On October 2, 2018, our client had just left a rehearsal studio in the Times Square area of Manhattan.  She was intending to walk home when she tripped on the extended prong of a metal barricade that had been positioned in an L-shape on the sidewalk in front of the entrance to a theater. The barricades had been put there in an attempt to prevent people from interacting with any performers that might be exiting the back door of the theater. As our client was walking by, she did not see the barricade’s leg protruding out, and her foot got caught, causing her to trip and fall. Police officers came to the scene and called an ambulance, which transported her to Lenox Hill Hospital, where she was diagnosed with a fracture of her knee and underwent surgery consisting of an open reduction and internal fixation. Justin Blitz, Esq. was able to procure a settlement for our client for $190,000 within six months of the accident date and without having to bring a lawsuit, fairly compensating our client for the injuries that she sustained.

On January 20, 2019, our client, a 28-year-old woman with a master’s degree in journalism, was walking home from the gym heading eastbound on East 73rd Street in Manhattan when she slipped and fell on a patch of ice.  The ice emanated from the service entrance to a building and extended to the curb line. It was caused by someone that had removed leaking bags of trash from the building, which froze over, thereby creating the icy patch. When our client slipped and fell on the ice, she immediately felt pain in the upper part of her left arm.  A good Samaritan came to her aid and called an ambulance to the scene. Our client was taken to the emergency room at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center where X-rays confirmed a fracture to her humerus bone.  Because the fracture was so bad, it required her to undergo a surgery that consisted of an open reduction and internal fixation surgery where 2 plates and multiple screws were inserted. Blitz Law Group brought a lawsuit on our client’s behalf against the owner and management company of the building for creating the dangerous condition that caused our client to fall. While in the course of the litigation, and during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic, Stephanie Mastrocola, Esq. was able to procure a settlement for our client in the amount of $200,000.

We are proud to report that it was recently announced that two of Blitz Law Group’s cases have been recognized for obtaining one of the Nation’s Top 50 Truck Accident Settlements in 2018 and one of the Nation’s Top 50 Premises Liability Settlements of 2018.

Our client, a married woman who lives in the Bronx, was on her way to work as a paralegal at a Manhattan law firm.  She had crossed over Park Avenue and took one step onto the sidewalk when she tripped and fell on a loose concrete paver which caused her to fall and land on her knee.  As a result, she tore various ligaments in her knee. Blitz Law Group commenced litigation against the owners and managing agents of the adjoining property, for allowing the concrete paver to be in a defective, loose and dangerous condition.  During the course of the defendants’ depositions, we were able to get the property manager to admit that the building had previously replaced the concrete paver that caused our client’s accident. While in the middle of the deposition of the plaintiff, Stephanie Mastrocola, Esq.  procured a settlement in the amount of $200,000, thereby fairly compensating our client for the injuries that she sustained.

When our client decides to do some grocery shopping at Whole Foods, she has no idea that this visit to the store would change her life significantly. Because her groceries are too heavy for her to carry home, she hails a taxi to take her to her apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. While traveling along Third Avenue, the taxi that our client was a passenger in was struck by a van. The van turns into the taxi’s lane at a high rate of speed. The van smashes the taxi in the intersection. Our client goes by ambulance from the scene of the crash to the emergency room. She later follows up with an orthopedist who orders MRI tests. The MRIs showed tears to our client’s knee and shoulder, both of which required surgery to repair. Shortly before the trial, Justin Blitz, Esq. settles her case for $455,000, that provides our client with just compensation for her significant injuries.

How does a botch hernia surgery lead to a $3 million jury verdict? In 2012, our client discovered that he had an inguinal (groin) hernia after undergoing a CT scan.  His primary care physician referred him to a general surgeon who specializes in hernia repairs.  Our client consulted with the surgeon, and initially elected not to have his hernia surgically repaired as he had no symptoms.  In 2013, our client’s hernia became symptomatic, and he had a second consultation with the surgeon, at which time he elected to proceed with the surgery. In November 2013, the surgeon performed a laparoscopic bilateral inguinal hernia repair surgery on our client.  During this procedure, the surgeon implanted mesh in order to repair the hernias, and affixed tacks to the mesh to secure it in place. Typically, a surgeon will use approximately three to five tacks to affix the mesh for hernia surgery. However, during our client’s procedure, the defendant-surgeon used approximately twenty-seven tacks.  In addition, we claimed that the defendant-surgeon improperly placed tacks in and around our client’s ilioinguinal nerve. This caused an injury to our client’s lateral femoral cutaneous nerve.  As a result, our client sustained severe and permanent injuries.  His injuries include left-sided meralgia paresthetica. Meralgia Paresthetica is a neurological condition that causes numbness, tingling, and pain in the outer thigh. The Injuries Change our Clients Life These injuries completely altered the course of our client’s life.  They also altered his career.  At the time of his surgery, our client was employed as a campus security guard at a local college.  Following the surgery, the physical demands of his job became too much to bear. Eventually he had to uproot his entire family and move to another state. There he was offered, and he accepted a less physically demanding job. A ProTack device used in the surgery to repair our client’s hernia. Blitz Law Group commenced a medical malpractice lawsuit against the surgeon on behalf of our client.  Over the course of five years of litigation, the defendant-surgeon continuously denied any responsibility.  The surgeon also would not consent to any settlement.  As such, the case went to trial before a jury. After six days of trial, Justin Blitz, Esq. was able to obtain a jury verdict for $3,000,000. That is how one obtains a $3 million Verdict for hernia surgery.

