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When you’re a personal injury lawyer, you need lawyer-friends to bounce ideas off of, friends who will listen, critique you, play devil’s advocate, and just plain tell you when you are wrong. This profession is more of an art than a science, and to get it right, you need feedback, advice, and sometimes just a pep talk.

Here’s a good example of a case you need friends on, one of the toughest my career. The case was full of legal and factual intricacies that befuddled and confounded not only the lawyers, but judges and their clerks. The trial judge at one point dismissed the case because he felt it was not “actionable” (the law did not allow it), but I appealed, the appellate court agreed with me, and allowed the case to stand, even though it was the first of its kind to be brought (you can read the decision here).

Then the trial judge dismissed another piece of the case, and I again appealed, and again the appellate court ruled in my favor, though a dissenting justice would have affirmed the trial judge (you can read the decision here).

You might find this hard to believe, but my Central New York injury law blog attracts responses and inquiries not just locally, but from afar, too. From how far? Well, for example, in just the last few weeks, I have been contacted by readers in the Philippines, California and Canada, about family members who were injured or killed here in New York State. I have even heard from Europe a few times.

Yes, I receive lots of emails, both from far and near, many asking me to represent them in a New York personal injury, medical malpractice, or personal injury matter. Unfortunately, I can’t take all those cases. In many cases, after exploring the facts with my new “pen pal”, I learn that the case is weak, or that the injury is too minor to make a lawsuit financially viable. But in every case, I try to give my new friend something for his or her trouble in writing me — at the very least a good explanation as to why I think their case is not worth pursuing. And often, they thank me for that.

And by the way, the very first thing I always say when I respond to an email inquiry is “Thanks for writing!”. Even if I can’t accept the case, it is rewarding to know that someone out there is reading these posts! So come on, don’t be shy, just tap me a line or two!

Nothing brings Auburn and Cayuga County, NY, together like an attack from outside forces. Just as the ancient Greek city-states came together to fend off attacks from their ancient common enemy, Persia, all of Auburn and Cayuga County recently united to fend off an attack by the National Texas-based Boy Scouts of America. And Michaels Bersani Kalabanka is proud of its role in that battle. Here’s what happened, and what we did about it:

The Texas-based Boy Scouts of America forced the Auburn-based local Cayuga County Council Boy Scouts to “merge” with a larger local council, “Long House” Council, which occupies Onondaga County and other territories to our north. As part of the “merger”, the Texas-based Scouts were forcing the transfer all the Cayuga County Council’s assets to Long House Council, taking them out of local control. One gem-of-an asset was “Camp Rotary”, a 33-acre camp located on the east side of Owasco Lake and used by local scouts since 1910. It was clear, and neither the cash-strapped National Scouts nor the equally economically distressed Long House Council denied it, that once they acquired Camp Rotary, they intended to sell it off to developers for cash. To make matters worse, Camp Rotary sits right next to the Auburn YMCA’s “Camp Owasco” and the local Girl Scout Camp. Those groups were not anxious to have development so close by.

So the not-for-profits and good citizens of Cayuga County and Auburn bound their forces to fend off the attack, with the battle cry, “Save Camp Rotary”! Local leaders came to Michaels Bersani Kalabanka looking for legal representation for the local not-for-profit which held title to Camp Rotary, the Owasco Camp Association. Michaels Bersani Kalabanka took on the case, stood up to the big national Scouts in Court, and after a year and a half of tough-fought litigation, helped negotiate a settlement that culminated in Auburn’s YMCA acquiring the Camp for a relatively small sum of money – $350,000 (it is easily worth over $1 million). It is now saved forever for local youth use! You can read several news reports about the battle here, here and here.

As the presidential election campaign heats up, I thought you might want to know where we New York personal injury lawyers stand. Do we favor democrats, like Obama, or Republican like _______ (fill in the blank)?

I won’t give you a bunch of crap about us being impartial. We favor democrats hands down. Why? Among other reasons, because many republicans are in favor of

Guess what? Your Central and Syracuse New York Accident lawyer/blogger has a life (I mean, outside of law). So for today’s blog, I am giving my readers a peek at my life.

