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David M. Fried, Partner, Blume, Goldfaden, Berkowitz, Donnelly, Fried & Forteo

David M. Fried, Partner, Blume, Goldfaden, Berkowitz, Donnelly, Fried & Forteo

David Fried is certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Civil Trial Attorney who focuses his practice on liability claims of those injured in falls and victims of lead poisoning. David has extensive experience representing workers injured because proper safety equipment was not provided on the job site.

In one such job site safety case, Mr. Fried represented a construction worker, who was injured while installing water pipes in a trench. The worker suffered pelvic and hip fractures when the trench collapsed. Mr. Fried settled this matter for $650,000.

Mr. Fried recently appealed a lower courts decision on behalf of the parents of an adopted child. The parents wanted to file a wrongful death suit against an anesthesiologist who caused the death of the baby. Because of the required waiting period for adoption, the family was unable to finalize the adoption until after the baby's death. But they did finalize it then in order to help them grieve, and to have the baby buried as a family member. The baby was part of their family from the age of 3 days until his death at the age of 4 months.

The Appellate Division Court ruled that the defendant physician was entitled to contest the posthumous adoption, and that the adoption was not valid, and dismissed the malpractice case against the defendant. The New Jersey Supreme Court, on appeal, ruled that the defendant physician lacked standing to contest the adoption, thus legitimizing the posthumous adoption, and paving the way for the family to pursue their malpractice case.

In another matter, Mr. Fried recently petitioned the New Jersy State Supreme Court representing a woman who suffered from a fear of contracting AIDS after she was pricked by a surgical knife improperly discarded in a physician's office. A lower court had dismissed the case. A decision of national significance was handed down; The New York Times called the ruling "a new standard for determining when a person is entitled to recover damages for emotional distress caused by a fear of contracting H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS." Mr. Fried will now proceed with a lawsuit against the doctors who own the medical office where the plaintiff pricked her finger.

Mr. Fried also heads the firm's lead poisoning section. He has handled hundreds of cases involving children eating lead-based paint that causes brain damage, which only shows up several years later.

A graduate of Rutgers University, (B.A. 1978; J.D. 1981), Mr. Fried is a Board Certified Civil Trial Attorney and a member of the ABOTA and the N.J. State Bar Civil Trial Committee. He also serves as an arbitrator in Middlesex and Essex counties.