You Have Rights as the Victim of an Oil Spill in New York

Oil spills are a detriment to our communities and anyone who lives in them. The damage to personal health, homes, and the environment will be significant – prompting expensive and urgent cleanup efforts.

When your home or your business is the location of an oil spill, your livelihood is at stake. What you do in the immediate aftermath is crucial, but you need to understand your rights under New York’s Oil Spill Act before you can make any decisions.

New York’s Navigation Law

The rights of oil spill victims in New York State are provided and protected through the Oil Spill Act which is Article 12 of the New York Navigation Law. We have previously covered Navigation Law in-depth, but what is imperative to understand is that the act, implemented in 1977, holds the “discharger of oil” strictly liable for an oil spill.

The “discharger” will be any individual or organization that was dispensing oil at the location where a spill occurred. This can be a tanker delivering oil to a business or home with an oil heating system. This can be a technician coming to service your system and failing to properly tighten up the equipment before leaving the property. It can also be a company providing faulty oil tanks or other equipment that results in a spill.

Covering Costs of Cleanup

What matters to you is that, even if you have to pay upfront to get the cleanup and remediation process started, you have a right to be compensated for your losses. As noted above, the discharger of oil or the supplier of defective equipment that causes a spill will be held financially responsible for a spill.

If you are unable to pay for the cost upfront, the New York Environmental Protection and Spill Compensation Fund will handle the initial costs and pursue reimbursement from the responsible party or parties.

Loss of Property Value

The costs associated with an oil spill don’t stop at just the cleanup efforts. You may lose significant value in your home or business when the property is exposed to an oil spill. This loss of value in your property can also be covered through a Diminution of Value compensation from the responsible party.

The same can be said for situations where you are forced out of your home and must seek alternative housing. Essentially, any reasonable financial losses you incur that can be directly attributed to the oil spill on your property must be documented and returned to you by the discharger of oil or supplier of faulty equipment. This includes the recovery of legal fees.

Get Sunshine, Isaacson & Hecht Involved Immediately

At Sunshine, Isaacson & Hecht, our team proudly supports New Yorkers and protects their rights when exposed to an oil spill at their home or business. The sooner you get us involved the better as the toxic fumes you are being exposed to create a significant health risk to you, your family, and anyone else who spends time around the spill.

We have qualified professionals with experience in environmental law who will handle your case and get you the compensation you are owed under New York’s Navigation Law. Contact our firm if you are ever exposed to an oil spill in New York.

A Brief Guide to Your Custody Options in New York

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A Brief Guide to Your Custody Options in New York

One of the more complicated and contested parts of the divorce process is often child custody. When this comes up during divorce proceedings, the court follows the overarching principle of doing what is in “the best interest of the child.” The following is an overview of the laws on child custody in New York to help you better understand how the process works.

New York Child Custody Arrangements

New York Law uses a few terms to describe these arrangements. These terms are important for parents to understand:

Legal custody – the right of a parent to make decisions on the general welfare of a child, such as education, medical care, and religion
Sole legal custody – the exclusive right to make decisions on the general welfare of the child
Joint legal custody – a situation in which both parents contribute to the decision making process for the general welfare of the child, provided that the parents have demonstrated their ability to cooperate.
Residential custody – a parent’s right to receive basic child support to support the primary residence of the child.
Access time – another term used to describe a child’s time with the parent instead of visitation or custody

How Custody Decisions Are Made

While both parents have legitimate interests in a child custody battle, they come after the interests of the child, which include:

The child’s wishes (the amount of weight that the court will give to the wishes of the child will depend on the age and maturity of the child)
Every parent’s parenting ability
A parent’s history as the primary caretaker for the child
Any history of domestic abuse
Any substance abuse history
Which parent is more likely to foster and facilitate a relationship between the child and the non-custodial parent
Each parent’s physical and mental health
A parent’s availability to care for the child (i.e. work schedule)

If parents can agree on a custody arrangement, the court will not need to make a decision for them. On the other hand, if the parents cannot come to an agreement, a custody order will be issued only after a trial or hearing. One important thing to keep in mind is that once there is an agreement, it cannot be undone without new unexpected circumstances or incidents – meaning that you should consult with an attorney before agreeing to anything inside or outside of the courthouse.

