Lead Paint Poisoning Case - Won a $50 million verdict for a young child who developed severe brain damage as a result of lead poisoning. The building owner where the child lived was found negligent.
Faulty Traffic Light Case - Won a $39 million verdict for a 12-year-old boy who was struck by an automobile because the City failed to install a traffic light.
Bus Accident Case - Won a $20 million verdict for a Queens woman who lost an arm and a leg and was blinded in one eye after she was struck by a bus in 2009. The jury in Queens Supreme Court found the Metropolitan Transportation Authority liable Wednesday for injuries that have left her a virtual prisoner in her own home.
Infant Lead Paint Poisoning Case - Jury Awards $12.72 Million Verdict in Infant Lead Poisoning Case
Subway Accident Case - Lipsig partner Alan Shapey finished a three-week jury trial and the verdict was for almost $10 million for our client, a man who fell on the elevated subway train tracks and was struck by a train on September 3, 2007.
Our presentation of the evidence in the case was complicated since the train operator testified that she first saw something on the tracks as she was already passing it and therefore did not have time to stop.
Through our legal work and investigation, we obtained a copy of the radio and phone log between the train operator, the dispatchers, and other transit employees at the scene that directly contradicted the train operator's testimony.
In court, Mr. Shapey played a tape recording of the operator's voice demonstrating that within minutes of the accident she denied her train had struck our client, even though she knew he was alive and lying under the third car of her train and with severe injuries to both of his legs and one arm.
Mr. Shapey was able to obtain numerous police reports from Transit officers and detectives who interviewed the train operator that contradicted her trial testimony.
It was a hard-fought battle that ended in victory for our client.
School Assault Case - Won a $10 million verdict for a young girl who was violently assaulted in the stairwell of a City public school.
Defective Seat Belt - Won a $9.5 million verdict for the family of a woman killed by a defectively designed belt during a low-speed collision at a Bronx intersection.
Subway Accident Case - Won a $9.3 million verdict for a 29-year-old man who lost his left arm and suffered an open skull fracture as the result of being struck by a subway train.
Automobile Accident Case - Won a $7.6 million verdict for a 65-year-old woman who lost her leg as a result of being struck by a vehicle that had skidded on an icy roadway.
Medical Malpractice and Premises Negligence - Settlement $6,300,000, Our client was walking to a movie when he stepped into an uncovered valve box in a parking lot, fell and fractured his elbow. He was sent right to a hospital and promptly seen by the orthopedic surgeon who decided to operate a few days later (to accommodate the doctor's own schedule). Due to well-known complication of this injury, compartment syndrome, our client felt intense pain and loss of feeling in his hand. Sadly, his repeated complaints of severe pain were ignored by the physicians and nurses for many hours. His condition was neglected for so long that the delay caused necrosis (death of tissue) that destroyed many muscles and nerves in his arm.
In addition, we believed that the valve box and cover were damaged by a plow clearing snow in the parking lot. We were able to demonstrate, using two experts and illustrated engineering drawings, that the snow plow caused the damage to the water company's equipment in the pavement. Our real property management expert helped us prove that the mall's management failed to properly inspect its own parking lots.
We sued the mall owner, the snow removal contractor, the water company that owned the valve box, the admitting hospital, the orthopedic surgeon and a second hospital that provided the orthopedic residents (who failed to properly monitor the condition of the client's arm after the surgeon left the hospital).
Intruder Assault and Defamation - Won a $6 million verdict for a woman who was brutally attacked and stabbed in her apartment building due to poor security.
Bus Accident - $4,475,000 Settlement, just before trial, for a 14-year old boy who was struck by a bus while he was attempting to cross Rockaway Boulevard in Queens on the first day of school. To achieve this settlement, we conducted seven depositions and hired ten experts to assist us in analyzing both the liability and injury portions of this case and to testify at trial. Those experts included a psychologist, a pediatric neurologist, a neuro-ophthamologist, an audiologist, a life care planner, an economist, a photographer and videographer, a retired member of the NYPD Accident Investigation Squad, a trans por ta tion engineer, and a medical illustrator for court room exhibits to show the jury the nature of the infant clients injuries and his surgery. We overcame evidence taken from street witnesses by the police that the infant client may have been pushed by his younger brother who was "horsing around" on the center median of the street.
