Top New York Personal Injury Settlements
The largest personal injury settlements in New York for one client or family, ranked by amount. Each links to the full story, the firm, and the record behind the number.
Browse personal injury lawyers in New York →- $44 millionSettlementWorkplace Injury
Construction Worker Left Without Oxygen for 20 Minutes After Debris Chute Collapse Wins $44 Million Settlement
Arian Hila, 48, suffered catastrophic traumatic brain injury at a Tappan, New York demolition site in February 2018 when a debris chute broke free and crushed him, leaving him without oxygen for nearly 20 minutes; a $44 million settlement was reached seven days into a 2024 jury trial.
Brandon J. Broderick, Personal Injury Attorney at Law2024 · New York State Supreme Court, Rockland County (New City, NY); Justice Sherri EisenpressRead the full story → - $27.5 millionSettlement
Record $27.5 Million From the Diocese of Brooklyn for Four Boys a Church Failed to Protect
Gair Gair Conason secured a $27.5 million settlement from the Diocese of Brooklyn for four boys abused by a parish religion teacher, reported as the largest individual Catholic Church sexual-abuse payout on record at the time.
Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf2018 · Kings County (Brooklyn), NYRead the full story → - $12 millionSettlementPaidCivil Rights
City of Rochester Settles Daniel Prude Wrongful Death Suit for $12 Million
Daniel Prude, a 41-year-old Rochester man in the middle of a mental health crisis, died in March 2020 after police officers put a spit hood over his head and held him face down on the pavement until he stopped breathing. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide from asphyxia during restraint, though a state grand jury declined to indict the officers. Elliot D. Shields of Roth & Roth, LLP filed the family's federal civil rights suit against the City of Rochester in September 2020. On October 6, 2022, a federal judge approved a $12 million settlement, split evenly between pain-and-suffering and wrongful death claims, with the city admitting no liability.
After trial: A federal judge approved the settlement on October 6, 2022. It was funded by the City of Rochester as an institutional defendant, making it a collectable, paid result rather than an award against individual officers.
Roth & Roth, LLP2022 · U.S. District Court for the Western District of New YorkRead the full story → - $5.3 millionSettlementSlip & Fall
$5.3 Million Settlement After Grease Spill at MSG's LAVO Restaurant Left Woman Needing Multiple Spinal Surgeries
A woman who slipped on grease in a common area shared by her employer and LAVO, a nightclub-restaurant then owned by a Madison Square Garden Entertainment subsidiary, suffered neck and back injuries requiring multiple surgeries and settled her case for $5.3 million in 2023.
- $5 millionSettlementPremises Liability
$5 Million Settlement: Infant Lead Poisoning in Foster Care Home
A foster care agency placed a one-year-old child in a Brooklyn home with documented lead paint, left him there through a full home renovation while his blood lead level climbed to nearly eleven times the CDC danger threshold, and a $5 million settlement followed.
- $4.75 millionSettlement
Fernando Bermudez Wins $4.75 Million State Settlement After 18 Years of Wrongful Imprisonment
Michael Lamonsoff secured a $4.75 million settlement from New York State for Fernando Bermudez, who served 18 years in prison after a 1992 murder conviction built on coerced eyewitness identifications that five witnesses later recanted.
- $4.65 millionSettlement
$4.65 Million Settlement After West Seneca Police Shot Unarmed Buffalo Man Behind the Ear
Town of West Seneca's insurers paid $4.65 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit after police shot unarmed Buffalo man Jeffrey Edwards behind the ear in 2010, leaving him quadriplegic until his death four years later.
- $4.2 millionSettlementWorkplace Injury
Perecman Firm Settles Scaffold Fall Case Against New York City for $4.2 Million
The Perecman Firm settled Cardona v. City of New York for $4.2 million after a 23-year-old worker fell from a scaffold, a result the New York Law Journal ranked seventh among 2018's top settlements.
- $3.75 millionSettlementPremises Liability
$3.75 Million Settlement: Child Lead Poisoning from Landlord and Contractor Negligence in the Bronx
A Bronx boy suffered severe, lasting cognitive damage from lead poisoning after his landlord repeatedly sent an uncertified maintenance worker to cover chipping lead paint; the firm exposed the paperwork fraud and recovered $3.75 million.
- $3.38 millionSettlementWorkplace Injury
$3.375 Million Settlement: Painting Foreman Falls 12 Feet from Defective Ladder at Manhattan High-Rise
A 42-year-old union painting foreman fell roughly 12 feet after being directed to climb the top half of a broken extension ladder at a 56-story Manhattan construction site, suffering spinal fractures and ultimately two surgeries.
- $3.33 millionSettlementWorkplace Injury
$3.325 Million Settlement After Falling Plywood Injures a Cement Worker: Cabrera v. Silverstein Properties
Steven B. Dorfman of The Perecman Firm secured a $3,325,000 settlement for a 54-year-old union cement worker who was seriously injured by a falling piece of plywood at a New York construction site.
