Central New York Injury Lawyer Blog

Hunters Using Tree Stands Are Killing Themselves Rather Than Deer By Failing To Tether Themselves Up.

December 26, 2017 | by Michael Bersani

As Syracuse New York personal injury lawyers, we often represent construction workers who fall from ladders and roofs when no safety line or harness is provided. In such cases, we sue the construction site owners and operators for failing to provide this essential equipment. This happens far more often than you would think.

However, as a recent New York Times article points out, deer hunters who use tree stands are also at great risk of serious injury when they don’t wear harnesses with safety lines attached to the tree. But personal injury lawyers don’t end up representing those folks. Why not? Well, think about it. Usually a hunter has no one to blame but himself for failing to tether himself up. We lawyers are a pretty smart group, but so far we have not figured out a way for someone to sue himself and come out ahead.

Still, since safety matters to us, we want to get the word out that tree-stand hunters, like roofers, need to tie themselves up. A recent New York Times brings this message home very clearly. It points out that at least five people died this year (2017) in New York State by falling from tree stands. And many more have been injured.

GOV. CUOMO SIGNS INTO LAW THE DRIVER AND FAMILY PROTECTION ACT.

December 20, 2017 | by Michael Bersani

New York State lawmakers and Governor Cuomo just delivered New Yorkers a Christmas present. Today Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Supplementary Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (SUM) bill, also known as the “Driver and Family Protection Act.” This important piece of legislation will protect New Yorkers statewide who are involved in auto accidents.

I know what you are thinking (if you have even read this far). Supplemental what? SUM what? What the hell are you talking about? Click. I’m out of here . . .

But wait. Don’t surf past this blog post just yet. I promise I will answer these questions: What is SUM, why was it a problem, and how did New York State just fix it? Read on, friend.

Small Trauma, Big Injury. It Really Happens (Sometimes)!

November 30, 2017 | by Michael Bersani

Everyone knows you can get injured when you get into a motor vehicle, operate dangerous equipment, or climb up on a scaffold at a work site. The risk of a serious physical trauma (impact) is inherent in all those activities. I have represented countless victims of such accidents.

But sometimes big injuries can also result from small traumas. For example, I once had a client who suffered a serious injury when one of those drive-thru bank teller windows closed on her hand as she was reaching in for her money. The glass window closed on her hand fairly slowly, and only bruised her hand. But the bank customer later developed a very serious injury known as RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy), also known as complex regional pain syndrome, a rare disorder of the sympathetic nervous system characterized by chronic, severe, permanent pain.

Who would have thought that such a minor trauma could cause such a serious condition? Even so, under principles of New York injury law, if we could prove that the bank teller negligently closed the window on my client’s hand, my client was entitled to full compensation for her RSD.

Safety Group “World Against Toys Causing Harm” (WATCH) Announces Top-10-Dangerous Toy List for 2017

November 25, 2017 | by Michael Bersani

In just two days America will be reveling in “Black Monday” (like Black Friday but for online purchases). In the old days of Christmases past, when parents and others actually went to something called a “store” to choose toys for their tots, a parent could often spot for herself a lurking danger. For example, he or she could see if small parts might be removable and thus pose a choking hazard. But now, with more and more people doing “Cyber shopping” , some of a toy’s more obvious safety flaws are less obvious.

Never fear! Safe shopping can be done online, with a little help from our friend “WATCH“. For more than 40 years this not-for-profit group (acronym for “World Against Toys Causing Harm”) has published an annual “top-WATCH-OUT list” of potentially dangerous toys.

Here’s an example (from this year’s list): a toy called “Pull-Along Pony” marketed for children over one-year old but has a pull chord 19 inches long (strangulation hazard). More examples: A fidget spinner with small, removable parts (choking hazard). A Spider-Man drone with rotating blades just the right size to enter an eye socket.

WHY ARE NEW YORK COUNTIES (AND OTHER COUNTIES AROUND THE COUNTRY) SUING THE PRESCRIPTION DRUG INDUSTRY?

November 24, 2017 | by Michael Bersani

Meet the new big bad guy in town: The prescription drug industry. Let’s just call them “Big Pharma”. They are stepping into the shoes of the previous big bad guy: Big Tobacco. In fact, Big Pharma has used the Big Tobacco playbook to rake in billions of dollars in profits off the backs of addicted “customers” they hooked on their products through cunning advertising and lobbying schemes.

The product in question? Opioids. Opioids are the new Tobacco, only worse. Opioids include prescription painkillers like oxycodone, synthetics like fentanyl, and opium derivatives like heroin. Using Big Tobacco’s old tricks, plus some new ones of their own, opioid manufacturers have created a nationwide epidemic of opioid addiction.

But let’s go back a bit. Once upon a time doctors were reluctant to treat chronic pain with opioids. Opioid prescriptions were for last-stage cancer pain management and short-term pain control, for example, for patients suffering temporary post-operative pain. Prescribing such addictive medicine for chronic, long-term pain was just not done. The risk of creating addicts was simply unacceptable.

