By Jeffrey Koenig
New York Personal Injury Attorney, The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein

Okay, my day started today at about 5:00 am.

The coffee is on, the caffeinated air is floating like a haze around my head, and my computer is humming.

Considering that I didn’t leave my office until about 8:00 pm the night before, I guess it seems a little early. But, hey, what can you do…when you have little ones relying on you? I mean, duty calls.

I”m getting ready for court, reviewing my documents and knowing that when I get there I’ll have to wait for some insurance company attorney who care less about his profession than most people care about cleaning up garbage sitting next to the can in a subway station. To him it’s a job – he has to bill his hours, go through the motions and work as hard as possible to make life for me and my client miserable.

Now, listen, don’t get me wrong. There are some great defense attorneys out there. I’m just writing about those people who merely punch a clock and go through their job like zombies without any feeling a thing whatsoever, except maybe the sizeable chip on their shoulder for their plaintiff-attorney counterparts.

So I get to court for the 9:30 am opening, hoping that by some miracle I will be out of there by 10 am.

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

11:20 am. – just before the default calendar is called he finally shows up.

My adversary says sorry; he’s in four different parts this morning and that he needs to get this done quickly.

I show him the order I’ve drafted for the judge’s signature. We haggle over minor details but this order says nothing more than the defendant must provide all outstanding discovery as demanded in our prior demands by a date certain and gives dates for depositions.

I know what will happen next…the defendant won’t comply and I’ll end up making a motion to compel their response and/or strike his answer for failing to provide discovery.

The truth is, the defendant knows this too.

It’s nothing but a charade.

But if all goes well, the defendant will respond to our demands, appear for all depositions, and in a year we can say we’ve completed discovery and are ready to place the case on the trial calendar.

We’re ready to see the clerk to finalize the order. Of course, we have five cases in front of us.

Waiting, waiting waiting.

I figure I’ve spent at least a decade waiting for things in my career.

Finally we get to the law clerk. If we have issues, the clerk tries to resolve them.

None today.

The clerk separates the antiquated carbon form that we filled out, handing me the yellow copy and the defendant the pink, while keeping the white/top original.

We’re done.

I leave court around 12 noon and head back to the office with a pile of work waiting for me.

That’s it.

That was my entire morning.

The entire morning was spent on a single case.

People ask why I work so late, and why I don’t leave until 8:00 pm. It is because of this.

I can spend the entire morning waiting for my adversary on a single case. I’m in court just about every day which takes time away from work that needs to be done in the office.

This is my morning.This is my day. This is my life.

By John Hanna
The Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. — When politicians and police across the country want to crack down on illegal immigration, they often reach out to the same man: a little-known Kansas attorney with an Ivy League education who is the architect behind many of the nation’s most controversial immigration laws.

Kris Kobach could not attend West Point because of diabetes, but he regards his efforts on immigration as a substitute for military service.

“They can’t call him trailer park trash, which is the kind of comment you hear about advocates on our side,” said Michael Hethmon, director of the Washington-based Immigration Reform Law Institute.

Kobach helps draft proposed laws and, after they are adopted, trains officers to enforce them. If the laws are challenged, he goes to court to defend them.

Read the whole story here.

In the five months we at The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein have been doing this blog, while we put everything we have into everything we post, we’re especially proud of these. If you haven’t read all of them yet, we urge you to do so. Please. We guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Enjoy!

Spar & Bernstein’s 20-Point Plan to Fix Broken Immigration System: Our Changes to the Law
http://bit.ly/dkdNHy

Spar & Bernstein’s Exclusive Interview with Dream Walker Felipe Matos
http://is.gd/81cHV

Spar & Bernstein’s 10 Commandments to Being a Successful Immigration Attorney
http://bit.ly/7aeYNz

Spar & Bernstein’s Exclusive Interview with Immigration Activist Will Coley
http://is.gd/90shU

A Look Inside The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein
http://bit.ly/c27J2i

Spar & Bernstein’s Exclusive Interview with Author/Ph. D. William Perez
http://bit.ly/abgMw6

Spar & Bernstein’s Split Take on Comprehensive Immigration Reform in 2010
http://bit.ly/89Z7b8

Martin Luther King’s Dream & The Miami Dream Walkers
http://tinyurl.com/y8treqt

What’$ Your Personal Injury Case Worth?
http://bit.ly/cMObE6

Top 10 Ways to Screw Up Your Personal Injury Case
http://bit.ly/bk9Ea8

Busted Dreams
http://bit.ly/78RXKt

20 Ways to Know You’re Addicted to Your Blog
http://bit.ly/7gQGax

10 Things I Learned as Assistant District Attorney
http://bit.ly/6vCZMM

Spar & Bernstein’s Take on Immigration Detention: The View from Hell
http://is.gd/64Lcy

Spar & Bernstein’s 50 Favorite Immigration Tweeters List – Complete
http://is.gd/7hZxF

