Yesterday, early evening, a fire broke out at a house on Three Rivers Road in Wilbraham. 
The investigation into the cause continues today.
An elderly occupant and toddler were able to flee the house fire.
Firefighters had to shut down Three Rivers Road, starting with Circle Drive down to Boston Road.
This evening, a 3-year-old Woburn boy was submerged underwater in a swimming pool and lost his life. Woburn law enforcement officials were dispatched to the boy’s home on Marlbourough Road close to 5:00 p.m. in response to a 911 report about a child that could not be located. 
When the officers arrived at the home, they learned the boy had been missing for over an hour. When the police entered the property, the boy’s body was located in the swimming pool behind the house. There was nothing on top of the pool, and it contained foliage but was not full to the top with water.
The toddler was not conscious when retrieved from the pool. He was immediately transported to Burlington’s Lahey Hospital where he was officially declared dead at 9 p.m due to drowning.
According to the Massachusetts State Police and Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, the boy was likely in the pool for quite some time. Due to the toddler’s age, his identity will remain private. There is an ongoing investigation.
Residents of a Forest Park neighborhood in Springfield woke up Monday morning to a fallen tree. The tree smashed into a 1993 Honda Civic, a house at 
23 Vermont Street, and took down city wires. The house on Vermont Street will be reviewed by inspectors of the Department of Code Enforcement for habitability.
Falling tree accidents cause hundreds of fatalities each year in this country, and far more than that in injuries. Injuries suffered from a falling tree can result in litigation against the property owner in certain situations. The owner of the tree or land on which the tree stood, had a duty to maintain the land and tree in a safe condition. A victim of a falling tree can sue a landowner if it can be shown that the victim was welcomed on the property by the landowner and if the landowner had reason to believe that harm was possible from its tree falling.
Half a dozen individuals were removed from their apartments in Chicopee in the early hours of Monday, April 16th due to fire. The Chicopee Fire 
Department discovered that the fire started in the back of one of the top units from an electrical problem. The State Fire Marshal’s Office was also involved in the investigation.
First responders arrived at the scene at 517 McKinstry Avenue to find that all the occupants fled the burning building. The roof of the building was compromised in the fire. It took almost an hour for the fire to be tamed, and firefighters completely quenched the fire after multiple hours. The fire fight and clean up were handled by Holyoke, Springfield and Westover Air Reserve Base fire departments, although the bulk of the fight was handled by Chicopee firefighters.
The Pioneer Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross has come to the aid of the apartment occupants.
In a case from the Arkansas Supreme Court, the plaintiff filed several causes of action in civil court against the defendants for claims related to injuries that occurred in the scope of his employment. These claims were fairly typical employment-based personal injury claims, such as negligent supervision and negligent retention of a store manager.
Essentially, unless there was intentional conduct, such as assault or a kidnapping (false imprisonment), the vast majority of claims filed in a civil lawsuit are filed under a theory of negligence. There are many different types of negligence, but the main different is what type of negligent (careless) conduct the defendant is alleged to have engaged in that resulted in a serious personal injury to one or more plaintiffs. Continue reading
While everyone is familiar with the video sharing site YouTube, you may not be aware that some people have formed bands that are popular enough to attract fans to concerts they promote themselves via social media. According to a recent news feature from New York Magazine, two 16-year-old twins who have been making music videos online decided to hold a concert for their fans.
Their fans consist mainly of girls between the ages of 11 and 15. Their concert was held at a venue they booked, and, at one point during the show, one of the teen performers decided to take his shirt off to show off his abs to his screaming fans. Witnesses say fans were so excited by the performer taking his shirt off that they started to basically stampede towards the stage to get a better look, and that resulted in 28 people being injured. Continue reading
Carlson v. Town of South Kingstown, a case from the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, involved a plaintiff who was injured at local little league game. According to court records, the plaintiff went to a little league game at a field maintained by the town. She was there to watch her son play in the baseball game.
Plaintiff had been standing at a chain link fence that separated her son’s team’s dugout from the batting cage where pitchers could warm up during the game, so she could see what was happening. After the game, when she went to meet her son in the dugout, she testified that she felt her foot fall into a hole or divot in the ground. When her foot fell into the hole, she suffered three separate fractures in one leg. Continue reading
Slip and fall accidents can happen anytime. They can happen in stores when the management negligently fails to clean up a spill or mark the area with a wet floor sign, and they can happen when a tile or section of concrete is left in a state of disrepair that causes someone to trip. However, in the winter we tend to see many more slip and fall accidents occurring outside when someone slips on snow or ice.
In some cases, an outdoor slip and fall is simply nobody’s fault. In other cases, the city should have plowed better, and in other cases, the accident is to blame on the negligence of a shop or business owner that had a duty to clear the snow and ice in their parking lot, but failed to do so. This could be considered negligence and the basis for a personal injury lawsuit. Continue reading
During the holiday season, consumers like to hit the malls to find the perfect gifts for loved ones. Unfortunately, holiday shopping can be stressful on the body. While there are some risks from lifting heavy items and carrying stacked shopping bags, the biggest dangers occur when stores and shopping malls don’t have effective safety plans and protocols in place. 
Stores and malls can be held accountable in situations where there is an injury caused by negligence. Consumers need to know their rights and must be aware of the risks associated with holiday shopping so they can stay safe throughout the season.
Rapper Rick Ross is in the news again with more legal trouble. This time his trouble is not related to criminal charges filed against him for assault and kidnapping involving an alleged pistol whipping incident. According to recent news report form Gossip Extra, Ross and his mother are being sued as co-defendants for an alleged slip and fall injury that occurred in his mother’s Florida home.
The plaintiff said the injury occurred in 2011, and he is now filing a lawsuit because of the claimed tremendous pain he suffered when he tripped on the rail of an iron gate on the property. There is no mention as of yet for why plaintiff waited so long to file his claim and whether there are any issues with the statute of limitations. Continue reading
Boston Personal Injury Attorney Blog