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.

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.