ny injury times- new online newsletter jan. 11'-feb. 11

8/7/2019 Ny Injury Times- New Online Newsletter Jan. 11'-Feb. 11'

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New York Medical Malpractice Attorney Gerry Oginski presents

NY Injury Times, 25 Great Neck Road, Suite 4, Great Neck, NY 11021 | 516-487-8207 | www.Oginski-law.com

JAN.-FEB 2011

T H E L A W O F F I C E O F :

G E R AL D O G I N S K I , L L C

2 5 G r e a t N e c k R d . , S u i t e 4

G r e a t N e c k , N Y 1 1 0 2 1

T E L E P H O N E 5 1 6 - 4 8 7 - 8 2 0 7 F A X 5 1 6 - 4 8 7 - 8 4 7 2

W O M A N H A S C ATA R A C T

SURGERY; LOSES VISION.

SETTLES CASE 1 WEEK BEFORE

JURY SELECTION

My client, Muna Odetalla had cataract surgery in Brooklyn three

years ago. She had near-perfect vision but was told she neededsurgery to x the cataract. A cataract is a clouding of the lens of theeye.

After surgery she was unable to see. Within two weeks, the doctortook her back to the operating room to remove the lens, known asan intra-occular lens, and switch it out with a new lens with adifferent strength. Hopefully that would give her the ability to seeagain.

Unfortunately for my client, this did not work either. After multiplefollow-up visits, she lost all faith in her eye doctor and went to awell-known eye hospital in Manhattan. She was told she hadpermanent damage to her cornea and would ultimately need acorneal transplant.

We were set to start her trial this month, but agreed to mediate hercase one week before jury selection. After three hours of...

Atlantis Hotel Lobby; Nassau, Bahamas

http://www.oginski-law.com/





hard-fought negotiations, we were ableto successfully resolve her case.

Mediation is where both sides comebefore an impartial judge who sits andlistens to arguments from both sides.Each side has some ‘skin’ in the gamesince each party has to pay the mediatorfor his time. The mediator does not carewhat the outcome is. Rather, he is thereto try and facilitate a negotiatedsettlement that is favorable to all sides.If he is unsuccessful, the case simplyproceeds to trial.

Even with the best case, going to trial inany venue is a risky proposition. Thereare many factors that an experiencedtrial attorney takes into account when

deciding whether to proceed to trial. Insome cases, we have no choice but toproceed to trial when the defense takesan unrealistic position and refuses tooffer any money to settle. I often remindclients that even if they have a greatcase with terric experts who supportour claim, it is still possible to lose at

trial. Unfortunately, there are noguarantees at trial.

Litigants should be mindful that even if they win their case at trial, the defensewill do everything possible to try andreduce the award using post-trialmotions and appeals. That process takesyears to resolve.

With an appeal, there many differentoutcomes possible. (1) A higher courtmay agree that you are entitled to the

jury award. (2) They can disagree anddismiss your case. (3) They have theability to reduce the award. (4) Anotheralternative is to send the case back totrial and start all over again.

In this case, the only reason we wereable to settle Muna’s case was becausewe were ready for trial and it allowedboth sides the opportunity to see what atrial would look like if we started juryselection next week. Congratulations toMuna Odetalla on her settlement.

On the ski lift at Camelback

Seagull in ight; Nassau, Bahamas

Atlantis Aquarium; Nassau, Bahamas






Jimmy Changa goes donkey

driving in Mexico

If you remember from last month ʼ snewsletter, Jimmy was forced into animmedia te vaca t ion because ofWikiLeaks and their data dump thatidentied him as the United StatesGovernments ʼ most powerful weapon intheir efforts to determine when foreignleaders would die.

He stayed in the White House for a fewdays trying to play X-box with the secretservice agents and swimming in thePresident ʼ s pool. He even tried bowling,but just couldn ʼ t get into the spirit of it.He was allowed to sit in on a fewCabinet meetings, but just couldn ʼ t payattention. He needed to get away andfast. His CIA appointed private jet wasto take him to an undisclosed hideawayin the mountains of Mexico, three hoursfrom the nearest airport. This was morethan just a safe-house. It was an ultra-secret underground facility used by theCIA that looked like a little cottage as

you approached it.The CIA jet ew into a secret airport andhe was given a GPS unit and told thatthe donkey attached to the cactus washis only way in or out. A jackass is whatthe CIA was using. There ʼ s more of adouble entendre there than he thought.This was desert and mountain country.

