Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Trial Advocacy

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New York Personal Injury Peter SagirOur partner NYC personal injury lawyer Peter Saghir served on the faculty of the “Building Trial Skills: Northeast” program presented by the National Institute of Trial Advocacy at Hofstra University from August 7 to August 12 2017. Students in the program spent the week preparing for a mock trial which was held at the end of the program before current judges and lawyers. Peter spent his time teaching and working with students in the program on their direct examinations, openings and summations.

For over forty years, NITA has offered trial skills programming taught by the best trial lawyers in the country, volunteers who donate their time and dedicate it to your professional success. Nowhere but through NITA can you receive personalized coaching by a veritable “who’s who” of advocacy experts—trial lawyers, judges, and law professors—from coast to coast.

To learn more about this program or about the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, please click here

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New York Personal Injury Attorneys Rubinowitz and TorganIn their recent trial advocacy column in the New York Law Journal, New York Personal Injury Attorneys Ben Rubinowitz and Evan Torgan write: Too often trial lawyers fail to maximize key points that, if fully developed during cross, will serve not only to discredit the witness, but to anger the jurors so that they begin to question and doubt your adversary’s entire case. A thorough line of attack with respect to a lie does not simply prove that a witness was dishonest, but explores the thought process that went into concocting the lie in the first instance, the motives behind that lie, and the ultimate goal that the witness hoped to achieve by engaging in such deception.

Read the complete column here

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New York Civil Right Attorney DonadioOur NY civil rights attorney Christopher J. Donadio recently lectured at the American Association for Justice Winter Convention in Austin, Texas. He was asked to speak at the convention to educate plaintiff’s lawyers from around the country on how to litigate cases where police officers have unlawfully used Tasers to injure innocent people.

As of 2016, over 97.5% of police departments in the United States employ officers that carry Tasers, devices that can incapacitate a person with electricity. Although Tasers can be useful in reducing the need for deadly force, unfortunately, many officers have used them inappropriately and severely harmed and/or killed innocent people. As a result, there has been a rise in lawsuits involving the excessive use of Tasers. Despite the seemingly straight forward nature of cases involving excessive force by the use of a Taser, there are complicated legal issues, including the Qualified Immunity Defense, that can prevent those injured from obtaining justice.

Unfortunately many innocent victims have been denied justice because their attorneys did not have the knowledge to negotiate the various complex legal issues. As a result of Mr. Donadio’s success in litigating Taser cases, he was asked to educate lawyers from all over the country as to what must be done to insure that their clients are not denied justice.

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Jeffrey-Bloom3On Wednesday, Our partner Jeffrey Bloom lectured and did a demonstration of a deposition of a defendant doctor in a medical malpractice case at Metropolitan Hospital Emergency Department Grand Rounds which was attended by New York Medical College emergency medicine faculty, residents, medical students and other observers and research staff.
Two days before Jeff was also invited by the NY Kings Supreme Court bench & court attorneys to present and discuss issues frequently encountered in the trial of a medical malpractice action in a “lunch and learn” program.

A co-chair of the Medical Malpractice Committee of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association and a member of the organization’s board of directors, NYC Medical Malpractice Attorney Jeff Bloom has lectured extensively to law students and fellow lawyers on the preparation and trial of medical malpractice lawsuits. He has also lectured in New York State Bar Association-sponsored programs entitled “Medical and Legal Issues in Breast Cancer and Gynecological Cancers and Surgery” and “Woman’s Health Issues and Malpractice.”

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Rubinowitz-Ben-B_12d7428b-27a7-4195-bebc-7788dce430881Our managing partner, Ben Rubinowitz, will be lecturing at the Nassau County Bar Association on Tuesday, May 2, 2017 at 5:30pm.   The topic will be Direct and Cross Examination in a Medical Malpractice Case. Ben will provide tips and techniques for examining the Target Defendant Doctor, strategies for questioning the Plaintiff’s Expert as well as the Defendant’s Expert. Ben will also suggest  methods of setting up successful arguments for Summation through strategic direct and cross examination.  Examples from real cases will be used throughout the presentation.

Click here for more info or to register

 

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ben1Personal injury attorneys Ben Rubinowitz  and Doris Cheng are the directors of a new training program designed by the  National Institute for Trial Advocacy. Entitled “NITA Drills: a Witness Examination Boot Camp”, this rapid-fire 3-day program will take place June 19th thru June 21st 2017 at the NITA Education Center in Boulder, CO.

Taught by highly experienced trial lawyers, this program will focus on direct examination of of  witnesses, including impeachment and expert witness variations, as well as methods for delivering openings and summations. Using NITA’s method of learning by doing and limiting the enrollment to 24 people, this program will allow each participant to take their trial skills to the next level.

To register or to learn more about this program click here

 

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New York Personal Injury Attorneys Rubinowitz and TorganIn their latest Trial Advocacy column in the New York Law Journal, Personal Injury Attorneys Ben Rubinowitz of Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf, and Evan Torgan of Torgan & Cooper write about the dangers of Social Media, how attorneys are obliged to protect their clients, and that all attorneys must make clear to their clients that once posted the information is forever. The failure to conduct a proper social media check could easily result in a loss. Conducting an appropriate search of all social media platforms has now become mandatory.

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New York Personal Injury Lawyer Rachel JacobsWe are proud to announce that only 3 years after graduating from Law School, our associate, New York personal injury lawyer Rachel Jacobs, is already chairing a Continuous Education Seminar (CLE) at Cardozo Law School on Tuesday March 21st at 6:30 pm. Entitled “Hot Issues in Personal Injury,” this seminar will cover the following subjects:

  • tort trends
  • new tort claims
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New York Personal Injury Lawyer Richard SteigmanOur partner, NY injury attorney Richard Steigman will be the chair of the “2017 CPLR Update” seminar organized by the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. The Co chair will be Judge Ariel E. Belen (Ret.), JAMS Mediator & Arbitrator, Justice, Appellate Division, Second Department. The seminar will cover all new recent developments in the field of New York Civil Practice. Participants will be updated on  the recent legislative changes and court decisions in this field.

The seminar will take place Tuesday January 24 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm at the NYSTLA Office. The address is 132, Nassau Street, Second Floor, New York, NY 10038.

To learn more about this seminar or to register please click here

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After a young bicyclist was struck by a car in New York City, the Court of Appeals held the city of New York liable for failing to install traffic calming measures in a street the city knew was dangerous. The Court of Appeals decision  is related to a crash between a bicyclist and a car that occurred back in 2004  on Gerritsen Avenue in Brooklyn, NYC.

On December 5 2004 around 6:30 pm, 12 year old Anthony Turturro was riding his bike on Gerritsen Avenue. At the time of the accident, Gerritsen Ave was a four lane avenue with two lanes of traffic going in each direction.  As he was attempting to cross the avenue at mid-block, the young boy was struck by a car. The driver, Louis Pascarella, was speeding. The police investigation established that when the crash occurred, the driver’s speed was 54 mph, 24 mph over the 30 mph speed limit at this location. Turturro suffered serious injury. The driver pleaded guilty  to assault in the second degree.

RECKLESS DRIVING AND SPEEDING