Impersonal Injury

By Joseph A. Levy

Eileen Albano, a newly admitted attorney, has landed a job at Weiss & Dorfman, a plaintiff's personal injury law firm located in lower Manhattan. For Eileen, who had always wanted to be a personal injury lawyer so she could help injured people get their money, it is a dream come true. But her dream soon turns into a nightmare as slowly but surely she starts to discover the many improprieties her bosses are engaging in on a regular basis. At first glance, they seem to be unethical practices, but as she investigates further, she finds out that the practices they are engaging in are not merely unethical but criminal. Impersonal Injury is a realistic look at the dark side of the personal injury business and at what unscrupulous lawyers will do in pursuit of the dollar.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647013226

Book preview

Chapter 1

Eileen Albano was beyond nervous. She had graduated law school in June 2001, and in November 2001, she got the good news that she had, on her first try, passed the tough New York bar exam. Her formal swearing-in as an attorney would be in one month, January 2002. At the same time, her search for work had been frustrating and futile. Almost all the ads she had seen either online or in the New York Law Journal indicated that they wanted someone with at least two years’ experience as an attorney, which she did not have. While she was in law school, she had done an internship both for a judge and for the New York City Transit Authority, and the internships had taught her a lot about how the system works. But for the prospective employers, this was not enough. After enduring several rejections, she was now sitting in the reception area of Weiss & Dorfman, a small plaintiff’s personal injury firm located at 225 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, a short walk from both City Hall and Ground Zero. The interview was scheduled for 11:00 a.m., but not wanting to be even a minute late, Eileen arrived there fifteen minutes early. At 10:55 a.m., one of the partners came out to greet her.

Good morning, Ms. Albano, I’m Bob Weiss. Give us a few minutes, and my partner and I will see you in the conference room. They shook hands, and she told him to call her Eileen. He offered her something to drink, but she politely declined. She immediately sensed something furtive about him.

At 11:05 a.m., he brought her into the conference room, where his partner, Al Dorfman, introduced himself. Right away, she saw how he was staring at her breasts. At the same time, she could right away tell the differences between the two men. Al was dressed flashy; Bob was rather casual. Al appeared bubbly and gregarious, Bob quiet and reserved. Al, she figured, was probably the courtroom man, while Bob was probably the office man. But she also knew that this was common in partnerships. To be successful, partners had to complement each other, not be clones of each other.

Eileen had done her research about the firm on the internet, and she had been expecting them to ask her what she knew about the firm. Instead, Al began by telling her the history of their firm. He leveled his gaze at her, and she met his, which helped keep his eyes above her collar.

Bob and I were admitted to practice in 1992. We started out at the Corporation Counsel, defending the city in tort cases. After five years of working there, we decided that having gotten more than enough experience, there was a lot more money to be made on the plaintiff’s side of the personal injury bar. If a plaintiff’s attorney could make in one case what we made in one year, we figured we could do the same. So in 1997, we hung up our shingles here at 225 Broadway. For the first year or so, we relied exclusively on per diem work, covering conferences and depositions for other lawyers. But as our clientele increased and as more of our cases began to settle, we stopped doing per diem work, and we were now handling only our own cases. We now have over five hundred active files, and that number is growing rapidly. But Bob and I can no longer do it alone. We need a lawyer to come in and to ease the burden.

What will my functions be if you choose to hire me? she asked.

At first, you will be responsible for moving the cases that are in suit, and you will cover conferences as well as depositions which do not involve you asking the questions. These were things that only attorneys could handle, and Eileen liked this. At least they would be treating her as an attorney and not as a glorified office girl. The last thing she wanted to do was to all the time get coffee for her bosses. From there, Al told her, she would quickly move up. After a couple of months, she would handle depositions where she would do the questioning, and within one year, she could expect to be trying cases. Bob then asked her about her ethnicity.

So your name is Eileen Albano. You’re half-Irish and half-Italian?

You got it, she said with a smile.