He hopped onto the donkey, turned onhis GPS unit and was tempted to punchin an address in downtown Mexico, but

i n s t e a d d e c i d e d t o f o l l o w t h ecoordinates already programed in. Heturned the mule around and began hisve mile trek. He wondered how yousteered a donkey and was fortunate thatthe GPS unit simply said “In 100 yardskick the donkey ʼ s right side with yourheel.” Thirty minutes later, the GPS unit

said in a slightly sadistic fema le French-accented voice, “In 50 yards, kick thedonkey on the left side and then whiphis ass with your hand.”

Jimmy found himself heading toward afootpath that was never used. The areasurrounding the airport was totallydeserted. No sign of life anywhere. Thedonkey followed the path as if onautopilot. Ten minutes later a hugeGerman Shepherd appeared out ofnowhere and came right up to Jimmy.No barking, nothing aggressive, justlooking and following the donkey. Fiveminutes later the GPS unit announced in

a voice clear and keen “Get the hell offmy donkey and follow the dog!”

Jimmy hopped off the trusted donkeyand began following the dog. Hefollowed the dog for 15 minutes upmultiple winding uphill paths. Throughthe bushes and overgrowth. He couldn ʼ tbelieve that a donkey and a dog weretaking him to a secret place. He glanceddown at the GPS unit. It said loudly “Youhave arrived. Look up and pat the dogon his head.” He did as instructed. The

dog sat down, and Jimmy walked up towhat could be described as a largeouthouse. It had that run-down,dilapidated and unkempt look as if it wasan abandoneda n dde te r io ra t ingo u t h o u s e .“ G r e a t , j u s tw h a t I w a slooking for,”Jimmy thought;a place to go tothe bathroomin the middle ofnowhere.

C o n t i n u e d ,next page ...

Atlantis aquarium

Cable Beach, Nassau, Bahamas

Cable Beach, Nassau, Bahamas





Gerry’s Never Ending Story Continue d... PAGE4


He opened the creaky and imsybathroom door. There was a toilet.He had to go. He pulled his pants

down and sat down. That triggeredan elevator platform to move theentire toilet platform down an oldmine shaft. He didn ʼ t knowwhether to stand and pull hispants up or nish what he started.He gured he had a few minutesso he did what he needed to andushed. Three minutes later thetoilet elevator came to a stop andJimmy hopped out.

He was greeted by the two Israeli

Mossad operatives he had met atthe White House. This time, theywere wearing shorts and t-shirts.They had an apple martini for him.They kissed him on the cheek andboth said “Come with me...”

The corridor looked like it wasfrom an executive club. Woodpaneling. Thick red pile carpet,and windows with vistas of snow-capped mountains on one sideand Caribbean-blue waters on theother. It appeared like totaldaylight with bright streamingsunlight in this hideaway. “Howcould this be,” he thought?They ʼ re deep underground .Probably a CIA trick.

They walked into the undergroundhangar and J immy ʼ s mouthdropped. Sitting in this hangar wasone of the most advanced stealthghter airplanes in the world. “Holycow!” he exclaimed.

Find out next month if Jimmy gets a chance to take a ride in the most advanced, top-secret stealth ghter in existence.

Skiing at Camelback







A True Story -I Read My Son a Book Tonight PAGE5


I did something tonight Ihaven’t done in a long time. I satdown and read my son a story. It’s

been a long time since I sat down onhis bed, picked up a book and beganto read. I love reading stories to mykids, especially bedtime stories.

If you asked my kids what theirfavorite stories are, they will tell youthat my ctitious stories about LittleDavid, Little Harry and LittleSamantha are the funniest, mostmemo rab le s to r i e s they canremember. These characters come tolife with antics, adventures and neverending stories (sound familiar?) thatwould leave them in hystericallaughter wanting more and moreeach time.

My kids encouraged me to write abook lled with these stories.

Although I’ve written six books aboutlaw and I’m working on a seventhbook now, I never found the time to

put those stories to paper. I didhowever record a few of those storiesfor my kids to listen to one time whenmy wife and I went away on vacation

years ago. I think it actually upsetthem listening to me on tape knowing I wasn’t at home.

Anyway, getting back to the story...My son was lying down on his bedafter a long day. He was pretty tiredand I had wanted him to read a book I gave him months ago. Surprisingly,that book remained in the same placeas when I put it there. Despite myattempts to get him to crack thisterric book, he just couldn’t bring himself to open the book and startreading. He was just too busy.

