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For many years patients who suffer from deep vein thrombosis have been electively placing filters in their inferior vena cava to prevent a blood clot in a patient’s lower extremities from breaking off and entering their lungs.  An IVC filter is commonly used when a patient does not respond well to blood thinners or is at risk of falling which could dislodge the blood clot.

Up until recently this procedure has been classified as a relatively safe procedure with very little risk of an adverse effect.  Recent studies have shown that many of the filters on the market today have become increasingly susceptible to migration, perforation and disassembly.  This means that the side effects of having an IVC implanted may be much more severe than was originally thought.  In order to understand what this means and how it effects a possible patient you must understand how the filter is put in place and how it works.

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Modern medicine, in the form of prescription drugs, can be a life saver.  Prescription drugs, when properly administered, can relieve many debilitating ailments, allowing individuals to live a satisfying and productive life.  Without prescription drugs many people would not be able to live, work, play and carry on their daily activities.  Prescription drugs can alleviate pain, cure infections, treat virus, and provide myriad other benefits such as minimizing the risk of more severe medical problems.

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Obviously, one great way to defend criminal charges is to attack the evidence; this is most often done via a motion for suppression.  A motion to suppress physical evidence seeks to prevent the prosecution from using certain physical evidence at trial.  A motion to suppress is based on the assertion that the evidence was not legally recovered and therefore cannot be used as proof to support criminal charges.

The first question to ask when considering a motion to suppress is whether or not a warrant was issued for the search; more often than not no warrant is issued for a search of a vehicle during a traffic stop.  Vehicles are effects within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment provision guaranteeing the right of people to be secure in their effects against unreasonable searches, and automobile stops constitute seizures for Fourth Amendment purposes.  People v. Abad, 98 N.Y.2d 12, 16 (N.Y. 2002).   Further, not only a driver, but a passenger as well has the right to challenge the stop and search of the automobile as well as to challenge any evidence recovered there from.  People v. Fore, 131 A.D.2d 329, 330 (1st Dep’t 1987).

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Many studies have been performed that conclude the ADHD and other adolescent behavioral issues are causally related to the ingestion of lead paint and lead dust.

The National Toxicology Program, U.S. Dept of Health and Human Resources, has created a comprehensive report entitled Monograph on Health Effects of Low-Lead, 10/14/2011, peer reviewed November 17-18, 2011. Specifically, this literature makes conclusions on the effects of blood lead levels with a focus on BPb levels less than 10ug/dL.  As described in Section 1.2.2, the NTP’s conclusions were derived by evaluating data from epidemiological studies with a focus on blood Pb levels <10µg/dL.  The evidence is discussed for specific health outcomes within each chapter, and varies by the study design and type of analysis used to examine the relationship of the health outcome with blood Pb across the hundreds of studies evaluated. In some cases, authors restricted the analysis to the population with blood Pb levels <10µg/dL, <5µg/dL, or even lower and the association of the health effect with the blood Pb level is clear.  For example, Lanphear et al. (2000) reported an inverse relationship between blood Pb and academic performance in a cross-sectional study of 4853 children ages 6-16 from the NHANES-III dataset; the association with blood Pb remained significant in further analyses restricted to 4681 children with blood Pb <10µg/dL (p<0.001), and 4043 children with blood Pb <5µg/dL.  In other cases, the authors reported a significant association between blood Pb and an effect in a population with a mean blood Pb level <10µg/dL.   These analyses support an effect of a blood Pb level <10µg/dL, but they do not exclude the possibility that individuals significantly above or below the mean blood Pb level are driving the effect.

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New York Labor Law §240 was created to protect workers from accidents involving falls from elevated work places such as ladders.  When a worker is involved in demolition, construction, or alteration of a structure, New York Labor Law §240(1) imposes a nondelegable duty upon owners and contractors to provide safety devices necessary for workers subjected to elevation-related risks.

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Many times in multi vehicle car accidents cases a defendant will attempt to consolidate several plaintiff lawsuits into a signal case.  Under certain circumstances a plaintiff will want to oppose a consolidation to keep their lawsuit separate from the other pending personal injury lawsuits.

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Under most circumstances in New York State a municipal defendant (county, city, village, school district and/or municipal corporations) must be sued in the county in which they are residing.  This rule is mandated by law, under CPLR 504(1) and/or (2).  The law states that the place of trial for all actions against any municipal defendant will the county in which it is situated.  Though this may seem like black letter law, under certain circumstances the Courts will allow a plaintiff to sue a municipal defendant in a foreign county.

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Most people assume that surgeons are employed by a specific hospital and if the surgeon commits malpractice that the hospital will become automatically responsible for the surgeon’s negligence under the legal theory of vicarious liability.  Under most common forms of employment an employer is responsible for acts of negligence committed by their employees.  Vicarious liability normally applies when the employee negligently performs their duties as defined by their employment and causes another injury.  This is not the usual case with a surgeon and a hospital.

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The National Toxicology Program, U.S. Dept of Health and Human Resources, has created a comprehensive report entitled Monograph on Health Effects of Low-Lead, 10/14/2011, peer reviewed November 17-18, 2011. Specifically, this literature makes conclusions on the effects of blood lead levels with a focus on BPb levels less than 10ug/dL.  As described in Section 1.2.2, the NTP’s conclusions were derived by evaluating data from epidemiological studies with a focus on blood Pb levels <10µg/dL.  The evidence is discussed for specific health outcomes within each chapter, and varies by the study design and type of analysis used to examine the relationship of the health outcome with blood Pb across the hundreds of studies evaluated. In some cases, authors restricted the analysis to the population with blood Pb levels <10µg/dL, <5µg/dL, or even lower and the association of the health effect with the blood Pb level is clear.  For example, Lanphear et al. (2000) reported an inverse relationship between blood Pb and academic performance in a cross-sectional study of 4853 children ages 6-16 from the NHANES-III dataset; the association with blood Pb remained significant in further analyses restricted to 4681 children with blood Pb <10µg/dL (p<0.001), and 4043 children with blood Pb <5µg/dL.  In other cases, the authors reported a significant association between blood Pb and an effect in a population with a mean blood Pb level <10µg/dL.   These analyses support an effect of a blood Pb level <10µg/dL, but they do not exclude the possibility that individuals significantly above or below the mean blood Pb level are driving the effect.

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Many factors go into determining the monetary value of a personal injury lawsuit.  Basically, in New York the only remedy for an injured party in a personal injury lawsuit is money damages.  This requires a value to be determined for the injured party’s loss.  Your attorney must create a dollar amount that they think your case is worth.  If your case ever goes to trial, a jury will be asked to evaluate the facts of the case and determine if the defendant is liable and if so, they will be asked to render a dollar amount to compensate the plaintiff for their damages.  In order to evaluate the value of a case an attorney must take into account many different variables.

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