I see on your resume that you interned with a judge in Brooklyn and then with the New York City Transit Authority, Al continued. You evaluated cases for the transit Authority and attended settlement conferences in all the five boroughs. We like that. This shows us that you know your way around, and this is much more important to us than what grades you got. You will learn very quickly that what you learned in law school has nothing to do with the everyday practice of law. The last thing we care about is how well you did in Future Interests or in Commercial Paper. I’ll never forget a lawyer telling me that the As become the professors, the Bs become the judges and prosecutors, and the Cs make all the money. But I find it interesting that you want to be a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney. Catholic lawyers tend to be on the defense side of the personal injury bar. When I try cases, I try to keep Irish and Italians off the jury. They usually don’t like awarding a lot of money in personal injury cases.

Believe me, I am aware of that.

It was now time for the partners to ask her the tough questions. In her cover letter, Eileen had told them she knew very well how the personal injury business works. Bob and Al wanted to see how well she really knew it.

Are you familiar with Saga? Bob asked. Saga was the computer system many lawyers liked to use.

Very much so; we used Saga at the Transit Authority.

How would you value a case? Bob then asked her.

The value of a case is what you get for it. But what you get depends on three things, she said with an air of confidence, liability, injuries, and coverage.

Let’s say a potential client comes in, Al asked, and she tells us that she fell down the stairs in a building. The hospital report shows a trimalleolar fracture in her ankle, requiring surgery. She was confined to home for six months, and she could not work for one year. We have a gigantic injury, and since it is a building, we know that there must be substantial coverage. Do we start to salivate?

Not me. The first thing I would do is call an engineer, get him over to the building ASAP, and see if he can find any building code violations. We have no control over the injuries or the amount of coverage, but we do have a say over how liability is determined.

But the engineer will cost us $1,000 or more, Bob said.

It will be money well spent. If he finds violations, we show the report to the carrier. This scares the carrier by showing them that we are not afraid to litigate and that if we go to trial, we will be able to prove our case in court. It turns a $15,000 case into a $300,000 case.

Very good answer, Al said. Now let’s assume we have both great liability and big coverage. How much would a torn meniscus be worth?

I would first want to know if surgery was done or not. I would want to see if there was time out of work, as well as if he has recovered or if he still has limitations on his gait.

How would you look at a herniated disc? Al then asked.

The first thing I would want to find out is if there is impingement or not, she said. A herniated disc does not automatically qualify as a serious injury.

Excellent, Al said. I like how when we ask you a question, you respond with another question.

Al then asked Eileen to excuse him and Bob as they stepped out of the conference room. Eileen could only speculate as to what they were discussing. They were back in less than two minutes, but for Eileen, it felt like they had been gone for an hour.

So when can you start? Al asked her.

Eileen was not sure if she had heard him correctly. Were they offering her a job right on the spot? She was expecting them to tell her that they would call her for a second interview. This was too good to be true.

I can start right away, she said excitedly. She then explained to them that her formal swearing-in would not be for another month, but they were fine with that. In the beginning at least, she would be spending most of her time in the office familiarizing herself with her files.

That’s great, Bob told her, so welcome aboard. Bob then explained to her that her starting salary would be $55,000, but that if things went well, she could expect a raise in six months or less. They also told her that they gave out bonuses twice a year, in June and December. Eileen was satisfied with that. While the $55,000 salary was modest compared to what other lawyers were getting, she had been warned that personal injury attorneys were a dime a dozen and that she could not expect anything that great, at least to start. She had heard stories of some newly admitted attorneys working for salaries of less than $25,000, while in other firms, the paralegals made more than that. At the same time, she also knew that the huge salaries of $250,000 and up were only for those who graduated at the very top of their class and were paid only by the elite Wall Street and Park Avenue firms. Also, the people who got these jobs had to literally sign their life away; they easily put in seventy to eighty hours a week and, more often than not, had to work seven days. While Bob told Eileen how he and Al worked twelve to fourteen hours a day, her hours would be reasonable; they wanted her in every morning at eight, and she would leave no later than six. Saturdays and Sundays were optional, although she would be encouraged to come in at least one Saturday or Sunday a month to catch up on things. Eileen was more than happy with that. As much as she wanted to make money, she also wanted to be able to go out at night and on weekends so she could enjoy the money she would be making. At twenty-seven, she was involved in a serious relationship for the first time in several years, and she was looking to get married. The last thing she wanted was to all the time have to tell her boyfriend that she had to work another late night at the office.

