Central New York Injury Lawyer Blog

New York Medical Malpractice Lawyer On New Medical Error Reporting System

September 24, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

I get calls and emails almost every week from medical malpractice victims, yes, truly malpracticed patients, yet I turn most of them down. Why? It kills me to explain this to them, but the truth is that often the harm they suffered is not worth the cost of bringing a medical malpractice lawsuit in New York.

Yes, medical malpractice lawsuits, at least in New York, are extremely expensive because getting a doctor to testify against another doctor (and you need that to win) is so costly.

Even though we turn away four out of five medical malpractice cases, because the harm is not large enough, the malpractice suits we do bring help make medicine safer by providing error-prone doctors and others with a wake-up call, a “sting”, when their sloppy practice causes major harm. But I often worry about the many, many mistakes that, through good fortune, cause only minor harm, and thus provide no “sting”. Doctors, nurses, hospitals and other medical providers can easily “blow off” these errors. There should be some “sting” in the smaller injury cases, too.

Meet The Michaels Bersani Kalabanka Racing Team

September 23, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

There are of course many Central New York bicycle accident lawyers. Some good, some not so good. But do any of them, besides us, have a bicycle team named after them? I think not!

Meet the Michaels Bersani Kalabanka Racing team. Yes, the eponymous (look it up!) team in this photo proudly displays its “MSR” (Michaels Bersani Kalabanka Racing) team jerseys. Michaels Bersani Kalabanka is the lead sponsor for this team. The other sponsors are Syracuse Bicycle, Asmaster, Aspen Athletic Club, Dr. Jude Burke and Gold & Treasures. The race shirts also honor the daughter of one of our members who is a breast cancer survivor.

The MSR team is now 35 to 40 members strong. And its members hail from all over Central New York, including Baldwinsville, Skaneateles, Syracuse, Sylvan Beach, Cato, Geneva and Syracuse

Central And Syracuse NY Trial Lawyer Continues To Learn

September 22, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

Fellow New York personal injury lawyers (and would-be ones) let me tell you about a free online subscription I just love. Eliot Wilcox, a Florida trial lawyer, runs a great blog with an email subscription to a weekly trial skills review. It is a three minute read each Friday, and reminds us personal injury lawyers of important trial skills.

No matter how good you are at trial, these quick reminders can help you be even better. Even great golfers need to be reminded once in a while to keep their head down on the swing. Same with trial lawyers. We may have learned all the good techniques, but being reminded to use them from time to time is great for our “swing”.

Elliot’s philosophy is like mine: Never stop learning. No matter how good you are, you can always get better. Life is short, and trial skills are long.

Changing The Medical Malpractice Culture — A Daunting Task, Explains Syracuse NY Medical Malpractice Lawyer

September 20, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

Dr. Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine cancer surgeon and researcher, was interviewed online about his new book titled, “Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won’t Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care”. The title tells it like it is. Here are some key quotes from his interview:

• Hospitals across the nation have “alarmingly high error rates”.

• “1 in 4 hospital patients are harmed by a mistake”

Another Bicycle Tragedy in Ontario County, NY

September 20, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

I read with sadness today in the Finger Lakes Times that a 14-year old Clyde, New York teenager was struck and killed by a motor vehicle while biking to school this morning on Clyde-Marengo Road in Galen. This is sad, sad, sad. As the father of two teenagers, who both like to ride their bikes, and as an avid bicyclist myself, and just as a human being for crying out loud, my heart goes out to the family of the victim.

I have to say that this has been one of the worst years I can remember for bicycle injuries in this part of the Finger Lakes (Ontario County). Several deaths, several brutal injuries, including a guy with an amputated leg, and almost every one of them the cyclist was not at fault. I think about them every time I get on my bike, or one of my kids does.

Keep safe!

Oh No! Central NY Car Accident Lawyer’s Kid Starts To Drive.

September 13, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

The kid standing behind me in this photo, trying his hand at hair styling, is my oldest son Sebastian. (Don’t worry – he has already ruled out hair styling as a career option.) On September 30 he will turn 16. Yesterday he announced that we are going to the DMV to take his driver’s permit test on his birthday at 9:00 a.m., and he is driving us home.

