Central New York Injury Lawyer Blog
Honest New York personal injury lawyers like myself abhor dishonest personal injury claimants. They give our honest clients, and us, a bad name. Many people already assume, wrongly, that personal injury claimants exaggerate or completely fake their injuries. One true story about a fraudulent personal injury claim gives the whole profession a black eye.
I have represented hundreds of Central New York and Syracuse personal injury claimants over the years, and I can count on one hand those who were faking (and with my long experience representing personal injury victims, I can tell!). When I discover the deceit, I quickly sever the relationship. Even if I did not discover the deceit, the personal injury claim process would eventually, in almost all cases, reveal it. An insurance carrier’s thorough investigation, or the harsh light of a deposition, usually brings the lie into focus.
In my experience, most personal injury fakers are also stupid. And dishonesty mixed with stupidity can easily backfire. Here’s a good example:
The Syracuse Post Standard reports today that an Auburn man was charged with insurance fraud for faking a slip-and-fall personal injury accident in a Central New York convenience store last January. The man purposely poured soda on the floor and then lay there until customers, and then employees of the store, found him. He later filed an insurance claim against the store, alleging he suffered a back injury in the “fall”.
How do the authorities know he faked it? His actions were all filmed on the store’s surveillance camera. Pretty stupid. Don’t most people know that surveillance cameras are almost everywhere these days? The only smart thing this guy did was withdrew his insurance claim after learning he had been caught on camera.
I hope the authorities “throw the book” at him. His crime harmed the store, the store’s insurance carrier, and my law firm’s clients. We try Auburn and Central New York personal injury cases. When we are picking our next jury, we will have to assume that many of the potential jurors have read this story. Will they be looking at our client as another possible faker? Yes! So we will have to work doubly hard to convince them that our client has a legitimate claim.
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