From there, Bob went back to his office, and Al took her around the office so he could introduce her to the other employees. It was a small suite, but Al told her that in a couple of months, they would be moving to a bigger suite in the same building. Eileen had already met Pam Richardson, the African American receptionist; Al then introduced her to Marina Babayev and Maribel Rodriguez, the two paralegals in the office. Eileen right away hit it off well with Maribel; with Marina, by contrast, there was some frostiness. Eileen noted with interest how one of them had a Russian name while the other had a Spanish name. Al explained to her that they spoke Russian and Spanish, and since they had a lot of Russian- and Spanish-speaking clients, they, therefore, needed employees who were bilingual.

Anyway, Eileen, I’m sure you must be a little overwhelmed by all of this, Al told her.

I’m very overwhelmed.

It’s Thursday. Go home, relax, give your family the good news, and be here bright and early Monday morning. We’ll sit down together so I can explain more things to you. Bob and I look forward to having you on board.

I look forward to working here, she replied with a smile.

On the subway ride home, Eileen remembered how from when she was a teenager, she knew she wanted to be a lawyer. She had always loved lawyer shows and movies, her favorite being To Kill a Mockingbird, where Gregory Peck played Atticus Finch, the lawyer assigned to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. She had always felt for the underdog and while she quickly ruled out criminal defense—she didn’t feel she could properly defend someone if she knew that he was guilty of rape or murder—she became quickly attracted to plaintiff’s personal injury work and she spent much of her spare time learning its many intricacies. Although she would have accepted a job in a defense firm, nothing would make her happier than to be a plaintiff’s attorney and to see injured people get the money they were entitled to. She could only hope that the office of Weiss & Dorfman would be providing her with the opportunity to fulfill that dream.

Chapter 2

Arriving home that afternoon, the first thing Eileen did was to give her mother, Margaret Albano, the good news. From when she was a little child, Eileen adored her mother, always confiding in her and considering her to be her best friend. Even after her sister and two brothers moved out, she and her mother still lived together in the bottom floor of a two-family house owned by her mother in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn. Her mother had promised her that when she would start to work, she would rent out the top floor to her; in this way, they would be able to stay close to each other, while at the same time giving Eileen her independence.

Margaret Albano had been the driving force behind her daughter’s success. She had always pushed Eileen to do well in school, telling her that a good education would be her ticket to success. Eileen had experienced health problems in college, and because of them, she wanted to drop out, but her mother insisted that she stay, promising her that she would recover quickly, which she did. When Eileen failed to get accepted to any law school after she had graduated from college, her mother insisted that she go to graduate school and then reapply in another year; this time, she got in.

Eileen expected her mother to be elated that she had found work, but instead, she could see a look of skepticism on her mother’s face. Being both Irish—her maiden name was McLaughlin—and a devout Catholic, she had had a strict Catholic upbringing and was therefore very conservative in both her political and social views. She had always been opposed to large jury awards in personal injury cases and was convinced that all personal injury lawyers were ambulance chasers who were responsible for the high insurance rates. She particularly hated the commercials they ran on television and would sometimes call them to criticize the commercial. Several years before, she had fallen down on a raised sidewalk and had broken her arm, and even though her friends and family urged her to sue, she declined to do so.

Mom, you don’t look happy. Why?

Eileen, I think you would be much better off during corporate or securities work. These personal injury lawyers are so sleazy.

You know me. I’ve always had integrity in everything I do. I’ve always been a straight shooter. I could never become like that.

Don’t be so sure, she admonished her. A lot of people in your position started out just like you, full of idealism, and then fell into the trap. Personal injury is a business that lends itself to dishonesty. Ninety-five percent of these cases are fabricated either as to liability, injuries, or both.

Mom, don’t worry. I’ll be fine. With that, she gave her mom a big hug and kiss, and she then invited her out to dinner. After dressing, they took the short walk to Carosello, a small Italian restaurant a few blocks away from home that the family had patronized for more than twenty years. Eileen had fond memories of how, before they separated, her parents would take the family to that restaurant almost every Friday night for dinner. It would be the only time her parents would not be arguing with each other. Because they were both devout Catholics, her parents separated without divorcing when Eileen was ten years old; seventeen years later, it still affected her.

So you start on Monday? she asked Eileen as they were eating.

I have to be there at eight, and I leave at six.

Well, at least they won’t have you working crazy hours. Some of these law firms act like they own you.

