Attorney Profile

Welcome folks. You have reached the premier educational website for accident victims in New York. We are located in the heart of the Bronx, on East Tremont Avenue in Throggs Neck, minutes from any of the bridges so we can meet you easily in any Borough of New York City, Nassau, Suffolk Westchester and throughout the Hudson Valley, our primary practice locations. You are welcome to come to the office, or we can meet you at your convenience, yes we make house calls. But remember don’t wait to contact an attorney after an accident as there are many important and critical deadlines in any given accident case.

You can learn a lot from an attorney profile, but a seasoned veteran attorney I know always reminded me "Counselor, your only as good as the last settlement, what’s next." So, rather than tell you about the many years of school we as attorneys endure and give you a picture of myself on the steps of a courthouse in my suit and tie, I would rather take this opportunity to tell you that you must get educated about your insurance coverage, particularly as it applies to your motor vehicles and your family and your rights and obligations following an accident. So, whether you’re here by chance, by Google, some other search engine, or purposefully to find out answers to questions you may have about your potential case or coverage - relax, sit back, put on some tunes, and read and listen (if the streamline video is working), to what I have to share with you.

In this same vein, rather than tell you about all the wonderful recoveries we have achieved for clients and the millions of dollars recovered for accident victims over the years, I would prefer to tell you about the worst recoveries we have had either because we lost or because of insufficient insurance coverage. FYI people, I have yet to meet an attorney that has never lost a case. In fact, part of our attitude is framed by the simple concept that if we go down swinging on a tough case and lose, our reputation is actually enhanced. We feel that, opposing counsel and insurance company adjustors remember these tough losses and know we mean business. You see, there are so many issues that come into play in any given accident case, whether it is motor vehicle (pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle, taxi, bus etc...), premises, construction site, or something else, that it is impossible to describe all potential pitfalls in any given accident case. But things such as liability (fault) and particularly the serious injury threshold can easily derail any motor vehicle case in New York.

As mentioned above, more times than I care to say, there is just not enough insurance coverage available to properly and adequately compensate a client for their injuries. In fact, this scenario happens more often than the million dollar verdicts and settlements you read or hear about. I will not sugarcoat this for you. I have had clients with terrible injuries and minimal recoveries because of a lack of adequate coverage . However, if you have a car or motorcycle you can protect yourself and your family by purchasing the right coverage. Ultimately, this is my goal. This is why I created this site. To educate the public about some of these issues before you, or a loved one, are in an accident and need to hire an attorney.

If you learn now how to protect yourself and your family from the negligence of others, in the event there is an accident, you will reduce your risk of being a worst case statistic. You see, the seasoned veteran attorney, of which I spoke of earlier, always reminded me and his clients that their case was "worth anywhere between zero and a million dollars. . . but, probably a lot closer to zero". Why is that? The coverage involved, the seriousness of the injury, the liability scenario (how much fault do you have in the accident), the witnesses to the incident and what they say, the County or Court the case would be brought, and last but not least, what the seasoned veteran liked to call "the shock factor" of the injury - then he would throw his hands up, do this little breakdown jump (kind of like playing defense in basketball), and yell this horrific frightening shriek. Then, of course, the lawyer representing you and the doctors who provide you medical care will also factor into the value of your case. So take a few more moments to hear what I have to say, get educated and reduce your risk of being a worst case statistic.

You see, I’m tired and frustrated. I am like a broken record with this stuff. When a new client comes to the office and we sit and discuss the insurance coverage in their case and what insurances apply in certain situations, I invariably hear my client say, but "What The Heck Does My Car Insurance Have To Do With That Accident?". Hence the title of the book. I have currently in development two publications for the public available by ebook and in soft cover form, for you to get educated before you are in an accident. This is where your education about your insurance, your rights, and obligations following an accident begins. Get educated and properly insured so that you and your family are protected. Remember, ignorance is not a defense, and it could cost you thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars. "What The Heck Does My Car Insurance Have To Do With That Accident?" is an easy to read free book filled with many other famous quotes from clients over the years that the Insurance Companies, Brokers and most other Lawyers don’t or won’t tell you about. It is written for the specific educational purpose of teaching you how to protect your family from the negligence of others.

