Philip L. Franckel, Esq.

Philip L. Franckel, Esq. is a Founding Partner at FRANCKEL & PLEVY, LLP, President of 1-800-HURT-911, Inc., and a former Member of the Board of Directors of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association.

Philip Franckel is the author of all articles and content on this website.

See what other personal injury lawyers say about Phil Franckel, Esq.

Phil Franckel was inspired by his grandfather, Isidore Franckel, who was a world-famous trial lawyer in Paris, France (see below under Personal / Family Background).

Phil Franckel is a great litigator using out-of-the-box thinking and tactics to force insurance companies into paying. There are many great personal injury lawyers in New York, but what really gives Phil an edge over other lawyers is his expertise in negotiation tactics that he teaches to other lawyers (see Experience below).

Because I have been in many different businesses before becoming a lawyer, I understand customer service better than other lawyers. That’s why our clients are so happy with us, and that’s why our clients can speak with us at their convenience, days, nights, and weekends.

While other lawyers make statements such as, “I view all of my cases as a battle…” (taken from another personal injury lawyer’s profile), I do not view your case as a battle.

Lawyers who view their role as battling insurance companies often end up battling with you and don’t get full settlement value or end up going to trial. Do you really want to threaten and battle with an insurance claim representative who is the person who will write a check to you?

The better way to maximize settlements and settle faster is to think outside of the box, with preparation and use of marketing and selling tactics (such as a color 3D video of your CT or MRI scan showing your injury) to convince the insurance company that your injury is worth the money we want.

Also, I never violate ethics, but I don’t play fair. I don’t try to be friends with insurance company representatives and defense lawyers.

When helpful, we also retain experts early in your case. Part of that is to invest in your case by spending money early on, not just at the time of trial (we’ll need videos and experts anyway if your case can’t be settled). Of course, not every case can be settled quickly and some cases may even have to go to trial. Even then, instead of battling the defense, we convince the jury.

I view our role as four important parts:

1. To provide the best customer service to our clients;
2. To assist our clients with related services at no charge, such as arranging for free medications when possible, medical treatment when you don’t have insurance, cash advance loans, and many other services;
3. To maximize your settlement by using marketing/selling tactics and by using doctors to prepare settlement materials, using visual exhibits early on (not just at the time of trial), taking our doctor with us to your insurance physical, and many other methods; and
4. If we can’t settle, we’ll take your case to trial and try to get the insurance company to pay more money than the policy.

Phil Franckel began practicing personal injury law in 1989 as an attorney at one of the largest personal injury law firms in New York City.

Mr. Franckel graduated from Quinnipiac University School of Law, received the highest grade in legal writing, and won a unanimous verdict in Moot Court even though the judges said he was on the losing side. He was the only student to argue Moot Court without notes. Mr. Franckel was also appointed to the prestigious, which is similar to Law Review, Moot Court Board (oral argument competition team).

New York State Trial Lawyers Association – Member Board of Directors

Mr. Franckel served as a Member of the Board of Directors of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association from 200 to 2005, having been sworn in by Judge Judith Ann Kaye, the first female Chief Judge of the State of New York. To become a Member of the Board of Directors, a lawyer must be invited to apply and then approved by the Board.

NYSTLA Board of Directors Appointment

Motorcycle Accidents

Phil Franckel is well known in the New York motorcycle community and among other personal injury lawyers for his knowledge of motorcycle accident cases, and Mr. Franckel has been consulted by other motorcycle lawyers concerning motorcycle accident litigation.

Mr. Franckel has written extensively about motorcycle accidents at  NewYorkMotorcycleAccidentLawyer.com and longislandmotorcycleaccidentattorney.com.

Mr. Franckel has been the author/editor of the monthly legal column in Full Throttle Magazine since 2002 and has advertised in Full Throttle Magazine since its first issue. Look for 1-800-HURT-911® on the inside front cover.

Mr. Franckel created the well-known BE AWARE MOTORCYCLES ARE EVERYWHERE® awareness campaign.

Achievements

Phil Franckel is responsible for New York State’s new insurance law requiring insurance companies to offer matching uninsured and underinsured coverage sponsored by New York Senator Seward.

One of Phil Franckel’s cases, which couldn’t be settled, involved a TMJ (the joint in the jaw) injury caused when his client’s car was struck by a truck. The jury announced they wanted to award $1.3M, which resulted in what is believed to be the highest verdict at trial in Nassau County for a TMJ injury. The court reduced the verdict to $573,000.

