Have you ever seen a really great movie with one of your favorite actors in it, then later learned that actor wasn’t involved in any of the best scenes because a stunt double was used? It’s always kind of a letdown to learn that your favorite actor is not as awesome as you originally thought. A lot of people who hire lawyers go through similar experiences. They hire an attorney to be their champion, but the case ends up getting passed off to another attorney when the going gets tough. This is not something that happens at the law firm of Jaroslawicz & Jaros, PLLC. As we like to say, “We do all our own stunts.”
There are a lot of personal injury attorneys in the New York City area who only do trial level work. When their clients’ cases need to be appealed, they always bring in another attorney.
Advocacy Through Every Stage Of Your Case
At Jaroslawicz & Jaros, we have our own in-house appellate practice. This means we stay by our clients’ sides, even when it becomes necessary to formulate an appeal to a higher court. We aren’t afraid of appealing decisions we think were wrongly decided if it is in our clients’ best interest to do so. In fact, we have even taken cases all the way up to the United States Supreme Court!
In New York when a personal injury case is brought on behalf of an injured person, who is called the plaintiff, it is generally brought in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, which is considered New York’s lower court.
Many times something can happen in the lower court that affects your case and requires that an appeal be brought to a higher court. In New York, that would be one of our four appellate divisions.
For example, recently at Jaroslawicz & Jaros, we represented a woman who suffered injuries when a window in her apartment fell down on her fingers. We sued her landlord on her behalf, claiming that the window that fell had been defective and dangerous and that it was due to the landlord’s negligence that it fell and caused her injury.
Prior to the trial, the attorney representing the landlord, who is called the defendant, asked the judge hearing the case to dismiss it before trial. According to the defendant’s argument, the landlord did nothing wrong so that there was no reason for a trial to ever take place. Despite our client’s testimony and the opinion of an expert, whom we retained, that the window was dangerous and defective and only fell due to the landlord’s negligence, the judge agreed with the defendant’s position and dismissed the case.
As our firm handles its own appeals, by writing our briefs and arguing our appeals, we promptly filed an appeal to the appellate division and then wrote the brief and presented oral argument to the five judges sitting on the appellate division. The appellate division unanimously agreed with our position and sent the case back for trial. This case was then settled for a sum that provided fair compensation and made our client happy.
In another recent case, a building directory fell and injured someone in a building lobby. Again, the attorney representing the defendant, the landlord being sued for negligence in causing this accident, asked the judge hearing the case to dismiss it before trial. Again, the judge agreed and dismissed the case. Again, we appealed and were successful in having this decision reversed and this case was also then settled for a sum that provided fair compensation and made our client happy.
The attorneys at Jaroslawicz & Jaros have been successfully writing and arguing appeals for over 40 years and have been involved in hundreds of cases on appeals at all levels, including the New York Court of Appeals, our state’s highest court, and even to the United States Supreme Court, the highest court of the United States.
We have been involved not only in having the existing law properly interpreted to the benefit of our clients, but also in cases that have actually been instrumental in changing and interpreting many aspects of the law in New York. Jaroslawicz & Jaros has helped change and interpret the law involving injured construction workers who were hurt on the job and who received the special protection of New York’s Labor law, various motor vehicle claims, product liability, medical malpractice, life and disability insurance and even laws affecting the recovery for real property losses.
Since a lawyer can never predict what will happen in any given case and whether an appeal will be required, it is important that when you interview an attorney you are considering hiring for your accident case to seek to recover compensation for a personal injury that you ask questions such as: Does your firm handle its own appeals? What cases on appeal have you handled? Will you agree to handle my appeal if that becomes necessary?
Do You Need Help With An Appeal?
If you or a loved one was injured and needs legal assistance, call Jaroslawicz & Jaros at or submit an online questionnaire. The initial consultation is free of charge, and if we agree to handle your case, we will work on a contingency fee basis, which means we get paid for our services only if there is a monetary recovery. In many cases, a lawsuit must be filed before an applicable expiration date, known as a statute of limitations. Please call to ensure that you do not waive your right to compensation. Or you can email us at [email protected].