Slip & Fall - $2,300,000 Settlement - Pre-trial settlement for a 37 year old man who fell down on stairs due to a defective handrail after visiting a family member's building. He fractured his lower right leg and needed surgery. This case was settled and our client received his recovery less than 2 1/2 years after the fall.
Construction Accident - $1,950,000 Settlement - During the second week of trial in Manhattan Supreme Court, we obtained nearly two million dollars for our client, a 46-year-old carpenter who fell approximately three feet from a defective baker scaffold, landing on his feet. The client was diagnosed with a disc/osteophyte complex in his neck and a torn meniscus in his knee in the weeks following his fall.
Construction Accident - Construction Worker hurt due to fall from unsecured ladder - Case settled just before trial for $1.8 million.
Our client was a 53-year-old Polish-speaking construction laborer who fell onto a concrete floor when an extension ladder slipped out. Under New Yorks Labor Law, we obtained summary judgment from the Court holding that defendants were entirely liable.
Our client was admitted to a hospital for one month for orthopedic surgery of his femur (thigh bone) near his hip. Three years later, he needed lumbar and knee surgeries. He requires pain management including injections and prescription medication. His total medical expenses were about $70,000.
Slip & Fall - Fall on Defective Pavement at Building Entrance - Lipsig Law Firm obtains $1.6 million settlement - 1 ½ years after injury.
Our client, 26 years old, sustained serious injuries in 2009, when he fell due to a defective condition at the front entrance stairs to an apartment building.
After treatment for injuries to his hand and back at a hospital emergency room, he was treated by an orthopedic surgeon and casted for a fractured hand and examined for worsening lumbar spine pain.
About six months later, after conservative treatment was unsuccessful, he required a lumbar spine fusion surgery. Due to continuing pain, one month later he had a second lumbar discectomy surgery.
Although he was not working at the time of his injury, we projected the future cost of his medical needs including medications.
Construction Accident - $1,500,000 Settlement - Pre-trial settlement for 50 year old construction worker who fell 5-10 feet from a defective scaffold. Our client sustained injury to his back that required surgery. We overcame the defense that New York's Labor Law was not applicable to the work site at a large mansion in Westchester County.
Lead Poisoning Case - Plaintiff settled a case involving childhood lead poisoning at a mediation, for the sum of $1,300,000. This case involved a young girl who sustained lead poisoning from ingesting lead-based paint that was peeling and chipping from the walls of two apartments in Brooklyn, where her uncle and maternal grandparents lived. The settlement was paid by the two insurance carriers for the two building owners. The settlement will provide substantial payments to the child when she turns 18, and is greater than any reported sustained verdicts for lead poisoning cases in Brooklyn.
Construction Accident - $1,200,000 Settlement - Our client, a 49-year-old electrician fell from a ladder at an office building in September, 2008. Our motion for summary judgment asserting that he was provided an unsecured ladder that violated New Yorks Labor Law 240(1) was pending before the Court. He suffered bilateral clavicle fractures and multiple rib fractures. He needed an arthroscopic shoulder surgery and we established that he had a mild brain injury. We retained an economist to project his future loss of earnings and future medical expenses.
Construction Accident - $1,200,000 Settlement - Our client, a 49-year-old electrician fell from a ladder at an office building in September, 2008. Our motion for summary judgment asserting that he was provided an unsecured ladder that violated New Yorks Labor Law 240(1) was pending before the Court. He suffered bilateral clavicle fractures and multiple rib fractures. He needed an arthroscopic shoulder surgery and we established that he had a mild brain injury. We retained an economist to project his future loss of earnings and future medical expenses.
Construction Accident - $1,100,000 Settlement - At a private mediation, we obtained over a million dollars for another client, a 52-year-old jackhammer operator who fell approximately 15 feet from an elevated train platform, sustaining cervical and lumbar disc herniations that were treated with physical therapy.
Car Accident - $1,000,000 Settlement - With the assistance of a special master at an appellate court, we negotiated a million-dollar settlement on behalf of a 54-year-old client with a history of mental illness, drug and alcohol addictions, who sustained cervical disc herniations as a driver in two-car intersection accident, and underwent surgery, but received no further medical treatment in 2 ½ years before the case was resolved.