Contact a Lawyer

If you are looking for an experienced lawyer to help you with your custody case, call Sunshine Isaacson & Hecht, LLP at (516) 352-2100 for a confidential consultation.

5 Things To Do If You Sense a Business Dispute

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5 Things To Do If You Sense a Business Dispute

Business owners will do anything in their power to help avoid lawsuits against their business. There is a good reason for that – lawsuits can be long, expensive, damage your reputation, and take your focus away from improving your business and taking care of your clients and customers. There is plenty that can be done to help prevent lawsuits from clients or other companies, but what about inside your own business?

Although they are sometimes a surprise, sometimes you can sense that something is wrong with another employee. If you think a business dispute is headed your way, here are 5 things you can do right now to help prepare for it:

Carefully Consider Communication

If the relationship between you and another member of your business has soured, you should be very careful in how you communicate with them. If they are building a legal case against you in their head, it is important not to give them anything that might upset them or be used against you as evidence. Accordingly, you can take your time to reply to them, and try to keep the majority of communication in writing, if possible.

Try To Calm Things Down

It is much better to prevent a business dispute than to prepare for one. If there is a way you can calmly and safely de-escalate the conflict, you should take that opportunity. Remember that the other person is a human just like you, and they want to be heard and feel respected. They also probably don’t want to hire lawyers and spend time in court, so take the opportunity to lower the temperature where you can.

Get Everything in Writing

This is good business practice in general, but especially when legal issues may be on the table. Try to keep your communication in writing, where it can be verified. Collect any documentation relating to the issue at the heart of the dispute that you can find. Don’t delete or alter any communication.

Don’t Lead the Charge

The best piece of advice we can give is not to lead with aggression. If someone is coming at you in your business, don’t move to retaliate or punish them with passive aggressive behavior. Simply try to resolve the issue, and if that is impossible, ask for help.

Ask For Help

If you sense a business dispute is headed your way, it is always good to speak to an attorney as soon as possible. At Sunshine Isaacson & Hecht, LLP, we are experienced in resolving tense New York business disputes. If you need help, contact Sunshine, Isaacson & Hecht, LLP today! We fight for you!

What are the Types of Illegal Oil Spills in New York?

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What are the Types of Illegal Oil Spills in New York?

Oil spills produce dangerous conditions for not only the impacted home or business, but often the surrounding community. The numerous health hazards anyone exposed to an oil spill face present an immediate cause for concern.

Understanding the circumstances that lead to New York oil spills allows home and business owners to be better prepared. You may not be able to prevent a spill, but being aware of these potential spills allows you to spot them earlier and mitigate the damage.

Overfill of a Tank

One of the most common spills occurs when a tanker puts more in an oil tank than the tank can handle. When a delivery driver hooks up to your unit, a whistle will sound to indicate that air is flowing out of the vent pipe as the tank fills. When this whistle stops, there is no automatic stop like there is when you are fueling your car’s gas tank. Instead, the driver will have to stop the delivery of oil and safely detach from your tank.

These spills commonly happen when drivers become careless and fail to closely monitor the equipment. Listening to music, getting lost in conversation, or simply not being able to hear the whistle can put everyone at risk.

Delivery Error

On top of just overfilling a tank, the delivery driver must also understand the equipment they are working with. Some tanks can look different from others and use different mechanics to deliver the oil. The driver will be responsible for ensuring the equipment is all properly attached and tightened.

If a driver hooks up to something that isn’t the fill pipe or even hooks up to a fill pipe that isn’t directly connected to a tank, the oil being delivered will create a massive spill. If you understand your own equipment or are working with a new driver, it’s worth double-checking all steps before the delivery takes place.

Equipment Malfunction

An oil tank is a solid structure. These steel vessels are generally about 275 gallons and weigh roughly 2,500 pounds when filled with oil. When a tank is filled, oil is delivered at a rate of about 80 gallons a minute, putting significant pressure on the tank.

As these tanks age, they become more prone to leakage or even blowing under the pressure. When this happens, the oil can often shoot back up the vent pipe and out onto the ground where the tanker is sitting. They can also leak into the soil where the tank is sitting.

