Central New York Injury Lawyer Blog

In Bumpy Road For Plaintiff, Bumper Car Case Bumped (NY Injury Lawyer Explains).

January 2, 2013 | by Michael Bersani

I usual cheer for the injured plaintiff in lawsuits. I love it when wrong-doers and their insurance carriers get slammed for huge verdicts — hey, especially if it’s my case!. But every once in a while I root for the other side.

That’s how I felt about a California Supreme Court ruling that a bumper-car rider could not sue the amusement park for a broken wrist he suffered in a bumper car ride. The adult plaintiff was enjoying the bumper car ride when he was hit from the front and then from behind. She broke her wrist when she sought to brace herself on the car’s “dashboard”. A year after the accident, the amusement park owner added an island in the middle of the bumper car park — like those you see in most bumper car rides nowadays — to keep bumper car drivers headed in the same direction and minimize head-on collisions. The plaintiff’s lawyer argued, among other things, that this should have been done before his client’s accident.

The State’s highest court disagreed. It ruled that, by voluntarily engaging in the mock violence of low-speed collisions, bumper car riders assume the risks inherent that activity, just as people who play football or other sports assume the risks inherent in those sports. (We New York personal injury lawyers call this the “primary assumption of the risk doctrine” — see my prior blog post about it here.)

What’s New in New York Personal Injury Law in the New Year (2013)?

January 1, 2013 | by Michael Bersani

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, school districts, public authorities, fire districts, water districts, public libraries, etc.) have enjoyed disseminating a jungle of inconsistent procedural rules and time limits for starting personal injury lawsuits against them.

“Save That Evidence Or Else . . . !” Central New York Injury Lawyer Warns.

December 31, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

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 rest of your life, you start seething about the careless jerk who hurt you.

So you call me. Sure, you have a lot of questions, but so do I!

If you slipped and fell I am going to ask you, “do you still have the shoes you were wearing”. Why? I need those to disprove the almost certain defense that worn out or inappropriate footwear made you fall.

Central New York Personal Injury Law Firm’s Year In Review

December 15, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

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 we have stood beside through thick and thin from the day they were injured until the day, sometimes years later, they finally tasted sweet justice. When, after a long struggle, we finally ring the bell of justice, we celebrate.

Although we fight for fair compensation in both small and big injuries cases, the big ones stand out because they are so life-altering. Without our efforts, many of those clients would sink into financial ruin. Those unfortunate few, those severely injured victims, are not just “down on their luck”, they are crushed by the overwhelming bad luck of having been at the wrong place at the wrong time in striking distance of the wrong wrongdoer. Not only can they no longer work to support their families, not only are they swimming in unpaid medical (and other) bills, but they must wake up in pain, drag themselves through the day in pain, and then lie down in pain again, only to relive the same pain again, and again, and again, every day of their lives. It’s like a horror-movie remake of “Groundhog Day“.

From our perspective, it’s amazing, even immoral, that the insurance carriers don’t pony up a fair settlement for these clients early on. Sadly, they often wait till the eve of trial to begin to make reasonable settlement overtures. Sometimes they only “see the light” or more accurately, feel the fear of a big verdict, at trial.

New York Jury Acquits “Driving-While-Drowsy” Defendant.

December 8, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

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 up on the receiving end of such prosecutorial zeal some day? Hey, wake up and smell the coffee — you too drive sleepy once in a while!

Yesterday, New York City prosecutors lost a nine-week multiple-manslaughter trial against a bus driver they charged with driving while drowsy. Essentially they argued that, by getting behind the wheel of the bus knowing he had not slept enough, and then causing an accident because of his sleep deprivation, he committed manslaughter and other serious crimes.

The jury disagreed. Yes, he caused one of the deadliest crashes in New York City’s history. Yes, he was probably negligent in the extreme for having driven a busload of innocent unsuspecting passengers on too little sleep. But no, he was not criminally liable.

Should Drowsie Driving Be Criminalized? Central NY Car Crash Lawyer Weighs In.

December 2, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

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 few times in my life, and every time it scared the crap out of me. Come on, admit it — it’s happened to you, too!

Now I (and you?) could go to jail for it. According to the article, law enforcement officials are pushing State legislators to make driving-while-drowsy a crime punishable by jail time. This follows a decades-long trend toward criminalizing dangerous driving behaviors, such as drinking-while-driving, texting-while-driving and phoning-while-driving.

Until now, law enforcement has simply coaxed the sleepy driver with friendly nudges from roadside signs, such as “You Snooze, You Lose” or “Drive Alert, Arrive Alive.” Is it a good idea to up the ante, to make it a crime?

CNY Accident Lawyer Explains: If You Can “Write” You Are More Often “Right” In Appellate Court

November 28, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

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 Mike, why”? The judge replied, “because he writes the most excellent appellate briefs”!

Very flattering, especially since I don’t even know that judge. I used to work up there clerking, many years ago, but all the judges I worked for are retired.

More important than the flattery, though, is what this could mean to my clients. I have two important appeals pending up in that Court. I argue one of them next week. Did the judge’s comment mean that this particular judge agrees with my arguments? Or does he just think I write wonderfully on a losing argument? I am hoping the judges don’t just think I can “write” well, but also that I am just plain “right” on the legal issues.

Cicero, NY Car Accident — Could The Roadway Design Have Been Partially At Fault?

November 19, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

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 has a history of bad crashes.

The “history of bad crashes” caught my eye. By force of habit, my NY car accident lawyer thinking cap went on. Get under that cap with me for a moment.

Here’s my stream of thought: “Could this unfortunate driver, even if she was going a bit too fast, bring a claim against the State, County, Town or whoever designed the roadway? Did the design of the roadway contribute to her car accident? Was the posted speed limit too fast? Were there adequate signs announcing the curve? Should they have installed flashing yellow lights or other hazard warnings for the curve?”

Central NY Trip-And-Fall Lawyer Takes Advantage Of Poorly Drafted Village Law

November 16, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

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 villages (as well as cities, towns, etc.). That law — General Municipal Law section 50-e(4) — says that, under most circumstances, you can’t sue a village, town, city, etc., for injuries caused by defects in a “sidewalk, crosswalk, street, highway, bridge or culvert” as long as the village (or town, city, etc.), has enacted a “prior written notice” local law. Such a local law must in turn say, “hey, folks, you can’t sue us for injuries caused by defects on our sidewalks, crosswalks, streets, highways, bridges or culverts unless, before you were injured, we already had written notice of the defect.”

This is an extremely unfair law. No one, at least in upstate New York, ever writes to a village or town or city to tell them, “hey, you have a defect in your sidewalk at such-and-such a location and you’d better fix it before someone gets hurt”. If people complain at all about a defect or hazard they see, they are more likely just to call and complain. But that’s not enough under New York Law. It has to be in writing to be valid.

The Good Die Young; Construction Accident Takes Heroe’s Life.

November 11, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

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 that Mr. Haskins had shown heroism when, several years ago, he helped rescue a family of four from their house fire. Using a ladder, he had gotten people out of the top floor before the fire department got there. This was not without risk to his own life; flames were shooting out of the roof as he rescued his trapped neighbors.

Mr. Haskins’ family will likely be entitled not only to workers’ compensation benefits, but to much more compensation should they file a claim under New York’s Labor law 240, also known as “The Scaffold Law”. I have blogged about this special Statute often before. Under most circumstances, when a construction worker falls from a scaffold, the general contractor and the owner of the construction project (here, New York State) are automatically liable for all damages suffered by the worker and his family. In this case, that would include all future lost wages and compensation to any children Mr. Haskins’ has for “loss of parental guidance”.