Central New York Injury Lawyer Blog

Five Deadly Mistakes You Can, And Probably Will Make, If You Try To Settle Your Personal Injury Case Without A Lawyer, PART I.

June 13, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

This is the first o a five-part blog series about the pitfalls of trying to settle your own New York personal injury claim without a lawyer. I don’t recommend that anyone actually do this, without at least first consulting with a New York personal injury lawyer. In rare cases, I have recommended to accident victims that they settle their claim on their own so as to avoid paying me a 1/3 contingency fee. But that’s only when the injury is minor, has totally healed, and there are no complications such as “liens”. Otherwise, having a New York personal injury lawyer represent you will almost always “pay off” because the settlement will be enhanced by far more than the 1/3 fee.

But if you want to throw all caution to the wind and settle your own claim without even consulting with a personal injury lawyer, at least try to avoid making these common do-it-your-selfer mistakes:

1. DON’T GIVE A RECORDED STATEMENT. The insurance adjuster will seem friendly, compassionate. He or she will say, “we just want to know what happened so we can pay your claim. Can we record a statement from you”? If you say “yes”, you just fell into a trap. That recorded statement, which you believe represents the total “truth” about what happened, is likely to boomerang back and hit you in the back of the head. The insurance adjuster will rely on portions of your recorded statement, which she will call “admissions”, to low ball your settlement offer, or worse yet, the insurance company lawyer will use your “admissions” to cross-examine you at trial. You, of course, won’t know what hit you because you believe there was nothing “wrong” with what you said. But there almost certainly will be. The insurance adjuster is very good at getting you to say the wrong thing.

Hot Coffee — A Must-See Documentary About The (In)Famous McDonald’s Case

June 12, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

When folks find out I am a New York personal injury lawyer, it doesn’t take them long to ask me, usually with a snide grin on their face, about the McDonald’s case. The undercurrent of the question, no matter how it is posed, is something like this: “You scumbag personal injury lawyers sure know how to milk the system, tricking juries into raining huge piles of money on undeserving clients.” Well, maybe it’s not quite that bad, but you get the point.

That one case has done more to tarnish personal injury lawyers than any other in history. Late night comics have had a field day with the case. To conservative politicians and their insurance-company/big-business lobbyists, it has been the poster child for everything wrong with personal injury lawsuits and our civil justice system.

But all of this was actually the result of a deliberate misinformation campaign by corporate America to undermine the civil justice system. I know you won’t believe this (yet), but the case actually showcases everything that is right about our civil justice system. A recent documentary spotlights the McDonald’s case, and shows how corporate America distorted its true meaning. Skeptical? Don’t believe your mind has been manipulated about that case? See the new documentary, Hot Coffee, which premieres on HBO June 27. You can see the trailer below. See it, then watch the film, then email me and tell me what you think.

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.

Central And Syracuse NY Personal Injury Lawyer On Albion NY ATV Trail Accident

June 5, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

When I read the story this morning about a Pulaski ATV operator who was killed when his neck ran into a wire strung across a private trail in Albion, I got that “déjà vu” experience. I handled a similar case about 4 years ago. That case involved a dirt bike rider on a trail down in the Watkins Glen area. In that case, there were little red plastic flags strung along the wire that had worn out and become almost invisible with time. The owner had meant to prohibit entry onto the trail. We resolved this case with a settlement.

This Albion ATV accident happened on private trail. The owner of the trail might be held liable, depending on the facts. Some important facts a New York personal injury lawyer would consider are: (1) Who put the wire there (was it deliberately installed by the trail owner to keep users off, or was it placed there by some unknown persons as a kind of cruel joke? Obviously, it will be much easier to prove liability if the owner placed it there or had notice that it was there); (2) Was the wire visible or did it have visible markings on it? (This accident happened at about 8:50 p.m., so visibility would probably be minimal or non-existent); and (3) Were there any prior signs or warnings to stay off the trail?

If the owner meant to keep ATV riders and others off his property, this was a dangerous and cruel way to do so. Let’s hope that was not the case.

Syracuse Construction Accident Lawyer Considers Painting His House

June 3, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

When I was a college student, I used to paint houses in the summer to make a few bucks. I was fearless then. I would climb way up high on extension ladders and paint the peaks of three-story homes. And I would climb on roofs, lie down and dangle my head over the edge, and paint the eeves. Nothing was holding me to the roof except gravity and guts. I was in my 20’s and I did not think I could ever die, or even get injured. And work was plentiful. Homeowners readily hired me because I had a reputation for doing a good job on the cheap.

Now, much older, wiser, and having represented too many fallen workers in my job as a Central New York and Syracuse construction accident lawyer, I dare not climb a ladder even to clean my own gutters. Being a Central New York construction accident lawyer has its downside – I have lost my nerve. I take six steps up the ladder, my mind’s eye sees three or four clients who fell when the ladder they were on toppled, or when they lost their grip, I then think of how my family will fare without a breadwinner, and before you know it, I have backed my way down the ladder to the safety of mother earth.

My house needs painting. Even though I have painted over 50 houses in the day, I am not going to paint mine. I would much rather represent fallen workers than be one.

Is Hospital Malpractice Rampant in Syracuse, NY? Just Ask Medicare.