I love children, all children really, but especially my own. Here’s a picture of me volunteering with Boys & Girls Club kids in Geneva — taking them all for a swim (I do this Friday’s after work from November through May).

Now below is a picture of me with my own kids. These kids (Sebastian, 15, and Nico, almost 13) are the best kids on the planet (am I biased?), and not only that, they are stellar students. They became top-notch readers when they found the Harry Potter series years ago. So we are big-time indebted to Harry and his pals.

It’s nice to be appreciated. And sometimes clients who appreciate my work write online “reviews” of me. I was flattered and honored to read the following review of my work from a client whose case I recently tried. Here is her review of my work from the attorney rating and review website “AVVO“:

Mike Bersani recently represented me in a personal injury lawsuit, which resulted in a settlement on the fourth day of the trial. In meeting with Mike several times before the trial, I sensed he was a competent, kind, intelligent person. On the first day, jury selection, it was obvious what a remarkable individual he is. Not only is he intelligent but he is also one of the most respectful and kind attorneys I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I am in the law enforcement profession and routinely work with attorneys. Mike is in a class by himself. He regarded the court attendants, jurors, witnesses, for both sides, and other attorneys with the utmost kindness and respect. He demonstrated integrity and class in the courtroom. I was extremely impressed by his knowledge of my accident. He knew my case as well as I did. On the fourth day of the trial, a settlement was reached. There were two Defendants in this case, and Mike was able to reach settlements with both parties. One of the Defendants offered a settlement on the first day of the trial, but Mike’s awesome presentation of the case resulted in their offer increasing, daily. By the fourth day, both parties were eager to settle for an amount that was considered fair. I am proud to tell others about this amazing attorney and would highly recommend him.

All of us at Michaels Bersani Kalabanka aim to keep every single client completely satisfied with our services. We appreciate the kind words and devotion of our former clients, and we look forward to satisfying our future clients.

In the Watertown New York personal injury jury trial I wrapped up this week, I used some technology that I feel really made a difference. It is called “Exhibit View“, and is a kind of trial presentation software. You load this program onto your laptop, and then connect your laptop to a projector. You then can project exhibits, for example photos and medical records, onto a screen for the jury to see.

The neat thing is that all the jury sees on the big screen is the exhibit itself, not all the paraphernalia you are using to enlarge, mark and move the exhibits. For example, when you want to highlight a portion of the text in the exhibit, or circle it in red ink, the jury sees the highlighting or red circling magically appear on the screen. They don’t see you “grab” the highlighter icon or red “pen” and move them over the text. Only you can see the “tools” you are using on your laptop screen.

Here’s an example of how I used it: After the defense attorney had cross-examined my plaintiff regarding a “history” of the accident taken by one of her doctors that was inconsistent with her testimony about how the accident happened, I did a re-direct of her in which I blew up on the screen, one at time, about five entries from other medical records where the “history” accurately reflected my client’s account. I was able to highlight, before the jury’s eyes, the key entries giving the accurate accounting of the accident. My client testified that each of the entries I was highlighting accurately reflected how the accident happened. So now it became visibly clear that the one “rogue” account of the accident, which defense counsel had made so much of, was due to the doctor’s error rather than my client changing her story.

I just emerged from a week-long personal injury trial in Watertown, Jefferson County, New York. The defendants who injured my client had offered us only about 1/5 of what we felt the value of the case was, so we took it to trial.

Every day, as our proof went in, defendants’ offer increased, as we held firm to our number. Yesterday, the second-to-last day of trial, they finally offered us what we had told them the case was worth all along. Case settled.

I would like to think that this result had something to do with my courtroom skills, but the truth is it had more to do with an appealing client and appalling defendants. She is an honest, hardworking single mom who struggled to overcome an injury that was not her fault. They shot themselves in the foot by refusing to accept responsibility for clear negligence on their part.