$1.3 Million settlement for
bachelor party attendee struck by drunk driver 
 
A Bachelor Party Gone Wrong
 
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. 


The NYPD officer directed our client and his fellow bachelor party attendees who got off the bus to help lift and reattach the horse trailer to the back of his NYPD vehicle.   As they were about to lift the horse trailer, a car being driven by a drunk driver crashed into the rear of the horse trailer, which subsequently struck our client  who went careening into the air and landed on the pavement head first.  Our client lost consciousness, was bleeding, and his entire body was contorted. 
 


The injuries our client sustained from the crash included fractures to his ribs and injuries to his back, knee and brain. Our client's knee injuries required him to undergo an  arthroscopic surgery to repair a tear to his posterior cruciate ligament.
 
Our client's injuries to his back required him to undergo a lumbar spine laminectomy and fusion surgery.  The surgery to his back required implanting  a prosthetic device to fuse the vertebrae at the L4-L5 levels of his spine. The surgeon inserted screws and a metal rod in his lumbar spine to repair the damage. 
 
A few days before the trial was set to begin, the parties agreed to enter into a private mediation with former Appellate Division, Second Department Justice Peter Skelos.  At the mediation,  Justin Blitz, Esq. and Fred Schulman, Esq. settled our client's case for $1,300,000,00. 

$300,000 for woman who fell in lobby of
Manhattan apartment building

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 was entering the elevator.
 
The lobby floor where our client fell and fractured her pelvis
 
While holding the elevator door ope n, 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.

$185,000 for Brooklyn grandmother who fell down exterior steps with missing handrails

New York law requires stairs to have handrails

On October 12, 2015, our client, then 72 years old, arrived at her home in Brooklyn, after returning from grocery shopping with her husband.  As she was walking up the exterior steps to her apartment, she lost her balance and fell backwards.  As she fell, she attempted to grab onto something to regain her balance, but there were no handrails on either side of the staircase.  Due to the lack of handrails, and due to t he stairs' treads and risers not being proportional in height and width, the stairs were extremely dangerous, causing our client to fall down approximately four steps, landing on the sidewalk, and sustaining severe injuries to her left ankle. 

Because of the lack of handrails, and because the stairs' treads and risers were disproportional in height and width, the stairs were in  violation of the New York City Building Code and the New York State Multiple Dwelling Law. 

After our client fell, an ambulance arrived on the scene and brought her to the emergency room of Maimonides Medical Center.
 
Our client suffered a comminuted tri-malleolar fracture of her distal tibia and fibula requiring surgery.  The surgery consisted of an open reduction and internal fixation of the fractured left tibia and fibula using using a Zimmer periarticular plate which was placed over the lateral malleolus and secured with cortical bone screws. 


Shortly before trial, Schulman Blitz, LLP settled the case for $185,000. 

Other Recent Schulman Blitz, LLP Settlements

Stephanie Mastrocola, Esq. recently resolved several cases for Schulman Blitz LLP's clients. In one case, our client, a retired woman from Westchester, was injured when a car swerved into her lane on the Taconic State Parkway, causing a massive wreck and multiple injuries to our client.

   Stephanie Mastrocola, Esq.

In another case, our client, an Uber driver, was injured when she slipped and on fell debris in the basement of her apartment building in lower Manhattan. As a result, she fractured a bone in her foot and was out of work for several months following the accident.

Stephanie Mastrocola, Esq. resolved both of these cases for amounts that will fairly compensate our clients for their injuries.

Roundup of 2017 News and Highlights
  • Fred Schulman, Esq. 
    was recognized in the New York Times as one of the    "Top 100" Lawyers in the entire New York Metro area for the second year in a row.  Fred was also named to the New York Metro Super Lawyers  list for the fifth year in a row.  Fred is honored to listed as one of the top 100 lawyers in the New York metropolitan area.

  • We are happy to report that Governor  Cuomo recently signed into a law an amendment regarding the choice of venue where one can bring a lawsuit. As members of the Board of Directors of the  New York State Trial Lawyers Association, we were in favor of the change in the law and we applaud the New York State legislature and Governor Cuomo for bringing the venue provisions in New York in line with the venue laws of other states and federal courts.
  • On January 18, 2018, Justin Blitz, Esq. will be giving a live lecture via webcast titled 'Representing Plaintiffs in Catastrophic Injury and Wrongful Death Cases in New York.'  To view details of this upcoming lecture Click Here. To view other lectures from Mr. Blitz available on the web and receive continuing legal education credit Click Here.