Central New York Injury Lawyer Blog

Corrupt Ex-New York State Judge Sentenced for Extorting Money from Personal Injury Lawyer

December 22, 2009 | by Michael Bersani

Today Justice was served to someone who did a disservice to justice. U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe sentenced ex-New York State Supreme Court Justice Thomas J. Spargo to 27 months in prison for attempted extortion and bribery. A federal jury convicted Spargo on Aug. 27, 2009 for soliciting a $10,000 payment from a personal injury attorney with cases pending before him. Spargo figured the lawyer would be easy-pickings because he had recently settled a personal injury case for $3 million, thus earning a substantial fee. The trial evidence showed that when the personal injury attorney declined to pay the bribe, Spargo increased the pressure to pay.

It goes without saying that “Judge” Spargo’s behavior was despicable. Think about the implications of his actions. Imagine you have been injured in a car accident, a construction accident, or by medical malpractice, or you have suffered damages from legal malpractice. Your life is permanently and irreversibly altered. You have one chance, and only once chance, to right the wrong, to seek compensation, to hope for fair and impartial redress. Your day in Court finally arrives. But, unbeknownst to you, the judge who is to decide your case, or to instruct the jury about your case, has extorted, and accepted, $10,000 from the opposing side’s lawyer! Does that make you feel confident he will do you JUSTICE? Of course not. He is more likely to do “JUST US” with the opposing counsel as a payback for having his palms greased.

From our years of experience bringing personal injury and medical malpractice cases to courts in New York State, we at Michaels Bersani Kalabanka can assure you that this kind of judicial behavior is exceedingly rare. We have never seen it in our many years of personal injury and medical malpractice litigation. We may disagree with our judiciary’s decisions from time to time, but we have confidence in the integrity of the system.

Central New York Prescription Malpractice Lawyer Explains How Medication Errors Happen

December 22, 2009 | by Michael Bersani

Prescription errors and medication mistakes are as common in Central New York, including Syracuse, Auburn and Geneva, New York, as anywhere else in the United States. Every year they cause about a million deaths and injuries in the U.S. Prescription-error lawyers in New York, and everywhere for that matter, know that there are generally two possible culprits: Either the doctor prescribes the wrong drug or dosage or it’s the pharmacist’s fault for filling the wrong dosage or dispensing the wrong medication. Either way, it constitutes medical malpractice and the victim has a right to seek compensation against the doctor or pharmacist for the injuries suffered, or, the family of a deceased victim has a right to seek compensation for the wrongful death of their loved one.

Here’s a recent example of a prescription malpractice lawsuit: The Detroit News reports that the family of a man who was “issued a lethal dose of a chemotherapy drug” by Rite Aid pharmacists sued the company. The patient, who suffered from melanoma, was instructed to take 14 capsules per day of Temodar, ten times the usual dose, and double a fatal dose. In an out-of-court settlement, the doctors who prescribed the dose admitted the error (as well they should!).

In fact, prescription errors are one of the most common types of medical malpractice. What causes a prescription mistake? The most common causes are:

Snowmobiling Begins In Central New York, and, Unfortunately, Snowmobile Injuries Will Soon Follow.

December 21, 2009 | by Michael Bersani

Snowmobiling is a favorite winter activity of many central New Yorkers. New York boasts over 10,000 miles of funded or groomed trails, many of which are located in Onondaga, Oswego, Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, and Ontario counties. Sadly, every winter brings new snowmobile fatalities and serious injuries to upstate New Yorkers. Winter has just started and already the snowmobile accidents have begun. Unfortunately, Syracuse, Oswego and Auburn area snowmobile accident lawyers will soon be getting those unsettling calls from the family of those suffering devastating injuries from snowmobile collisions. I just read about an accident this week in Pennsylvania, where a snowmobile collided with a horse and buggy, killing the snowmobiler.

In past years, there have been somewhere between 300 and 400 snowmobile accidents in New York State each year, with about 25 per year being fatal. Unsafe speed is listed as the cause of the majority of snowmobile accidents, and of those, alcohol consumption often plays a role. Most snowmobile collisions are with fixed objects, such as trees, after the operator loses control and leaves the trail, but crashes with other snowmobiles, cars or trucks are not uncommon.

Before you take out your “sled” this winter, make sure you are familiar with New York State laws regulating snowmobiling. If you are going to snowmobile on any property other than your own, you need to register your snowmobile with the Department of Motor Vehicles. You also need to get auto insurance for it. All operators and passengers of snowmobiles are required to wear helmets. Local ordinances might contain additional rules regulating snowmobile use.

