New York’s Leading
Personal Injury Lawyers

Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Cannavo P.C.

Plantiffs’ Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice

Photo Credit: Statia Grossman

Over the past 80-plus years, Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Cannavo P.C. (SPBMC) has established a tradition of service and excellence by successfully representing individuals who have been seriously injured or lost a loved one as a result of the wrongdoing of others.

The Firm has earned its reputation as a powerful advocate for the injured because each case is thoroughly prepared to obtain a maximum result. The Firm staffs each case with a partner and an associate and expends the resources necessary to ensure that a winning case is presented at trial. The Firm’s adversaries know this and the results achieved on behalf of its clients demonstrate the respect the Firm has achieved in the legal community.

The firm has more than 35 lawyers with offices in Manhattan, Garden City and Cutchogue, L.I., and in Hackensack, New Jersey. The breadth of the firm’s personal injury practice includes motor vehicle, medical malpractice, construction, fire, explosion, mass disasters, municipal, premises, maritime, toxic and mass torts and product liability cases. The depth of knowledge and experience enables SPBMC to provide highly skilled representation to each of its valued clients.

Over the last decade, SPBMC has recovered more than $2 Billion on behalf of its clients. SPBMC is also very proud to serve as General Counsel for the Uniformed Firefighter’s Association of Greater New York. For the last 40 years, it has been an honor to represent these brave men and women who put their lives at risk every day.

The firm’s success has also been recognized outside the courtroom.

• For 2019, U.S. News – Best Lawyers. ranked SPBMC a Tier 1 “Best Law Firm” in three practice areas – Plaintiff s Medical Malpractice Litigation, Plaintiff s Personal Injury Liability Litigation and Plaintiff s Product Liability Litigation.
• 13 individual SPBMC Members were also recognized by Best Lawyers. in 2019, including Vito A. Cannavo who was the fifth Firm Member to be named “Lawyer of the Year.”
• 20 SPBMC attorneys were selected as Super Lawyers or Rising Stars.
• 13 SPBMC Members were rated AV Preeminent. by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest peer rating standard.

The firm’s members are more than just knowledgeable lawyers—they are consummate and dedicated professionals.

SPBMC DELIVERS RESULTS FOR ITS CLIENTS

In 2018, SPBMC obtained numerous multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements for its clients. Here is but a sample of those results:

2018 SETTLEMENTS

• $24 million settlement for a construction worker who was run over by a reverse-moving excavator resulting in the loss of one leg and multiple internal injuries.
• $4.85 million settlement in a medical malpractice case involving the failure to diagnose a stroke.
• $4.55 million settlement for a delay in delivering an infant and for inadequate fetal monitoring.
• $4.3 million settlement for a client whose pediatrician failed to diagnose hydrocephalus.
• $4 million settlement for an electrician’s helper who was rendered a paraplegic when he was thrown from a ladder as a result of coming in contact with a live wire.
• $3.8 million settlement for a construction worker who suffered fatal head injuries when he fell through an unguarded elevated opening at a construction site
• $3 million settlement for an elevator mechanic who suffered multiple fractures when he fell several floors at a jobsite due to the lack of proper safety equipment.

2018 VERDICTS

• $19 million verdict in Nassau County for a motorcyclist who sustained severe injuries, including a below-the-knee amputation, when struck by an oncoming vehicle making a left turn. The jury found the County 80% at fault for its failure to install a traffic light at the intersection.
• $9.97 million medical malpractice verdict in Staten Island for the family of a man who killed himself immediately after his doctor failed to properly assess his risk for suicide.
• $8 million medical malpractice verdict in Suffolk County for a 35 year old man who suffered a vertical sleeve gastrectomy leak requiring multiple surgeries that prevented him from eating for about 8 months.

SEPTEMBER 11TH VICTIM COMPENSATION FUND (VCF)

Since 2002 SPBMC has been at the forefront in representing victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, having recovered more than $1 Billion for its VCF clients.

In 2002, the firm played a key role in the establishment of the VCF, which served to help the families of first responders who died in the attacks or who became ill as a result of their exposure to toxins at Ground Zero.

In the original VCF, which closed in 2003, SPBMC recovered more than $265 million for 363 injured firefighters and the families of deceased firefighters, all for no fee, earning the firm The National Law Journal’s prestigious Pro Bono Award.

With many having been shut out of the first VCF because of the latent nature of their 9/11-related illnesses, the firm played a leading role in the re-opening of the VCF in 2011 under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which provides both medical services and compensation to first responders, residents, office workers and others, who have developed 9/11-related illnesses as a result of their being in the Exposure Zone (Lower Manhattan below Canal Street) during the rescue and recovery operations of 9/11 through May 2002.

Filing a claim requires the expertise of dedicated lawyers. “Our extensive experience gives us a unique understanding of the impact of 9/11-related illnesses on first responders and those living and working in the Exposure Zone”, said SPBMC Member, Michael Block. “We will always fight for those affected by 9/11 and its aftermath.”