Philadelphia Law Firm Blog by Meyerson and O'Neill Attorneys

District of Columbia Wrongful Death Laws

You’ve lost a loved one suddenly and without a will, the damages left behind are distributed by the state according to intestacy law. Intestacy law is defined by each individual state as the distribution of the estate amongst the remaining family.

Damages are distributed according to intestate law in DC:

• If the spouse is living and no children or parent, the spouse receives all of the estate.
• If the spouse and children are living, the spouse receives 2/3 or 1/2 of the estate. If the children are also the spouse’s, the spouse takes 2/3 of the estate. If the children are not the spouse’s, the spouse takes 1/2 of the estate and the remainder goes to the children.
• If the spouse and parent are living but no children, then 3/4 of the estate goes to the spouse and parents split the remainder equally.
• If no children or spouse are living, parents divide shares equally among each other.
• If there are no parents, children, or spouse living, the brothers and sisters divide the remainder of the estate equally among each other.

When children of different generations are involved:

• Damages are divided into as many shares as there are children of the victim, and a share is designated to the offspring of any deceased children divided equally.

For more information on the District of Columbia wrongful death laws, visit justice.gov.

If you or a loved one needs assistance regarding intestacy law, contact the attorneys at Meyerson and O’Neill law firm for a free case evaluation today at 877-373-8059.

Maryland Wrongful Death Statute

Intestacy law can be defined by each state as the laws that govern the disposition of an estate of an individual who dies without a will or final testament. Intestacy law can vary greatly from state to state.

It is important to understand the laws regarding intestate law in order to deal with the legal issues your loved one has left behind. Read the estate distribution of intestacy law in Maryland:

• A spouse and minor children are left behind (not including stepchildren), the spouse receives half of the estate, minor children receive the remaining half of the estate.
• If a spouse and adult children are still living (not including stepchildren), the spouse receives $15,000 plus half of the remaining estate. Adult children divide the remaining estate equally.
• If only children are left behind (not including stepchildren), the estate is divided equally among the children of the same generation.
• If spouse and parents are living, the spouse receives $15,000 and half of the estate. Both parents divide the balance of if only one parent is living the rest of the estate is given to that parent.
• If a spouse is living with none of the above heirs, all of the estate goes to the spouse.
• Parents are living and no others heirs, the parents divide estate equally or remainder goes to the living parent.
• If brothers and sisters are living and none of the heirs above, the estate is divided equally among brothers and sisters. If there was a deceased sibling, their share is divided amongst their children, the nieces and nephews of the victim.

If children of different generations are involved:

• The estate is divided into as many equal shares as there are children of the victim. For those children who may be deceased, their children receive their share.

For more information on Maryland intestacy law, visit justice.gov.

If you or someone you love is dealing with the legal issues of a family member who has passed away, contact the expert attorneys at Meyerson and O’Neill Law Firm today at 877-373-8059.

New York Wrongful Death Laws

You have lost a family member or a close friend. It is a time to grieve, not a time to be confused about the legal issues left behind that you must deal with. If your loved one was left without a will, legal matters can make this grieving time even more stressful and confusing.

Intestacy law determines the inheritance distribution between family members who are left with the estate of the loved one who has passed away.

The priority of intestacy law in New York includes:

• When there is a surviving spouse and parents, but no children or grandchildren, damages are distributed to the parents as well according to their pecuniary loss. Priority under intestate law if the spouse is living but no children, everything goes to the spouse.
• If the spouse is living and children, $50,000 and half of the estate go to the spouse, and the remainder of the estate is divided equally among the children of the same generation.
• If children are living and no spouse, everything goes to the children, divided equally of the same generation.
• If one or both parents are living and no spouse or children, everything goes to the parents divided equally.
• When there is no living spouse, children, or parents, but parents’ children are living, the whole is divided equally among the children as long as they are of the same generation.

