Although entirely preventable, pediatric lead poisoning remains a major health problem in California and the United States. Children are lead poisoned when residential landlords fail to repair and maintain paint on pre-1978 housing. When that happens, lead-based paint, which is present on more than 80% of the nation’s older housing stock, ages and deteriorate. Toddlers and young children, the victim of pediatric lead poisoning, are exposed to and ingest lead contaminated dust through normal hand-to-mouth behavior. That’s exactly what happened to two young children Riley Ersoff LLP was called upon to represent when they lived in a deteriorated, cockroach ridden apartment building built in 1923 and owned by a major educational institution in Los Angeles.
Plaintiffs consisted of a single mother, her two young children, and their elderly grandmother. Both children were exhibiting signs of mild to severe autism forced to live in an apartment with visible peeling paint on the exterior and interior of the property. The children’s blood lead levels ranged from 5-9.5 mcg/dL – amounts considered “normal” only 20 years ago. Supported by years of science regarding the connection between autism, lead poisoning, and chronic toxic stress, Riley Ersoff LLP attorneys Grant Riley and Victoria Ersoff made it their mission to protect this young family and create what we all deserve – safe and habitable housing. These efforts paid off with an $8,000,000 settlement that has allowed the family to start fresh and provide their children with the speech therapy, behavioral therapy, and other support they so urgently need. As the lawyers at Riley Ersoff LLP repeatedly stated, had this landlord made ongoing efforts to repair and maintain the peeling paint at the property, plaintiffs would have never been lead poisoned. Changing lives one family at a time. That’s what we do.