Top 10 Tax Relief Questions
http://bit.ly/cSc3ql

Spar & Bernstein’s 10 Rock-Solid Immigration Tips
http://bit.ly/3ew86H

Top 10 Qualities to Look for in a Lawyer
http://bit.ly/4nYEKK

Immigration Court Etiquette
http://bit.ly/6aSfE1

An Immigration Attorney’s Immigrant Story
http://is.gd/7CEG6

Spar & Bernstein’s Top 10 Tips for Giving Testimony in Immigration Court
http://bit.ly/4BdLqr

Spar & Bernstein’s Exclusive Interview with Phoenix Journalist Terry Greene Sterling
http://bit.ly/5IGpN0

Spar & Bernstein’s Exclusive Interview with Filmmaker Ruth Leitman
http://bit.ly/32KYL9

Spar & Bernstein’s Exclusive Interview with Novelist Leslie Kohler
http://bit.ly/4Rhkha

Please, if there are any other posts you feel should’ve made this list, tell us and we’ll add it ASAP!

Have a great day!

By Jeffrey Koenig
Personal Injury Attorney, The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein

What is summary judgment?

Summary judgment is when a court finds, as a matter of law, that there are no genuine issues of material fact that need to be submitted to a fact finder—be it judge or jury.

For instance, think about an automobile accident where the defendant hits the plaintiff’s vehicle in the rear while the plaintiff is lawfully stopped at a traffic light causing plaintiff to sustain serious injuries.

This fact pattern—on its face—is sufficient for plaintiff to meet his burden in moving for summary judgment. In fact, a hit-in-the-rear with a stopped vehicle creates a rebuttable presumption of negligence on the part of the defendant.

The burden then shifts to the defendant to come forward with some non-negligent excuse for the happening of this event. If he cannot do so, plaintiff wins the issue of liability and the only issue left is how much money the defendant owes.

Filing for summary judgment is a great way to narrow the issues and focus attention on what matters, i.e. the damages.

When the only issue you have before you is how much your damages are worth, you are in the driver’s seat!

By Jeffrey Koenig
Personal Injury Attorney, The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein

Professionally, there are few things I enjoy more than calling or writing a judge to advise that I’ve reached a settlement with my adversary.

That usually means a case’s end of the line.

It’s simply a matter of drafting some final paperwork, making sure to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s, and in a few weeks, well, I’m gleefully handing over a fat check to my client.

But, for the client, relieved and thankful, receipt of money is just the beginning to bettering their lives.

In some case, the money means continuing crucial therapy after a horrific accident.

In cases where clients suffer from an inability to perform activities of daily living, the money represents a home health attendant.

In cases where clients endure the destruction of property, the money means getting it fixed—or better—getting it anew!

But let it be known that the receipt of money does come with a caveat: Make it last.

If you happen to tell the whole world that you just settled a big case, it won’t be long before your long lost Uncle Fred comes out of the woodwork and asks you for a loan—or your friend who owes you more than your settlement asks to borrow some cash yet once again.

It’s for these reasons that the best practice for you when you receive your money is to keep this information on the hush-hush, totally private.

This money is there for a reason: to return your life as close as possible to the way it was before your accident.

So, please, use the money wisely.

It’ll serve you better in the long run.

It’ll make having won the case all the more rewarding.

By Stella Templo
Immigration Attorney, The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein

Last week, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced that he would retire at the end of this term.

Stevens was nominated in 1975 by President Gerald Ford, who wrote 30 years later that he was prepared to allow history’s judgment of him to rest exclusively, if necessary, on that Stevens decision.This was a very smart statement, as the Stevens legacy is sure to resound.

Justice Stevens is the longest-serving member of the current Court and will turn 90 in just a few days on April 20.

By retiring at the end of this term, he narrowly misses two Supreme Court records. He will be two years short of longest service ever, a record held by Justice William Douglas at 36 years and 209 days, and a year short of being the oldest justice ever, a record held by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, age 91.

The retirement announcement was both expected and unexpected. It was expected because the man is almost 90.

He deserves to spend some time enjoying himself and he’s reputed to enjoy golf and bridge.

It is unexpected because he still has so much to give.

He showed his fire earlier this year when he delivered his 20-minute dissent in Citizens United, which includes this stinging rebuke, “essentially five justices were unhappy with the limited nature of the case before us, so they changed the case to give themselves an opportunity to change the law.”

With Justice Stevens’s departure, the court loses its only Protestant member and its last WW II veteran. It also leaves the pool representing only two law schools.

Justice Stevens is part of the losing liberal bloc of 4 and he will likely be replaced by someone who will vote the same way; thereby, preserving the current count.

Through Justice Stevens, we, as a society, have considered and defined our concepts of law and humanity as when he eloquently explained the importance of privacy rights of prisoners and when he opined that the death penalty is a violation of the Eight Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and inhuman punishment.

Without any disrespect to the supposed short-list candidates, the Court will suffer a huge loss.

Sure, Elena Kagan, Merrick Garland and Diane Wood are fantastic nominees and would be good justices, but will be they great?

Justice Stevens was great.

This is NOT great news in the fight for fair immigration reform.

Source: The Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona House on Tuesday approved a bill that would draw local communities deeper into the fight against illegal immigration despite arguments from opponents that it would do nothing to keep people safer.