- $3 millionSettlementPaidMedical Malpractice
Family of Journalist Who Died Hours After Childbirth Settles Harlem Hospital Malpractice Case for $3 Million
Amy Lam, a 34-year-old journalist, died roughly 11 hours after giving birth at home in West Harlem on August 1, 2016, after she was taken to Harlem Hospital Center because her placenta had not been expelled. At least five physicians treated her over about 10 hours, she received more than 20 blood transfusions, and her aorta dissected and ruptured in the operating room, leaving her with no blood volume. Her family, represented by medical malpractice attorney Susan Karten, sued in 2017, naming Harlem Hospital, New York City Health + Hospitals and five physicians, including Dr. Thomas J. Byrne, who performed a hysterectomy on Lam in the hours before her death. Attorneys for the hospital wrote in court records that what happened to her was a rare and unforeseeable lethal event, while Karten and her experts argued that her life could have been saved had the doctors moved sooner to find the source of the bleeding. The case settled for $3 million in 2020, with New York City Health + Hospitals as the only settling defendant.
After trial: There was no trial and no appeal. The family sued in 2017 and the case settled in 2020 for $3 million, paid by New York City Health + Hospitals, the public benefit corporation that runs Harlem Hospital, so collection is not in question.
Susan M. Karten & Associates, LLP2020 · New York State Supreme Court, New York City, NYRead the full story → - $2.75 millionSettlementSlip & Fall
$2.75 Million Settlement for Building Porter Who Fell 14 Feet Through Unmarked Floor Hole
A Manhattan building porter fell 14 feet through an unguarded third-floor hole after a general contractor's superintendent removed the only cover and left without any warning, resulting in three spinal surgeries and a $2.75 million settlement.
- $2.7 millionSettlementPremises Liability
$2.7 Million Settlement for Brooklyn Child Poisoned by Lead Paint in NYCHA Apartments
After eight years of litigation, the firm defeated NYCHA's summary judgment motion and secured a $2.7 million structured settlement for a child whose blood lead level reached nearly ten times the CDC reference level.
- $2.6 millionSettlementWorkplace Injury
$2.6 Million Settlement for HVAC Worker Struck by Falling Ceiling Panel
A 40-year-old HVAC subcontractor was struck in the back of the head by an unsecured decorative ceiling panel on the 24th floor of a Lower Manhattan high-rise during a renovation, resulting in a $2.6 million settlement after the firm won summary judgment under New York Labor Law Section 240(1).
- $2.5 millionSettlementProduct Liability
Brain-Damaged Toddler's Family Wins $2.5 Million Settlement Against Fisher-Price Over Choking Figurine
Swartz and Swartz secured a $2.5 million settlement in 1987 for a Canadian family whose infant son suffered permanent brain damage after choking on a Fisher-Price Little People figurine in 1971.
- $2.47 millionSettlementWorkplace Injury
$2.474 Million Settlement: Construction Worker Shocked by Live Electrical Conduit
A 43-year-old construction worker suffered nerve damage and two lumbar surgeries after his drill struck a live conduit in a parking garage where his foreman had assured the crew the power was off.
- $2 millionSettlementPremises Liability
$2 Million Settlement: Manhattan Landlord Ran Botched Lead Abatement for Years
A young child in a pre-war Manhattan apartment developed a blood lead level the CDC classifies as a medical emergency after his landlord repeatedly failed to complete lawful abatement work; the firm recovered $2 million.
- $1.75 millionSettlementWorkplace Injury
$1.75 Million Settlement for Carpenter Forced to Carry 60-Pound Studs Up Stairs Without Freight Elevator
A Manhattan carpenter was directed by a general contractor's superintendent to carry bundles of heavy metal studs up six flights of stairs after no one reserved the building's freight elevator, causing a fall and three surgeries; the firm built its case on four consistent witness accounts and recovered $1.75 million.
- $1.75 millionSettlementWorkplace Injury
$1.75 Million Settlement for Electrician Whose Ladder Was Pulled Out From Under Him
A 46-year-old electrician suffered an open ankle fracture when his supervisor's wire-pulling yanked his ladder out from under him at a Staten Island construction site; the firm turned a $750,000 offer into a $1.75 million recovery.
All New York verdicts and settlements
92 results, largest first
Sullivan Papain was among the firms representing New York State against Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, and Lorillard, securing a $25 billion recovery through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement.
Anapol Weiss shareholder Kristen Gibbons Feden helped secure $1.6 billion in default verdicts for 104 women sexually abused as children by former Long Island pediatrician Stuart Copperman, one of the largest cumulative civil awards against a single individual in U.S. history.
Cohen & Malad attorneys Irwin Levin and Richard Shevitz served on the court-appointed plaintiffs executive committee that negotiated a $1.25 billion class action settlement with Credit Suisse, UBS, and Swiss Bank Corporation on behalf of Holocaust survivors and their heirs.
Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik represented Nassau County in negotiations that produced a $1.1 billion settlement with McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen, the three largest prescription drug distributors in the United States.
