When an accident has occurred, it is important to know that all of your concerns are being taken care of. The last thing you want to do, while trying to heal, is worry about financial costs, liability, and ensuring that you receive justice. This is why it is important to know which legal firms will look after you. The best personal injury attorneys take the burden from your shoulders and represent you with compassion and care, so you can receive the compensation you deserve.
Over two thousand people a month are injured in New York due to traffic collisions. In that same time, over ten thousand people will be injured at work. Thousands more will be injured due to negligence in someone’s store, faulty products, or medical malpractice. It is too easy to be a part of these statistics, and you need to know who you can turn to if you need someone to help.
The lawyers compiled here are the best personal injury attorneys in the state (and sometimes the world). All of them offer a free consultation to speak about your situation and will work on contingency if they take your case. That means you are not burdened with fees, and they only get paid if they are successful at helping you.
The shorter the time before an accident and it being investigated by a professional legal team, the more likely a firm can help you find the compensation you deserve. To find out if you are eligible for such compensation, contact one of the law firms below today.
1. Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf
Address: 80 Pine St 34th Floor, New York, NY 10005
Firm Size: Medium
The oldest law firm on our list, Gair Gair Conason has been fighting personal injury cases in the city of New York since 1919. Started by Harry A. Gair, it is still a family law firm.
Their continued success as some of the finest attorneys in the country comes partly due to refusing to take large workloads. This means that, as your lawyer, you will know their full attention is on helping you (and not the three other cases another lawyer would see that day). When not working cases, their lawyers are teaching the next generation, writing articles about the latest legal developments, and working to progress the legal system.
Since its inception, Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf has won cases against major pharmaceutical companies, airlines, and even the NYPD. As recently as 2018, the firm won the highest verdict for a personal injury case in New York State, when they obtained $85 million worth of compensation for a pedestrian hit by a tour bus, who will now require medical care for the rest of his life. The firm has also been heavily involved in ensuring compensation for victims of 9/11, and representing sexual abuse victims to ensure compensation from the Catholic church.
Despite their history, prestige, and restrictions in workload, the lawyers of Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf still open their doors to provide free consultation to anyone who reaches out. If they are unable to take your case, their strong links to the New York legal community mean you will still end up in good hands.
2. Block O’Toole & Murphy
Address: One Penn Plaza, #5315, New York, NY 10119
Firm Size: Medium
A firm that exclusively practices personal injury law, Block O’Toole & Murphy have set records for the amount of compensation they have been able to win for their clients. Since 2012, they have recorded over a billion dollars in judgments and settlements, including three hundred cases for which they secured one million dollars or more.
Block O’Toole & Murphy includes a number of former prosecutors and has hundreds of years of combined experience in front of judges and juries. Several lawyers for the firm are also on the New York State Trial Lawyers Association’s Labor Law Committee, an independent group that fights to maintain the legislation that protects New York worker rights and safety.
Whether it is a vehicular accident, workplace incident, or medical malpractice, Block O’Toole & Murphy has attorneys that are highly experienced and passionate about ensuring clients get the compensation they rightfully deserve.
3. Gersowitz Libo & Korek
Address: 111 Broadway # 1204, New York, NY 10006
Firm Size: Medium
With not one, but two past presidents of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association and over $900 million in compensation for their clients, Gersowitz Libo & Korek are a powerhouse in the New York litigation scene. Among the many big settlements awarded to clients of this firm are $2.2 million to a passenger in a vehicle who broke their elbow when the vehicle lost control, and $1 million to a “55-year-old woman whose foot was run over by a motor vehicle in a private parking lot.”
Gersowitz Libo & Korek are a CLC Firm, which means they offer their services to many students and low-wage employees who work for companies that use CLC Incorporated’s financial programs. This means that eventual fees (which are already only paid if the firm wins your case) may be less than you would expect from such a high-caliber group of attorneys.
Gersowitz Libo & Korek deal only in personal injury cases arising from accidents, medical malpractice, and product liability. This focus helps all their staff have focussed skills and the knowledge to give you the highest quality legal assistance available.
4. De Caro & Kaplen
Address: 427 Bedford Rd suite 360, Pleasantville, NY, 10570
Firm Size: Small
De Caro & Kaplen are specialists in supporting victims of accidents that have caused head and brain trauma. For this small firm, brain injury is about more than a legal niche. Shana De Caro is also the chairman of the Brain Injury Association of America, a not-for-profit whose mission is “awareness, research, treatment, and education and to improve the quality of life for all people affected by brain injury.” Michael Kaplan is a lecturer of Law at George Washington University and also the chair for the New York State Traumatic Brain Injury Services Coordinating Council. The council was created to advise the state on how to better legislate to help victims of brain injury.
With sensitivity and expertise, the two attorneys do not only help you through the stress of the case but also help you connect with medical and welfare services to support you through this time. They consult on any situation, even when a brain injury is not diagnosed until much later.
With their reputation, De Caro and Kaplen are often able to avoid court, and their biggest settlements have actually occurred before trial. These include over $8.5 million for a victim of a truck accident and over $8 million for a patient who received the wrong anaesthesia during surgery. If they have to go to court for you, however, they do so with passion and expertise.
De Caro & Kaplen offer consultation on all personal injuries that involve brain injury, including those in which it may be considered mild, or secondary to more catastrophic injuries.
