Brooklyn Personal Injury Attorneys

If you are filing a personal injury claim in Brooklyn, you deserve a law firm that knows the ins and outs of the Brooklyn court system and is familiar with the intricacies of this extremely diverse borough.

The attorneys at Block O’Toole and Murphy have a long history of success in Brooklyn, including a record-breaking $110,174,972.38 verdict for a cyclist paralyzed by a falling railroad tie; a $53,500,000 verdict for a man who fell while working on a construction site; and a $12,000,000 settlement ($71,643,000 anticipated payout) for a child injured in a car crash.

Below, learn more about why our attorneys are uniquely prepared to handle your Brooklyn personal injury case.

Need to Know:

• Brooklyn personal injury claims exceeding $50,000 are tried at Kings County Supreme Court, which handles an extremely large volume of cases.
• You can decide to file your case in Brooklyn if your accident occurred there, or if you or one of the defendants resides or has headquarters in Brooklyn. (Note: If you have a municipal case, it must be filed in the borough where your accident occurred.)
• Brooklyn typically has bifurcated trials, which means the liability and damages portions of the trial are tried separately.

In This Article:

• What Makes the Brooklyn Court System Unique
• Why Hiring an Experienced Brooklyn Attorney Makes a Difference
• Case Study: Brooklyn Jury Awards $6,793,881 to Union Laborer
• Case Study: How We Secured a Record-Breaking $110 Million Verdict in Brooklyn

What Makes the Brooklyn Court System Unique

Brooklyn definitely enjoys its reputation for having a unique personality. The borough is known for being crowded, high-energy, and diverse. Each neighborhood in Brooklyn has a different feel and charm to it. All of these aspects are reflected in the Brooklyn court system.

High Case Loads

Because Brooklyn is such a densely populated borough, it should be no surprise that its court system is equally crowded. This leads to long wait times for cases, and the Office of Court Administration (OCA) will often encourage parties to settle the case outside of court. This, in theory, reduces the backlog of cases pending in the borough.

Permissive Judges

While they still enforce the law as necessary, Brooklyn judges are generally amenable to letting attorneys roll up their sleeves and fight for their clients as they see fit. As a result, we often find that Brooklyn judges aren’t afraid to let arguments become contentious. Though a less experienced attorney may be rattled by this, our team includes multiple former Brooklyn prosecutors who are more than comfortable in this seemingly chaotic atmosphere.

For example, if a witness begins to get heated during cross examination, a judge from another jurisdiction may step in and make sure the conversation remains calm. In our experience, however, a Brooklyn judge is more likely to let the conversation take its course. A skilled attorney can use this to their advantage, as juries are rarely receptive to combative witnesses.

Diverse Juries

As anyone who has ever lived in Brooklyn knows, it’s not uncommon to walk a few blocks and suddenly be in a neighborhood with a completely different vibe. For example, Prospect Lefferts Gardens is traditionally a working-class neighborhood with a large Caribbean population, as is most of nearby East Flatbush and Crown Heights. If you walk east of Brooklyn Avenue, you’ll find yourself in an Orthodox Jewish enclave.

Dozens of more examples like the one above means that a jury pool for a Brooklyn trial is often made up of people from all walks of life, each with their own proclivities and perspectives. Only an experienced Brooklyn lawyer will be able to select the jury members who are best suited for your case from such a diverse line-up.

Bifurcated Trials

Two things must be determined in a personal injury trial: who’s at fault (liability) and the amount of compensation owed to the victim (damages). In unified trials, both liability and damages are tried at the same time. In bifurcated trials, liability is tried first, and there is only a damages trial if the defendant is found to be at least partially liable for your injuries.

In Brooklyn, trials are typically bifurcated. These types of trials can be less favorable for the injured party — juries are sometimes less sympathetic before they hear how the accident has impacted your life. However, a skilled lawyer will be able to strategize around this, and Brooklyn is still known for being a favorable jurisdiction for plaintiffs.