New York’s Highest Court Rules That Emergency Vehicle Operators Can Be Tagged for “Comparative Negligence” When They Sue Others for Car Accidents

December 20, 2009 | by Michael Bersani

This past fall this central New York accident lawyer toured upstate New York State, stopping in Albany, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, to lecture other personal injury lawyers about Municipal Law Liability developments (see my prior blog about it) in New York State. One thing I told other personal injury lawyers about was a split in the appellate courts in New York on a municipal law legal issue. To understand the issue, you first have to understand the law in New York regarding emergency vehicle drivers, which include police officers, deputy sheriffs, State troopers, ambulance drivers and others. The law in New York is very protective of such emergency vehicle drivers. New York law wants such drivers to feel that they can perform their emergency driving without worrying too much about getting sued if they cause an auto accident. The relevant statute is New York Vehicle & Traffic Law 1104, which says you can’t sue such drivers if they cause an accident due to mere carelessness or negligence. Their driving has to be a lot worse than that. It says that you can only sue emergency responders for auto collisions when their driving demonstrates a “reckless disregard” for the safety of others.

Now let’s get into the issue that divided New York’s appellate courts. Assume that an emergency responder such as a police officer or ambulance driver collides with another automobile and the emergency driver is injured. Assume the emergency driver believes the accident was the other driver’s fault and sues him for pain and suffering compensation and other losses. Assume further that the other driver, in his defense, says, “hey, the accident was partly your fault too, and so you should only get partial recovery your loses”. That defense is known in the legal world as the “comparative negligence” defense.

The issue that divided the courts in New York was whether, when such a defense is raised, the sued driver has to prove that the emergency responder was merely “negligent” or whether he has to prove that the emergency operator acted with “reckless disregard” for the safety of others. New York’s Third Judicial Department in Ayers v. O’Brien had held that such a driver had to show only “negligence” while the Second and Fourth Judicial Departments had ruled that he had to show that the emergency vehicle operator was “reckless”. This week New York’s highest Court, the Court of Appeals, agreed with the Third Department that only negligence must be shown.

Central New York Injury Lawyer: Skaneateles, New York Car Accident Provides Basis for Injury Compensation Claim for Some But Not For Others

December 19, 2009 | by Michael Bersani

The Syracuse Post Standard reports that a Syracuse man, Harold Field, died Friday from auto accident injuries suffered in a three-car collision at the intersection of Stump Road and State Street Road in Skaneateles. The newspaper reports Field had injured his head, pelvis and leg in the accident. Field was driving east on Stump Road when he failed to stop at a stop sign and struck a vehicle driven by Shawn McLaughlin of Auburn, New York, which was traveling south on State Street Road. The crash forced McLaughlin’s car into the path of another car, driven by Matthew Virkler of Baldwinsville, who was traveling north on State Street Road.

Legal questions arise from this tragic accident.

First, can Harlod Field’s family bring a claim for wrongful death? Almost certainly not. Since Field was at fault for failing to observe or obey the stop sign, his estate (family) has no claim against anyone for wrongful death. Nevertheless, Field’s no-fault insurance policy will pay any medical expenses incurred before he died up to $50,000 pursuant to New York no-fault law as well as the standard $2,000 no-fault death benefit.

New York’s Highest Court Rules in Favor of Injured Construction Worker

December 19, 2009 | by Michael Bersani

New York’s Labor Law section 240 is a special New York statute aimed at compensating construction workers, and their families, who are injured or killed when they fall or when objects fall on them during construction work (and in some other circumstances as well). This law allows all New York workers, which obviously includes our local construction workers in Syracuse and in the surrounding central New York area, to sue for their lost wages, medical expenses, pain and suffering, and wrongful death, where the construction site did not provide required protection from workers falling or from objects falling on workers.

In what is perhaps a watershed case, New York’s highest Court, the New York State Court of Appeals, has ruled that this statute protects construction workers not only when they “fall” and when something “falls” on them, but also in other circumstances where the “effects of gravity” injure or kill a construction worker, and a safety device could have been used to prevent the injury.

In Runner v. New York Stock Exchange, the injured worker was seriously and permanently maimed in both of his hands when he and some co-workers attempted to move an 800-pound reel of wire down a set of about four stairs. To prevent the reel from rolling out-of-control down the stairs, the workers had tied a rope to the reel and then held onto the rope as the reel descended the stairs. This method proved disastrous; as the reel descended, it pulled the worker toward a metal bar to which one end of the rope was tied. The injured worker’s hands were severely injured as they jammed against the metal bar. Experts testified at trial that a pulley or hoist could have been used to safely roll the reel down the stairs. The jury found against the injured worker, but his construction accident lawyer appealed to the Court of Appeals, which found that this was the wrong result. Even though nothing fell on the worker, and he did not “fall” from a height, his injuries were caused by a violation of Labor Law section 240 because that statute is meant to protect workers against the effects of gravity generally on a construction site, not just “falls”.

