About Joel Lichtenstein

In the book, Damages, author Barry Werth says, "[Joel] Lichtenstein had ... a psychiatrist's empathy, a banker's perspicacity, a doctor's concern..." Joel has devoted his entire legal career to handling medical malpractice cases. To date, he has reviewed more than 30,000 medical malpractice files. For more than 45 years Joel has led Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder's medical malpractice investigation team. Joel is well known for his medical knowledge and his ability to analyze complex medical problems and malpractice cases.

Joel was a contributor to the President's Commission on medical malpractice concerning medical malpractice in the 1970s. Prior to joining Koskoff, he worked for five years at a leading plaintiff's firm in New York, and then served as Executive Vice President and Head of Claims for a New York insurance company, in charge of medical malpractice litigation. Joel has been a frequent lecturer to trial lawyer groups on issues relating to the investigation and detection of medical malpractice. He has also lectured to hospital and medical societies concerning liability issues.

Proven verdicts and settlements at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, P.C.

These results are credited to Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, P.C.. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.

On December 14, 2012, a 20-year-old gunman used a Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle made by Remington to kill 20 first graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Nine of the victims' families sued Remington in 2014, arguing that its marketing of the AR-15-style rifle to young, violence-prone men was an unfair trade practice that fell outside the federal immunity gun makers enjoy. The Connecticut Supreme Court let that claim proceed in 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene, and after Remington went through bankruptcy twice its four insurers agreed on February 15, 2022 to pay the families the full $73 million available under five policies. Remington also had to release thousands of pages of internal marketing documents.

Connecticut Superior Court, Waterbury (complex litigation docket), with payment approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama · 2022Wrongful DeathRead the full story →

A Waterbury jury awarded Dominic and Cathy D'Attilo and their son Daniel $58.6 million after finding that obstetrician Richard Viscarello delayed a necessary cesarean section during Daniel's birth, depriving him of oxygen and leaving him with severe cerebral palsy.

Superior Court at Waterbury, Connecticut · 2011Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →

A federal jury awarded Cara Munn $41.7 million after she contracted tick-borne encephalitis on a school-sponsored trip to China and lost the ability to speak, and the Connecticut Supreme Court later held that schools can owe students a duty to warn about and protect against insect-borne disease on trips abroad.

U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, No. 3:09-cv-919, with certified questions decided by the Connecticut Supreme Court at 326 Conn. 540 (2017) · 2013Read the full story →

E.M. was a boarding student at the Yeshiva of New Haven from 2001 to 2005, and from age 14 to 17 the school's rabbi and chief administrator, Daniel Greer, sexually abused him on a frequent, sometimes weekly basis. In May 2017 a federal jury in Connecticut awarded E.M. $15 million against Greer and the school, and on June 6, 2017 the court entered a $21,749,041.10 judgment after adding $5 million in punitive damages and $1.75 million in offer-of-compromise interest. The Second Circuit affirmed in full on March 3, 2020, rejecting the argument that the award was excessive. Greer was separately convicted and sent to prison; by 2021 less than $240,000 of the judgment had been collected, and E.M.'s collection suits against Greer's real-estate nonprofits were resolved privately in 2024.

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, Hartford · 2017Sexual AbuseRead the full story →
$15.4 millionVerdictTop 20 in Connecticut · #16

A New Haven jury awarded the estate of Maria Ocasio $15.4 million after finding that an anesthesiologist and nurse anesthetist from Meriden-Wallingford Anesthesia Group failed to recognize and respond to her respiratory collapse during a routine outpatient endoscopy, leading to her death.

Connecticut Superior Court, New Haven Judicial District (New Haven jury) · 2024Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.

Practice areas

Education

Boston University School of Law
Juris Doctor (J.D.)
Boston University
Undergraduate

Other attorneys at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, P.C.

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Proven verdicts and settlements from other Bridgeport firms

Trantolo & Trantolo
Trantolo & Trantolo
$2.9 Million Settlement in Connecticut Wrongful Death Car Crash
Brandon J. Broderick, Personal Injury Attorney at Law
Brandon J. Broderick, Personal Injury Attorney at Law
$44 million · Construction Worker Left Without Oxygen for 20 Minutes After Debris Chute Collapse Wins $44 Million Settlement

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.