The delivery equipment itself can sometimes malfunction, as well. Technology isn’t perfect and hoses can break, causing oil to spill everywhere. Paying attention to the equipment as it does the intended job can protect you and your property.

Any of these spills create an urgent need for not only remediation but also legal action. You have rights in the event of an oil spill in New York. The team at Sunshine, Isaacson & Hecht can help you navigate the legal challenges to come.

If You Are Getting a Divorce, Change Your Will

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If You Are Getting a Divorce, Change Your Will

When our firm handles a divorce, we reference the client’s Last Will and Testament in the Divorce Settlement Agreement.

During divorce, many people worry about how their property will be distributed between them and their spouse at the end of the divorce. However, few consider how their property will be distributed in the event of their death before the divorce is finalized. There are two questions that everyone going through a divorce should be considering, but rarely do:

“What happens if I die before my divorce is final?”
“How can I make sure that my share of the property goes to the people that I want it to go to, rather than my future ex-spouse?”

We often tell clients that to best protect themselves, they should be meeting with Steven Adler, Esq., and planning for the remote possibility of death during or shortly after the divorce process is complete. Most people do not realize that if they die during the divorce process without properly planning for it, their future ex-spouse may simply get everything.

Failure to change your will either before or after divorce could cause serious complications.

If you don’t have a Will and you pass away during the divorce process, your future ex-spouse, still technically your spouse during the process, may inherit everything. Additionally, if you have a Will where you named your spouse as the beneficiary, and the divorce is not finalized, then your future ex-spouse will certainly inherit everything under the Will. Even if you disinherited your spouse after the divorce, if you failed to change the executor or executrix, there will be serious complications that will make it difficult for your children or other heirs to get the property distribution that you intended. Most people do not realize this, and fail to even consider it.

What is the spouse’s “elective share?”

Even if you do try to disinherit your future ex-spouse, he or she may still be entitled to part of your estate pursuant to New York Estate Powers and Trust Law, Section 5-1, which provides a “right of election.” The elective share is the greater of:

certain cash or cash equivalents up to $25,000.00;
one automobile up to $25,000.00 in value; and
the greater of one-third of the net estate and $50,000.00.

When a will is probated, the only assets under the jurisdiction of the New York Surrogate’s Court are those assets owned solely by the decedent. However, the right of election applies to jointly owned assets, probate assets, and to other assets deemed testamentary substitutes. The statutes can be complicated and difficult to understand, which is why our firm works closely with Steven Adler, Esq., and our clients to minimize the amount of property that a future ex-spouse is entitled to in the event of a death during divorce.

If you are going through a divorce and fighting over assets, it would be a shame for your future ex-spouse to get everything.

In most cases, the spouse’s elective share is considerably less than the value of your entire probate estate. Accordingly, it is worthwhile to immediately change your will, even if it is temporary, because you will be decreasing the amount of assets that your estranged spouse will receive in the event you do not live through the divorce proceedings.

We are sensitive to the fact that our clients are splitting their property and income with their spouse during the divorce and after, making it very difficult for anyone to live the same lifestyle in divorce that they did in marriage. As a result of the foregoing and our close relationship with Steven Adler, Esq., his firm offers an exclusive program to our divorcing clients at a reduced price. Steven’s firm provides a streamlined will for divorcing spouses at approximately half the cost of a regular will, and then updates the Will and creates a full estate distribution plan post-divorce. This process helps people going through divorce protect their assets during the divorce, and helps them create a post-divorce plan to minimize liabilities and problems, while ultimately making sure that an ex-spouse doesn’t benefit accidentally or unintentionally.

How much would your divorcing spouse stand to inherit if you pass away?
Co-authored by: Jason Isaacson & Steve Adler

5 Ways Your Business Can Encourage Innovation

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5 Ways Your Business Can Encourage Innovation

At this point, it’s clear that true success in business doesn’t come from working your employees to the bone and making them as efficient as possible. It comes instead from employee innovation – finding new avenues of success that haven’t been tapped before, and boldly breaking into them. Anyone can give you more of what you have, but who can give you something new that you didn’t know you needed?