Personal Injury Lawyers in Central New York and Throughout the United States Make Americans Safer.

December 18, 2009 | by Michael Bersani

This central New York personal injury lawyer was born and raised in Syracuse, New York. My law offices are in Auburn, Cayuga County. I reside in Geneva, Ontario County. I am therefore fully rooted in central New York and the Finger Lakes region. But I like to travel. In fact, as a young man, I spent seven years living abroad. I speak several languages, including French and Spanish. My travels have taught me many things. One lesson I learned is that United States’ personal injury law is the best in the world. Let me explain by telling a story.

One evening, while visiting my in-laws in Guatemala City, Guatemala, I was walking down a dimly lit side street to get to my in-laws’ house. I came inches from stepping into a barely visible 3-foot wide, and who-knows-how deep, hole in the middle of the street. Municipal workers had created the hole and left it uncovered and un-barricaded. If I had taken one more step, I would have fallen into this hole and been seriously injured.

Why did the municipal employees leave the hole they were working on uncovered with no warnings or barricades? Because it did not matter to them. In Guatemala, a citizen can’t sue the City for personal injury, pain and suffering, lost wages and medical expenses for municipal workers’ negligence like we can in the United States. Since there was no price to pay, what incentive did those workers have to be careful? Answer: none.

The “Spirit” of the Holiday Season Does Not Include Drunk Driving

December 17, 2009 | by Michael Bersani

Like most people, I have been invited to several holiday-season parties this year. And like most people, I like to drink socially. But unlike most people, I am keenly aware of the destruction that drinking and driving can cause. Why? Because this Syracuse, Auburn and Geneva area motor-vehicle-accident lawyer represents seriously injured victims, and the families of deceased victims, of drunk driving in their claim for compensation for lost wages, medical expenses, pain and suffering, and other losses. Unfortunately, this year the “spirit of Christmas present” will most likely mimic the “spirit of Christmases past”; several central New Yorkers from the Syracuse and Finger Lakes areas will be injured or killed by drunken holiday revelers.

New federal traffic safety data proves once again that the daily death toll from drunk driving is higher during the holiday season than the rest of the year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently released data showing that, from 2001-2005, the average death toll per day from alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents in the U.S. was about 36 deaths, but that this average shot up to 45 during the Christmas season, and then catapulted to an astounding 54 deaths per day during the New Year celebrations.

As a result, the NHTSA has announced a nationwide crackdown on drunk driving for this holiday season. The campaign, whose slogan is “Over the Limit, Under Arrest”, is supported by a $7 million nationwide television and radio ad campaign, running from yesterday, December 16, through January 3. Expect local law enforcement to be out and about in force, especially during the evening hours, checking for drunk driving.

The Size of Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice Verdicts Vary from County to County in Upstate New York.

December 15, 2009 | by Michael Bersani

I recently posted a blog entitled “Why Upstate New York Verdicts Are Much Smaller than Downstate” . I explained that New York City juries tended to be more generous than upstate juries because big-city dwellers generally tend to be “socially” oriented while rural people are more “self-sufficiency” oriented.

One thing I did not mention in that post is that, even within upstate, the size of a personal injury or medical malpractice verdict tends to vary between counties. Let’s just take, for example, the counties where Michaels Bersani Kalabanka tries most its cases. I have attempted to list them here in order from biggest-verdict counties to smallest-verdict counties:

Erie County, Monroe County, Onondaga County, Ontario County, Oswego County, Cayuga County, Seneca County, Wayne County, Yates County.

Syracuse New York Car Accident Lawyer Explains Why Tracking Down All Liability Insurance Coverage Is So Important in Upstate New York.

December 14, 2009 | by Michael Bersani

Sadly, seriously injured victims of motor vehicle crashes in upstate New York are often surprised to learn that neither the negligent driver nor the owner of the at-fault car had purchased sufficient “liability” insurance to fully compensate them for their pain and suffering and other losses.

Why? In the Syracuse area and in all of central New York, including Geneva, Auburn, many people are of limited means (in case you haven’t noticed, good jobs are hard to come by around here!) and thus purchase only this cheapest insurance. This minimal automobile liability insurance in New York State pays out a maximum of only $25,000 per injured person and $50,000 per accident.

So what do you do if you are seriously injured by a minimally insured car? Well, you have the option of refusing to accept the insurance policy limits. You can instead sue the negligent driver (and the car owner) and hope to get at their personal assets. But what personal assets? We just said that Upstate New Yorkers with small insurance policies generally have limited income. As a corollary, they also have no assets worth pursuing.