You said it. Look at Diane. Ever since she started working for that Park Avenue law firm, we almost never see her. Sometimes I think she sleeps in that office. Her mother tells me that she rarely gets home before ten. Diane Goldman, a childhood friend of Eileen’s, had graduated law school a year earlier and had been accepted into a Manhattan firm consisting of over five hundred lawyers.

All I can say to you is good luck. You deserve it. You’ve had a lot of rough times in your life, and hopefully, things will get better for you.

Thanks, Mom.

Eileen spent the weekend with her boyfriend, Bill Finnegan. They had met a year earlier at a singles weekend in the Poconos. Bill lived and worked in Glendale, Queens, where he sold insurance. He told her how a lot of his clients reported accidents to him and that he could refer cases to her. She said fine, but she told him that he could not expect to get any money for it. The disciplinary rules prohibit a lawyer from sharing fees with nonlawyers and even though she did not agree with all these rules—she felt many of them were overly restrictive and puritanical—Eileen was determined to abide by the rules and do everything properly.

But you’ll get extra money for it, won’t you?

I assume I will, she responded. Monday, I’ll ask Mr. Weiss and Mr. Dorfman about that. I am going to have a lot of questions to ask them, she thought to herself.

Chapter 3

Returning home from Glendale on Sunday night, Eileen went to sleep a little earlier than usual, 10:00 p.m., and set her alarm for 6:15 a.m. The next morning, so excited was she about starting her new job she actually woke up at 6:00 a.m. She could not recall ever waking up before her alarm went off. She then showered and dressed up very businesslike. Shortly thereafter, her mom woke up and asked her if she could make her something for breakfast, but all she wanted was coffee. Eileen Albano was a very weight-conscious woman who counted every calorie she took in. Her mother had on many occasions told her not to starve herself, warning her that this could be detrimental to her health, but all Eileen cared about was keeping slim.

She got on the Q train at 6:45 a.m. and passed the trip by reading Newsday and doing its crypto quote. She got off at DeKalb Avenue, where she changed for the R train, where she got off at the City Hall subway station. From there, she walked the one block to 225 Broadway. Arriving at 7:45 a.m., she saw her bosses already there. We’re here at seven every morning, Bob told her. She then asked them how their weekend went, and they responded that they spent almost the entire weekend in the office. She could see from the rings on their fingers that they were both married, and she wondered how their wives could accept their being in the office all the time. Whatever it was, their personal lives could not be her concern. Her only concern had to be that she did her job and that she did it properly.

Come on in, Eileen, Al told her as he took her into his office. Al’s office was bare and functional. It, of course, contained his law school diploma, which was required of a lawyer, as well as his certificate of admission to the bar. Al’s office also had quite a bit of Yankee memorabilia, as well as a painting of a lawyer standing at his desk, holding the phone, and screaming Where is that file! with his secretary finding it on the chair. A birthday gift from the staff. Al told Eileen that everyone has to be able to laugh at himself sometimes, and looking at the painting was his way of doing that.

Now, Eileen, I realize you probably have a lot of questions to ask us. I can see that look of curiosity in your eyes, and that’s great. Don’t ever feel ashamed or embarrassed to ask questions. We encourage this. A person’s intelligence is measured by how they ask questions, not by how they answer them. It is much easier to handle a dumb question than it is to handle a dumb mistake. At the same time, we have anticipated the questions you probably will be asking us. So Bob and I spent much of our time this past weekend preparing a fifty-page memo for you. The memo will explain a lot of things to you about how we work, and it will probably answer 95 percent of your questions. Don’t worry, I am not going to test you on this, so you don’t have to memorize it. Just keep it on your desk and refer to it when you have a question. If you don’t find the answer to your question in the memo, then come to me or to Bob.

Even though you know this already, I still have to emphasize it to you. We are a plaintiff’s personal injury firm. There are firms that do both plaintiffs’ work and defense work; we do only plaintiffs’ work. Unlike the defense firms, we have no such thing as billable hours. We work strictly on a contingency fee basis. As you know, we get one-third of what our client gets, plus our disbursements. The defense lawyers get paid win or lose. We only get paid if we win. Eileen was now giving Al her undivided attention.

"We are not in a position where we can accept only the million-dollar cases. The elite plaintiff’s firms have the