Rochester Office

Located on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, Rochester is the third-most populous city in the State of New York. It is home to many Fortune 1000 and international businesses. Our Rochester office is located at 510 Clinton Square, #510, from which we assist people injured in a wide range of accidents. After suffering serious injuries, you may be worried about how you will pay for your mounting medical bills, especially when you need to take time off from work to recover. At DeFrancisco & Falgiatano, LLP, our experienced Rochester personal injury lawyers may be able to represent you in a lawsuit for damages. For many people, proving liability through a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit is the only way that they can move forward after a serious accident. We take pride in helping our clients get back on their feet and recover the greatest possible damages to which they may be entitled.

If you have been harmed in Rochester as a result of another person or entity's negligent or wrongful conduct, you may be able to recover damages. The nature of the accident will dictate what you need to prove. Most often, car accidents require a plaintiff to prove the ordinary negligence of another driver. You will need to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the other driver owed you a duty to use reasonable care while driving, the driver breached the duty of reasonable care, the driver thereby caused your injuries, and you incurred actual damages.

For example, you should be able to show negligence when another driver is drinking beer in the car and talking to friends, and as a result they veer into oncoming traffic and hit you head-on, resulting in your suffering traumatic brain injuries, paralysis, and scarring. In a less dramatic example, a personal injury attorney in the Rochester area also probably could prove negligence if the driver behind you was texting while driving when you had to come to a sudden stop, and the texting driver rear-ended you and caused soft tissue injuries.

A different standard of care applies in medical malpractice and birth injury cases. Health care providers, such as doctors and nurses, owe a professional standard of care, which is defined by accepted practices and standards for the same type of health care provider. For example, if your baby is born with cerebral palsy due to the improper use of forceps during delivery, you will likely need to retain an expert OB-gyn to provide testimony on what the standard of care was, whether it was breached by the use of the forceps, and whether the breach actually caused the cerebral palsy. Similarly, if an anesthesiologist failed to monitor the use of anesthesia during surgery and missed that you were having a negative reaction, resulting in brain damage, it would be necessary to retain an anesthesiologist expert to provide opinion testimony on the standard of care, the breach, and causation.

In some cases, a victim dies as a result of a preventable accident. In a wrongful death claim, a Rochester personal injury attorney will need to prove that the death was caused by the defendant's negligent or wrongful conduct, the decedent could have pursued a cause of action had they not died, somebody survived who suffered a loss due to the death, and there are damages that the estate can recover. (There are some limitations. For example, a wrongful death claim is not recognized for a fetus who dies before birth.)

Sometimes a patient dies due to a failure to diagnose cancer, a heart attack, or another serious medical condition, or a delayed diagnosis. In these claims, you need to show that the patient could have been saved by a timely diagnosis in order to recover damages. In other words, if the patient would have died from cancer or a heart attack, no matter what a doctor did or did not do, it may not be possible to recover damages.

If you are hurt or a loved one is killed as a result of negligence by someone else, the skillful personal injury and wrongful death attorneys at DeFrancisco & Falgiatano may be able to help. Call us at 833-200-2000 or contact us via our online form to set up a free appointment at our Rochester office. We are here to help you move forward with your life.