5. Powers & Santola
Address: 100 Great Oaks Blvd #123, Albany, New York 12203
Firm Size: Small
Considered one of the greatest litigating partnerships in America, John Powers and Daniel Santola have been influential enough in American legal history to be some of the few contemporary attorneys listed in the “Who’s Who in America.” With a number of offices across the state, the firm puts client communication at the highest priority, ensuring you have complete agency over the decisions made for your case.
The firm has had many eight-figure recoveries, but doesn’t boast about it. Instead, they prefer to concentrate on promoting a sensitive culture that ensures your physical and mental wellbeing is looked after during the stressful circumstances that you are going through. They have a firm commitment to never rush cases, and only accept settlements that a client is comfortable with.
Powers & Santola’s primary practice is in accidents and medical malpractice, but they also work on sensitive criminal cases like historical child abuse, and nursing home abuse, providing legal counseling and representation for victims.
6. Black, Lyle & Habberfield
Address: 129 N Union St Second Floor, Olean, NY 14760
Firm Size: Medium
Based in Olean, Black, Lyle & Habberfield is a practice exclusively devoted to personal injury law. Believing that it is best to know where you are heading before you start a long court case, the firm says that “It is our goal, that within 90 days of our initial meeting with you that we can accurately predict how your case will be resolved.”
Black, Lyle & Habberfield represented the plaintiff in the largest verdict in Western New York History. In Schifelbine v. Foster Wheeler Corporation, the firm was able to win, and hold on appeal, a $22 million compensation for a worker who lost his limbs after falling through the floor of the factory he worked at.
Generally, however, Black, Lyle & Habberfield prefer to settle cases, allowing clients to avoid the stress of courtrooms and cross-examinations. In many cases, they have been able to secure settlements for their clients in the millions of dollars, simply through strong negotiations and sensitive communication.
7. Coughlin & Gerhart
Address: 99 Corporate Drive, Binghamton, NY 13904
Firm Size: Large
Coughlin & Gerhart is one of the largest firms we feature here because most large firms tend to have an element of impersonal communication. With Coughlin & Gerhart, this is not the case. This firm employs over half a dozen experienced attorneys that work exclusively in personal injury, including Dirk Galbraith, a former lecturer at Cornell’s University of Law.
Coughlin & Gerhart offer decades of experience in personal injury litigation, and have some big wins under their belt. Six-figure sums are the norm, rather than outliers, and individual compensation cases have received verdicts to the tune of $4.5 million.
Because the firm offers the full suite of legal expertise when accident law overlaps with employment or municipal law, clients are at an advantage. The right expert is often in the next room over.
Sometimes, larger firms are actually the better choice, and Coughlin & Gerhart is an example of attorneys banding together to do good.
8. The Perecman Firm
Address: 250 W 57th St #401, New York, NY 10107
Firm Size: Medium
In 2019, The Perecman Firm won five of the biggest cases of the year across the state of New York. Since 1983, they have been standing up for injured workers, regardless of their union or insurance situation. While workplace accidents are their expertise, they have also had many large results in motor accidents, and pedestrian injury due to poor safety conditions in stores and in public spaces.
David Perecman has been fighting for people for over 40 years. In this time, a number of well-known cases have been across his desk, including Avonte Oquendo, the fourteen-year-old boy who was found dead after being allowed to wander out of his school. It is through Perecman’s efforts, long after the case had finished, that “Avonte’s Law” was eventually passed in New York State, to offer greater protection for children with autism.
The Perecman Firm consults on all personal injury cases and has so far been able to obtain over half a billion dollars worth of compensation for their clients. Beyond this, the attorneys there understand how emotionally turbulent litigation can be and are known to offer a generous amount of support during this time. They provide multi-lingual staff and care about being accessible to anyone with extra needs.
The Perecman Firm works in personal injury, worker’s rights, and medical malpractice, but they also care about civil rights abuses, and those with social security claims struggling to be heard.
9. Dietrich Law Firm
Address: 101 John James Audubon Pkwy, Buffalo, NY 14228
Firm Size: Small
Since its establishment in 2005, the Dietrich Law Firm has been able to find compensation of one million dollars or more for over thirty clients, with a total of over $90 million among their other clients. They have been able to do this thanks to a stellar reputation among clients and colleagues.
Joseph “Jed” Dietrich has many decades of experience in representing plaintiffs in personal injury cases and has assembled a team of trusted associates to join him. Buffalo locals, the lawyers in the firm know the city and people and can offer a level of understanding many big law firms cannot.
Dietrich Law Firm also takes clients from Pennsylvania.
10. Smith Sovik
Address: 250 S Clinton St # 600, Syracuse, New York 13202
Firm Size: Large
Smith Sovik is a historically recognized legal institution in New York, having started in 1946. One of the earliest firms to recognize the need for personal injury litigation to be taken seriously in Syracuse, it continues to represent people who struggle to find justice on their own.
While Smith Sovik works in all areas of the law, it employs specialized attorneys to represent its personal injury clients. Steven Williams is their star plaintiff lawyer, having previously been a JAG prosecutor, and the plaintiff counsel in the largest defamation suit to be won in America. A legal analyst sometimes brought onto The O’Reilly Factor and Hour CNY, Williams has a reputation for being one of the greatest advocates in the country.
Under the guidance of Williams, the attorneys who work on personal injury cases for Smith Sovik are some of the most aggressive and successful lawyers in the country.