Our client was driving to work on the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx. As he was driving, a large box truck suddenly rear-ended his vehicle. The truck was traveling over 55 miles per hour at the time of the impact. As a result of the collision, our client sustained severe injuries and was required to undergo multiple surgeries, including two lumbar spinal surgeries, a cervical spine surgery, and left shoulder arthroscopic surgery. Blitz Law Group commenced an action against the driver and owner of the truck that rear-ended our client.  We deposed the defendant-driver who admitted that he took his eyes off the road before rear-ending our client’s vehicle.  At the close of discovery, Justin Blitz, Esq. settled the case for $457,500.

Our client was a passenger in her daughter’s car which was traveling on a street in the Bronx, when suddenly, the undercarriage of the car violently struck a raised manhole cover. We commenced an action against the City of New York and the contractor who the City retained to perform work on the street. During the course of litigation, we discovered that the City and its contractor were grinding, milling, and resurfacing the roadway where the accident took place.  As part of that work, the City’s contractor was responsible for milling and grinding the roadway and the City would then be responsible for resurfacing the roadway. The City began resurfacing the roadway where the accident took place, but had yet to resurface the portion of the roadway where the vehicle struck the raised manhole cover.  Despite the fact that the roadway was still being repaired, it was open to traffic and there were no “caution” or “warning” signs posted. Blitz Law Group retained an expert engineer and discovered that the City’s contractor failed to adequately install and construct a temporary slope around the raised manhole cover, thereby exposing a dangerous condition on the roadway and causing the accident. As a result, our client suffered multiple permanent injuries to her cervical and lumbar spine, which required her to undergo surgery and have a spinal stimulator permanently implanted in her body. Shortly before the trial was scheduled to begin, Justin Blitz, Esq. settled our client’s case for $675,000.

Our client resides just outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. For the past several summers, our client, her husband, and a group of their friends would all meet in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York for summer vacation, where they would rent a party bus and tour the local wineries. They continued this tradition this past summer. During the wine tour, our client was a passenger on a party bus that was taking her group from one vineyard to the next. As the bus was rounding a curve at a high rate of speed, the rear passenger door flung open, causing our client to fall out the open door of the bus, land on the side of a country road and roll down a 20-foot embankment. Prior to the incident, our client and her friends had complained multiple times to the bus driver that the bus door had opened while the bus was moving for no apparent reason, but the bus driver did nothing in response to their complaints. Our client was transported in a medical helicopter from the scene of the accident to Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, New York, with severe injuries to her wrist and shoulder. X-rays would reveal that she had fractured her wrist and shoulder, both of which required emergency surgery to repair. Shortly after the accident occurred, Blitz Law Group retained an automotive engineering expert to inspect the party bus to determine why the door opened while the bus was in motion. Fred Schulman, Esq . traveled to Geneva, New York to meet with our expert who conducted the inspection. Also present at the inspection was an attorney for the party bus company, as well as their expert. Shortly after the inspection occurred, and before a lawsuit was commenced, the attorney for the party bus company reached out to us to discuss the possibility of settlement. Justin Blitz, Esq. and Fred Schulman, Esq. were able to resolve our client’s case, without starting a lawsuit, and within six months from when the crash occurred, at a private mediation for $300,000 . This saved our client years of litigation, and fairly compensated her for her injuries. Had the case not settled, a lawsuit would have had to have been brought in a very conservative venue in upstate New York, in a small rural county where the bus company employs many local residents.

