Our 15 year old client was sitting in the back seat of her mother’s car while her mother was driving and her aunt was in riding in the front passenger’s seat. They were struck by another car that ran a red light at an intersection in Brooklyn, New York. The driver of the car that hit them had a suspended license. Our young client sustained severe neck and back injuries as a result of the impact. The injuries to her spine resulted in pain and numbness which radiated into her arms and legs. The human spine is made up of 24 bones, called vertebrae, that are stacked on top of one another. These bones connect to create a canal that protects the spinal cord. The spinal cord contains nerves which  travel through the spinal canal carrying messages between the brain and muscles. Nerve roots branch out from the spinal cord through openings in the vertebrae called foramen. Due to the seriousness of her injuries, our client had to undergo a series of epidural steroid injections in order to alleviate her pain. The epidural needle is inserted into the back or neck under a special kind of x-ray guidance called “fluoroscopy” so that the doctor can ensure that the needle is in the epidural space. The doctor will then inject medication and a corticosteroid into the epidural space in order to relive the patient’s pain and reduce the inflammation. There are three different ways to perform an epidural injection – either a cadal block, translumbar or transforaminal. A caudal block is placed through the sacral gap (a space below the lumbar spine near the sacrum). This type of block usually affects the spinal nerves at the end of the spinal canal near the sacrum. The translumbar approach is the most common way of performing an epidural injection. The needle is inserted between the spinous processes of two vertebrae. The transforaminal approach is a very selective injection around a specific nerve root. By injecting medication around a specific nerve root, the doctor can determine if this nerve root is causing the problem.Because of the nature of her injuries, our your client underwent a series of epidural steroid injections in order to alleviate her pain and numbness. Stephanie Mastrocola, Esq.  of Schulman Blitz, LLP, was able to successfully settle our young client’s case for the full amount of the defendant’s insurance policy limits. z Law Group LLP today.

Schulman Blitz, LLP brought a lawsuit on our client’s behalf and litigated the case in Bronx Supreme Court for many years. As trial was approaching, we agreed to participate in an out-of-court, private mediation. After many long hours at mediation, Schulman Blitz, LLP was able to procure a settlement for our client in the amount of $625,000. LLP today.

Schulman Blitz, LLP settled a case for a retired man who slipped and fell in the stairway of an apartment building in Manhattan. The man slipped on an oily substance and injured his neck. As a result of his injury, he underwent surgery consisting of a diskectomy and a cervical fusion. Following the neck surgery, the man developed several unrelated medical conditions, including kidney failure which requires him to be on dialysis three times a week. The case was settled at a mediation shortly before the trial was scheduled to begin for $500,000.

Our client, a retired physician, was a pedestrian in Manhattan. She was waiting to cross the street when she was struck by a delivery boy for a restaurant who was traveling in the opposite direction of traffic on a bicycle. As a result, she sustained multiple facial fractures, including fractures to her maxillary bones, nasal bones and pterygoid plates. She required surgery, which included the implantation of hardware into her face to correct the fractures. She has permanent bilateral partial paresthesia of the second division of the trigeminal nerve as well as a malocclusion. The case was settled by Fred Schulman, Esq. for $400,000 at a mediation shortly before trial. After many years of engaging in extensive delay tactics and denying responsibility, the insurance company for the restaurant ultimately admitted that their delivery person was riding his bicycle in a dangerous and negligent manner and paid the settlement.

Our client was on a MTA bus in the Bronx on her way to work.  As she was exiting the bus, the bus driver activated the mechanism that converts the bus’s steps to a wheelchair ramp without realizing that our client was standing on the steps.  Our client’s foot was crushed as it got caught in the steps while it was being converted to the wheelchair ramp. The entire incident was caught on the surveillance cameras inside the bus. Our client was taken to Lincoln Hospital, where she was diagnosed with a fractured foot and a torn meniscus in her knee which ultimately required surgery.We sued the MTA, who vigorously defended the bus driver in a contentious litigation.  On the eve of trial, Justin Blitz, Esq. settled our client’s case for $315,000.

A trip and fall on the upper west side building leads to a fractured pelvis On April 25, 2016, our client went to visit a friend who lived on the upper west side of Manhattan.  Upon leaving her friend’s apartment, our client took the elevator from the fifth floor to the lobby. When the elevator got to the lobby, she opened the elevator door and stopped to hold the door open for another woman who was entering the elevator. The lobby floor where our client fell and fractured her pelvis  While holding the elevator door open, our client was standing on top of a landing that was elevated six inches above the lobby floor.  When she let go of the elevator door, our client took a few steps towards the lobby of the building.  Unaware of the height difference between the landing she was standing on and the lobby floor, she fell over the six inch riser, landing on the left side of her body on the lobby floor.  Schulman Blitz, LLP’ s investigation revealed that the building’s lobby was in violation of the New York City building code, and that the building’s owners had been issued citations by the New York City Department of Buildings for these violations prior to our client’s accident.  The building’s lobby had many other code violations that the landlord did not repair, making it a dangerous condition for anyone who came through the building.  After our client fell, an ambulance was called and she was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital’s emergency room where she was diagnosed with various fractured bones in her pelvis, including a displaced transverse fracture of the left inferior and superior pubic rami, a non-displaced fracture of the left sacral ala, a non-displaced fracture of the left anterior acetabulum, as well as a medial meniscus tear of her knee.  Our client was admitted to Mt. Sinai Hospital for three days, then was transferred to a rehabilitation facility where she remained an inpatient for over a month. Once she was discharged to her home, she required at home healthcare aid and underwent a course of physical and occupational therapy. Justin Blitz, Esq.  settled our client’s case for $300,000 shortly after depositions were held.

