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Auburn New York Personal Injury Lawyers Move!

June 10, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

Your favorite (we hope) Central New York personal injury lawyers are moving! Not far. A stone’s throw — well maybe a sling shot — away. Our new address is 17 East Genesee Street in Auburn. We’re on the fourth floor, but there’s an elevator. Starting Monday, June 13, that’s where you’ll find us.

Same phone and fax. Still in lovely Auburn, New York. Still handling all types of New York personal injury and medical malpractice cases. Same four “super” lawyers. Same great staff. Same great service, and we expect the same great results.

Why are we moving? More efficient space, better parking, better location. The old office, an 1830’s home, was charming with its high ceilings, thick molding, faux marble fireplaces, and so on. And we’d been there for about 25 years. But, those heating bills were killing us, maintenance was tough to keep up with, and the space was very inefficient.

U.S. Tort Reformers Want Us To Follow Japan’s Example On Compensating Innocent People Injured By Corporate Negligence

April 16, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

Warning: I am going to rail against tort reform again. Not the first time. Since it is my job as a Central and Syracuse New York personal injury lawyer to protect injured victims’ rights to full compensation, you can bet I am vehemently opposed to “tort reform”, which I call “tort deform”. So here goes my latest rant:

Don’t like American tort law? Think juries are too generous to injured plaintiffs? Then you should move to Japan where they know how to deal with people whose lives are ruined by the negligence of rich corporations.

Case in point: The operator of Japan’s nuclear plant, which has been spewing radioactivity since the earthquake and tsunami struck, said Friday it would pay $12,000 to each family forced to evacuate the area. Nearly 140,000 people are living in shelters. They left with almost nothing but the clothes on their back. These people not only lost their homes, but their livelihoods — they can’t return to their jobs because of the radiation threat. And for that, hey, $12,000, per family.

Facebook Case Has Lessons For New York Personal Injury Lawyers And Claimants

April 12, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

I just read about the Federal Appellate Court Decision deciding that the Winklevoss twins, who famously sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg claiming he had “stolen” their idea for Facebook, could not undo their settlement with Zuckerberg and go after him for more money (they settled for only $64 million). The twins alleged in the suit that Zuckerberg defrauded them in the settlement by not disclosing the true value of Facebook. The Appellate Court was having none of it. The Court pointed out that the twins were represented by a lawyer, and they signed a release releasing Zuckerberg forever from any liability to them.

I know what you’re thinking — what does this have to do with New York personal injury law? After all, isn’t that what this blog is about? How the heck is Bersani going to tie the Facebook decision into his Central New York personal injury lawyer blog?

Glad you asked. There’s a lesson in this case for all New York personal injury lawyers, but especially their clients: Very, very carefully consider a settlement before you sign a release. If your signature is on it, it is going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to undo it. You can scream all day that you didn’t read it, you didn’t understand it, your lawyer tricked you into signing it, your lawyer gave you bad advice, the other side did not tell you all the facts, etc. But in all but the rarest of instances, you will be stuck with it.

Finger Lakes New York Personal Injury Lawyer Response to Article About Personal Injury Lawyers “Eyeing” Future Local Shale Gas Drilling

April 6, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

A web article I stumbled upon jumped off my computer screen at me today. It was titled “Plaintiffs lawyers eyeing Marcellus Shale Work.” My first thought: “Gee, I am a New York personal injury lawyer located right in the Marcellus Shale zone, so how come I am not ‘eyeing’ the future Marcellus Shall Work”. Next thought: “Hey, that hydrofracking work will be dangerous, workers will get hurt, they will need New York personal injury lawyers to represent them, so gosh, maybe I should be ‘eyeing’ the Marcellus shale work”. Next thought: “Don’t want people getting hurt, and besides, it’s going to be messy for our environment up here, so thanks but no thanks”.

All those thoughts streamed through my brain in about 3 seconds, before I even got to the first word of the article. Then I read it. A personal injury lawyer out of Pennsylvania somewhere was quoted as saying that the Marcellus Shale drilling would cause “horrendous injuries” because of all the gas and liquid under high pressure carried through pipelines, stored in big tanks, and ejected underground at high pressure. Drill rigs are notoriously dangerous. Toxic gas leaks burn workers and gas rigs explode. Big tanker trucks cause motor vehicle accidents on narrow local roadways.

OMG! Parade of horribles. Well, he convinced me: the Shale gas drilling, or “hydrofracking” as it’s called, if it ever happens up here, will be good for the personal injury law business. Unfortunately, it probably will, if it goes forward, produce a fair number of serious injuries and deaths. And I am sure that many of the injured and the families of the dead will find their way to our law office since we are well regarded in the personal injury field and, I believe, the only law firm located in our area of the Finger Lakes that limits its practices almost exclusively to New York personal injury cases.

The Governor Is About To Commit Medical Malpractice On Our Justice System!

March 17, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

Let’s say a doctor carelessly performs eye surgery on you. As a result of his negligence, your vision is impaired for life. You are only 30, so you have a long life of impaired vision in front of you. You hire a New York medical malpractice lawyer and take him to Court. What should fair compensation be to you for the doctor’s malpractice? Well, if the impairment isn’t so bad, if glasses can mostly correct it, maybe $250,000?

