The biggest single change for 2013 in New York personal injury law is, without a doubt, the Uniform Notice of Claim Act, which Governor Cuomo has signed into law on December 20. It’s a real game changer. Let me explain. Until now, New York public entities (counties, cities, towns, villages,…
You get hurt. Your first thoughts are about getting medical care. You aren’t thinking about calling this Central New York personal injury lawyer or filing a lawsuit. You’re not “the suing type”, you say. But several weeks later, when you realize you may be stuck with this injury for the…
As 2012 comes to a close, it’s time to look back on this year’s successes at the Central New York personal injury law office of Michaels Bersani Kalabanka. Yes, we’re proud of our victories. They have allowed us to truly help people, people we have come to care about, people…
I recently blogged about a new nationwide trend to criminalize “drowsy driving”. Caffeine-crazed prosecutors around the country are going after sleep-deprived drivers who doze off at the wheel on criminal charges including manslaughter and other serious felonies. (The prosecutorial equivalent of pouring cold water on sleepy drivers.) Could YOU end…
Just read an article in the New York Times titled, “Push to Prosecute Drowsy Driving May Hinge on Its Definition“. Before I discuss this article, I need to make a confession: I’ve done it. I have driven drowsy. I’ve felt myself nodding off at the wheel. It has happened a…
A lawyer friend of one of my partners called him yesterday to tell him that, while in a telephone conversation with one of the judges who sits in the Appellate Court in Rochester (Fourth Department), the judge asked him if he knew Michael Bersani (me). He responded, “sure, I know…
Today a driver was seriously injured when she careened over an embankment at a sharp curve on Lakeshore Road, near Ontario Ave, in Cicero, near the edge of Oneida Lake. Some witnesses say the car was going too fast, but a neighbor was quoted in the paper saying the curve…
Life is full of surprises. I got one yesterday. A client suffered a very bad injury from tripping on a sidewalk defect in a village near Geneva, New York (I won’t name names!). Normally, trip-and-fall on sidewalk cases are nearly impossible to win because of a special law that protects…
I read in Syracuse.com yesterday that a 37-year old man, Lateef Haskins, died Friday in a construction accident when he fell from the scaffold he was working from. He was working for a subcontractor on a job renovating the State University College of Oswego. The article went on to say…
One great thing about being a personal injury trial lawyer, whether in New York or elsewhere, is that you can keep improving, keep getting better, keep honing your skills, forever. Recently I have been listening to lectures by some of the best New York trial lawyers, as well as great…