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Our client, a psychologist at a major New York City hospital, was crossing the street in the crosswalk when she was struck by a car. She suffered a traumatic brain injury, cognitive impairment, aphasia and memory loss.

Fred Schulman, Esq. settled the case with the insurance company for the car for $250,000 shortly before the trial was scheduled to begin.

Our client, a construction worker, was working on the Second Avenue Subway construction project. He was hundreds of feet underneath Second Avenue in Manhattan and he was standing on a scaffold while repairing a broken conveyor belt. Our client was not provided with adequate safety equipment, and as a result, he was caused to fall off the scaffold approximately 25 feet and landed at the bottom of the tunnel. As a result, he sustained injuries to his shoulder and foot.

After the completion of depositions, Schulman Blitz, LLP settled the case for $245,000.

Our client was visiting a relative at an apartment building in Brooklyn which was owned by the New York City Housing Authority. He was on his way down the stairs to exit the building when he tripped and fell on a broken, cracked and defective step. As a result, he injured his knee and his shoulder and required surgery.

Justin Blitz, Esq. settled the case with the attorneys for the New York City Housing Authority shortly before the trial was scheduled to begin for $110,000.

Our client and her mother were passengers on a New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus in the Bronx on their way to the grocery store when the bus, while attempting to pass a SUV, struck the back of it, causing our client to be thrown from her seat into the partition wall behind the driver. She sustained injuries to her back and neck, which forced her to retire from her job of 34 years as a Certified Nursing Assistant.

After no offers of settlement and six years of litigation, Justin Blitz, Esq. took the case to trial, and a $350,000 settlement was reached in the middle of trial just after our client had finished testifying.

Schulman Blitz, LLP settled a lawsuit for a woman who tripped and fell on a defective, broken and cracked sidewalk outside a bodega in Brooklyn. Our client, an operating nurse in a major New York City hospital, injured her shoulder and required surgery.

One week before the trial was scheduled to begin, Schulman Blitz, LLP secured a $300,000 settlement for our client at a mediation with the defendants’ insurance companies.

When Schulman Blitz, LLP’s client, a life long New Yorker and avid cyclist, was riding her bicycle on her normal route through Central Park’s cycling path one summer morning, she approached the 79th Street transverse and ran into a traffic sign that had been placed in the middle of the cycling lane, causing our client to sustain serious injuries including multiple facial fractures.

Schulman Blitz, LLP was retained to represent the injured cyclist, and our investigation revealed that the sign that our client struck was not a suitable sign to be used on cycling paths. Not only was the sign itself improper, but the placement of the sign in the middle of the path was also also dangerous and a violation of the applicable codes and statutes.

During the course of Schulman Blitz, LLP’s investigation, we discovered that the City of New York, along with the Central Park Conservancy and New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (the entities responsible operating Central Park) are required, pursuant to Federal law, to only use signs which have been approved for cyclists, which are listed in a government publication known as the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). We also discovered that the City of New York has their own guidelines, which are contained in the New York Supplement to the MUTCD, which expand the federal guidelines.

It became readily apparent that the sign our client struck was did not conform to either Federal or New York law, and we would discover that the City employees who were responsible for the placement of the signs on the Central Park cycling path had not only failed to follow the standards set forth in the the MUTCD, and New York’s supplement, but were not even aware of the requirements.

Schulman Blitz, LLP commenced a lawsuit against the City of New York, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and the Central Park Conservancy, all of whom initially denied responsibility. Shortly after commencement of the action, the defendants made a motion to dismiss the case, which was summarily denied because we were able to show, through the use of an expert witness, that the defendants failed to comply with the applicable law.

The defendants’ motion to dismiss was the beginning of what would be many years of denying responsibility, and stonewalling, by the City of New York, including years of failing to exchange evidence relevant to the accident.

Schulman Blitz, LLP, aware from prior experience litigating against the City of New York, that the best way to handle the City’s stonewalling, is to be persistent and refuse to take no for an answer. This approach would eventually pay off – after three years of litigation, including twenty four court appearances, we would receive the evidence needed to prove our client’s case.

The documents and deposition testimony Schulman Blitz, LLP was able to procure from the City would show that the City had blatantly ignored Federal and State requirements for years, and many of the signs being placed on the cycling path were not safe for cyclists, and were being placed haphazardly in dangerous locations on the path. Schulman Blitz, LLP would also discover that the City was aware of cyclists who had been hurt by these dangerously placed signs and did nothing about it.

Once we completed the discovery phase of the litigation, the City attempted to escape liability one last time by filing a second motion to dismiss, which was again denied.

On the eve of trial, Schulman Blitz, LLP was able to negotiate a settlement in the amount of $250,000 to resolve the case.

The lesson one can learn from this case is that when litigating against the City of New York, do not take no for an answer. Be persistent, keep making motions to have the City turn of the documents that they are required to, and keep holding depositions until you have what you need to prove the case.

Schulman Blitz LLP’s client suffered from severe hallux valgus deformity (multiple bunions) on her foot which became painful and she sought treatment from a podiatrist to have them corrected.

The podiatrist performed a surgical procedure in an attempt to correct the hallux valgus deformity. Our client had multiple side effects from the surgery, and we alleged that the procedure should not have been performed in the first case because of many contraindications. The procedure that our client had was not recommended for patients such as our client who have degenerative bone disease.

In addition, the procedure was no longer the standard of care at the time our client had the surgery done. Due to the negligently performed procedure, our client will need a further surgery to correct the deformity.

Prior to bringing a lawsuit and after months of negotiations, Schulman Blitz, LLP entered into a private mediation with the attorneys and insurance company for the podiatrist and was able to settle the case, pre-suit, for a confidential amount.

Schulman Blitz, LLP settled our client’s case at mediation for $350,000 for injuries he sustained when he tripped and fell on a defective sidewalk in front of a building on West 86th Street in Manhattan. Our client was carrying his grandson on his shoulders when the accident happened and he sustained severe injuries which required surgery to his ankle and his knee. The accident was caught on video by the building’s exterior cameras which Schulman Blitz, LLP was able to retrieve and use to help prove our client’s case against the building’s insurance company.

Schulman Blitz, LLP’s client, who at the time of her accident was a a nurse at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, was crossing Richmond Avenue at the intersection of Leo Street in Staten Island when she was struck by a car that was making a left turn. She sustained several injuries, including a severe injury to her knee, consisting of a torn medial meniscus and an anterior cruciate ligament deficiency.

As a result of these injuries, our client required surgery, consisting of an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction utilizing a patellar tendonautograft, as well as a medial meniscectomy. The surgery required insertion of metallic screws into our client’s knee.

Because her injuries caused her to undergo such an extensive surgery, our client had to miss over a year of work. Schulman Blitz, LLP made a motion for summary judgment to have the court determine, as a matter of law, that because our client was in the crosswalk at the time, the collision was completely the fault of the driver of the car. In addition, the motion sought a determination by the court that our client sustained injuries that met New York State’s “serious injury threshold” for automobile cases.

While the motion was pending, Fred Schulman, Esq. settled the case with the insurance company for the car for $240,000.