When children of different generations are involved:

• New York intestacy law states that a share is set aside for each surviving child of the closest generation to the victim. Shares are set aside for each deceased member of the first generation who left behind children. The shares of the deceased member are distributed among all of the children of the next generation.

For further information on intestacy law, visit justice.gov.

Meyerson and O’Neill law firm specializes in these types of cases. If you are looking to speak with a New York wrongful death attorney, please contact us at 877-373-8059.

To win a legal malpractice case against your lawyer, you need a lawyer not only
experienced in winning legal malpractice cases, but also in a wide variety of other types of
claims. A legal malpractice case is not limited to a trial to prove that your lawyer did a poor job,
and failed to meet the required professional standards. In order to recover, your legal malpractice
attorney must also convince a jury that if the original lawyer had properly handled the case, you
would have won. This is frequently referred to as “the case within a case.”

This means that in hiring a lawyer for a legal malpractice case it is important to
understand what the lawyer’s background is, not only in legal malpractice, but in the type of case
in which you are originally involved. For example, our firm obtained a $1.75 million dollar
recovery for a woman in North Jersey whose original lawyer lost a medical malpractice case
because he did not understand the client’s medical chart and he sued the wrong doctor.
Specifically, the woman was originally hospitalized for an elective total knee replacement. As a
result of the surgery, she developed an umbilical hernia which was strangling her right colon
causing significant necrosis or/death of cells. The hospital delayed in performing emergency
surgery and as a result, the woman sustained severe and permanent damages to her intestinal and
digestive tract. Following the surgery, she lived a life of pain, was unable to properly digest her
food, and spent more time in the hospital than she did at home with her grandchildren.

The original case was lost because the original lawyer sued the wrong doctor. Incredibly,
the argument that convinced the jury to find against the woman was that they found that her
lawyer attributed the mistake of the doctor, in delaying the treatment of the hernia, to the wrong
doctor.

Our firm brought a claim against the lawyer for legal malpractice in suing the wrong
doctor. If it had not been for our extensive medical malpractice experience, we could not have
obtained a successful result for our client. The message is that if you are dissatisfied with the job
that a lawyer did and think that the lawyer committed malpractice, your new lawyer must not
only be a specialist in legal malpractice but also in the underlying case.

Our firm is currently litigating legal malpractice claims involving underlying cases of
medical malpractice, school financing, police pension matters, and residential construction.
Should you have occasion to need a legal malpractice attorney, do not forget to discuss with the
attorney, before retention, what the lawyer’s experience is, not only in legal malpractice, but in
whatever type of case you originally had.

Visit our website for more information on New Jersey Legal Malpractice.

Losing a loved one is difficult enough without the burden of legal matters that get left behind. Damages are distributed under intestate law, proportionate to the pecuniary loss. There are different circumstances in every situation. Find out what you need to know about intestacy laws in Pennsylvania.

Estate priority under intestate laws is as follows:

• If a spouse is living but no children or parents, the spouse is given everything.
• If there is a spouse and parents living and no children, everything is given to the spouse.
• If there is a spouse and children, the spouse takes half of the estate. If the children are the spouse’s, the spouse also takes $30,000. If the children are not the spouse’s, the spouse only takes half of the estate. The children divide the remainder equally as long as they are all of the same generation.
• In the instance of children and no spouse, the children take all. Shares are divided equally between the children of the same generation.
• If there is no spouse, children, or parents, the personal representative can collect damages on behalf of the deceased for hospital, nursing, medical, and funeral expenses.

When children of different generations are involved, it gets more complicated. Intestacy laws for children of different generations includes:

• The estate is divided into as many shares as there are living members of the nearest generation to the deceased, including deceased children who left behind children of their own. The share of each deceased person in the same generation is divided among his or her descendants in the same manner.

For more information on intestacy law in Pennsylvania, visit justice.gov.