Recently, another jury verdict in Nassau of $465,000 for a torn meniscus in a motorcycle accident is believed to be a record verdict in Nassau for a torn meniscus.

Awarded the Multi-Million Dollar Trial Lawyers Award™, I am most proud of the “Above The Policy” Award for settling a case for $155,000 where the insurance policy limit was only $25,000, finding insurance policies that were not disclosed by the insurance company, and settling a motorcycle accident case against a very well-known company for $1,850,000 which was $650,000 above the insurance policy and was paid out of corporate money.

See other settlements and verdicts.

Awards

• Avvo 10 rating
• Avvo Client’s Choice
• Avvo Top Contributor
• Million Dollar Trial Lawyers™
• Multi-Million Dollar Trial Lawyers™
• Nation’s Top One Percent (NADC)
• Top 100 Lawyers (ASLA)
• Bloomberg Business Week Leaders in Personal Injury; and
• Member of Ethical Lawyers of America.

Philip L. Franckel, Esq. has always maintained the highest financial ethics having a top credit rating with a FICO score ranging from 840 -850 (850 is the highest score possible)

Experience

Mr. Franckel has a wide range of extensive experience and knowledge of advertising, marketing, and negotiation. This experience enables Mr. Franckel to obtain higher settlements.

How Advertising Experience Achieves Higher Personal Injury Settlements

Mr. Franckel worked in the advertising industry, including television production on TV commercials for Diet Coke, American Airlines, Bayer Aspirin, and Fuji Films with Illustra Films Worldwide. He also worked on ABC Monday Night Baseball and Wide World of Sports.

Mr. Franckel wrote and was featured in TV commercials for 1-800-HURT-911® lawyers in New York and commercials for other industries.

Mr. Franckel’s marketing and advertising experience enables him to obtain higher settlements by selling your case instead of battling.

Negotiation Experience

Phil Franckel teaches negotiating skills to other lawyers. Mr. Franckel’s negotiating and selling experience comes from owning various businesses, including buying and selling amusement games in 10th grade, owning a used car business from high school through college, and a wholesale diamond business for 8 years after graduating from law school.

That amounted to 15 years of negotiating experience in different businesses before becoming a personal injury lawyer.

These negotiating skills were put to good use negotiating settlements as a personal injury attorney since 1989. You can be assured that settlement offers in your case will be aggressively negotiated.

Investigation, Engineering, and Construction Experience

Mr. Franckel knows how to investigate your case and understands how the insurance company will investigate your case because he also worked as an investigator with the U.S. Department of Justice while in college.

As an Auxiliary Police Officer since high school, Mr. Franckel has worked at hundreds of car and motorcycle accidents and a couple of train accidents.

At Dowling College, Mr. Franckel was an aeronautical engineering major and enrolled in the professional flight training program, flying out of MacArthur Airport. While at Dowling College, Mr. Franckel studied aircraft accident investigation, avionics, and other courses related to aeronautics, including medical issues affecting pilots.

At Dowling College, Mr. Franckel flew many Navy aircraft, including a T28, Lockheed Electra P3 Orion, 4-engine Turbo Prop Submarine Chaser (the same type of aircraft downed in China in April 2001), an F4 Phantom, A6 Intruder, and an F14 Tom Cat. Mr. Franckel also attended physiological training at Andrews Air Force Base. Mr. Franckel’s physics, engineering, and mechanics experience has created an in-depth understanding of the issues involved in accidents.

Mr. Franckel is also knowledgeable in construction and personally designed and supervised the construction of his house, which took two years to build and has many features not normally seen in houses. Mr. Franckel designed his backyard, including grading the property, and personally operated a bulldozer to help install 400,000 pounds of boulders. Mr. Franckel’s construction knowledge helped him obtain a $300,000 settlement for a torn Achilles tendon when a stairway collapsed in a house under construction.

Mr. Franckel has experienced many other interesting activities, including being an assistant surgeon in two surgeries, one of which was an amputation.

Volunteer Work / Public Service

Mr. Franckel started volunteering at an early age. When in 8th grade, Mr. Franckel started an annual carnival to raise money for March of Dimes and Cancer Care.

