Attorney Clifford Harlan Shapiro's Legal Cases

Personal injury

New York Premises Liability Case

N/A

OUTCOME: $1,050,000 Recovery

A truck driver making a concrete delivery fell on the defendant’s property. The truck driver had removed a hose from the delivery truck and was walking backwards with it, when he fell into a hole that ... was supposed to be covered by a metal plate. Injuries included arthroscopic surgery to the truck driver's right shoulder (which had been injured 18 years prior) and a lower back fusion. The defendant had uncovered the plate and did not put it back properly, leaving a large gap into which the plaintiff fell. The case was handled up to the point of trial by partner Bill Hepner, who conducted a mediation on the case, which aided in the case being settled for a significant amount. Non-binding mediations often get the ball rolling with respect to settlement. It is an opportunity for our attorneys to get the defendants’ insurance companies to focus on the case, and to show them we are ready to go to trial.

Medical malpractice

New York Medical Malpractice Case

N/A

OUTCOME: $1,080,000 Recovery

The plaintiff mother presented to the hospital past term and in labor. She was attended to by several midwives and after she was fully dilated, she began to push. After more than four hours of pushing ... with very slow progress, the baby was delivered vaginally. Other than swallowing some meconium and having a condition known as polycythemia (an excessive amount of red blood cells), the baby was healthy in that she had acceptable APGAR scores and was able to be discharged with her mother. At approximately two years of age, her parents first had her evaluated by a neurologist because her speech and language was not developing appropriately. At that time she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The firm claimed that the hospital was negligent for not intervening and performing a cesarean section in light of the mother's failure to adequately progress in labor. After extensive negotiations, the matter was settled for a substantial sum, notwithstanding the fact that there was only minimal evidence that the her neurological condition was caused by the events surrounding her birth.

Defective and dangerous products

New York Product Liability Case

N/A

OUTCOME: $1,175,000 Million Recovery

A twenty-one year old man was blinded in one eye as a result of an accident involving a defective platform hoist. On his first day of work for a roofing contractor the cable wire of a platform hoist sn ... apped, struck his eye and ultimately blinded him. The firm was able to secure a settlement with the manufacturer of the platform hoist, the manufacturer of the cable wire and the plaintiff's employer, the roofing contractor. At settlement mediation, it was demonstrated that the platform hoist was defective and that the manufacturer's design of the product did not meet the American National Safety Industry (ANSI) standards.

Personal injury

New York Bicycle Accident Case

N/A

OUTCOME: $1,325,000 Million Recovery

Roadway design cases against municipalities pose some of the most challenging litigation hurdles in the field of civil justice. In order to even get to the point where an attorney may be given the oppo ... rtunity to present the case at trial, there must be evidence to overcome the "qualified immunity" enjoyed by all municipalities in this State. Specifically, it is not enough to show that the municipality, the City of NY in this case, was negligent; it is necessary to show there were a multitude of accidents in the same location without any action taken thereafter by the City, or in a case such as ours without prior accidents, that the City did not use any reasonable basis to configure the roadway and/or its traffic signals. Shortly before the commencement of trial, the firm was able to negotiate a settlement with the City.

Car accident

New York Car Accident Case

N/A

OUTCOME: $ 1,500,000 Settlement

This motor vehicle accident involved a 43-year-old woman who was rear ended by a New York City Department of Sanitation truck. Her injuries included a confirmed, severe depression and anxiety symptoms ... of post-traumatic stress disorder, multiple disc herniations in her neck from C1-C6 requiring epidural injections and numerous trigger point injections of cortisone. The matter was litigated and settled before trial.

Personal injury

New York Construction Accident Case

N/A

OUTCOME: $5,000,000 Settlement

A construction worker was killed while working in a trench at a construction site on Staten Island. At the time of the accident the worker was inside an approximately 10-12 foot deep trench. The trench ... walls were not shored in any way and while the worker was in the trench, it collapsed burying him underneath a mountain of dirt where he died. The general contractor pled guilty to various crimes for knowingly failing to properly shore the walls of the trench to prevent this type of collapse. The firm conducted lengthy and complicated negotiations with attorneys for the City of New York and was able to extract a large settlement for the family who are all here without legal documentation. Despite that fact, the law recognizes their right to recover in a personal injury case.

Clifford Harlan Shapiro's Legal Cases (6)

New York Premises Liability Case

New York Medical Malpractice Case

New York Product Liability Case

New York Bicycle Accident Case

New York Car Accident Case

New York Construction Accident Case