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About Steven Hess
Steven L. Hess is a name partner at Hess & Leibowitz, PLLC in Manhattan and has tried complex personal injury and medical malpractice cases in New York and New Jersey for more than four decades. He previously practiced at Simonson, Hess & Leibowitz, P.C., where he tried Miraglia v. H&L Holding Corp., winning an $86.7 million Bronx jury verdict in 2004 for a construction worker who was impaled on steel rebar; New York's highest court upheld a reduced award of more than $18 million, one of the largest recoveries for a construction worker in the state. Hess is a graduate of New York Law School and was admitted to the New York bar in 1975, the Florida bar in 1976, and the New Jersey bar in 1977. He has been a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates for two decades, was selected to Super Lawyers from 2006 through 2022, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award as one of America's Top 100 Attorneys. His practice covers construction accidents, motor vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, premises liability, product liability, and wrongful death.
Proven verdicts and settlements
On February 13, 2004, a Bronx jury awarded $86,735,134 to Frank Miraglia, a 45 year old construction laborer who fell into a trench when an unsecured plank collapsed under him and was impaled on a steel rebar that severed his spinal cord, leaving him a paraplegic. Steven L. Hess, then of Simonson, Hess & Leibowitz, P.C., was trial counsel; the firm continues today as Hess & Leibowitz, PLLC. The honest frame: the trial judge reduced the award to $25,030,134, and in January 2007 the Appellate Division, First Department trimmed it further, sustaining $5 million for past pain and suffering, conditioning the future pain and suffering award on a reduction from $10 million to $5 million (a reduction Miraglia accepted by stipulation), and cutting future medical expenses to $8,056,222, which left the judgment at just under $20 million.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
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