New York Medical Malpractice Law Firm Blog

Friday 21, Oct 2011

Preparing for Trial and more…

Walter G. Alton, Jr.

My staff and I prepared for trial of a serious accident case for approximately from the middle of May until the trial began July 22, 2011, straight.  This meant 7 days a week with only one break over the July 4th weekend.   There never seems to be enough time to study the depositions, prepare the case specific questions one wishes to ask the prospective jurors during selection, the opening, questions for your witnesses and cross-examination, exhibits for trial and memorandums of law in support of whatever legal motions have to be made.  The trial itself continued until August 11, 2011.  During that time, the work was non-stop for almost all waking hours.  The average layperson has no idea of the hours involved in prosecuting a case for a seriously  injured plaintiff.  This is why the idea of going forward on a weak or “frivolous” case is economic suicide for a personal injury attorney.  There never is a guarantee that a jury will find for your client even with a strong case and a flawless presentation of the evidence.  With a weak case the odds of winning are greatly reduced and with no recovery for the client because the case is weak there is no fee and usually no reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses spent on the case despite the fact that many hours of time over years have been dedicated to the case not to mention the fixed costs of running the office.  In order to keep representing injured plaintiffs, we only go forward with cases we believe in.