New York Catastrophic Injury Lawyers

Catastrophic injures are injures that demand significant medical treatment—or which have a long-term effect on a person's life. Some victims do recover while others suffer from permanent disability suffering, and a shortened lifespan.

In the face of legislatures and insurance companies increasingly imposing absurdly low compensation for such victims, it's important to have experienced legal representation—especially because sufferers of catastrophic injures are often the most vulnerable victims.

Smiley & Smiley, LLP has a thorough understanding of the legal issues as well as the long-term effects of your catastrophic injury. We will argue your interests aggressively and professionally, to help you obtain the just compensation you deserve.

Call Smiley & Smiley, LLP at 1.866.SMILEYLAW, toll-free, to begin protecting your rights and advising you right away.

Catastrophic Injury Case Results

Examples of Results Obtained by Smiley Law in Catastrophic Injury Cases

• $14.3 Million verdict against the City of New York on behalf of a ballerina in the Harlem Dance Theater who was rendered paraplegic after the car in which she was riding with a New York Yankees baseball player as driver crashed into an abutment on the West Side Highway. We proved that the city's negligence in failing to post required warning signs was the cause of the accident.

• $8.6 Million for "Jane Doe #1," the first victim of the World Trade Center attacks to be admitted to the hospital and the last to be discharged over 14 months later. Jane Doe suffered horrific injuries when the landing gear of one of the planes came thundering down upon her, crushing her legs and feet and severing her buttocks. The $8.6 Million award was the largest sum of money awarded by the Victims Compensation Fund to any victim of the World Trade Center attacks.

• $3.5 Million structured settlement for a two-year-old infant who was badly scarred and spent one month in the Cornell Burn Center when she was struck by scalding water and steam that escaped from a defective radiator when the steam escape valve of the radiator blew off. We proved that the managing agent of the Bronx housing project failed to properly maintain the radiator resulting in a breach of warranty of habitability under the New York State Real Property Law.

• $2.25 Million on behalf of a New Jersey born infant who became permanently blind shortly after birth. The infant was born premature and placed in an incubator that provided a constant flow of oxygen to assist him in breathing. The physicians and hospital staff committed malpractice by failing to properly monitor the oxygen levels in the incubator.

• $1.5 Million settlement for a 37-year-old MBA graduate of Columbia University who sustained a brain injury after being struck in the head by a cocktail shaker that flew out of the hands of a bartender.

• $915,000 for a 30-year-old Broadway casting director who was rendered quadriplegic as a result of his being in an antique wooden guide boat at night on Lake Placid when it was run over and demolished by a large power boat traveling at a high speed. Despite the limited available insurance coverage, this settlement was the largest settlement/verdict ever recorded in Essex County, New York at the time.

• On the day before jury selection, while preparing to go to battle once again with the City of New York, Guy I. Smiley, Esq. and Andrew J. Smiley, Esq. were able to obtain an award of $1.2 Million on behalf of a 44-year-old electronics engineer from Sweden. Our client was hired from Sweden to work on a project at the Automatic Vacuum Accumulation Center in Roosevelt Island. While working on large mainframe computers located on an elevated metal catwalk within the complex, our client was unaware that city employees had removed a section of the metal grating, creating a large open space in the catwalk. As he walked around the computers, our client fell through the unbarricaded opening and plummeted 15 feet onto the concrete floor below. As a result of the fall, the Swedish engineer suffered from multiple fractures of his arm, leg and face as well as brain trauma which affected his speech pattern and thinking ability.

Informative Links: Catastrophic injury

National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research
http://www.unc.edu/depts/nccsi

Making Headway Foundation
A not-for-profit organization dedicated to the care, comfort and cure of children with brain and spinal cord tumors and other catastrophic neurological illnesses.
http://www.makingheadway.org

Brain Injury - A Guide for Families and Friends
http://www.vh.org/Patients/IHB/Neuro/BrainInjury/00TableOfContents.html