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I was in the middle of negotiating a medical malpractice case recently with a very well
respected defense attorney. And he turns to me in the middle of the negotiation and he
says to me, "You know what? If we're successful in negotiating this case what's your client
really going to do with all this money?" Would you like to learn what my reply was? Come
join me as I share with you this remarkable story. Hi. I'm Gerry Oginski. I'm a New York
medical malpractice and personal injury trial attorney practicing law here in the state
of New York. You know at some point in every case I have an opportunity to speak to the
defense attorneys and see whether or not they're interested in trying to settle your case.
If we begin settlement negotiations, there's a lot of back and forth that goes on. There's
a lot of honest discussion about what the risks are, what the benefits are, what are
strongest points are - as well as what our weaknesses are. I wanted to tell him it's
none of your damned business. I couldn't really say that. Instead what I did is I took the
opportunity to now explain to the defense attorney exactly what my client is going to
do with all of this money. The reality is my client did absolutely nothing to cause
or contribute to her injuries. As a result of the wrongdoing of his client (of the doctor),
my client now suffered lifelong debilitating injuries. As a result of the violations of
the standard of care that this doctor caused and caused harm to my client, she will now
need lifelong rehabilitation. She will now need ongoing medical care. She will now need
prosthesis, things that are going to have to be replaced on an ongoing basis every few
years. In New York, if somebody has been found to be careless or negligent they're now then
held accountable to pay for the harms and losses that the person has sustained. And
that's known as awarding them damages for past pain and suffering, future pain and suffering,
lost income, medical bills -- all of these things that we associate with the harms and
losses that occur as a result of someone else's wrongdoing. So when this attorney turns to
me and says "What's your client really going to do with this money? Are they going to go
on vacation? Are they going to buy a time share?" The reality is now this person is
injured and disabled for life. They're going to use that money to try and make a better
life for themselves, to make a better life for their family. So now when they cannot
go into work who's going to pay their bills? Now when they're going to need ongoing medical
care and treatment who's going to pay for that? Maybe they'll buy a car that's adaptive
and now they can use different controls that normally they would not have needed had this
injury not occurred. And by the way, getting a whole bunch of money is not for the purposes
of going on vacation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Because I will tell you something
very important: the majority of my clients who suffer significant injuries the last thing
in the world they want to do is sit back and relax and simply take whatever money is there
and live off that money. Instead they want to become productive members of society. They
want to return back to doing what they did best. They want to go on about with their
daily lives and live their lives normally like they did before. They would give practically
anything to get things back to normal. They would love to go back in time to make sure
that that stuff never happened so that they didn't have to deal with the litigation. They
didn't have to deal with a lawsuit. They didn't have to deal with getting compensated and
now trying to figure out how to live their life with disabilities. That's what my clients
are looking for. They're looking to go back in time. But the reality is they can't. They
can't put the pieces back together. So the only thing the law and the legal system allows
us to do is to take compensation from the wrongdoer, give it to the person who suffered
those harms and losses and let them use it as best they see fit -- for their family,
for themselves, to make a better life for themselves. You know so why do I share this
with you today? I'm shooting video today on Memorial Day weekend. And I did it because
I was really thinking about those people who gave their souls, gave their lives, in honor
of our country. And at the same time, I was also thinking about and contemplating about
the injured victims who suffered so much as a result of carelessness of the wrongdoers
that we see today here in New York. I'm blessed and privileged to have the opportunity to
represent injured victims every single day, making a difference in their lives. You know,
you're watching this because you probably have questions of your own about your particular
matter. Well if your matter happened in New York and you do have legal questions, what
I encourage you to do is pick up the phone and call me. I can answer your legal questions.
This is something that I do every single day and I welcome your call. You can reach me
at 516-487-8207 or by email at Gerry@Oginski-law.com. Well that's it for today's quick video. I'm
Gerry Oginski, coming to you from New York. Have a wonderful day!