New York Medical Malpractice Law Firm Blog

Wednesday 15, Oct 2014

A Wrong Perception…

Walter G. Alton, Jr.

People very often have a wrong perception of what being a personal injury litigator representing injured plaintiffs and their families entails.  The following scenario actually happened.  I had been preparing intensely for a medical malpractice trial.  As always, it is an all consuming job that requires reviewing all the facts, studying all the depositions, reviewing the medical records, preparing your opening statement, meeting with your experts, scheduling witnesses, preparing questions for your witnesses, initial meetings and preparation of your witnesses, preparing cross-examination of the defendants and experts, preparing what exhibits you wish to blow up or project at trial, thinking about strategy, what you wish to discuss with potential jurors, etc..  It is, as we always say: pedal to the metal, 24/7.  My life was put on hold for the most part except for the work.  A friend of mine wrote me to say that she has a lawyer friend in Florida who has the perception that personal injury litigators don’t work hard.  My friend upon hearing this opinion responded vehemently to that Florida lawyer that such certainly is not true of the attorney she knows, Walter G. Alton, Jr.  She knew the amount of work that had gone into prior cases and this one case I was preparing that had started in 2010. Not only had there been 5 depositions as the case proceeded but multiple motions of all kinds that had to be prepared and other motions made by the defense that had to be opposed in order to have defense lawyers provide the documents requested and to prevent one of the doctors from being discharged from the case.  In fact, right before trial the defense lawyers made spurious motions for a physical examination of the injured plaintiff that they were not entitled to, merely to delay the trial.  All these motions required meticulous work to oppose right before trial which is non-productive.  Cross-moving for sanctions accomplishes nothing.  All the pleadings, depositions, conferences in Court, motions, etc., constitutes a tremendous amount of work that must go into the case.  Opposing some motions are very important even though the motions are not determinative of the merits of the case.  Basically, it is part of the battle for civil justice that goes on until the case is concluded.  This process can go on for years and in regard to the case mentioned in this blog post, it did, for 4 years before the case was resolved.  I might add that even after a case is won, there very often is much work that must be done like preparing a judgment and in cases of wrongful death and cases involving infants preparing the papers for a compromise order which a judge must sign permitting the collection of the award or settlement to be received and outlining how the award is to be distributed.