Falling Worker Liability

Syracuse Personal Injury Lawyer on How to Present a Trip or Slip and Fall Case to a Jury

April 1, 2023 | by Michael Bersani

Here is a rough summary of your New York slip-or-trip-and-fall lawyer’s tasks:

Gathering Evidence

The first step in presenting a trip or slip and fall case starts long before trial. It is to gather evidence, including photographs and videos of the accident scene and the specific hazard that caused the fall, witness statements, medical records, and other relevant documents. Measurements of the hazard and the area should also be taken. In slip cases, the weather reports for the area may be crucial.

MICHAELS & SMOLAK HAS CHANGED! (and other news)

January 14, 2023 | by Michael Bersani

It’s been quite a while since this Central New York Injury Law blogger has posted anything. In fact, almost a year. It was a busy year and blogging gave way to serving our clients’ pressing needs, always our number 1 priority. But to quote Arnold Schwarzenegger (sort of), “we’re back!” And with lots of news:

News Item Number 1: “Michaels & Smolak” is no longer (sigh). Jan Smolak, one of our four lawyers, left the firm to go join his lawyer-wife’s practice, Perotto Law, in Rochester, New York. We wish Jan luck!

News Item Number 2: The other three “Michaels & Smolak” lawyers, Lee Michaels, Mike Bersani, and Dave Kalabanka. have remained right here in the same office in Auburn New York, but are now operating under the name “Michaels Bersani Kalabanka, P.C.”. Yeah, I know, that’s quite a mouthful, which is why we prefer to call ourselves “MBK Law”. Our new website is MBK-LAW.com

Central NY Injury Lawyer’s Travels Abroad Remind Him How Important Our Personal Injury Laws Are

July 26, 2019 | by Michael Bersani

This Syracuse New York personal injury lawyer loves to travel all over the world. I find other cultures and places fascinating. Last year I went to Japan. And this year it was Egypt, Jordan and Israel. (Just got back last week). See some pics I took above.

When I travel, because of what I do for a living, I can’t help noticing how other societies organize and structure their safety rules. I’m always on the lookout for dangerous conditions and am impressed when I see really safe practices. For example, in Japan I was impressed how pedestrians would wait for their light to turn green even when there was no motor vehicle anywhere near the intersection. I went right ahead and crossed if there was nothing coming. Made no sense to me to wait. The Japanese must have thought I was just another crazed foreigner. The Japanese seem obsessed with safety, cleanliness and rule-following. That’s probably one reason they live longer than any other people on the planet. Their average life expectancy is over 83 years. Ours is only 78.

Egypt was another story. I spent a few days in Cairo, a ramshackle city of 22,000,0000 people. It’s a fascinating place with thousands of years of history. The people are friendly, the food delicious and the sites incredible. But safety? Not a lot of emphasis on that. For example, there are almost no rules for crossing the street. I walked all over Cairo, and rarely did I see a crosswalk (and even then, motorists paid no attention to them). So how do you cross a street in Cairo? When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Here is a video I took of my wife, Alejandra, and I braving a stream of Cairene motorists:

According To syracuse New York Fallen Worker Lawyer, Fallen Cell Phone Tower Climbers And Their Surviving Family May Be Able To Sue The Cell Phone Carriers For Money Damages Beyond Workers’ Compensation

May 31, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

This is the second time I have blogged about the dangers cell phone tower climbers face. The media is catching on to my concern. PBS’s “Frontline” just published an article last week titled, “In Race For Better Cell Service, Men Who Climb Towers Pay With Their Lives”. It then aired a film version of the article.

As Frontline points out, the statistics are grim. Between 2003 and 2011, 50 cell phone tower climbers died on the job, almost all by falling to their death. AT&T has the worst record of all, with nearly three times more deaths than its nearest “competitor”.

Why are these workers dying? Frontline found that “in accident after accident, deadly missteps often resulted because climbers were shoddily equipped or received little training before being sent up hundreds of feet” and that, “to satisfy demands from carriers or large contractors, tower hands sometimes worked overnight or in dangerous conditions”. All the cell phone carriers are racing to roll out ever better and faster cell phone networks to deliver ever faster and more voluminous music, games and videos online. To get the jobs done fast, and cheap, safety rules are routinely violated.