Attorneys

Bernard Poliner was admitted to practice in the courts of the State of Connecticut and Federal District Court of Connecticut in 1958. He is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and the Boston University School of Law.

Attorney Poliner concentrates on representing plaintiffs in personal injury litigation in state and federal courts. His primary practice is representing clients who have suffered serious injuries as a result of automobile accidents, slip and fall cases, product defects and other types of negligent torts. In addition, Mr. Poliner is one of the state's leading worker injury practitioners handling workers' compensation claims for employees injured in the course of their employment as well as those suffering occupational diseases and job related conditions such as heart and hypertension.

Attorney Poliner is an active trial attorney. He has tried to completion more than fifty jury and arbitration trials. Over 50 years of practice he has won for his clients awards, judgments and settlements. All of his trials require the participation of experts, such as doctors, laboratory technicians and analysts, rehabilitation therapists and consultants, engineers, economists and investigators with whom he maintains good working relationships. Some of his cases involve wrongful death.

Attorney Poliner has participated in many formal hearings before the Workers' Compensation Commission. He is a member of the legal advisory committee to the chairman of the Workers' Compensation Commission, serves on the Executive Committee of Workers' Compensation of Connecticut Bar Association and is a member of the Standing Committee for certification to specialize in the field of Workers' Compensation. Mr. Poliner is a former member of the Board of Governors of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers' Association, and serves on its Workers' Compensation Committee. He is past President of the Hartford County Bar Association and a member of the Middlesex County Bar Association.

He has lectured on personal injury and workers' compensation law. He was appointed by Chief Justice Francis M. McDonald to serve as an Attorney State Trial Referee and a Fact Finder. He has sat as a Special Master designed to hear and evaluate personal injury claims. Attorney Poliner has served as an arbitrator and mediator for the American Arbitration Association as well as a private arbitrator selected by other attorneys to decide uninsured motorist cases and other personal injury matters. Mr. Poliner also served as Town Attorney for the Town of Bloomfield and previously served as the Chairman of the Bloomfield Zoning Board of Appeals and as a member of its Board of Tax Review.

Attorney Poliner successfully defended a worker's compensation claim involving a jurisdictional dispute, which was ultimately decided by the Connecticut Supreme Court. The case, Castro v. Viera, 207 Conn. 420 (1988) has been cited often by the Connecticut Supreme Court.