New York Personal Injury Firm with a Proven Track Record: Over $2 Billion Recovered

Top Personal Injury Results in New York City & State

Block O’Toole & Murphy is well known and respected in the legal community for its landmark verdicts and settlements across New York City and State. Our attorneys have handled cases throughout the state, including Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, Long Island, Westchester County, and upstate New York. Just some of our notable results include:

• $110,174,972 verdict for a cyclist who suffered serious harm, including paralysis, after he was struck by a falling beam from subway tracks above in Bushwick, Brooklyn. This is believed to be the largest personal injury verdict outside medical malpractice ever in New York State.
• $65,000,000 settlement in a case against the MTA for a 23-year-old man who sustained serious injuries while biking in Brooklyn. This is one of the largest reported personal injury settlements in New York.
• $53,500,000 verdict for a construction worker who suffered serious injuries, including paraplegia from the waist-down, after falling 10-12 feet while attempting to lift an AC unit to the roof of a Brooklyn building.
• $32,756,156 verdict for a Vietnam veteran catastrophically injured in an auto accident. This is the largest negligence verdict in Long Island history.
• $30,000,000 verdict pursuant to the Child Victims Act for our client, a 53-year-old man who was a victim of childhood sexual abuse.
• $25,000,000 settlement for a crane operator who fell 12 feet at a Bronx construction site. He suffered multiple fractures, required extensive surgeries, and continues to experience chronic pain, preventing his return to work.
• $22,500,000 settlement for a driver who suffered severe injuries as a result of a head-on collision caused by icy road conditions in Somers. This is the largest settlement ever paid for a personal injury case by a governmental entity in New York State history.
• $20,181,484 verdict in a lawsuit against the State of New York for a driver harmed as a result of icy roads in Westchester County.
• $15,000,000 wrongful death settlement for the wife and five children of a worker who was killed when he was crushed by a 28,450-pound falling object while on the job.
• $14,000,000 verdict for a motorcyclist who sustained a below-the-knee amputation after he was hit by a truck in Nassau County.
• $13,500,000 settlement for a pedestrian who was hit by a car at night. This is the largest reported personal injury settlement in Suffolk County, New York.
• $12,500,000 settlement for a pedestrian who was crossing the street with the walk sign in his favor when he was brutally struck by one vehicle and run over by another.
• $12,000,000 settlement for a worker injured in a construction-related accident in Manhattan.
• $12,000,000 settlement ($71,643,000 anticipated payout) in a Brooklyn case for a child hit by a car while he was standing on the sidewalk.
• $11,500,000 settlement in a Bronx case for a worker with serious wrist injuries after a construction site accident.

To learn more about the firm’s results, please visit our Verdicts and Settlements page.

Recognized by Notable Legal Organizations

Block O’Toole & Murphy lawyers strive to provide clients with the best possible legal representation for their cases. We only hire rigorously vetted attorneys who have proven their willingness to work hard, advocate tenaciously, and live up to the firm’s high standards.

As a result, our team has been recognized by some of the most prestigious legal organizations and publications in the country.

Best Lawyers

Many of our attorneys have been recognized by Best Lawyers®, the oldest and most respected peer review guide in the legal profession. Partners Jeffrey A. Block, Daniel P. O’Toole, Stephen J. Murphy, David L. Scher, and S. Joseph Donahue, along with Associate Christopher Soverow, have been named Best Lawyers in the field of Personal Injury – Plaintiffs. This designation is reserved for the top 5% of lawyers in each region for their practice category.

Partners Frederick Aranki, Michael J. Hurwitz, Christina Mercado, and Pawel Wierzbicki were also named to the Best Lawyers® Ones to Watch list. This recognition is granted to earlier-career attorneys who have achieved outstanding results in a private practice.

Finally, Partners Stephen J. Murphy, Jeffrey A. Block, and Daniel P. O’Toole were named Best Lawyers’ “Lawyer of the Year” for Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs in New York City for 2022, 2023, and 2026, respectively.

Super Lawyers

Fifteen firm attorneys have also been selected to the Super Lawyers or Rising Stars lists for the New York Metro area. Each year, Super Lawyers evaluates attorneys nationwide across 70 practice areas to determine the top lawyers in a region. Only 5% of lawyers in their state are designated Super Lawyers for each practice category, and no more than 2.5% of eligible attorneys (those with less than 10 years of practice) are honored as Rising Stars.

In addition to being named to the Super Lawyers list, Partners Jeffrey A. Block, Daniel P. O’Toole, and Stephen J. Murphy have all been included on the New York Metro Top 100 list. This designation is reserved for the 100 best attorneys across all practice areas in a region.

