Personal Injury Law

How To Get Compensated For Your Injuries Without Hiring a NY Lawyer

By Gerry Oginski

How do you do that? Go to law school for three years. Then take a rigorous written examination that consists of essays and multiple choice questions over two days. Once you complete that, sit before a "Character & Fitness Committee" to see if you have the moral fiber and characteristics to be a good lawyer. Then take ongoing continuing legal education classes each year to confirm that you are 'up-to-date' in your current legal knowledge.

2. Become an expert in personal injury law.

How do you become such an expert? Practice personal injury law for ten to twenty years. You need to find an experienced lawyer who has done this kind of law for twenty to thirty years and learn everything you can from him. Volunteer to work for free if he can't afford to pay you. Do court appearances for him and other attorneys in order to pay your rent. Learn to do depositions, which are question and answer sessions where you try to learn everything you can about the people your clients have sued. Help the experienced lawyer with his trials. Do legal research, interview witnesses, sit in on jury selection, carry his bags and listen in as he prepares his client for trial. Importantly, listen in as he negotiates with claims examiners and other lawyers. Take those best traits and adopt them as your own. Use your own personality to bring out those good lawyerly traits. Learn what the values are for similar injuries in similar venues. Read legal publications and contact the leaders in that field.

3. Learn how to be your own boss.

Don't rely on anyone else. Learn how to do legal research and see what the legal issues are in your accident case. Speak to law school professors for some free legal advice- if they're willing to give you their time. Learn how to handle trials involving personal injury cases. Learn how to say "No" to a claims adjuster if the offer to settle is less than what you feel the case is worth.

What's the moral of the story?

You can certainly handle your injury claim on your own. You can also give a sworn statement to the insurance adjuster and give up any rights you have to the insurance company. You can also agree to some meager settlement offer that the insurance company throws at you to make your claim go away. You don't need to hire an attorney to represent you to do that. You can destroy your rights and your case all by yourself. You can walk away from that situation feeling confident that you've saved a ton of money since you didn't have to give some lawyer 1/3 of your compensation.

On the other hand, think about what an experienced New York personal injury attorney does for a living. He does everything he can to achieve the best result for you. His fee is tied directly to how well he does for you. This is called a 'contingency fee'. That means his fee is based only on what he gets for you. It's in his best interests to get the most money possible for you. The more he is able to obtain for you, the more money he receives as a fee. The less he gets for you, the less the lawyer gets. In the State of New York, if you get nothing, your lawyer gets nothing.

So, do you need an attorney to handle your accident claim? No. But before leaping to the first or second offer that the insurance company offers, think about whether an experienced New York injury lawyer could get you substantially more money and justify his fee with that extra money he might be able to obtain for you.

As a final thought...if your loved one needs surgery, are you going to go to the library and learn all about the anatomy and read all the books on how to perform surgery, or are you going to go to an experienced surgeon who has done this operation thousands of times?

The choice in law, as always, is up to you. Choose wisely.

Gerry Oginski is an experienced medical malpractice and personal injury trial attorney practicing law in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, New York, Staten Island, Nassau & Suffolk. He has tirelessly represented injured victims in all types of medical malpractice and injury cases for over 19 years. As a solo practitioner he is able to devote 100% of his time to each individual client. A client is never a file number in his office. www.oginski-law.com
516-487-8207

Full post as published by New York Medical Malpractice Blog on January 20, 2008 (boomark / email).