I decided I had to take drastic action.I was going to do something I hadn’tdone with him in a long time; read

to him . I grabbed the book off of his dresser, sat down on his bed andstarted to read. It was 11 o’clock atnight and although we were bothtired, this was the perfect opportunityto get him interested in this book.Before he had a chance to object, Ibegan reading the preface andquickly got to chapter 1. He washooked after the rst two sentences.

I read three chapters tonight. I havepersonally read this book 3 times.This book has changed my life. I wasnow trying to get my son to read it soit would help him too.

As I was reading page by page,memories of the bedtime stories Iwould tell my kids kept returning tomy mind and how animated andexcited I would get when describing details of my made-up stories. I

decided to inject some fun andliveliness into reading this book.

As I did so, I saw a glimmer andsparkle in my son’s eyes along with asmile as he recalled the stories I usedto tell him.

After 25 minutes of reading to him, Ihanded him the book and dog earedthe page for him to continue reading into the next chapter. He promisedhe would do so and then promptlyput the book on his night table andwent to get his laptop to video chatwith his friends.

Oh yes...I forgot to tell you that myson is 19 years old and a sophomore

in college. He’s an EMT and worksas a volunteer for our local redepartment. He’s done CPR, saved

lives and made us proud. He’s anentrepreneur and a re al go-getter.

I also forgot to tell you that the book we were reading is called “No B.S.T i m e M a n a g e m e n t f o rEntrepreneurs,” by Dan Kennedy, amarketing genius. I left my son’sroom tonight with great memories of telling him bedtime stories andreading books like Harry Potter andDr. Seuss to him.

My youngest son still loves listening to my outrageous stories. My otherkids are just too cool to have dad sitdown on their bed and read to them.

Well, it’s been many years since I satdown on my eldest son’s bed andread a book to him. I had a blast andI think he did too!

“Excuse me sir, which way to the lodge?”







Birds in “Fight” over a piece of chicken

S e a sh e lls o f t h e B a h a m a s

Cr u ise s h i ps- Ba ha mas B a h a m a s

S k i i ng a t t he to p

How do you take a picture with this thing?







Gerry’s Trivia GameTEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF NEW YORK LAW

Answers are on the back page

His cousin, The Love Boat, got all the fame andnotoriety. Nobody wanted to create a show called“The Mail Boat.” A large paddle boat for a person with very long legs.

TRUE OR FALSE ?

1. In a criminal case in NY, there are 12jurors who sit in judgment.

2. Moot court is where clowns put on skitsto entertain the jurors waiting to be

selected during jury selection.3. A “Brief” is only one page long.4. The trial level court in New York is

called the Supreme Court.5. Mediation is where both sides try to

settle a case without having to go totrial.

6. Arbitration is binding on both sides.

7. In a persona l in ju ry case, thecompensation you receive for yourpain and suffering is tax-free.

8. In a medical malpractice case in NY, acertificate of merit is required to startyour lawsuit.

9. Telling a “little white lie” during your

case is no big deal.10. All personal injury lawyers are trial

lawyers.

BONUS QUESTION“Polling the jury” at the end of a trial meansthat you get to take a survey to see how thejury liked spending their time listening toyour case.






Give this

newsletter toyour bestfriend. They’llthank you forit, and so will I.------------ Answers to Trivia Game ----------

1. True, 2. False, 3. False, 4. True, 5. True, 6True, 7. True, 8. True, 9. False, 10. False,

BONUS: False

MAIL TO:

HAVE LEGAL QUESTIONS?

Call me: 516-487-8207 or

Email me at

[email protected]

NEW YORK INJURY TIM

Call me right now with any legal questions about injuries from any accident or medical care.I promise to give you a straightforward and honest answer. That’s my guarantee.

516-487-8207

T H E L A W O F F I C E O F :G E R ALD O G I N S K I , LLC 2 5 G r e a t N e c k R d . , S u i t e 4 G r e a t N e c k , N Y 1 1 0 2 1

T E L E P H O N E 5 16 - 4 8 7 - 8 2 0 7 E M A I L LAW M E D 10 @ Y AH O O .C O M

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NEW YORK INJURY TIM JAN.-FEB 201

Gerry Oginski, NY Medical Malpractice Trial Lawyer




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