Nassau County Police Department, Auxiliary Police Section – Commanding Officer

Mr. Franckel has been committed to public service for over 50 years, starting as an Auxiliary Police Cadet at 17. He was promoted to Deputy Commanding Officer of the Communications Bureau of the Nassau County Police Department, Auxiliary Police Section in 2008 and later that year promoted to Commanding Officer of the Communications Bureau. He has been in command at the command bus for many events and cleared by U.S. Secret Service for important events, including two presidential debates and the Special Olympics. Other events include the Belmont Park racetrack, with nearly 100,000 people in attendance, and the annual fireworks at Roslyn/Port Washington and Lido Beach, NY.

Mr. Franckel graduated from the Nassau County Police Department Academy for Auxiliary Police Officers, the Superior Officers Course, has had additional training in Counter-Terrorism, Hazardous Materials, Railroad Safety, and other training courses, as well as periodic refresher classes at the Police Academy.

Mr. Franckel has many years of patrol experience responding to and investigating hundreds of accident scenes, which is extremely helpful when representing people injured in car, motorcycle, and truck accidents.

Legal Counsel to the NYS Association of Auxiliary Police

Mr. Franckel is a former pro bono Legal Counsel to the NYS Association of Auxiliary Police.

Volunteer Police Consulting

Rochester PD has consulted with Philip Franckel regarding their Auxiliary Police Section.

Philip Franckel was also consulted for chapter 10, “Legal Issues and Volunteer Police,” in the book American Volunteer Police. See Acknowledgment.

Pro Bono Cases

Mr. Franckel has done pro bono (free) legal work for many clients who couldn’t afford an attorney, including a girl with AIDS (in the early discriminatory days of AIDS) who was being evicted and losing custody of her child.

Another pro bono case was a girl with mental disabilities who was arrested and reported in national news and with the NY Daily News headline, “Amy Clone Nabbed in Nassau Inspired by Fischer Movies.”

Another pro bono case involved representing Linda, who is a veterinary tech, against a shelter when her dog Luna ended up in the shelter while she was in Stony Brook Hospital. Phil Franckel, who loves dogs, contacted Linda after seeing a TV news report on CBS News and News 12 Long Island. This case was litigated in New York Supreme Court and 4 months later successfully resulted in Luna returning to Linda.

Additional pro bono clients were represented for criminal, eviction, and other issues.

Mr. Franckel has adopted many dogs from people who couldn’t keep them. The latest two are my “children” in the photos below.

Personal / Family Background

Philip L. Franckel is mentioned in Who’s Who of Paris, France as the grandson of Isidore Franckel, who was a world-famous trial attorney in Paris, France, and one of twenty-three people who founded the Revisionist Party HaTzohar (see Wikipedia) with Jabotinsky and later founded the Judenstaat Party, of which he was President. These parties were involved in the creation of Israel.

Isidore Franckel, together with Vincent Moro-Giafferi, represented Hershl Grynzpan (see Wikipedia), who shot and killed Ernst Von Rath, a German Embassy official, on November 7, 1938, which caused the destruction of nearly 200 synagogues and the looting of Jewish stores in the Warsaw Ghetto two days later on November 9, 1938. The destruction and looting, called Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, was officially orchestrated by Josef Goebbels, the propaganda minister under Adolf Hitler, and is still written about today and discussed in the news every year on its anniversary November 9.

Phil Franckel in a Paris court with his grandfather, a famous lawyer, Isidore Franckel

Books

American Volunteer Police – Acknowledgment as Counsel to the NYS Association of Auxiliary Police for chapter 10, Legal Issues and Volunteer Police

Philip L. Franckel, Esq., is a not-so-nice lawyer living on the moon in the science fiction novels by Felix R. Savage, The Solarian War Trilogy, The Luna Deception, and Sol System Renegades Volume II.

Get The Luna Deception at Amazon

Social Websites

 

Photos

Phil Franckel, Esq.

I met and worked for Senator Alfonse D’Amato in 1973. We became friends, and I was with him in his hotel room on election night in 1992, waiting for the results (photo Oct 1992)

Phil Franckel with John Edwards when he was a Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 alongside John Kerry. He lost to incumbents George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. He was disgraced after it was found out that he had an extramarital affair with a child while his wife, Elizabeth, was dying of cancer. He is a former U.S. senator from North Carolina and was a personal injury lawyer prior to that.

With my wife Erlyne at a motorcycle event

My beautiful wife on the Full Throttle bike

The kids, Colby and Luna

Award Badges (Law Related)

Million Dollar Trial Lawyers™