May 31, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

The Syracuse Post Standard ran an Article this weekend titled, “The stats the hospital industry doesn’t want you to know”. The article talked about a recent Medicare study revealing that patients in Syracuse area hospitals often get worse, instead of better, because they become victims of preventable “hospital-acquired conditions” (“HAC”), which consist of such things as patient falls, infections, foreign objects being left in patients after surgery, bedsores, poor blood sugar control for diabetes, and wrong blood transfusions. The statistics are alarming: In an 18-month period between 2008 and 2010, our local hospitals had 175 cases of Medicare patients developing “hospital-acquired conditions”.

All this may surprise some, but it does not come as a surprise to Syracuse medical malpractice lawyers like those at Michaels Bersani Kalabanka. We have successfully sued several local hospitals for these types of failures.

Here are some examples of our local hospitals’ failures during the Medicare-reported time period: Upstate Hospital had 5 times the national average of blood infections from catheters; St. Joseph’s had the 5 times the national rate of urinary tract infections; and there were five cases of foreign objects being left in patients after surgery — two at Crouse Hospital, two at Upstate and one at St. Joe’s.

Driver Distraction Caused Minetto NY Car-On-Mororcycle Crash

May 28, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

I was right. In my last blog post I discussed the Minetto car-on-motorcycle collision. The car had drifted over into the motorcycle’s lane of travel and collided with it. In my blog post, I said “my guess as to why this young driver crossed over? Driver distraction”. I explained that, as a New York car and motorcycle accident lawyer, I have been representing more and more victims of distracted driver-related accidents, mostly caused by drivers texting or dialing while driving.

Well, on Friday the Syracuse Post Standard reported that the driver of the car had just received a text message and was looking for a pen to write with when she crossed over into the oncoming lane and crashed with the motorcyclist.

Moral of the story? Keep your eyes on the road, and off your cell phone, or other electronic device.

Car-On-Motorcycle Collision In Minetto, New York — Whose Fault?

May 21, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

When Central New York motorcycle accident lawyers like me read about a motorcycle-on-car collision, by force of habit, we focus on fault. You can’t always tell when you read the newspaper whose fault it was. But often you can. Here’s a recent example.

I just read on Syracuse.com about a Minetto, New York car-on-motorcycle collision. A young motorist (18 years old) crossed over into the oncoming lane and struck a 55-year old motorcyclist on State Route 48. The motorcyclist was airlifted to Upstate Hospital in Syracuse. After hitting the biker head-on, the car crashed through a guard rail and landed in the Oswego River. The driver and his passenger were able to swim to safety.

Of course the investigation will focus on what caused this driver to veer over into the oncoming lane. Unless the driver has some very good excuse (and it is hard to imagine one, short of a swarm of bees suddenly attacking her, or the steering wheel suddenly failing), she, and the owner of the car, will be held liable for the motorcyclist’s medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering.

Who Is Usually At Fault In Car-On-Bicycle Collisions?

May 20, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

Today was “bike to work day”, and as an avid bicyclist and a Central New York bicycle accident lawyer, I couldn’t resist snooping around a bit on the web to see what I could find. I stumbled upon an interesting article about bike-on-car crashes on NPR’s website entitled, “When Bikes And Cars Collide, Who’s More Likely To Be At Fault?”

The article recites the fact that bicycle-on-motor-vehicle collisions in the U.S.A. take about 600 cyclists’ lives a year and injure about 51,000. The article then discusses several studies that have attempted to determine whether cyclists or car operators are more often at fault. Answer? It depends. Different studies have reached opposite results. Overall, though, it appears that cars are slightly more likely to be at fault. This surprised me. In my experience representing injured cyclists in Central New York, the motorist is far more often at fault.

The most interesting part of the article, though, was a discussion regarding the most common types of car-on-bike crashes. The winner? Bicyclists getting rear-ended by cars. This validates my fear, which I blogged about before, of cars approaching from behind me on narrow, shoulder-less roads.

Central and Syracuse NY Car Accident Lawyer Says, “If You Are A Hit-And-Run Victim, Seek Insurance Coverage Through Your Own Auto Policy”

May 17, 2011 | by Michael Bersani

Hit-and-run car accidents happen more often that you think. As a Central and Syracuse New York car accident lawyer, I know. I have handled dozens of cases like that. And there was just a hit-and-run in Auburn, New York this week. News media report that an Auburn, NY resident was seriously injured Saturday at 1:45 a.m. when a hit-and-run car crashed into him while he was riding on his scooter on Division Street. The scoundrel drove off and left the poor scooter-driver high-and-dry — and seriously injured. The police are asking anyone with information about this tragic, and despicable, act to contact them. So please do!

This same thing could happen to you, whether you are a pedestrian or in your car. Let’s say the cops never find the bum who hit you. Where can you turn for help getting your medical bills paid, and your lost wages reimbursed? And against whom can you bring claim pain and suffering compensation?

The answer? “Your own automobile insurer”. That’s right, your own car insurance has a provision in it called “uninsured motorist coverage”. That means that if an uninsured or a hit-and-run motorist strikes you as a pedestrian, or while you are in your car, you (and your passengers) can claim wage loss replacement and medical benefits (“no-fault”) as well as liability benefits (generally “pain and suffering compensation”) through your own “uninsured motorist coverage”.