In August 2015, our client, a 25-year-old woman, was invited by her boss to come to his home in Orange County, New York, for a weekend of outdoor adventure.  During the course of the weekend, her boss asked her to ride as a passenger on the back of his all-terrain vehicle (ATV).  Unfortunately for our client, she had no way of knowing that her boss had very little experience operating an ATV. He had no helmets or other protective gear to offer her.  She also could never have anticipated that her boss would drive the ATV recklessly.   He would end up driving down a steep hill, deep in the woods, ignoring her pleas to stop.  When the ATV went down the steep hill at an unsafe speed, it flipped over and landed on top of our client.  The crash caused our client to fracture her shoulder, which required surgery to repair. After extensive litigation, the defendant’s attorneys made a motion for summary judgment. The motion was seeking to dismiss our case on the grounds that our client “assumed the risks” of the inherent danger of riding on an ATV.  The Honorable Justice Bernard J. Graham of the New York State Supreme Court denied the defendant’s motion. In a scholarly nine-page decision Judge Graham analyzed the applicable law and determined that a jury could reasonably find that our client’s boss was responsible for her injuries.  Click here to read a copy of Justice Graham’s decision. In essence, Blitz Law Group was able to defeat the defendant’s motion by showing that the defendant operated the ATV in a negligent manner. The defendants’ actions thereby exacerbating the risks that are inherent with riding ATVs. The crash caused our client to fracture her clavicle.  This was the same shoulder that she had previously injured years earlier in a cycling accident.   The surgery required the insertion of screws and metal plates to repair her shattered shoulder. As trial approached, Justin Blitz, Esq. settled the case at a private mediation for $250,000.

In August 2014, two people were injured and ultimately died as a result of a boiler explosion at their home caused by a leak in the propane lines.  One of the people who died was a 23-year-old young woman who suffered horrific burns as a result of the explosion and ultimately died as a result of her injuries two weeks after the incident took place.  Blitz Law Group represented her father in the lawsuit that was brought against the propane company that was responsible for this tragedy.  The young woman’s mother also suffered severe burns and died from her injuries.  Five other family members were also present when the explosion took place and suffered burns and significant psychological injuries. Because the incident took place in Pennsylvania, Blitz Law Group co-counseled with one of Philadelphia’s premier law firms to assist in litigating the case.  Many allegations of negligence were asserted against the propane company, including that they failed to conduct a pressure test subsequent to refilling propane tanks at our client’s daughter’s residence. The lawsuit was very complex and required the retention of multiple expert witnesses to prove that the propane company was at fault.  These experts included a propane consultant, a mechanical engineer, a forensic pathologist, an economist, a fire code consultant and a metallurgist.  Over thirty depositions were held in the course of more than three years of litigation. The case was recently settled at mediation for $17,250,000 on behalf of the plaintiffs.

On a Sunday afternoon in December 2013, our client was sitting on the sofa in the living room of his mother-in-law’s apartment after having spent the morning in church with his family. While the family was gathered in the living room, two huge concrete chunks of the ceiling collapsed, landing directly on his head and shoulders. Six months prior to the ceiling collapsing on his head, our client’s mother-in-law had notified the building’s owner that when it rained, the living room ceiling would leak.   The complaint was documented by the landlord, which enabled us to prove that the building’s owner knew about the defective ceiling but did not take any steps to repair it prior to our client’s accident. After the ceiling collapsed, our client briefly lost consciousness and was taken by ambulance to the emergency room at Bellevue Hospital, where he complained of neck and shoulder pain.  Our client underwent several MRIs, which revealed that he sustained significant injuries to his neck and his shoulder. Our client’s doctors first treated him conservatively, with medications and physical therapy.  When conservative treatment did not alleviate his pain and other symptoms, he ultimately underwent two surgeries, a cervical fusion surgery and shoulder surgery. At the time of the accident, our client was employed as a bilingual special education high school teacher for the New York City Department of Education.  He attempted to return to work after the accident and after the surgeries but was unable to perform his job duties due to his extensive injuries. He was forced to take early retirement, as his injuries were severe and debilitating. During the discovery phase of the litigation, we took the depositions of employees of the building’s owner.  These employees admitted that the roof of the building was in terrible shape, and that every time it rained, a “ponding” condition would form on the roof causing leaks into the apartments below. Blitz Law Group retained several expert witnesses to opine as to the nature and extent of our client’s damages.  We retained a vocational rehabilitation specialist to assess our client’s ability to work in the future.   We also retained a life care planner to evaluate our client’s future medical needs, as well as an economist to calculate the value of his past and future lost wages, lost fringe benefits, and other economic losses. The case was vigorously defended, and after years of litigation, Fred Schulman, Esq. and Justin Blitz, Esq. settled the case at mediation for $2,600,000.00, providing our client and his family with much deserved compensation.