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Category: Social Media

Injured in an accident? We can help. From car accidents, workers’ comp claims, construction accidents to medical malpractice and police misconduct, we have you covered. Check out our blog for helpful tips and examples of claims, including many related to social media.

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Virtual Notarization Services Available in NYC

On March 19, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order allowing documents to be notarized remotely, using audio-video technology (such as face time, whatsapp or zoom) through April 18, 2020 based on the following guidelines:

  • The person signing is not personally known to the notary, they must present valid photo ID to the notary during the video conference.
  • The video conference must allow for direct interaction (i.e. no prerecorded videos).
  • The person signing must affirmatively represent that they are physically in New York State.
  • The person signing must transmit by fax or electronic means a copy of the signed document to the notary, the same date it was signed.
  • The notary may notarize the transmitted copy and transmit the same back to the person signing.
  • If the notary has to notarize the original document at some point, then, the notary may repeat the notarization of the original signed document as of the date of execution, provided the notary receives such original signed document together with the electronically notarized copy within 30 days after the date of execution.

 

Read the full executive order here.

coronavirus precautions at the NY law office

Coronavirus Update March 22nd 2020

The Coronavirus Situation – How This Affects Your Legal Case in NYC

Coronavirus is changing New Yorker’s lives and the NYS legal system. Your legal team at Daniella Levi & Associates is monitoring those changes to ensure that your interests are fully protected and we are continuing to work remotely on your behalf.

Court Appearances and trials

Previously scheduled trials and court appearances are postponed until further notice. We will monitor these matters for you and advise you as soon as they are rescheduled.

Depositions & Hearings

If you are scheduled for a deposition or a hearing, where possible, we will try to hold those remotely. However, they may have to be adjourned in the event the other parties are unable to participate. Our legal team will notify you as soon as possible. In the event that your hearing or deposition has to be rescheduled, we will do our best to expedite the rescheduling and ask for your patience.

Please call our office or e mail me at daniellalevi@levilawny.com two to three days before your scheduled date to check for any adjournments.

No Fault Examinations

If you are scheduled to appear for a no fault examination with your insurance company’s doctor, please call the doctor’s office to confirm your appointment. The contact information for the doctor can be found on the letter you received notifying you of the exam and the date. We strongly advise you to call the doctor’s office the day of the exam to confirm your appointment as restrictions on gatherings and businesses are changing rapidly.

Defense Medical Examinations

If you have a physical examination scheduled with a defense doctor (which insurance defense lawyers refer to as an “Independent” Medical Examination or “IME”) – Please call our office or e mail me at daniellalevi@levilawny.com to be sure that the scheduled exam is proceeding, both the day before the exam as well as the day of the exam.

Mediations and Arbitrations

If you have a mediation or arbitration hearing scheduled at National Arbitration & Mediation (“NAM”), the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”), Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services (“JAMS”) or another private mediation service, this hearing may proceed remotely or adjourned. We are set up to conduct these hearings remotely via zoom and or via telephone. In fact this past week, two such mediations took place via zoom and both cases were settled. In the event that such hearings will need to be adjourned, we will let you know. To be certain, please call our office the day before to confirm or e mail me at daniellalevi@levilawny.com

Attorneys and Staff

Governor Cuomo ordered 100% shut down of all non-essential businesses, and for now, law firms fall within that category. I will be going into the office on a limited basis to handle mail and other time sensitive matters and working remotely the rest of the time. The rest of your legal team will be working remotely.

We are urging everyone to take the risks of spreading coronavirus very seriously, stay home, stay safe and stay healthy.

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Coronavirus Policy at Daniella Levi & Associates P.C.

If you are like me, about 50% of your conscious life these days can be summed up in one word: coronavirus.  President Trump declared a national emergency. New York School systems is shut down at least until April 20th, and possibly until the end of the year. Movie theaters, bars and other gathering venues are also closed and the CDC’s guidelines are to avoid any gatherings of more than 50 people.  Starting tomorrow, all restaurants and cafes will only be permitted to sell food either as take out or delivery.  We are urged to engage in “social distancing”, to avoid crowds, wash our hands thoroughly and frequently, and to refrain from touching our face.


Our Coronavirus Policy

What is Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C. doing to keep its staff, clients and others safe? Here’s our current policy, which is still evolving to meet new developments:

Staying Informed

We are closely following the news and information sources about the virus, about how it spreads and how to stop it, and about what early symptoms are like. We are further gathering information about what to do if anyone in our office or a client or person who has been to our office develops coronavirus symptoms (cough, fever, difficulty breathing).

