Welcome to the Results page of Sakkas, Cahn & Weiss, LLP, where excellence in litigation meets unparalleled client service. Our firm takes pride in not just representing, but championing the causes of those who seek justice. Here, we showcase a selection of our significant settlements and verdicts, illustrating our commitment to securing outstanding outcomes for our clients.
At Sakkas, Cahn & Weiss, LLP, we believe in making a difference—one case at a time. Our legal team combines in-depth legal knowledge, sharp negotiation skills, and a passionate advocacy to ensure that each client’s rights are fully represented. Whether it’s a complex personal injury case, a challenging medical malpractice lawsuit, or any legal battle in between, our track record speaks volumes of our dedication and success.
The cases highlighted on this page are a testament to our strategic approach and our relentless pursuit of justice. Each settlement and verdict represent not just financial compensation, but a closure and a step forward for our clients. We are honored to have been able to make such a significant impact in their lives.
$14.3 million settlement, following jury selection, against a large U.S. trucking company, for a 49 year old New York marketing executive, who was visiting her son at school, and attempting to cross the street in Minneapolis, when she was struck by an 18 wheeler, and thrown 42 feet. She suffered a shoulder dislocation, a broken leg that required surgical repair and back and neck injuries. However, her most serious injury was a skull fracture, with intercranial bleeding, that left her with a severe brain injury, unable to work, and requiring full-time care. The trucking company and its driver strongly disputed liability, claiming that our client was crossing outside of a crosswalk and against the light. Our lawyers, with the assistance of local counsel, interviewed police officers, conducted multiple depositions, accessed the truck’s black-box data, and retained numerous additional experts, including a biomechanical engineer and an accident reconstructionist. Collectively, we were able to prove that the driver was texting and distracted, or he would have been able to avoid the accident.
$11 million awarded to two college students run over by a vehicle that suddenly accelerated, despite the driver’s foot being on the brake, due to a product defect with the automobile. One woman sustained multiple fractures and required a below the knee amputation. The other victim sustained brain damage and required long-term care.
$9 million verdict awarded to a 21-year-old Pace University student who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a head-on automobile collision in Westchester County. The impact resulted in the air bags deploying and slamming the victim’s right wrist into her forehead, fracturing the right scaphoid bone and bruising the forehead. Her doctors testified that the impact led to an injury to the right front temporal lobe of the brain, a portion of the brain that when injured can create seizures and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). At trial it was established that the OCD was affecting so much of the victim’s day-to-day existence that she was unable to work or fully function in the real world.
$7.4 million verdict, reduced to $4.1 million (after the Appellate Division found the jury awarded the plaintiff to much money), for a woman who slipped and fell on wet, interior stairs in her apartment building, caused by flooding from the roof due to a clogged drain. The client sustained a traumatic brain injury, creating cognitive issues, and personality disorders, and was prevented from fulfilling her career goals.
$6.8 million settlement on the eve of trial for a 37 year old husband and father, who suffered severe exposure to lead during the course of his employment. The plaintiff was employed for 5 years by a New York Hospital in the Radiation Oncology Department, with duties that included boiling down lead in a lab and then molding the lead into vests, to be worn by cancer patients to protect organs during radiation. After a full OSHA investigation, the plaintiff sued the hospital and manufactures/suppliers of the lead, arguing that he was never advised that the materials which he handled contained lead, failed to provide protective gear and training, and most significantly installed a faulty ventilation system to remove the lead fumes. Due to the toxicity of the lead, which resulted in removing the iron in his blood, he suffered severe neurological symptoms, which included damage to his sight, smell, hearing, as well as motor skill loss, a lower IQ and impotence.
