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When someone is hurt in an elevator, one of the first questions is simple: who is responsible? Most people assume the answer is the elevator maintenance company. In New York, that assumption is often wrong, and the real answer depends on a contract the injured passenger has never seen. In an earlier post, I walked through the most common types of elevator accidents. This time, I want to focus on the question that trips up a lot of elevator cases: who actually owes a legal du

If you've been injured in a car crash, one of your first questions is likely: "What compensation am I entitled to?" Understanding the types of damages available in a motor vehicle accident case is crucial for protecting your rights and ensuring fair compensation. In this blog, Attorney Jonathan Ratchik from Kramer, Dunlevy & Ratchik, PLLC breaks down three broad categories of damages you can recover after a motor vehicle accident in New York. Three Categories of Recoverable

Nursing home negligence affects more families today than ever before. As America ages, nursing homes and long-term care facilities have become a central part of our healthcare system. More than a million Americans currently live in nursing homes, and millions more rely on assisted living and other long-term care. When a family places someone they love in one of these facilities, they are doing more than paying for a room. They are trusting trained professionals to provide saf

For more than 30 years, our firm has been helping New Yorkers who’ve been injured because of someone else’s negligence or wrongdoing. And if there’s one group of people I wish I could sit down with before they ever get hurt, it’s construction workers. Because if you do construction work in New York, there are three laws that can completely change what happens after a job site injury. Although many workers have heard of them, they oftentimes have no idea who they protect, what

If you tripped over a broken or uneven sidewalk in New York City, the outcome of your case often depends on two things: the size of the defect, and how quickly you preserved evidence of it. Trip and falls are among the most common personal injury cases in New York, yet many of them fail before they ever get started. I'm Jonathan R. Ratchik, owner and partner at Kramer, Dunleavy & Ratchik, PLLC, a personal injury firm in New York City. In this blog, I'll walk through what sepa

If you've been injured and you're pursuing a personal injury claim, one of the most important things you can do has nothing to do with paperwork or doctor's visits. It has to do with your phone. Whether you're on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Snapchat, or YouTube, what you post, and what others post about you, can end up hurting your case. Here's what every injured person should understand before they hit "share." It's Not Just Your Own Posts When people think about socia

If you're reading this, there's a good chance you've just lived through the worst thing a person can go through: the loss of someone you love. And not just any loss, a loss that happened because someone else didn't do what they were supposed to do. I want to start by saying something I tell every family that walks into my office: no lawsuit can ever replace a life. It can't undo what happened, and it can't fill the empty chair at the table. I've been practicing personal injur

If you walk anywhere in New York City, you already know the feeling. You step off the curb, glance left, glance right, and still an e‑bike appears out of nowhere, silent and fast, sometimes riding against traffic or cutting across the sidewalk. At a recent meeting with professional colleagues, I asked the room a simple question: who has negative views about e‑bikes? Nearly every hand went up. That tells you something about where New York City is right now. I'm an avid cyclist

New York's New Law Could Mean You Get Nothing What's Changed ? If you were hurt in a car crash in New York this year, there is a change in the law you need to know about right now, before you talk to an insurance adjuster, before you give a statement, and before you assume you know how much your case is worth. New York just overhauled how comparative fault works in motor vehicle accident cases. And for a lot of injured people, this change is the difference between walking awa

Why Your Settlement Check Isn't Always What You Expect: A Guide to Liens One of the most common questions personal injury clients ask after a case resolves is simple: "When do I get my money?" It's an understandable question. A settlement is often the result of months, sometimes years, of litigation, negotiation, and patience. But before that settlement check can be issued, there is frequently one more step that has to happen first: resolving liens. What is a lien? In simple

If you are pursuing a personal injury claim in New York, sooner or later an envelope arrives with a notice telling you to appear for an independent medical examination, usually shortened to IME. The name sounds reassuring. It suggests a neutral physician who will simply take a fair look at you and report what they find. That is not what an IME is. In every one of these cases, the examination is arranged and paid for by the insurance company or by defense counsel, and the doc

In a city like New York, stairs aren't optional. They're woven into the fabric of daily life. You climb them coming out of your apartment building, descend them into the subway, take them up to a fourth-floor walkup, and trudge up the steps of a brownstone to visit a friend. Restaurants, movie theaters, Broadway houses, schools, stairs are everywhere, and most of the time we never give them a second thought. But that routine is exactly what makes a dangerous staircase so haza

Elevators are woven into the fabric of daily life in New York. We step into them leaving our apartments, arriving at the office, visiting a hospital, dropping a child at school, or running errands at the shopping center. Most of the time, they work without incident. But when an elevator malfunctions, the consequences can be devastating, sometimes catastrophic. If you or someone you love has been hurt in an elevator accident, you deserve to know how these cases work, who can b

Most people assume a crash means a clear path to compensation. Manhattan attorney Jonathan Ratchik explains the legal threshold that stops many cases before they ever reach a jury. You were in a car crash. The other driver was clearly at fault. You're hurt, missing work, and drowning in medical bills. Naturally, you assume you have a case. Not so fast. New York law has a rule that surprises and sometimes devastates accident victims who never knew about it. It's called the s

If you've been injured in a car crash, one of your first questions is likely: "What compensation am I entitled to?" Understanding the types of damages available in a motor vehicle accident case is crucial for protecting your rights and ensuring fair compensation. Attorney Jonathan Ratchik from Kramer, Dunlevy & Ratchik, PLLC breaks down three broad categories of damages you can recover after a motor vehicle accident in New York. Three Categories of Recoverable Damages

If you've been involved in a car crash in New York whether as a driver, passenger, or pedestrian, you've probably heard the term "no-fault insurance" in the hospital or from your insurance company. Understanding how this system works is critical to protecting your rights and ensuring you receive the compensation you deserve. Attorney Jonathan Ratchik from Kramer, Dunlevy & Ratchik, PLLC has spent over 25 years navigating New York's no-fault insurance world. Here's what eve

If you’ve ever been in a car accident in New York City, one of the first questions that runs through your mind — right after “Am I okay?” — is “Who’s going to pay for all this?” Ambulance rides, ER visits, X-rays, follow-ups, physical therapy, even a relatively minor crash can turn into thousands of dollars in bills. Here’s the good news: New York’s “no-fault” insurance law is designed to make sure you get medical care quickly, regardless of who caused the accident. But as wi

If you’ve ever been in a car accident in New York City, you know how fast everything can blur together — sirens, traffic, people shouting, adrenaline pumping. In those moments, it’s easy to make decisions that come back to hurt your health, your case, or your finances later. As a personal injury attorney, I’ve helped hundreds of New Yorkers after serious crashes, from fender benders to multi-vehicle pileups. And I see the same five mistakes again and again. If you can avoid