Massachusetts law requires property owners to keep their premises safe. When a business or homeowner breaches this duty and someone is hurt, the injured person can file a premises liability lawsuit seeking money damages. In a successful premises liability case, an injured person may be able to receive compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and…
Continue reading ›The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is the federal agency in charge of protecting the public from unsafe consumer products such as toys, household furnishings, and tools. When the CPSC believes that a particular product poses a hazard, it has the authority to issue a recall. Hazards may be fire, electrical, chemical, and/or mechanical in…
Continue reading ›Under sovereign immunity, governmental entities may be immune from lawsuits arising from the negligence of their employees. Over the years, the courts carved out several exceptions to the doctrine, and in 1978 the Commonwealth passed the Massachusetts Torts Claims Act, Mass. Gen. Laws c. 258, § 4 (the “Act”), specifying the circumstances in which immunity…
Continue reading ›The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution states in part, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial … and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.” The courts have held that this guarantees the defendant in a criminal trial not only the basic…
Continue reading ›When the Massachusetts Department of Transportation decided to display a new message on its electronic message boards throughout the Boston area a few weeks ago, they hoped to catch the attention of drivers who might otherwise forget an important state law. In a dialect instantly recognizable to Bay State motorists, the department advised drivers to…
Continue reading ›At the law offices of local attorney, John C. Manoog III, we keep abreast of legal and social trends that may make the roads safer. We see the consequences of car accidents everyday, and preventing the injuries of negligent drivers is why we do the work we do. The law offices of John C. Manoog…
Continue reading ›On April 10, 2014, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts decided on a strict liability case, Sheehan v. Weaver, where an apartment renter fell from a two story apartment staircase when the guardrail broke. Strict liability is a statutory tort that allows a plaintiff to hold a person liable for injuries regardless fault. The question…
Continue reading ›When most people are in a car accident, they expect that their automobile insurance will cover their injuries. However, when an accident happens, some people are surprised to learn that their own insurance company might try to deny payments. Insurance companies consider their shareholders and the bottom line. They know how to manipulate the law…
Continue reading ›This may come as a surprise but a recent insurance company survey has ranked Massachusetts drivers as among the best and safest drivers in the nation. However, the survey also ranks Massachusetts as one of the worst when it comes to drunk driving fatalities. An annual survey by Car Insurance Comparison.com ranks the worst drivers…
Continue reading ›Hyannis and Portsmouth communities know that accidents may happen while at work, and they know worker’s compensation laws will help them with their injuries and loss of work. However, not all workplace injuries are caused by accidents and may be caused by the willful and malicious acts of another person. Some jobs deal with violent…
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