Lawyer ads! Godda luv’m: I’ve blogged about lawyer advertising before. It is an unfortunate necessity, at least for New York personal injury lawyers. We do very little of it compared to the “big advertisers” in Central New York, and we try to do it in a dignified, serious manner. You have to enjoy the humor, though, of those that take the opposite approach. So enjoy these lawyer ads, and don’t miss the rappin’ lawyer at the end:
Keep safe!
I hate legal advertising. But for a New York personal injury lawyer these days, even the best, it’s tough to get by without advertising, at least some. That’s because a few lawyers have bombarded the airwaves, TV included, and billboards, with catchy names and easy-to-remember phone numbers. A lot of injured folks know those ads and numbers by heart, and the easiest thing to do when they are injured is to dial one of those numbers instead of investigating who the best lawyer for them might be.
For example, one Rochester New York personal injury lawyer has played off his surname, “Mattar”, because it rhymes with “car”. So if you are hurt in a car, call William Mattar.
I’m not so lucky. My surname, “Bersani“, does not rhyme with “car”. But hey — it DOES kinda rhyme with Ferrari. So what about an ad, “if you are hurt in a Ferrari, call Mike Bersani“. The problem is there are not enough Ferraris in central New York where I practice personal injury law. Should I move to Greenwich Connecticut?
The “Creepy Jury Stalker” story, straight from my hometown, Syracuse, New York, has gone “viral”. The New York Law Journal covered it, and so did the American Bar Association Journal not to mention the Syracuse Post Standard.
Now an even more important news source is covering it: Me.
The backdrop to the story is a dental malpractice trial in Onondaga County Supreme Court. The insurer for the defendant dental practice was AIG, the same AIG which helped collapse the global economy in 2008. I guess their fifteen minutes of fame infamy back then wasn’t enough, and they have come back to the trough for more.
One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. Likewise, a few greedy lawyers can make all lawyers look bad. Here’s a prime example.
First some background. We New York personal injury lawyers generally charge a 1/3 contingency fee. Sometimes we work our asses off and the case goes south or we get a very small settlement or verdict. Cases that look good at the start can quickly sour when the other side pulls out its evidence. In those cases our per-hour fee can end up being a buck hour or less.
On the other hand, sometimes we get a great result for not-so-much work, and can earn a huge hourly fee. It all evens out in the end and we make a decent living, even a very good one if we are very good at what we do (we are!).
I’m proud to report that Michaels Bersani Kalabanka has once again been honored by U.S. News & World Report as a “Tier 1” National Best Law Firm for our area of expertise, that is, New York personal injury law.
The 2014 rankings were announced November 1 of 2013. This prestigious national recognition — recognizing that we are among the best in the nation at what we do — not only honors us for being good, it might even make us BETTER at what we do! How?
Insurance defense firms and insurance adjusters who sit on the other side of our cases — and who aren’t familiar with the high quality of our work already — might take notice that they are dealing with a top notch firm that gets top results, and may thus be more inclined to settle with our clients at top dollar without a need for trial.
President Obama reportedly told Syria, in sum or substance, “if you use chemical weapons on your people, we will use punish you militarily”.
Then Syria used chemical weapons on its people. But instead of inflicting military damage on Damascus, as promised, Obama hemmed, hawed, asked his allies what they thought, asked Congress what it thought, etc.
So what happens the next time the U.S. says to a dictator, “if you do x, we will do y”? What does an empty threat do to our credibility for future negotiations?
Next Tuesday I’ll be jumping on a plane to Central America. But I won’t be on vacation. I’ll be representing my Guatemalan clients as they get deposed, remotely, by video, from Syracuse, NY. There’ll be an interpreter with us.
How did I end up in Guatemala on a case? That story made the front page of the New York Law Journal and the Syracuse Post Standard. I blogged about that here.
Technology has changed every aspect of law practice. A few decades ago, what is about to transpire would have been impossible. Your Central NY injury lawyer will be sitting next to his clients in Guatemala City while insurance defense lawyers in Syracuse New York ask them questions by video. We will see those lawyers on the screen, and they will see my clients. They will be face to face. It’s kind of like Star Trek. “Beam me up, Scotty”! The video of my clients will later be presented to the jury.
I recently blogged about our paralegal Ellen Williams’ retirement after twenty eight years of outstanding service. Although Ellen is, in our view, irreplaceable, we nevertheless did our best in trying to replace her.
We believe we hit the mark with Mary Jones. In the photograph above she is at the Zonta Club of Auburn Women’s Golf Tournament (which this law firm sponsored).
Mary comes to us with a long history in the “justice business”. She was a paralegal in real estate law for seven years, in bankruptcy law for 5 years, and at the Cayuga County District Attorney’s Office for twelve years. She was also clerk for the Cayuga County Legislature for five years.
A lawyer’s godda geddaway sometimes. But can you ever REALLY get away from your work?
Last week was spring break for my boys, so I took one of them, shown here with me, to Boston. (Actually, we were there to take my mother to see some specialists, but that’s another story . . .). While there, we jumped on the Boston Duck Tour. That’s an amphibious tour bus — the same bus that wheels you through the streets of Boston eventually plunges into, and then puts around in, the Boston harbor. See picture below.
As a Central New York personal injury lawyer, I see a lot of accidents, and it seems like a lot of them happen on holidays. Where others see fun I see disaster. And getting on a tour bus destined to drive into the Boston harbor was not exactly a tonic to my accident-phobia.
Sometimes when I read newspaper accounts of other personal injury lawyers’ cases I wonder why those lawyers bothered to take them. While I wouldn’t call them frivolous, they just don’t make economic sense. How can you make a living taking those kinds of cases?
Case on point. Disney World’s “It’s a Small World” ride gets stuck. While most riders are evacuated right away, a paraplegic (from a prior injury), who is difficult to remove, is left on the ride for 30 minutes while “It’s a Small World” blares over and over again.
He sues Disney in Federal Court, claiming they should have called firefighters to evacuate him along with the others. He claims his high blood pressure and tendency toward panic attacks were aggravated as he sat in the boat listening over and over again to “It’s a Small World”. How much money would you give him? What’s his case worth?
Central New York Injury Lawyer Blog