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Queens Personal Injury Attorneys

If you or someone you love has been seriously injured in Queens, you may be wondering which law firm is best equipped to handle your case. Every accident victim deserves an attorney who is familiar with the local court system and is well-prepared to handle their case.

The attorneys at Block O’Toole & Murphy have obtained numerous successful settlements and verdicts in Queens County, including an $8,800,000 settlement for a woman who was hit by a van in Ozone Park, a $7,000,000 settlement for a carpenter who was injured while dismantling a scaffold in Astoria, and a $5,885,000 verdict for an undocumented worker in a construction accident case in Astoria.

Keep reading to learn why Block O’Toole & Murphy is especially well-equipped to handle your Queens personal injury case.

Need to Know:

  • Queens is one of the most diverse counties in the United States. That diversity is reflected in its jury pool.
  • Personal injury trials are generally bifurcated in Queens County. This means that a jury will first decide on liability, or fault. If the defendant is even partially at fault, there will be a separate trial to determine the amount of damages owed.
  • Your case may be filed in Queens County if your accident occurred there, or if you or one of the defendants resides or is headquartered in Queens. If you have a municipal case, it must be filed in the borough where the accident occurred. So, if you have a case against a municipal defendant that occurred in the Borough of Queens, that is where your lawsuit will be filed.

In This Article:

What Makes Personal Injury Litigation in Queens County Unique?

While Queens County courts are subject to the same laws as the rest of New York State, the court system is different in a few key ways.

Bifurcated Trials

Personal injury trials can be either unified or bifurcated. In unified trials, both liability (fault) and damages (compensation) are tried together. This means that a jury will potentially consider both issues when delivering their verdict.

In Queens County, trials are bifurcated. This means a jury first determines whether the accident was caused by the defendant’s negligence, or lack of care. If the defendant is found to be even partially responsible for the accident, then, in what amounts to a separate trial, the jury will hear about the client’s specific injuries and determine fair compensation.

Typically, unified trials are preferable for plaintiffs, because the jury has access to the full scope of evidence, including the injuries, when determining liability. However, a skilled attorney will have methods to address the limits of bifurcation:

  • Use jury selection to their advantage. While your attorney cannot discuss your injuries during the liability portion of a bifurcated trial, they may be able to suggest the severity of your injuries during jury selection. Additionally, an experienced attorney will be adept at choosing jurors who are open-minded and fair for both liability and damages.
  • Leverage the defense’s denial of liability. Often, the defense will try to deny any fault for an accident during the liability trial, even when the evidence clearly shows otherwise. In such cases, the jury will likely side against the defense. Then, in the damages portion of the trial, after the defendant’s liability position has already been viewed with skepticism by the jury, they will again argue against the plaintiff on damages. The defense’s credibility is, perhaps, tarnished as a result of some of their dubious liability arguments. The jury may have lost faith in them before they even take a damages position. A crafty plaintiff attorney can suggest the jury should not trust the defense regarding their arguments on fair compensation because they were not candid with the jury previously when liability was argued.

Multiple Courthouse Locations

While many smaller counties only have one courthouse, Queens has two Supreme Courts for civil matters: one in Long Island City, and one in Jamaica.

  • Long Island City Courthouse is a more trial focused courthouse. Judges at the Long Island City Courthouse generally handle fewer motions or other steps in the litigation process. This allows them to focus on conducting trials, creating a more tranquil setting if you are not one of the litigants on trial.
  • Jamaica Courthouse is comparatively busier, as judges have various responsibilities outside of trying cases, such as motions and monitoring the discovery process on a high volume of cases.

Your case may be assigned to either courthouse, so it’s important to have an attorney who is comfortable in both settings. In either venue, your attorney should be well-versed with the judge’s individual rules. Additionally, having a reputation for professionalism and preparedness can go a long way toward a smooth trial and getting the right result for your client.

Appellate Court Division

Though most personal injury cases are settled out of court, some go all the way to trial where a jury reaches a verdict. However, that is not necessarily the end of the case: many defenses will choose to appeal the jury verdict, which sends your case to one of New York’s four Appellate Divisions, where judges generally entertain appeals from the State Supreme Court.

New York State’s four Appellate Divisions cover different areas of the state. Manhattan and the Bronx are in the First Department, while Queens, Brooklyn, Nassau, Suffolk, and various other counties are in the Second Department.

Cases usually take three to five years to move through the Second Department, while the First Department can take less than a year.

This is one reason why, if possible, your attorney may decide to file your case in Manhattan or the Bronx instead of Queens. However, this is only one factor when deciding where to venue a case, and sometimes the best — or only — option is to file a case in Queens. For example, if you are naming the Long Island Rail Road as a defendant in your accident, then your case must be filed in Queens, because the LIRR is headquartered in Jamaica.

How We Obtained an $8,800,000 Settlement From the City of New York for a Queens Grandmother

Hear attorneys Stephen J. Murphy and David L. Scher discuss key details behind a Queens pedestrian accident that resulted in an $8.8 million settlement.

In one tragic case we handled, a 53-year-old woman was gravely injured while walking on a sidewalk in Ozone Park. Originally from Bosnia, our client worked as a housekeeper at a Manhattan hotel and was on the way to pick up her grandchildren from school when a collision between two vans at 103rd Street and 93rd Street caused one van to jump the sidewalk and hit her.

Our client suffered a traumatic brain injury that required immediate surgery, along with severe nerve damage in her shoulder and various orthopedic injuries. Though she survived the accident, she was left with neurological and cognitive issues, irrevocably changing her life and her relationship with her family.