Intensified hygiene

We have provided our employees with accurate information about ways to prevent the spread of infection and we have implemented the following measures to reduce the risk of workplace transmission: Ensuring that our employees have easy access to hand washing facilities and/or hand sanitizers, ensuring that public surfaces such as counters, table and desk tops, and doorknobs are regularly disinfected; instructing our employees on the importance of frequent hand washing, refraining from touching their face, and good cough/sneeze etiquette.

Changes in Work Policy and Sick Leave

For now, our legal team is still coming into the office. However, we are in the process of setting up for remote work options. In addition, our team members have been instructed to notify us immediately if they have been exposed to the virus or show symptoms of the infection (cough, fever, difficulty breathing).

Any team member with symptoms of the infection will be sent home and instructed to stay there until they test negative for the virus or, if no testing can be obtained, until the symptoms have gone, Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C. will pay their wages and will not count the lost time toward sick leave or vacation days. If they can work from home, so be it.  If they are too sick to do so, we understand.

Any team member who has a family member at home who is ill with the virus will also be allowed to work from home and/or simply care for their sick family members, at their discretion. Again, there will be no wage loss to the employee.

Changes in Visitor Policy

We are encouraging clients and others to engage with us by phone rather than coming to the office as much as possible.  We are asking clients and others who have been in contact with us or have been in our office to notify us if they test positive for the virus. Note that while we cannot require them to tell us (because of privacy laws) we are strongly encouraging them to voluntarily do so. If we hear from someone who has been in our office or in contact with us that they have tested positive for the virus, we will consult with local health officials about what steps to take to protect our staff, clients, and others we work with.

All personal information we obtain from clients or others about testing positive will remain protected within our secure data protection system, except to the extent that we are required to report said information to health officials.

Court Appearances – the Changes

Last week, the New York Court authorities directed judges to minimize physical appearances in court and all non-essential court personnel to stay home. Any legal proceedings, such as oral arguments, scheduling conferences, settlement conferences, are directed to be conducted by telephone wherever possible or simply adjourned. Jury trials have been suspended indefinitely. We will do everything within our power to continue to prosecute cases for our clients as expeditiously as possible under this new reality.

We care

Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C. cares about your health and our own. We are doing everything possible to minimize the risk this virus poses to our team, clients, visitors, adversaries, and others. 

Stay safe!

Daniella Levi

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Social Media Posts: Crucial Ethic & Legal Considerations

Social media posts – What everyone should be aware of

On behalf of Daniella Levi of Daniella Levi & Associates, P.C. posted in Social media on Wednesday, June 8, 2016.

It has been estimated that Americans spend 20 percent of their free time on social media. When posting on social media, you should always remain aware that when posting, you are providing an opportunity for persons with adverse interests to yours to learn the most intimate information about you.

For example, when teenagers and/or college students post photographs of themselves partying, binge drinking, using illegal drugs or in compromising sexual poses, they should be aware that these posts may find their way into the hands of family, potential employers, school admission officers, romantic contacts, and others. Moreover, the content of a removed social media posting may continue to exist, on the poster’s computer, or in cyberspace in perpetuity.

In addition, when you are a litigant in a legal action, it may undermine yours position. For example, today, defense attorneys, rather than hire investigators to follow claimants with video cameras, may seek to locate YouTube videos or Facebook photos that depict a “disabled” plaintiff engaging in activities that are inconsistent with the claimed injuries. It is now common for attorneys and their investigators to seek to scour litigants’ social media pages for information and photographs. Demands for authorizations for access to password-protected portions of an opposing litigant’s social media sites are becoming routine.

Recent ethics opinions in New York have concluded that accessing a social media page open to all members of a public network is ethically permissible to lawyers. However, they also concluded that there are no ethical constraints on advising clients to use the highest level of privacy/security settings that is available. Such settings will prevent adverse counsel (in a litigation context) from having direct access to the contents of the client’s social media pages, requiring them to request access through formal discovery channels.

The recent opinion also concluded that attorneys may properly review a client’s social media pages, and advise that certain materials posted on a client’s social media page may be used against the client for impeachment or similar purposes so long as the lawyer does not advise to suppress evidence that the lawyer or the client has a legal obligation to reveal or produce.

In conclusion, don’t forget that EVERYTHING you post on social media will forever remain there. If you want to maintain your life private, set your privacy setting on the highest level and take a moment to think about what you are posting and how it may impact your life down the road.

It’s a bell you cannot un-ring!

For all correspondence, please use the Queens office address.

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