A Manhattan jury found in May 2019 that asbestos in Johnson's Baby Powder and Shower to Shower caused Donna Olson's pleural mesothelioma, awarding $25 million in compensatory damages and $300 million in punitive damages, the largest talc verdict in New York history. Jerome H. Block of Levy Konigsberg tried the case. The trial court cut the award to $120 million in November 2020, and on July 19, 2022 the Appellate Division, First Department reversed outright and directed judgment for Johnson & Johnson, holding that the plaintiffs' medical expert never gave a scientific expression of the minimum lifetime exposure needed to cause the disease.
After a Westchester jury found Metro-North 71% at fault for the 2015 Valhalla grade-crossing disaster, a settlement exceeding $182 million resolved the claims of roughly 30 victims and their families.
Thomas Moore won a $172 million jury verdict in Bronx Supreme Court for a woman left with catastrophic brain damage after FDNY EMTs responded to her 1998 cardiac arrest without essential equipment and advised her family to wait for a second ambulance instead of transporting her immediately.
A Bronx jury awarded $120 million to Jacqueline Martin, a 45-year-old mother who suffered permanent brain damage after three New York City hospitals repeatedly failed to recognize and treat a severe allergic reaction to seizure medication that triggered Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.
A New York County jury awarded $117 million to William Durbec and his wife Victoria in May 2025, the largest single-plaintiff asbestos verdict in New York State history, after Durbec developed pleural mesothelioma from asbestos-containing fireproofing he breathed during years of sheet metal work at the original World Trade Center.
An Erie County jury awarded $100 million to a woman sexually abused over four years beginning at age 12, the largest Child Victims Act verdict in New York State history.
A Nassau County jury awarded $96,906,004 to a woman who suffered catastrophic brain injuries at age 15 at an intersection the county had been warned about for years, making it the second-largest verdict in Nassau County history.
A Monroe County jury ordered former Rochester Catholic priest Foster Rogers to pay $95 million to a man he sexually assaulted in 1979, when the victim was 15 years old, in one of the largest Child Victims Act verdicts in New York history.
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.
A Brooklyn federal jury awarded $81.7 million to Luisa Janssen Harger Da Silva, a Brazilian student who fainted onto the tracks at the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station in 2016 and lost her left arm and left leg, in the first US verdict holding a transit system liable for failing to install platform barriers, but the money is far from paid: the MTA says it will appeal, and its fully briefed motions to throw out the verdict entirely or order a new trial are still pending before Judge Frederic Block.
A Manhattan jury awarded $72.5 million on February 22, 2024 to Aurora Beauchamp, a stage 4 cancer patient who was struck in a Lower East Side crosswalk by an MTA bus and dragged roughly 20 feet before it came to rest on her legs, crushing her pelvis and paralyzing her left leg, in what was widely reported as potentially the largest pedestrian knockdown verdict against the MTA. The money has not been paid: the transit defendants appealed after judgment was entered in May 2025, the Appellate Division denied the Beauchamps' bid to fast-track the briefing in December 2025, and the appeal remains pending.
A Brooklyn jury found the NYC Transit Authority fully at fault after a track crew dropped a railroad tie onto cyclist Robert Liciaga, severing his spine, and returned $110,174,972.38.
After a routine lumbar epidural steroid injection left a Long Island man permanently paralyzed, Gair Gair Conason won a $60 million verdict for the client of attorney Marijo C. Adimey. It is believed to be the largest medical-malpractice award in Nassau County history.
M. Anderson Berry of Arnold Law Firm was among plaintiffs' counsel in a $60 million class action settlement against Morgan Stanley Smith Barney arising from two separate failures to secure customer data on decommissioned IT equipment, affecting approximately 15 million current and former clients.
After a methanol "rainbow" demonstration erupted into a fireball and burned 16-year-old Alonzo Yanes over more than 30 percent of his body, Gair Gair Conason won a $59.17 million verdict against the New York City Department of Education and his chemistry teacher.
A Manhattan jury awarded Mark Perez approximately $102.1 million against Live Nation Worldwide for the traumatic brain injury he suffered when a forklift struck the vendor booth he was building at the Jones Beach Theater, though the courts later cut the award sharply: the Appellate Division reduced pain and suffering to $20 million (still the largest such award ever sustained on appeal in New York), and court records show the case ultimately resolved for about $55 million including interest.
A Brooklyn jury found general contractor Mecca Contracting failed to protect Alan Moonsammy from a fall that left him paralyzed and awarded him $53.5 million.
When a shunt revision at New York Hospital failed and went unaddressed in 1990, Samuel Desiderio suffered catastrophic brain damage; a jury awarded roughly $50 million and New York's highest court upheld the structured judgment in full.
A Kings County jury awarded about $48 million to a Polish immigrant carpenter who was rendered quadriplegic when a temporary wooden staircase gave way at a Brooklyn renovation site, finding the building owner and general contractor liable under New York Labor Law. The trial court later conditioned the pain and suffering portion on a reduction.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.