Investigating the Accident Scene

During our investigation and discovery process, Partners Stephen Murphy and David Scher learned that one of the vans did not stop at the intersection because the stop sign was partially blocked by foliage.

Our investigation further revealed that the City had been notified of this issue: we located multiple witnesses in the area who had complained to the City about the blocked sign. Additionally, the City had sent an employee to cut back the foliage, but he had trimmed the wrong trees.

Preparing for Trial

Our firm retained multiple well-credentialed experts to testify about all aspects of the case, including our client’s future medical needs, her economic losses, and the City’s liability in the accident — we even retained a tree expert to analyze the tree that blocked the sign.

On the eve of jury selection, the City settled the case for $7,500,000, and the driver of the van contributed their entire insurance amount of $1,300,000, to reach a total settlement figure of $8,800,000 for our client.

How Experienced Lawyers Handle Jury Selection in Queens County Civil Cases

Known as the “World’s Borough,” Queens is famous for being a cultural melting pot. From Bayside to Woodside, Forest Hills to Flushing, the diversity in Queens is astounding — and potentially intimidating for a lawyer who isn’t used to selecting juries from such a diverse group of people.

Focus on What Connects Us

An experienced attorney knows that certain things resonate with virtually all people: family, the right to happiness, the freedom to do things you love. By discussing these topics with potential jurors, attorneys can begin to build sympathy for their client from the start, and forge stronger connections within a jury made up of very different backgrounds from our client.

For example, our attorneys may simply ask a potential juror to talk about their family, and what’s important to them. As they answer, we’ll often see other heads start nodding in the rest of the room — people will quickly realize that a person who looks or sounds nothing like them is not actually very different from them at all.

Introduce Legal Terminology

Our lawyers intentionally use phrases like “loss of enjoyment of life” and “loss of happiness” to describe the pain and suffering that comes with a serious injury. These are the same terms that the jury will hear at the end of the case, when the judge is giving final instructions on the law.   

Queens Jury Verdict: $1,198,000 for Man Rear-Ended by Truck

Though our attorneys have had many successful cases in Queens, we have encountered defense teams who believe that the venue is unreliable for plaintiffs.

In one case we handled, our client was riding in the passenger seat of a car driving on Rockaway Boulevard when it was rear-ended by a truck. An undocumented man from Costa Rica, our client suffered serious back pain that eventually resulted in lumbar fusion surgery.

Partners Scott Occhiogrosso and Frederick Aranki obtained summary judgment on the issue of liability, meaning that the judge determined the truck driver was at fault for the accident. However, the defense refused our demands to settle the case by tendering its entire $1,000,000 insurance policy.

Though we pointed to multiple recent Appellate Division rulings which granted more than $1 million in similar cases, the defense thought a Queens jury may be swayed by the fact that our client, who was 47 at the time of the accident, had some documented back pain before the accident. Unwilling to take their offer of $500,000 for a case we knew was worth far more, we took the case to trial.

Ultimately, the Queens jury delivered justice for our client, awarding him $1,198,000 in compensation for his injuries.

Why Hiring a Well-Known Plaintiff’s Attorney Matters in Queens Personal Injury Cases

On top of having a strong track record and being well-versed in the law, firms that have good relationships with judges and law secretaries tend to have an advantage over other firms. Here’s why:

A Strong Reputation

Hiring a law firm that is already recognized in your case’s venue can be an asset to your case.

For example, Block O’Toole & Murphy is a well-known, well-regarded firm in the Queens courts. When a Queens judge sees our name, they know they’re dealing with a high stakes case being handled by a top firm. This affects the seriousness with which the case is treated by the court and the amount of time they’re going to devote to the case.

Personal Connections to Queens

Our firm is deeply embedded in the legal community of New York. We often attend New York State Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA) events, which allows us to meet judges and build relationships with them outside of the court room.

Additionally, Associate Gabriella Pulla is a Queens resident who is an active member of both the Latino Lawyers Association of Queens County (LLAQC) and a delegate of the Queens County Women’s Bar Association (QCWBA). Both groups offer mentorship and connection opportunities for lawyers and judges, and hold events where they give back to the community.

For example, when the QCWBA participated in Read Across America, Ms. Pulla was partnered with a Queens Supreme Court judge to read to kindergarteners and first graders. These kinds of initiatives allow our attorneys to build relationships with various communities in Queens.

$2,400,000 Settlement for Construction Worker Injured in Flushing

Over the years, Block O’Toole & Murphy has become well-regarded with many different communities in Queens. Our firm includes lawyers who speak Spanish, Polish and Russian, and we hire interpreters as necessary. For example, we have successfully handled cases for clients originally from Croatia, El Salvador, Albania, and many more countries.

In one case our firm handled, a 54-year-old Albanian construction worker had been tasked with dismantling a building’s boiler system. While standing on a ladder to disconnect the boiler’s oil line, the ladder slipped from underneath him, causing him to hit his head and sustain injuries to his neck, arm, lower back, and right leg.

Our client had not been given any protective equipment, which made liability in the case clear: under Labor Law 240, the defense was completely at fault for the accident. However, despite eventually needing cervical fusion surgery, our client initially avoided treatment. Not wanting to believe that his injuries were as serious as they were, he worked through the pain for weeks until he was forced to see a doctor.

Despite the gap in treatment, our handling of the case and prior reputation with the insurance company allowed Partners Daniel O’Toole and Frederick Aranki to obtain a settlement of $2,400,000, an amount that allowed our client to not worry about his inability to work and provide for his family.

Significant Verdicts and Settlements in Queens Accident Cases

At Block O’Toole & Murphy, our results speak for themselves. Our long history of handling cases in Queens has led to many successful results, including: 

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

Personal Injury

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