Schulman Blitz, LLP’s client was a passenger in her friend’s jeep when a New York City Department of Sanitation truck made a left turn in front of their Jeep which was proceeding straight through a Brooklyn intersection, causing a devastating collision.As a result of the crash, our client suffered a concussion, severe facial lacerations, and a fracture to her wrist. Our client also suffered a carpal tunnel injury to her wrist which required surgery. Carpal Tunnel release surgery is done with an endoscope, a thin flexible tube with a camera attached. The endoscope is guided through a small incision made at either the wrist or palm. The endoscope allows the doctor to see the transverse carpal ligament which is then cut, releasing pressure on the median nerve, relieving carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms. After many years of litigation, on the eve of trial, Justin Blitz, Esq. settled our client’s case for $275,000.

Schulman Blitz, LLP’s client, a grandfather and owner of an auto body shop in Astoria, was on his way to his sister’s apartment when he tripped and fell on a broken sidewalk in front of a hotel. As a result of the fall, he tore the rotator cuff in his shoulder, requiring a surgical repair which included the insertion of surgical anchors. During the course of the litigation, Schulman Blitz, LLP was able to prove that the sidewalk defect that caused our client to fall existed for at least 9 years before the accident took place and the hotel’s owners took no steps to try to repair the defect. page6image11752 page6image11912 Shortly before the trial was scheduled to begin, Stephanie Mastrocola, Esq. and Justin Blitz, Esq. settled the case at an out of court mediation for $180,000 with the insurance company for the hotel.

On February 2, 2014, Schulman Blitz, LLP‘s client and a group of his friends were attending a bachelor party in Manhattan.  After the festivities had concluded, our client and his friends were on a party bus on their way home to Long Island. While driving eastbound on the Long Island Expressway, the party bus driver stopped the bus in right hand lane of travel and directed our client and the other passengers to get off the bus in order to assist a Police Officer from the NYPD’s Mounted Unit whose horse trailer had become detached from his NYPD vehicle and was disabled on the right hand shoulder of the LIE. Justin Blitz, Esq. and Fred Schulman, Esq. settled our client’s case for $1,300,000,00.

Although the majority of Schulman Blitz, LLP‘s cases are venued in the State of New York, we also represent injured victims throughout the country. In this case, our clients (a married couple) were traveling on Interstate 80 in New Jersey when their car was hit in the rear by a truck. The impact was very heavy, and it caused our clients to sustain significant injuries. After the crash, our clients were taken by ambulance to a local hospital where they were treated for their injuries. The husband (who was driving) sustained injuries to his back and shoulder. His wife (the passenger) sustained injuries her to spine. Justin Blitz, Esq.settled our clients’ case with the insurance company for the truck before a lawsuit was commenced for $155,000.00. Contact Blitz Law Group LLP today.

Our client, a 57 years old New York City public school teacher, was taking a shower in her Bronx apartment one morning. She was getting ready to go to work when the soap dish in her shower collapsed off the wall, due to a recurring leak which her landlord knew about and failed to fix. The soap dish landed on her ankle, causing a severe injury. The building’s owner had known about this dangerous condition and refused to repair it for many years prior to the incident. Our client had lived in the apartment where the incident occurred for over twenty years. She raised her two children in the apartment. Complaints about the leak began as early as 2008, when the condition continued to worsen, and despite her complaints, the landlord did not fix the leak which ultimately caused the soap dish to collapse. After the incident occurred, our client went immediately to emergency room at Bronx Lebanon Hospital and was diagnosed with a ruptured tibia tendon in her ankle, which required surgery to repair. Immediately after commencing the lawsuit, and within one year of the incident occurring, Justin Blitz, Esq. settled the case for $190,000.00. Contact Blitz Law Group LLP today.

On Valentine’s Day in 2014, our client had finished his job as a construction worker and was returning to his apartment after buying flowers for his wife, when he slipped and fell on a poorly shoveled, icy sidewalk in front of his apartment building in Brooklyn.  As a result of the fall, he sustained multiple severe fractures to his elbow that required two surgeries and prevented him from continuing to work in the construction industry, which he had worked in for over twenty years. Schulman Blitz, LLP retained a weather expert, a vocational rehabilitation expert, a life care planner and an economist, all in an effort to both prove the defendants’ negligence and establish the extent and severity of the damages that the injury caused to our client as well as his ability to work in the future. At a private mediation one week before the trial was scheduled to begin, Schulman Blitz, LLP showed a film that we put together, which included video footage of the icy condition that caused the fall, and an audio recording of a witness statement dubbed over the video, as well as Google map images depicting the location of the incident. After a very contentious litigation that lasted close to three years,  Justin Blitz, Esq. settled our client’s case for $848,500.00. Contact Blitz Law Group LLP today.