$5.5 million settlement for this wrongful death action filed in the Federal Court, Southern District. The deceased, a 63 year old Maryland woman, was visiting New York City and crossing the street inside the crosswalk, with the light in her favor, when she was tragically struck by a dump truck that was making a left turn, which failed to yield. The driver was charged on two counts, violating VTL § 1146(c)(1) | a “traffic infraction” and violating NYC Administrative Code § 19-190(b), a misdemeanor and pled guilty on both counts, acknowledging that he failed to exercise due care, which is the standard. He was fined, had his commercial license suspended for six months and was ordered to complete a driving course. The deceased sustained horrific injuries to a variety of body parts, but remained conscious and communicating, with a 14 Glascow Coma Score, for 90 minutes, before succumbing to her injuries during surgery. The settlement was paid in part for conscious pain & suffering and in part for pre-impact terror, as video surveillance showed the vehicle barreling down on her as she tried to get out of its path. We produced evidence to show the deceased had been an active woman, who loved life and gave back to the community and was an involved mother to an adult son. We feel this settlement may set a new water mark for wrongful death damages in New York.
$5.45 million paid during trial by the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation, on behalf of Metropolitan Hospital, to a 17 year old mother’s Estate. The mother, who was 37 weeks pregnant, went into fetal distress. She died during an emergency C-section. We argued the defendants failed to observe signs of ovarian vein thrombosis, which deprived the patient of blood supply and created ovarian necrosis. By not removing the ovaries, a blood clot grew and traveled to the patient’s lungs, leading to an embolism and death. The baby, while premature, was born healthy.
$5.35 million verdict awarded to a 44-year-old Staten Island mechanic who, following a rear-end collision, initially sustained torn ligaments in his left wrist, but following complaints of severe wrist pain more than a month later was diagnosed as suffering “reflex sympathetic dystrophy,” also known as “chronic regional pain syndrome,” a neurological condition that involves severe, chronological pain. This can result in a “burning” pain, as well as excessive sweating, the swelling of tissue, as well as sensitivity issues and more. The disorder rapidly progressed to an advanced stage, leaving the plaintiff’s left arm swollen and disfigured and his left shoulder frozen. The RSD then jumped/spread to his lower left leg. Medical treatment, including injections, nerve blocks and a cervical spinal cord stimulator failed to reduce the pain and left the plaintiff wheelchair bound.
$5 million our firm acted as local counsel for a 57 year old New Jersey woman that suffered extensive fractures throughout her body, requiring nine surgeries, and the need for assisted living, after her vehicle was struck head-on by a drunk driver. The other driver had spent the entire afternoon drinking at a popular New Jersey bar until she became so incoherent that she stole a valet parked car, and sped down a one way street in the wrong direction, striking the plaintiff’s car, who was returning from work. We argued that the bar violated provisions of the New Jersey Alcoholic Beverage Server Fair Liability Act, more commonly known as the Dram Shop Act, which allows an injured party to sue a bar that served a visibly intoxicated person, where the service proximately caused foreseeable injuries.
$4.9 million paid to a 29 year old Virginia man left abandoned in the bathroom of a New York bound private bus. In this unusual case, the plaintiff entered the sole bathroom of the bus before the bus left its origination point in Washington, D.C. and thereafter collapsed inside the stall, apparently suffering cardiac arrest. Patrons complained to the driver that they couldn’t enter the stall and rather than use a special key to open the bathroom door, he took the bathroom out of service, making extra rest stops for the passengers along the way. Overall, because the driver never examined the bathroom, the plaintiff was not found for more than 12 hours, during which time his legs had developed compartment syndrome, and required amputation. Our office retained a liability expert, a physiatrist, a life care planner, a psychiatrist, and a videographer to document “a day in the life” of the plaintiff. We also retained a Supplemental Needs Trust expert and lien expert to maximize the value of the award our client could take home. Of the $3 million in medical bills, in the end the plaintiff was only responsible for $50,000.
