 totaled $600 million. According to experts like personal injury attorneys, sidewalk injuries are the most common cause of lawsuits against the city.
“After one has sustained a personal injury, he or she has the right to file a lawsuit against the responsible party in civil court.” – The Cagle Law Firm
Unfortunately the above does not apply to New York. Perhaps some of these lawsuits were of no merit and won because of great lawyering and sympathetic juries. However, there is also a strong argument that can be made for the fact that the streets are simply not up to par. Instead of making a full and whole hearted attempt to fix a problem that challenges the safety and security of the public, the government made the decision to remove the ability of the public to seek justice. Typical of a government system that has lost touch with the public’s best interest a long time ago. Today, judges will rule on the basis of precedence rather than justice, politicians will vote along party lines versus representing the best interests of their constituents, and we have a president that thinks that growing the deficit by 5.5 trillion dollars in the last three years is not enough reason to reconsider his policies.
Barack Obama came to office promising to rein in spending and to reduce the deficit. Instead he has raised the deficit faster than any president in history, and has outspent the entire rest of the world. Today he stands before the American people with a mandate to finish what he started. Our choices are extremely limited in what we can do, the government has made sure that our options are extremely limited. We do have one option – vote, and vote strong in every single election. While judges, politicians, and representatives may not vote for our best interests, we the people can and must!