M&S Founding Lawyer Lee Michaels Takes Home His Syracuse Alum Award

October 31, 2017 | by Michael Bersani

We blogged a few weeks ago about Lee Michaels, the firm’s founding member, getting tapped for a big award from his alma matter, Syracuse University College of Law. Well, the ceremony took place on the evening of October 20 in the beautiful Dineen Hall. Above are a few of our favorite pictures. The top left shows Lee being bestowed with the award. Lee was one of only five award recipients. The top photo on the right shows three of the other recipients standing with Lee. Starting from left to right in the photo above, are: Laura H. Harshbarger, a labor and employment lawyer at the law firm of Bond Schoeneck & King; Frank W. Ryan, US Chair of DLA Piper’s Intellectual Property and Technology practice; the Honorable Jonathan M. Feldman (a United States Magistrate judge), and our Lee Michaels. The other recipient was the Honorable Theodore A. McKee, a judge sitting on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (who was not present for the ceremony and thus does not appear in the photo).

The final photo shows Lee lined up with some friends for a photo op at the party that followed. From left to right are: Anas Saleh, Justin St. Louis, Annie Millar, and Tom DeBernardis, all former students Lee taught; Marnin Michaels (lee’s nephew and also an SU Law alum), Mike Bersani (CNY Injury Law blogger and Lee’s partner).

A good time was had by all! The food (drink!) and company were great. It was an amazing way to celebrate some high achieving SU Law grads. Congrats once again to our own Lee Michaels!

Legal Remedies For Victims Of Sexual Assault By The Rich And Famous (And By The Not Rich And Famous).

October 23, 2017 | by Michael Bersani

What 3 things do Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes, Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein all have in common? Answer: They are (1) rich (2) powerful (3) sex offenders. Some might want to add Donald Trump or Bill Clinton to the list, but let’s stay clear of politics.

The truth is that many powerful men are sexual predators. But so too are many not-powerful men. In fact, poor men may be even more prone to committing sexual assaults. That’s because, in the words of Janice Joplin, “when you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose”. The guys at the top of society’s pyramid have a lot to lose. It’s a long fall to the bottom. The guy who is already down low has nowhere to fall.

Then again, maybe sexual assaults have nothing to do with money. When I went to college in the 70’s many feminists embraced this adage: “All men are pigs”. I think this a very unfair statement. I mean unfair to pigs. As far as I know, pigs don’t rape and harass their mates.

Can Ride-Sharing Companies Like Uber Be Sued When Their Drivers Sexually Assault Uber Users?

October 5, 2017 | by Michael Bersani

It was party time at Syracuse University last weekend. (Wait – isn’t every weekend party time at SU?) Anyway, a female student – one of many — was out imbibing, frolicking, and doing whatever young party-goers do these days, until 3:00 a.m. Then she needed a ride to her dorm. She hit an app on her smart phone to hail an Uber. An Uber driver showed up. She asked the male driver to take her to her dorm.

The driver had other ideas. Instead, he took her to an empty parking lot. He grabbed her and began to force his hand up her skirt. Fortunately, she escaped before the driver could “have his way” with her.

Assume the worst. Assume the student had been the victim of a full-fledged sexual assault. Could she successfully sue Uber?

Syracuse University College of Law to Honor Michaels Bersani Kalabanka Founder and President Lee Michaels

October 3, 2017 | by Michael Bersani

Lee Michaels is the senior attorney here at Michaels Bersani Kalabanka. He was personally responsible for hiring and grooming the rest of us. To the other lawyers at our firm, he has been a mentor, teacher, friend, and role model. It’s good to know that others appreciate Lee, too.

Syracuse University’s College of Law is going to bestow upon him a great honor this October 20. You can read all about it on the Syracuse University College of Law website. Lee’s list of achievements is too long to include here, but you can check it out on that website. Suffice it to say Lee was a top law student at Syracuse, then because a top personal injury lawyer in the Syracuse area, and a top teacher of trial practice at the Syracuse College of Law, and has been a terrific community leader in many capacities.

As I said before, Lee has been a great mentor, teacher and friend to all of us here at Michaels Bersani Kalabanka. We are not alone. One of Lee’s former students (Lee has been teaching Trial Practice as an adjunct at the law school for almost three decades) had this to say about Lee on the College of Law website:

Lawsuit against Yankee Stadium Will Strike Out: Young Yankee Fan Hit in Face by Foul Ball Has No Case.

October 2, 2017 | by Michael Bersani

A week or so ago, at Yankee Stadium, a foul ball flew off Todd Frazier’s bat at 110 miles per hour and clocked a toddler in the face. She was seated in the stands behind the third-base dugout with her grandpa. It hit her face so hard that players and fans alike grasped. The game stopped. It was a horrible scene. This video shows only the reaction of the players, not the impact itself:

https://content.jwplatform.com/previews/JaC120n5?exp=1507005600&sig=71d08f6428489e732620cbc1a76f7e67

When I saw this video, my first thought, like everyone else’s, was, “oh my god, I hope she’ll be all right, that poor girl!”. My second thought was less emotional and more lawyerly: “can the Stadium be held liable”? But then, before I had even finished that second thought, my third thought overtook it: “No, it can’t be held liable”.