Our client was a hard-working mother and grandmother when a motor vehicle collision in August 2015 changed her life forever.  On the day of the crash, our client was employed as an ambulette driver. While driving her ambulette along Linden Boulevard in Brooklyn, our client’s vehicle was struck in the rear by a truck. As a result of the crash, our client suffered multiple herniated discs in her neck and subsequently underwent an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) surgery.  She was unable to return to work due to severe pain and a significant loss of range of motion of her neck. After bringing a lawsuit, and after nearly three years of contentious litigation, we agreed to enter into a private mediation, where Stephanie Mastrocola, Esq. settled our client’s case for $925,000.00.

Our client, a home healthcare aide, was taking care of his home-bound patient in the patient’s home in Brooklyn.  His patient asked him to go to the local pharmacy to pick up a prescription. Our client left his patient’s home and was riding his bicycle toward the pharmacy when his bicycle struck construction materials that were in the middle of the roadway, causing him to fall off his bicycle and sustain injuries to his knee. The construction materials in the roadway were not confined within any type of barrier or other means of separating the materials from vehicles or bicycles traveling on the roadway, in violation of multiple statutes, ordinances and construction permits. After our client’s bicycle collided with the construction materials, he was experiencing excruciating pain in his knee.  An ambulance arrived at the scene and took our client to the emergency room at Maimonides Medical Center. X-rays revealed that the tibial plateau of our client’s knee was fractured, requiring him to be admitted to the hospital and undergo an immediate open reduction internal fixation surgery. After years of litigation, and on the eve of trial, Fred Schulman, Esq. agreed to participate in an out-of-court mediation, where he successfully settled our client’s case for $375,000

Our client was driving his car in Queens on his way home from work, when suddenly the roadway beneath his vehicle collapsed, causing his vehicle to fall into a massive sinkhole. The undermined roadway was adjacent to an open trench where the City of New York and its contractor were performing construction work to remove and replace sewer pipes. As a result, our client suffered injuries to his back and his knee which required him to undergo surgery. We commenced an action against the City of New York and its contractor on behalf of our client.  During the course of litigation, we discovered that just days before the accident, the City and its contractor had failed to flume and properly secure one of the sewer pipes. Sewage and water began leaking from this pipe, thus undermining the roadway and causing it to collapse right beneath our client’s vehicle. Shortly before the trial was scheduled to begin we settled our client’s case for $190,000.

Our client was on a New York City bus on her regular way to work as a home health aide. As she was walking to get off the bus, the bus driver activated the wheelchair ramp, causing our client’s foot to get stuck in the ramp as it was being automatically lifted. Our client was taken to the hospital where it was found her injuries included a fractured foot and a tear to the meniscus of her knee that required surgery. We sued the MTA who vigorously defended the bus driver in a contentious litigation. On the eve of trial after years of litigation, Justin Blitz settled our client’s case for $315,000.

On February 6, 2012, our client went to pay her elderly mother’s rent check for her apartment on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. After paying the rent, she began walking up the steps from the office to her car in order to return to work where she was employed at JP Morgan in client relationships. When she got to the top of the steps she tripped and fell on an uneven sidewalk slab, causing her to suffer severe injuries to her knee and shoulder. Her injuries required surgeries to both her knee and shoulder and caused her to miss many months of work. The defendant owner of the property vigorously contested responsibility and the case was litigated for four years. On the eve of trial Justin Blitz was able to successfully resolve our client’s case for $275,000.