Now let’s say the same doctor carelessly performs the same operation on you, but this time blinds you for life. Darkness surrounds you for the next 50 years. You’ll never see your kids or wife again. You’ll only hear them. What’s fair compensation for your anguish, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of all the things a seeing person can do for the next 50 years of your life?

According to Governor Cuomo’s proposed fiscal budget, $250,000. Same as if your vision had merely been impaired. That’s called a medical malpractice “non-enconomic award cap” (a/k/a a “med mal cap”). It’s also called a travesty of justice.

Central New York Injury Lawyer Prepares For Trial

March 13, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

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.

Central and Syracuse NY Personal Injury Lawyer Gets The Boot!

March 5, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

This Central and Syracuse New York personal injury lawyer got the boot! Yes, a client fired me! Why was I fired? Before I explain why, let me explain a little bit about the nature of what I do.

At any given time, I am handling about 100 cases. Many of those cases, however, are in the “pre-suit” stage. This means we are following the client’s medical progress, but are not yet ready to make a personal injury settlement demand. Why not? Because until the client is finished treating, or has reached a maximum level of medical improvement, we don’t know how much the case is worth. If the client is going to have a permanent injury, the case is worth more, and if it is a serious permanent injury, it is worth more still. Conversely, if she is going to reach a 100% recovery, the case is worth less. But the doctor can’t give us a “permanency” evaluation until the client is done treating or has reached maximum medical improvement, which can sometimes take more than a year and a half.

So in many cases, there is almost nothing we can do, except collect medical records, until a year or more has gone by. Here’s how we handle this with our clients: When we first meet with them, we explain this could take quite a while, depending on how their treatment goes. We explain that the doctors, not the lawyers, determine when their case is “ripe” for settlement. We even have a provision in our retainer agreement that tells the client we do not know how long the case will take and that it depends on their doctors.

Central New York Personal Injury Lawyer Takes a “Fan’s” Call

February 26, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

I’ve got a “fan”! She called yesterday and told me she had subscribed to my Central New York personal injury lawyer blog a few months ago and enjoys reading my posts. She thinks I write nicely, clearly, and my posts help her understand New York personal injury law. She even forwards some of my blog posts to her friends and family. Nice compliment!

But that’s not why she called. She wanted advice. Before subscribing to my blog, she had hired a Syracuse New York personal injury lawyer to represent her for injuries she had suffered in an accident. She had some questions about how this lawyer was handling her case. She wanted to hire me to give her a second opinion. I told her I would not charge her. We then talked for about 10 minutes. I eased her mind about how her lawyer is handling her case. Her lawyer is doing a fine job, and his only shortcoming was perhaps a failure to explain clearly certain aspects of the case to her. She was grateful to me. I made a new friend!

Unfortunately, some New York personal injury lawyers would have seized on this opportunity to “bad-mouth” the client’s lawyer so they could take over the case. That’s not right, and not fair. Her Syracuse personal injury lawyer is a darn good one. And he is doing a darn good job, I am sure. I am not so conceited to think that Michaels Bersani Kalabanka is the only excellent Central or Syracuse New York personal injury law firm. (But, if you ask anyone who knows, you will hear we are among the best!)

New Rule In New York Meant To Eliminate Judicial Bias From Election Campaign Donations May Have Unintended Consequences

February 14, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

Yesterday I blogged about tCentral and Syracuse New York personal injury law firm, has a list of judges they feel favor the insurance companies and corporations over their injured clients. It’s not that they intend to favor them; it’s just in their blood. For whatever reason, they are by nature less sympathetic to injured plaintiffs and more sympathetic to the corporations and insurance companies being sued. Those judges seem to pretty consistently rule in favor of corporate and insurance company defendants, and against the injured plaintiff, at least on close calls.

What if we, at the personal injury law firm of Michaels Bersani Kalabanka, wanted to disqualify those judges from hearing our injured clients’ cases? Under this new rule, all we would have to do is donate $2,500 every two years to the re-election campaigns of each of the perceived “bad” judges on our list. Those judges would then always be precluded from hearing our cases. By default, our cases will be assigned only to judges to whom we haven’t contributed $2,500, that is, the good judges, the ones we like. Ironically, we would get the “good” judges we want for our cases by funding only the “bad” ones’ re-elections.

I am sure this is not what the rule-makers had in mind when they made this rule. But is it too far-fetched to think that some lawyers will make the rule work in their favor by funding the campaigns of judges they don’t want to appear in front of? I think not.

Silence is Golden — NOT! — Central and Syracuse New York Accident Lawyer Explains.

February 13, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

Mum’s the word.

As a Central and Syracuse New York accident lawyer, I religiously read the New York Times and other newspapers for news that affects my law practice. Today I read in the New York Times that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has not spoken for almost five years at oral argument in Court! He has not asked a single question of the many lawyers who appear before the highest Court in the land to argue cases. By contrast, many of his colleagues on the bench pepper lawyers with tough, piercing questions “right out of the box” (as soon as they start their argument).

So what’s better, a quiet judge or an inquisitive one? As a Central and Syracuse New York personal injury lawyer who argues appeals in Courts all over New York State, I have learned to appreciate the talkative type. Why? Because the questions usually tell me what problems the judge is having in adopting my reasoning. If I know the concerns he or she has, I can then customize my oral argument to try to get that judge past his or her mental roadblocks to ruling in my favor.