House Republicans advanced the measure on a 35-21 party-line vote. The Senate approved the bill in February but must concur to changes made in the House before sending it to Gov. Jan Brewer.

Supporters celebrated the bill as a tough crackdown on illegal immigration that will protect the state from violent criminals.

Arizona’s struggling economy has driven many illegal immigrants from the state. But as the economy rebounds, “so too will the illegal immigrants — larger, stronger and more destructive than they were several years ago,” said Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills.

“We need to put this law in place now so that when the new illegal immigrants come, we’re prepared to do battle with them,” he said.

Check out Suzan Charlton’s law toons @ http://www.lawtoons.com/

“No man suffers injustice without learning, vaguely but surely, what justice is.”

- Isaac Rosenfeld

*****

“Somebody recently figured out that we have 35 million laws to enforce the 10 Commandments.”

- Attributed to both Bert Masterson and Earl Wilson

*****

“I’ve never had a problem with drugs. I’ve had problems with the police.”

- Keith Richards

*****

“Although the legal and ethical definitions of right are the antithesis of each other, most writers use them as synonyms. They confuse power with goodness, and mistake law for justice.”

- Charles T. Sprading

*****

“Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.”

- Edmund Burke

Rob Reiner, of course, directed two films with great courtroom drama, A Few Good Men and Ghosts of Mississippi.

By Jeffrey Koenig
Personal Injury Attorney, The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein

When you’re injured and contemplating a lawsuit against a person or an entity that caused your injury, you might think, “Hmm. What happens if I actually go ahead with this lawsuit?” Then come all the negatives: “Will I be penalized somehow? Will the other person not like me anymore? Will my boss want to fire me? Will this cost me anything?”

That’s a lot of stuff weighing on your brain, isn’t it?

Well, let me tell you what I tell all my clients: You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So, please, don’t worry about anyone but yourself and your family.

As my mom once told me, if you’re not for yourself, no one will be.

In other words, no one will be there to represent your interests if you don’t take the initiative to pick up the phone or stop in and say, “Jeffrey, I want the compensation to which I am entitled.”

Don’t worry about whether or not the person who hit you with their car will be upset—they certainly didn’t ask you first whether or not they could blow through the light or the stop sign before hitting your car. Right?

Don’t worry about whether or not your insurance will go up because of a lawsuit or use of No-Fault auto benefits. Your injury is the very reason that you carry this insurance. I mean, why are you paying for it if you don’t use it? There’s a reason that insurance is there—and it’s not just to collect premiums!

Don’t worry about whether or not your boss will be upset if you got hurt on a construction site and you sue the owner of the site and the general contractor. You are entitled to bring a proper lawsuit and no one can stop you. If some entity didn’t follow the rules and failed to provide you the proper fall protection or provide you with a safe worksite, that is their fault and not yours. No one asked you whether or not it would be okay if they asked you to stand on a defective ladder or scaffold—or if you would mind taking a 20-foot dive onto a concrete floor.

Don’t worry about whether or not your doctor will be upset with you if you sue him or her, or a doctor that she or he recommended that you see. Doctors can make mistakes, and believe it or not, they’re not gods—they all too human sometimes. If you feel uncomfortable suing the physician because you plan to continue seeing them—that should be a BIG SIGN: DON’T CONTINUE TO SEE A DOCTOR THAT YOU THINK DID SOMETHING WRONG!! If there is a possibility that the doctor didn’t do the job properly, why would you want to still see her? Go to a different provider.

Don’t worry about the process. Your lawyer is there to shepherd you through the process. There is a reason that the state licenses people to be lawyers—and it is not that it gives the state another avenue to collect revenue. It is because the state recognizes that legal proceedings can be very complex and litigants need to be represented by competent practitioners .

Don’t worry about the cost to you. There’s no fee unless there’s a recovery—in which case you’ll be in the black, less legal fees and expenses. A lawsuit is there to make you whole from your injury. Since the law cannot give you an unbroken leg or an unherniated disc, the law will give you money to compensate you for the injury, medical expenses, pain and suffering and loss of income.

Most of all, you shouldn’t worry because that’s my job. I do the worrying for you.

Like the song says, Don’t worry, be happy!

Make sure to visit Stu’s Views Lawyer Cartoons
http://stus.com/
Click here

Check out Suzan Charlton’s law toons @ http://www.lawtoons.com/

By Katie Sae Jung Lee
Immigration Attorney, The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein

As attorneys we are seen as counselors, teachers.

Clients come to us in order to find solutions to their problems, which may not be necessarily in immigration law; it can be in criminal law, family law, real estate law, etc.

Our clients are not to be merely seen as a “case number,” but each and every case should become a part of us. They rely on us to guide them to legal immigrant status.

The way I see it, besides one’s health, the next biggest challenge in anyone’s life is their immigration status or lack of it.

Not everyone is lucky enough to have been born in the United States, even though most of the United States population consists of immigrants.

Each and every client should be viewed as a mentee and we, their mentors. Each case file represents a face.

And with that face comes a rich and full history.

And in that history there are relationships, bonds, trust and love.

Let us not forgot each case number represents someone’s mother, father, brother, sister, cousin…

Please, let us not ever forget that.