In case you haven’t noticed — and gee, I sure hope you have — I have not been blogging much lately. Why not? Take a guess: Am I Sick? Sick of blogging? On vacation? On vacation from blogging?
Nope. None of the above. I have been preparing for a Jefferson County, New York personal injury trial, which is coming up very soon. It is hard to find time for blogging about New York personal injury law all while gearing up for a New York personal injury trial. In fact, it is hard to find time for almost anything when you are preparing for a week-long jury trial. The key to putting on a good trial, to presenting your client’s case well, can be summed up in three words: preparation, preparation, preparation. And that takes time, lots of it.
Two of my partners are also busy preparing for trial. While most personal injury cases these days settle out of court, some, of course, don’t. The insurance company does not always want to pay a reasonable settlement. To put it more bluntly, they try to screw you! When that happens, the only way to force them to pay what’s fair is to go to a jury. We just happen to have several cases right now where the insurance company won’t listen to reason. Hey, when it rains it pours.
By the way, we only go to trial when the client wants to. We always give them the option of taking the less-than-reasonable offer that is on the table, or taking off the gloves and going to court.
Without meaning to disparage other law firms, I believe some of them, even good ones, don’t always give their client a real choice. They pretty much decide whether to go to trial without client input.
And there are other law firms, not good ones, that never go to trial, and always take the last offer on the table. Sooner or later the insurance companies realize they are paper tigers, and then always low-ball their settlement offers to those firms. Why should they pay more when they know those lawyers will take less to avoid trial?
Whether to go to trial should be a client’s choice. The lawyer’s job is to give all the relevant information to the client, including what a fair settlement is, so the client can make an informed decision.
Keep safe!
Mike Bersani
Email me at: bersani@mbk-law.com I’d love to hear from you!
Michael G. Bersani, Esq.
mbk-law.com
Central NY Personal Injury Lawyer Michaels Bersani Kalabanka
1-315-253-3293