In 2026, Mr. O’Toole also had the honor of being recognized as one of the Top 5 Personal Injury Plaintiff attorneys in New York.

New York State Trial Lawyers Association

Many of our attorneys are active members of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA), one of the largest and most respected bar associations in the country. NYSTLA fights to protect all New Yorkers by improving access to civil justice and combating initiatives that infringe on their legal rights.

Currently, Partners Daniel P. O’Toole and David L. Scher serve as co-chairs to NYSTLA’s Labor Law Committee, which advocates for improved worker safety in the state. In 2023, Mr. Scher was also elected as President of the organization, a position he held until 2024. Our attorneys have also been on the organization’s Board of Directors, the Partnership for Justice, and the Judicial Committee.

Other organizations that have also recognized our work include the National Trial Lawyers, the Irish Legal 100, Martindale Hubbell, Forbes Magazine, Fordham Law School, and St. John’s School of Law.

Thought Leaders in Law

Outside of the courtroom, many of our attorneys are also highly regarded educators and lecturers in the legal field. They’ve given lectures to other attorneys in continuing legal education courses (CLE) and have spoken at seminars, including NYSTLA’s Bermuda Conference, NYSTLA’s Construction Accidents from the Trenches Seminar, and the New Jersey Association for Justice’s Boardwalk Seminar. Mr. O’Toole and Mr. Scher most recently gave lectures on “Negotiating a Catastrophic Case” and “How to Win a NY Construction Accident Case,” respectively.

Two of our attorneys – Partners Stephen J. Murphy and Scott Occhiogrosso – have also served as adjunct professors at St. John’s University School of Law, where they taught students the art of trial advocacy.

Representing our clients means keeping up to date with the latest legal news and legislative changes that might affect our cases. In doing this, our attorneys have published thought leadership articles on legal topics. Select works include:

• Why You Should Put At Least Two Lawyers on Every Case by Daniel P. O’Toole | New York Law Journal [pdf download]
• Justice Suffers Without Pay Parity for New York’s Judges by David L. Scher | New York Law Journal
• Workers Deserve Reform to 1847 Wrongful Death Law—History Tells Us Why by David L. Scher | New York Law Journal
• Don’t fall for scare tactics: The Grieving Families Act will help New Yorkers by David L. Scher | Albany Times Union
• Court of Appeals Refuses to Limit Scope of Labor Law Section 240(1) by Daniel P. O’Toole and David L. Scher | New York Law Journal
• Can Injured, Undocumented Construction Workers Recover Lost Wages? By Stephen J. Murphy and David L. Scher | New York Law Journal
• Still Debating What ‘Falls’ Within Labor Law Section 240(1) by Daniel P. O’Toole and David L. Scher | New York Law Journal

Our attorneys’ legal analysis has also been featured in multiple media outlets, including the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, New York Daily News, New York Post, and Newsday.

Block O’Toole & Murphy’s Community and Charity Involvement

The firm’s core values extend beyond the office. Block O’Toole & Murphy has raised over $10,000,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at its New York City Wine Tasting event. This annual fundraiser supports the hospital’s mission to end pediatric cancer and provide critical care for patients and their families. In 2019, Partner Stephen J. Murphy was named St. Jude’s Chairperson of the Year for his efforts organizing the event. In 2025, the event raised more than $1,375,000, the single largest fundraiser ever for St. Jude in the Tri-State Area.

Our partners have also sponsored other important charities, including:

• The Frances Pope Memorial Foundation
• United Cerebral Palsy Organization
• American Lung Association
• Brooklyn to Alaska Project
• The Wounded Warrior Project

Additionally, our firm provides relief to communities devastated by natural disasters. In 2012, our team traveled to one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy – the Rockaway peninsula in Queens – to help clean up the area. After Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017, Partner Jeffrey Block and his wife, Maritza, organized a fundraising drive to send essential supplies to the island. They collected over 2,400 pounds of rice, 800 bars of soap, 80 boxes of cereal, 100 cases of water, 64 jars of peanut butter, 120 toothbrushes, and much more from their family, friends, and the firm’s employees.

In 2023, Partner Daniel O’Toole and his wife, Claire, established a scholarship in perpetuity at Fordham Law School to ease the burden of student loans for future graduates. Their commitment to education and opportunity extends beyond the legal field as well; they are longtime donors to the Institute for Educational Achievement, a non-profit dedicated to advancing educational programs for individuals with autism.

Our firm’s mission is to be of service to others. We are fortunate to be able to live by that value both in our personal and professional lives. Our clients motivate us to go above and beyond day after day, and we are honored to have a diverse clientele of hard-working people who trust us to propel their case forward to the best resolution possible.