For most parents, this rite of passage is worrisome. But for a guy who represents car accident victims, and deals with clients’ terrible car wreck injuries every day of the week, it’s grueling. My hair is already grayer than it was in this photo.

It is a well known fact that car accidents are the number one cause of death for kids his age. It is not such a well known fact that sixteen year old kids driving is the number one cause of grey hair in aging fathers.

Central NY Injury Lawyer Goes On Tour!

September 12, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

I am going on tour again this fall. Tickets are still available to catch my show. Email me and I’ll make sure you get in. My itinerary? Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Syracuse and New York.

Bruce Springsteen performed in all those places. But unlike Bruce, when I am done with my gig, I really don’t expect to see any lighters flick on.

No, no, I am not a rock n’ roll star like Bruce. Rather, I’m just a humble New York personal injury attorney dashing around the State to fill other New York accident lawyers in on the newest developments in “New York Municipal Liability” law.

So-Called “Independent” Medical Exams In New York Personal Injury Cases

September 5, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

Today I accompanied a wreck of a man — a severely injured car wreck victim — to a so-called “independent” medical examination (“IME”). (You will see why I say “so called” soon enough.) The poor guy got t-boned a few years ago and ever since has suffered horrible pain emanating from his cervical and lumbar spine. He has had two surgeries, one on his neck and one on his lower back, not to mention countless rounds of physical therapy, epidural injections, trigger point injections, pain meds, and chiropractic treatment. Even so, he has been losing his war against the pain.

All of his many doctors have concluded that (1) he is badly injured; (2) the car accident caused his injuries (he was fine before then!); and (3) he is totally disabled.

Open and shut case, right? Wrong. The insurance company defending this case has a right, under New York personal injury law, to have the victim present to a so-called (there I go again!) “independent” medical examination (“IME”) by a doctor of their choice. The so-called “independent” doctor (paid by the insurance company) then renders an opinion whether the victim is injured, and if so what his injuries are, whether the car accident caused them, and whether he can work at all.

“New York Times Slip-and-Fall Reporting Sucks”, Says Central NY Injury Lawyer

August 30, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

The New York Times just published a story titled, “A Fatal Slip on the Stairs Cuts Short a Life at 29“. Deaths in slip-and-fall cases are rare. Especially in someone that young. Usually you get fractured wrists or knees. So, an article with a title like that piqued the interest of this Central NY personal injury lawyer like a hurricane from Alaska would a weatherman’s.

So I read on. The article talked about how an unfortunate young lady was found dead, covered in blood, on a landing in a Manhattan building where she was staying with a friend. The police had initially suspected foul play, but later came to the conclusion that she was merely the victim of a slip-and-fall accident. She had been wearing high heels, was carrying a heavy bag and “the stairs were slippery“. The story goes on to talk about what an amazing person this was, how she was having some trouble in her marriage, and how she had just had a really tough week. A nice human interest story for sure, but what I am interested in is, “why were the stairs slippery”? So I kept waiting to get to that part.

And I never did. The article did not say what caused the steps to be slippery. It appears this was an indoor stairway. If the stairs were wet, I would want to know whether (1) management had just mopped them and left them that way with no warning?, or (2) there was a leak in the roof above, or (3) a tenant or someone else had just spilled a soda or something there. All this would be important for me if I were representing the estate of this young lady in a slip-and-fall case in New York against the landlord. In scenarios (1) and (2), the landlord could probably be held liable for negligent maintenance, but in scenario number (3) probably not (unless the spill had been there for a significant period of time, enough time for the landlord’s staff to notice it and clean it up).

Do You Have Enough Car Accident Insurance? Syracuse NY Car Accident Lawyer Explains

August 25, 2012 | by Michael Bersani

Just read an article in the New York Times titled, “How to Know if You Have Enough Auto Insurance“. The article gave some interesting statistics: Nationally, the average jury award for motor vehicle accident injuries is $181,197, and about 5 percent of car accident injury claims in 2010 were for more than $100,000 while only about 2 percent reached $300,000.

Then there are those occasional multi-million dollar jury verdicts. How do you protect yourself against those?

Anyone can make a mistake driving, including you. Do you need to protect yourself against such judgments? Is it expensive to do?