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You’re looking online for an attorney and you see all these great verdicts that the
attorney has achieved. Is that the right attorney for you? You have to know one thing before
you pick up the phone to call. Would you like to know what that one thing is? Come join
me. 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. I’m about ready to head out
to a black tie wedding with my wife and I just wanted to share this quick information
with you. You know, when you go online you look for information about which attorney
is right for you to handle your medical malpractice matter, your wrongful death matter, or your
accident matter here in New York. You’re going to find attorneys (and their websites)
proclaiming that they’ve achieved great verdicts. And I have to tell you, it is wonderful
that an attorney can achieve great verdicts and tell the world about it – and they should,
rightfully so. And it would be important for you to know that an attorney has achieved
great results because of their experience and what they’ve accomplished. But, here’s
one thing you have to ask every single attorney who has achieved great verdicts: how much
money did the client actually walk away with? You may think that just because the lawyer
achieved a great verdict means that the client walked away with that amount of money. $10
million dollars verdict, $25 million dollar verdict, $100 million dollar verdict. Well,
here’s the process about what happens when you achieve a stunning result like that and
achieve a multi-million dollar verdict. The first thing that happens is that the defense
attorney is going to ask the trial judge to immediately throw out the verdict as being
against the weight of the evidence. If that doesn’t work, the defense is going to say
“Judge, we want you to reduce the amount that’s been rewarded because we don’t
think that the verdict is justified by the facts and the evidence in the case.” If
the judge reduces that amount of money, I can pretty much guarantee that the defense
still will be unhappy and they will then take the case up on appeal, asking the appellate
court (the next highest level court) to then reduce the award or then throw the reward
out. Now here’s what happens when the case is appealed. The appellate court has a number
of different options and at least 5 of them – I want to share with you 5 of them and
what can happen. Number one: they can leave the verdict as the jury decided. Number two:
they can decide that the amount of money that’s rewarded was not sufficient and, in fact,
increase the reward. Number three: they can decide the amount of money was too high and,
in fact, lower it. Number four: they can decide that the amount of money is totally not justified
and throw the case out and direct all the parties back to the trial judge to then re-try
the case on damages and how much compensation you’re going to get. And number five: they
can decide that the case does not justify an award and, in fact, throw the entire case
out – and you’re done and finished. Now, the reality is that many times during the
course of what’s called “post-trial motions” as well as the appellate process, cases can
be resolved by settlement. So that’s why it’s important for you to ask every single
attorney you’re deciding whether or not to go to, when you see those verdicts being
advertised or marketed by the law firm as being large and outrageous results that they’ve
accomplished in the past, always ask the question: how much money did the client actually walk
away with? So why do you need to know this information? Well, you need to know this information
because chances are you’re looking for an attorney and you want to find the right lawyer
for you. So here’s what I encourage you to do. If you have legal questions about your
particular matter – if it happened here in New York – what I encourage you to do
is pick up the phone and call me. I answer legal questions like yours every single day.
You can reach me at 516-487-8207 or by email at lawmed10@yahoo.com. I’m Gerry Oginski.
I’m heading out now with my wife to this black tie wedding. Thanks so much for watching.
Have a great day.