The law firm of Meyerson and O’Neill pay special attention to wrongful death cases. If you feel that you have a wrongful death claim, please contact us at 877-373-8059 and ask to speak with a Pennsylvania Wrongful Death Attorney today.

For information regarding New Jersey Litigation and to speak with a New Jersey wrongful death attorneys, please call us at 877-373-8059.

Losing a loved one is tragic, and family members are left behind with legal matters that are often confusing and stressful. There is much you should know about the wrongful death statute in the state of New Jersey.

Pecuniary loss is defined by the New Jersey Wrongful Death statute and cases interpreting the statute. Damages are distributed amongst those who are eligible to recover under intestate law, in proportion to the pecuniary loss. Given the different circumstances present in every situation, intestate law determines the order in which belongings and estate are divided in the family line.

The priority under intestate law includes:

• Everything goes to the spouse.
• The spouse takes the first $50,000, plus 1/2 of the balance of the estate if the children are also the spouse’s.
• If children are not involved, the spouse could take the first $50,000 plus 1/2 the balance of the estate and the remainder is equally divided among the parents.
• In the event of no children or spouse, the parents split equally.
• If there are no parents, the parents children divide equally among all of the children in the same generation.

When there are children of different generations:

• The estate is divided into as many shares as there are living members of the nearest generation of children to the victim.
• This includes deceased children who left behind their own children. Each surviving heir and that of any deceased children is given one share, divided up equally.

For further information on intestacy law, visit www.justice.gov.

The law firm of Meyerson and O’Neill devotes special attention and resources to these cases. If you feel that you have a need to speak to a NJ wrongful death attorney, please contact us at 877-373-8059.

Millions of people take prescription drugs every day, but there is a lot about these drugs they might not know. Below are five things that every consumer should know about prescription drugs:

1. Off-label uses are common. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) thoroughly reviews clinical trials and studies before it approves a drug for a particular use. However, doctors often use drugs approved for one disease to treat another on an experimental basis. For example, Topomax is an anticonvulsant approved to treat seizures, but it is routinely prescribed by psychiatrists and general practitioners for depression and bipolar disorder. This practice is called “off-label” use.
2. Off-label uses can be dangerous. Good doctors weigh the risks and benefits of prescription drug use. Under certain circumstances, off-label uses can be beneficial to patients. It is now common knowledge that aspirin lowers the risk of heart disease, and doctors prescribed it for just this purpose many years before the FDA approved such treatment. On the other hand, off-label uses can be dangerous and even deadly. For example, doctors prescribed a cocktail of drugs, Aranesp, Epogen, and Procrit, to treat anemia in a wide variety of cancer patients, though they were only approved for patients undergoing chemotherapy. Scientists later found that these drugs may in fact worsen cancer and reduce chances for survival.
3. Drug companies aggressively market off-label uses for drugs. Doctors do not invent off-label uses all on their own. Big Pharma have shamelessly promoted off-label uses for years. Major drug companies make false and misleading claims about their drugs in promotional material, train sales departments to advertise off-label uses, and even pay doctors to promote such uses in articles, studies, and speeches. It is no surprise that drug companies have successfully deceived doctors and patients alike and reaped billions of dollars in profits as a result.
4. Drug companies may be held responsible for injuries from off-label uses. Off-label marketing is illegal, and sometimes the government steps in to hold drug companies liable. In 2009, Pfizer agreed to a $2.3 billion dollar settlement for its off-label marketing of four drugs, including the arthritis drug Bextra. This included a $1.3 billion dollar criminal penalty, the largest criminal fine in United States history.
5. Individual plaintiffs can obtain compensation for their suffering. Off-label uses can lead to terrible injuries, and individuals can obtain compensation for their suffering. Many medications, including Topomax, Infuse, Cymbalta, and Zoloft are frequently prescribed off-label despite their serious side effects.

If you have taken a medication off-label and suffered an injury, you should contact an attorney to discuss your case. He or she will be able to assess your history and tell you whether you have a viable case.

+Jack Meyerson