Why Hiring an Experienced Brooklyn Attorney Makes a Difference

Our attorneys have decades of experience with the Brooklyn court system, and that familiarity has helped us recover millions of dollars for our clients. Below are just a few of the reasons our firm has such a high rate of success.

Strong Track Record

The attorneys at Block O’Toole and Murphy have more reported recoveries exceeding $1,000,000 than any other law firm in New York over the last 15 years, and that’s in no small part because of our successes in Brooklyn, which is also known as Kings County.

However, our track record is more than just an impressive figure — it’s proof of the preparation, strategy and relentless advocacy we bring to every case. Additionally, it’s a powerful negotiating tool. If an insurance company, judge, or defendant lawyer disagrees with our position about how much a case is worth, we can point to a history of results yielded by our attorneys in similar Brooklyn cases. This makes for a particularly strong argument: not only are these cases worth as much as we claim, but we’re the lawyers who were able to get those results.

Dedicated Research

Despite our track record, our attorneys don’t rest on their laurels or assume that previously used arguments can be recycled for the next case. We always ensure we are up to speed on any legal developments and research the most recent legal precedents when forming our arguments.

Personal Ties to Brooklyn

Multiple attorneys in our firm started their careers as district attorneys in Brooklyn, including Partners Stephen J. Murphy, S. Joseph Donahue, Scott Occhiogrosso, and Associate Aaron Fishkin. Murphy was once the youngest prosecutor in Brooklyn’s elite homicide bureau. Because of this, our attorneys feel very comfortable in the Brooklyn courts.

Additionally, many of our attorneys have lived in Brooklyn, which both gives them an edge in jury selection (more on this below) and helps them see cases from a local point of view.

Sometimes, this point of view is very literal: once, after we signed a client who was injured in a construction accident case, partner Scott Occhiogrosso noticed that the accident occurred around the corner from his own home. He immediately walked over to view the site and take pictures. Eventually, that case was settled for $11 million.

Jury Selection

Jury selection is more of an art than a science. This is particularly true in Brooklyn, where, as we’ve mentioned, attorneys will need to sort through an extremely varied pool of jurors.

While Brooklyn is often considered a favorable venue for plaintiffs, this is not a guarantee that you will have a successful case there. An attorney who is unfamiliar with Brooklyn neighborhoods and their associated values and leanings is less likely to choose a jury that will be open to learning the details of your individual case.

Familiarity With Judges

There are a limited number of judges who try cases in Brooklyn. By regularly appearing in front of these judges in court, our attorneys have become intimately aware of each judge’s preferences in the courtroom.

Even when new judges come in, the Block O’Toole and Murphy name is well-known in Kings County Supreme Court. Outside of the courtroom, our attorneys frequent various legal social events where they develop relationships with prominent players in the Brooklyn legal community.

What’s more, our attorneys have developed respectful, professional relationships with court secretaries, court officers, and other court personnel at Kings County Supreme Court. The court staff often gives us insights into individual preferences for each judge, which can be invaluable when trying a case.

For example, in one case handled by partner Stephen J. Murphy, he was well aware that the judge valued punctuality — if this judge set court to convene at 10 o’clock, he expected everyone to be present and prepared for proceedings to begin at 10 o’clock sharp. However, the defendant lawyer was unaware of this preference. He arrived late, and as he entered the cavernous courtroom, he was reprimanded by the judge while the jurors waited uncomfortably in the jury box.

While it’s difficult to say whether his tardiness had an impact on the result of the case, it was clear that the lawyer and his client did not feel as comfortable in the courtroom after that — and ultimately, that case yielded a positive result for us.

Case Study: Brooklyn Jury Awards $6,793,881 to Union Laborer

When an experienced attorney tries your case in front of the right combination of Brooklyn jurors, it can lead to very strong results. In one case handled by partners Jeffrey A. Block and S. Joseph Donahue, our client was a union laborer who was working at the Newton Creek Water Treatment Renovation Plant in Brooklyn. While working on the rooftop of an electrical building, a co-worker asked him to help remove a piece of stuck rebar. Unfortunately, while attempting to dislodge it, our client fell and was impaled on the rebar, resulting in severe injuries to his GI tract and back.