No matter what your company makes – marketing, technology, or even pizza – innovation is the best way forward. Here are 5 ways that you can create a company culture that encourages innovation and leads to success:

Reward Experimentation

Whether or not it results in anything worthwhile, reward and encourage experimentation you see within your employees. It means that they feel comfortable trying new things and sharing their ideas at work. Creating a culture where anyone feels encouraged to bring their ideas to the table leads to a richer environment and a better business.

Work Together as a Team

Find some time to collaborate between departments and individuals, whether it’s on work-related things or not. Hearing a wide variety of perspectives deepens everyone’s knowledge base. It doesn’t have to be on a massive work project – you could all play a game or watch a movie together!

Encourage Time Off

Working employees constantly without breaks tends to lead to burnout and sloppy work. Encourage your employees to actually use their time off! Odds are that they will come back feeling refreshed and with a new renewed perspective on work.

Be Honest

Leadership that hides a company’s wins and losses fails to educate its employees. Be honest with your team about what the company is doing great and where they are struggling. It earns respect and helps boost morale by keeping everyone in the loop and working towards the same goal.

Branch Out

Don’t ever feel like there is only one thing that your company can do. If you make video games, you can also sell t-shirts. If you’re a law office, you can also bake cookies and sell them. If you’re a marketing start-up, you can also make a successful YouTube channel. Boxing yourself in only makes things harder on yourself.

Get the Help You Need

If you find ways to encourage innovation, you can move your company forward in ways you haven’t even imagined. To get the help you need establishing your business, contact Sunshine Isaacson & Hecht, LLP today! We have the knowledge and experience that breeds success.

Do Not Try to Stay in Your Home After an Oil Spill – It’s Not Safe!

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Do Not Try to Stay in Your Home After an Oil Spill – It’s Not Safe!

At Sunshine, Isaacson & Hecht, we have put a heavy focus in recent months on oil spills in New York. From the types of oil spills and causes to the rights New Yorkers have when exposed to a spill, we want to prepare our clients for the aftermath of an oil spill in their homes or businesses.

Whenever we talk to clients about these subjects, one of the items we frequently discuss is actually leaving your home or business after an oil spill. We fully understand how difficult it can be to leave home. Clients express how difficult it can be to uproot their lives and live with a friend, family member, neighbor, or in a hotel/motel – but it’s the right choice for your health (along with the health of your family and/or customers).

Oil Spills Expose You to High Levels of Carcinogens

Staying in your home or business may seem like a convenient choice, but you are putting yourself and others at risk due to the continued exposure to toxins from the spill. Oil is full of toxic chemicals like benzene, which is a known carcinogen.

The United Nations indicated that prolonged exposure to petroleum, which is used in some home heating systems, increases the risk of cancer. While the study was done on people living near plants, occupying a building that has directly been exposed to a spill could include similar risks of mesothelioma, skin cancer, lung cancer, and other types of cancer.

People who have stayed behind after an oil spill have reported experiencing difficulty breathing due to inhaling these fumes. Until total remediation has been done, your home will not be a totally safe place to live.

What Should I Do, and Where Should I Go?

When exposed to an oil spill, contact law enforcement or a local environmental agency immediately. After that, let them do their jobs while you avoid any direct contact with the oil, stay away from areas exposed to the oil (you will often be able to smell or see it), do not drink, bathe, or enter waters near the spill, and get out.

You may be able to find a loved one to stay with, but you also should not be afraid to seek out housing at a hotel or motel if you can afford it in the interim.

How Will I Afford Alternative Housing?

As noted in our previous post on the rights of New Yorkers exposed to oil spills, you have the right under New York’s Navigation Law to recover any reasonable costs associated with the oil spill as long as you weren’t responsible. If you are forced to pay for alternative housing then the discharger of the oil will be required to reimburse you for those costs at a reasonable rate. Reasonable just means any costs associated with the necessary housing.

Our team at Sunshine, Isaacson & Hecht knows environmental law in New York. Attorney Jeffrey Sunshine serves as the Chair of the Environmental Law Committee of the Nassau County Bar Association. Our expertise guides us to serve and protect New Yorkers in the event of an oil spill. Contact us, and we will help you take the necessary steps to protect yourself and your family while we fight for every penny you are owed.

Need help today? Get in touch for a free case evaluation.

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