$4.8 million obtained by a Manhattan resident dragged by an elderly driver who lost control of his car while exiting a garage. The victim sustained multiple leg and pelvic fractures, as well as abdominal injuries. Summary judgment was granted in plaintiff’s favor on the issue of liability. Using multiple experts, which included a neurologist, orthopedist, physiatrist, gastroenterologist, a vocational rehabilitation specialist, a life care planner and an economist, we established that our client’s injuries would require a lifetime of care.
$4.3 million inquest for this 51-year-old New Jersey resident, who was struck on the shoulder of a Pennsylvania highway, while she was walking to the rear of her car to get a sweatshirt out of her bag an elderly woman didn’t see her and struck her with the vehicle. The plaintiff suffered a severely fractured leg, a hip fracture and spinal injuries. She required a lumbar fusion, a hip replacement and a year of physical therapy. The defendant died of unrelated causes shortly after the accident, and initially failed to respond to the lawsuit, leading to an inquest and judgment. Following the decision, an insurance company was found, and tendered their $500,000 in insurance. A collection lawyer was thereafter retained to go after the deceased’s estate for additional funds, and was able to procure another $72,000.
$3.7 million resolution at mediation for injuries sustained in a truck v. truck collision. The plaintiff, an electrician, was on the rear of a flatbed truck on the Whitestone Bridge, and placing down cones, in an effort to close off a lane for construction work, when their vehicle was struck by a water delivery truck, whose driver claimed the brakes failed. Our office moved for summary judgment on liability, which we won, arguing the defendant was negligent and showed no proof of brake failure. Plaintiff, and his colleagues, were thrown from the vehicle and landed in the street. Our client suffered hip injuries, resulting in hip replacements on both sides in the years that followed, and was unable to return to his job in the field.
$3.6 million to a husband and father to an 11-year-old boy whose leg was amputated below the knee when a car veered off the road and crashed into him as he stood near the rear of his car attempting to fix a tire. The victim required one surgery for the amputation and another to cleanse an infection that developed.
$3.2 million in a legal malpractice action against a Buffalo law firm. The offending firm failed to name the correct parties in this upstate car accident before the statute of limitations expired. We proved that but for the mistake by plaintiff’s original lawyers, the client would have recovered a substantial sum for his sacroiliac injury and his chronic pain syndrome.
$3.1 million medical malpractice verdict for an improper insertion of a gastric feeding tube, resulting in the perforation of the client’s duodenum. The plaintiff had received a kidney transplant several years earlier, at which point, doctors repositioned the duodenum. When the malpractice occurred, it was because the medical team failed to properly analyze a film study of the plaintiff’s internal organs, and forced the feeding tube into the tissue, assuming they were entering the stomach. As a result of their error, the plaintiff developed multiple intraperitoneal abscesses and required multiple surgeries, and lost the function of his kidneys, requiring dialysis for the remainder of his life.
$2.95 million verdict awarded to the family of a Brooklyn woman who was killed after being struck in the head by a falling tree limb. The plaintiff’s proved that the City of New York had actual and constructive notice that the tree in question had a propensity to fall by demonstrating city employees were aware the tree had diseased and decaying branches which should have been removed in a timely fashion. We represented the client as trial counsel in this matter.
$2.4 million verdict to a 50 year old woman suffering colon cancer, whose ureter was severed during a colon resection. We argued the surgeon had every opportunity to avoid getting near the ureter and then failed to notice that he severed it before closing the patient. As a result of the malpractice, the plaintiff suffered fecal contamination that led to numerous complications, including a delay in chemotherapy and testimony from an expert that her life expectancy may have been reduced by said delay.
$2.35 million awarded at mediation to a 37-year-old mother who, following a rear-end collision, required cervical fusion and developed Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD). Plaintiff argued that the pain precluded her from returning to work in her capacity as an accountant due to the disabling pain.
$2 million for a woman stabbed to death at work by an ex-boyfriend. We argued that the employer failed to recognize previous incidents on the premises and further failed to employ reasonable security measures to prevent intruders from entering the building.
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©2024 Sakkas Cahn & Weiss • All rights reserved.
