Borcia, Margaret M.

Growing up in a working class neighborhood of Brooklyn, John learned at an early age that bad things all too often happen to good people. He understood that when a person was severely injured, it had the effect of destroying a family.

John knew what workers meant when they said, "We need more than workers compensation, we need justice." With issues like this in mind, he founded the Committee for a Safe Place to Work, which has devoted itself to improving safety conditions in the workplace.

During his law school days, John saw first-hand how medical negligence could lead to a horrible, permanent injury. Someone that he loved had become blind from a wrong diagnosis. He vowed then and there to do everything he could to make life comfortable for patients who were seriously injured as a result of medical negligence.

Knowing that corporations and the medical establishment would be represented by the very best attorneys in New York, John developed an unusual strategy to do battle with them -- he went to work for insurance companies to learn how they defended themselves in such cases.

John began his training with State Farm, where he took special courses in Bloomington, Illinois, covering insurance policies and auto liability claims. He was also a trial attorney for Empire Mutual on a per diem basis in New York City's Civil Court.

As time went by, John Anthony Bonina was able to use the training he received at State Farm to sharpen and hone his skills as an investigator and attorney. And it was the thoroughness of his investigations that provided the evidence needed to win major victories in those early years.

He got his first break as a Civil Court Trial Lawyer when a major negligence firm wanted someone to act as their trial lawyer for a plaintiff who had driven a car on the wrong side of the road and had been involved in a head-on collision.

Occupants of both cars had sustained very serious injuries. No established Supreme Court trial lawyer would accept the case. John Anthony Bonina said, "I'll take a chance and represent her as a plaintiff."

When the jury found that the cause of the accident was the negligence of a passenger, and not the driver he had represented, the established firms began giving him Supreme Court cases for trial.

In time, he outgrew the cramped space he rented from a friend and opened a small office with other young attorneys. The manual typewriter was replaced with the newest office equipment. John Anthony Bonina's firm was one of the first to use electronic typewriters and word processors as they came to market.