Our attorneys were well acquainted with the presiding judge, who was required to make multiple rulings at the beginning of the case. While we filed a motion for summary judgment, which would determine the city was solely liable for our client’s injuries, the defense was attempting to try a comparative claim against our client, which would mean he could be held partially responsible for the accident.

The argument revolved around the rebar itself: the defense claimed the rebar was necessary to the work being performed and therefore could not have been removed from the site to prevent the accident. Our attorneys countered that the rebar could still have been made safer by adding caps to the sharp ends. Seeing the logic in our argument, the judge ruled in our favor.

With liability placed squarely on the city, the jury only needed to make a ruling on damages, or how much our client was owed for his injuries, suffering, and loss of income. Block and Donahue utilized multiple expert witnesses to explain our client’s injuries and suffering, including back injuries which required spinal fusion surgery; emergency surgical repair to his GI tract, and psychological issues from post-traumatic stress.

Additionally, our attorneys called supervisors who had employed our client after the accident. That cross-examination revealed they had only offered our client jobs which he was not qualified to perform (and would not be able to secure at any other company), with the goal of reducing our claims for loss of future earnings.

By the end of the trial, Block and Donahue had thoroughly explained to the jurors exactly how and why our client deserved to be compensated — and the jury returned a verdict of $6,793,881.

Case Study: How We Secured a Record-Breaking $110 Million Verdict in Brooklyn

In a seminal Brooklyn case handled by our attorneys, the jury and judge once again played pivotal roles in the outcome of the case. Partners Daniel O’Toole and Scott Occhiogrosso represented our client, a 23-year-old who was riding his bicycle from his girlfriend’s apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant to a store in Bushwick. His route took him along a stretch of Broadway beneath the elevated J subway line, which was under construction. Trying to avoid biking in a narrow lane shared with cars, our client asked a construction worker if it would be alright for him to ride to the right of a barricade instead of the left. The construction worker said yes.

Tragically, due to a series of disregarded safety measures, our client was hit by a 10-foot railroad tie dropped to the road by construction workers. His resulting injuries were catastrophic, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

During jury selection, O’Toole and Occhiogrosso made it clear to the jury pool that this would be an emotionally devastating trial, which helped ensure that only those who could handle the severity of the case remained. After thorough individual questioning and considering the types of jurors they would likely be based on their backgrounds and neighborhoods, our attorneys chose an excellent jury for our client.

The comfort in Brooklyn was never more evident than during our summation, when the defense began objecting to virtually everything Occhiogrosso said. Unshaken by his adversary’s tactics — and sure that the jurors he chose could see through them — Occhiogrosso did not complain to the judge and instead played into it, pausing and pointing at the defense whenever he knew they were about to object. Occhiogrosso, in a nuanced way, intimated the defense was trying to prevent them from hearing the truth of what happened, but they were going to get there, no matter how much they had to endure.

Occhiogrosso’s comfort with the Brooklyn courtroom and intuitive response paid off: the jury awarded our client $110,174,972.38, which is believed to be the largest non-medical malpractice jury verdict in the history of New York.

Block O’Toole & Murphy: The Brooklyn Personal Injury Attorneys You Deserve

Our extensive experience with Brooklyn cases, together with our determination to give each case the attention it requires, has led to many successful results, including:

• $110,174,972.38 verdict for a cyclist paralyzed by falling railroad tie during subway maintenance in Bushwick
• $53,500,000 settlement for a worker paralyzed after a construction-site fall in Brooklyn
• $11,000,000 settlement for a construction worker injured on Brooklyn job site
• $9,500,000 settlement for a pedestrian struck by NYCTA bus while crossing Kings Highway
• $9,263,326 verdict for waiter injured while riding in a yellow cab involved in a 3-car collision
• $7,400,000 settlement for a union sheet metal worker injured on renovation project
• $7,200,000 settlement for the wrongful death of a man who fell down an elevator shaft at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
• $6,793,881 verdict for union laborer injured in Newton Creek Water Treatment Plant accident
• $6,000,000 settlement for a passenger injured on NYC bus while making a turn onto Crescent Street from North Conduit Boulevard
• $5,000,000 verdict for a carpenter injured in a fall from a scaffold during Brooklyn renovation
• $4,450,000 settlement for a warehouse laborer who fell 15–20 ft, suffering brain/spine injuries
• $4,250,000 settlement for union excavator injured while installing sewer lines at Brooklyn Navy Yard
• $4,100,000 result for a backseat passenger injured in accident on RFK Bridge
• $4,000,000 settlement for a hotel porter injured in a two-car collision
• $4,000,000 settlement for 12-year-old student hit by vehicle on Jefferson Avenue
• $4,000,000 settlement for brachial plexus injury during birth
• $3,411,000 settlement for a building superintendent struck by fallen brick from scaffold
• $3,369,066.75 verdict for a Brooklyn court clerk injured in rear-end collision at 16^th Street and Prospect Park West
• $3,250,000 settlement for driver in head-collision with NYCTA bus on Avenue U
• $3,000,000 settlement for a driver injured in a tractor-trailer collision at Flatbush Ave and Dean Street
• $3,000,000 settlement for a 50-year-old worker who fell from a ladder while caulking a ceiling on a Brooklyn construction site
• $3,000,000 settlement for a bus passenger injured after being t‑boned by an NYPD emergency vehicle in the intersection of Dekalb Avenue and Tomkins Avenue
• $2,875,000 settlement for a welder injures lumbar spine after being hit by falling wood
• $2.6 million settlement for a Brooklyn union painter who sustained ankle and back injuries after suffering an electric shock and falling four feet while working on subway renovations
• $2,600,000 settlement for a Brooklyn painter who fell at least 6 feet from a ladder
• $2,500,000 settlement for a construction worker injured during street opening project
• $2,500,000 settlement for construction worker with severe hand injuries
• $2,500,000 settlement for woman injured in t-bone accident with cement mixing truck on East New York Avenue
• $2,200,000 settlement for assistant plumber injured at a construction site on 59^th Street and New Utrecht Avenue
• $2,056,656 verdict for a high‑school teacher struck by city bus while crossing Boerum Place at Livingston Street, requiring cervical fusion
• $1,900,000 settlement for elevator accident victim
• $1,900,000 settlement for driver hit by another vehicle in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
• $1,750,000 settlement for a union laborer injured in collapsed street during utilities work near Avenue T and East 9^th Street
• $1,750,000 settlement for worker injured in a sheetrock installation accident, resulting in broken arm
• $1,750,000 settlement for woman injured in car accident
• $1,715,496 settlement for driver who was rear-ended while stopped at red light
• $1,700,000 settlement for medical tech who sustained lumbar injury after rear-end collision on South Conduit Avenue
• $1,650,000 verdict for a wrongful death and emotional trauma from a residential fire
• $1,600,000 settlement for a bus passenger rear-ended on New York Avenue between Herkimer and Fulton Streets, requiring spinal fusion surgeries
• $1,500,000 settlement for cab driver who suffered herniated disc injuries after a rear-end collision
• $1,410,000 settlement for couple with serious back injuries after rear-end accident in Midwood, Brooklyn
• $1,350,000 settlement for a laborer injured during boiler demolition requiring lumbar fusion
• $1,350,000 settlement for a pedestrian hit by school bus in crosswalk on Fourth Avenue and 93^rd Street
• $1,325,000 settlement for a painter who injured his back when a balcony collapsed
• $1,300,000 settlement for cyclist hit by car at the intersection of Beech Street and Richard Street
• $1,250,000 settlement for a driver injured when her car hit a pothole on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn
• $1,200,000 settlement for a cervical fusion after rear-end collision on Ditmas Avenue and East 94th Street
• $1,075,000 settlementfor client riding in a cab when it was sideswiped by a limo, causing herniated disc
• $1,025,000 settlement for NYC service inspector injured in car accident

For a free legal consultation, please call 212-736-5300 or fill out our contact form.