I hate to break it to you, but despite all the cute auto insurance ads on TV, insurance companies are not “nice guys”. At least not if you were injured through the negligence of their insured. You have to understand this very important fact right from the get-go: In personal…
I recently posted a blog about New York’s top Court’s recent ruling that New York personal injury plaintiffs can win “summary judgment” against defendants without proving that the plaintiff was blameless for his own injury. The rule previously, in most courts, was that the plaintiff could not get summary judgment…
\ Just in case you were wondering (and I’m sure you were), the photo on the left is what eleven years of litigation looks like. I have blogged about this case before: It took me eleven and a half years to finally get justice for nine Guatemalan and Mexican migrant…
As a New York personal injury lawyer, my job is to fight my hardest on behalf of each and every one of my clients. And so I do. But I would be lying if I said I liked all my clients to the same degree. Just like teachers have their…
I know I have blogged about this topic before, but after several years of blogging, you can’t help but repeat yourself sometimes. Still, every time I discuss some aspect of New York personal injury law, I tackle it from a slightly different angle. So here goes. When will your New…
I just read an article in the New York Times about a woman charged with stealing her 11-year-old daughter’s medical malpractice settlement to pay for liposuction, a “tummy tuck” procedure, online shopping, plane tickets, restaurant bills – you name it. She was using her child’s settlement money like her own…
Seal of the State of New York Here is a letter I recently wrote to a client who suffered a serious injury caused by the negligence of the State of New York. I’ll call my client “Joe”, though that’s not his real name: Dear Joe: You asked why the State…
Here at Michaels Bersani Kalabanka, on any given day, you are likely to find, on our attorneys’ desks, piles of dog-eared, highlighted, and marked-up volumes of the New York Jury Verdict Reporter. The Reporter summarizes jury verdicts on a weekly basis from around New York State. (Actually, this publication is…
New York personal injury lawyers like me get this question all the time. The answer is complex, but explaining complex things to judges, juries and clients, is what we do for a living. We are essentially in the “communication” business. So here goes: Most often it is not a…
A first offer from an insurance adjuster is like the first kiss on a date: It usually leads to something more substantial. At least that’s my experience (recently in law, and a long time ago in dating). Yes, I have plenty of recent experience (more than 20 years) in New…