For example, in New York if you, or a member of your household, are involved in an accident while on a bus, the insurance for your car or your household member’s car is responsible to pay for the No Fault (medical bills and lost wages) and possibly for additional benefits, depending on the coverage situation and liability scenario. Bus, does that include my Kids on a school bus? Yes. Charter bus? You bet. Public transportation bus? Certainly. Minibus? Magic 8 Ball says yes!

Then there are a dozen or more other scenarios such as hit and runs, the uninsured (there are plenty of those), the underinsured, the out of state license plates I see more and more of these days. Your coverage at home may be required to be involved to cover you or a household member in any and all of these situations for one thing or another. Going to the Jersey Shore this summer or Atlantic City for the weekend in a friend’s car, and you have an accident in New Jersey? Your insurance at home again very well could be the primary insurance for No Fault benefits and may also apply if your injuries demand additional compensation. "But my car was not involved in any of these scenarios, it was parked safely in my garage with a cover", you say. Well the law in New York may be superseded by a State in which you are traveling through, depending on the insurance carrier, your car insurance at home may apply in an accident case.

This is also, why I created the Dreamteam Alliance, to further help educate you with a fun comic book filled with fictitious superheroes and their arch-enemies as a metaphor for what we, as attorneys, do and fight against in a given case. The Dreamteam has sort of evolved in its own strange way and I think has culminated in a phenomenal educational product that was not only fun for me, but provided an outlet to educate people about all this insurance stuff. Once the dreamteam hatched this site comic style site followed quickly thereafter.

Why am I bothering to tell you this and why I am trying to educate you? (Yes, of course I want you to call me and retain us to represent you after an accident.) But, more importantly, I have made it a personal mission to tell you what insurance coverage protects you and your family, learning about the worst cases and the lost cases that other attorney’s don’t or won’t talk about, and learning what to do after an accident that will help you make the right choices and be in a better position from the beginning to not be a worst case.

Let’s be clear, this does not mean you will have a recovery in your accident. You can have all the coverage in the world and the accident may not be your fault, and you may get the big zero, the eggster, nada, zip, for pain and suffering because you do not qualify as a serious injury under the law - a/k/a threshold. Which brings up another client quote "Why won’t the insurance pay, I was rear ended? Liability has nothing to do with threshold. They are two separate issues. One, for purposes of this discussion, has nothing to do with the other.

But isn’t the additional insurance you are teaching me about going to cost a lot more money? Well, there are two answers. No and Yes. I am not asking anyone here to put themselves in a financial hardship situation or take out a second mortgage. However, I see, all too often, people not maximizing the coverage they already have in place. The costs in these situations are so nominal that it is ridiculous, annoying, and frustrating, they don’t have it.

1) For example, assuming you carry more than the minimum coverage allowed in New York, it is an option to increase your Uninsured Motorist / Supplemental Underinsured Motorist (UM/SUM) protection to equal the bodily injury liability limits you offer in your policy. This option costs next to nothing when compared with the premium you are already paying and could quadruple your and your families coverage for less than the cost of a cup of coffee a week.

2) Drive with your spouse much? In New York a fairly new optional coverage , Supplemental Spousal Liability coverage, allows a claim to proceed against your spouse for their negligence in an accident, which previously was not allowed. The cost is nominal, virtually next to nothing when compared with your existing premium. In fact, I had insere to tell you will have the peace of mind to know what I have taught you, if applied, will place you and your family in a position to avoid the arch-enemies of the dreamteam, i.e. minimal insurance coverage, runners, fraud etc. . . If you know what happens after an accident you will be better prepared if you have an accident. I am here to help the public navigate the process following an injury. Whether your case settles out of court (before filing a lawsuit) before a trial (after filing a lawsuit) or your case goes to trial and verdict without settling during the trial process (that happens too) you need to appreciate and respect the process for what it can and can not do.