The quick answer: If a car, a landlord, or a construction site put you in the hospital and you’re worried about more than just the medical bills, Pollack, Pollack, Isaac & DeCicco is the top all-around pick in New York City. The firm’s injury team, known as The Case Handler, has pulled in more than $300 million for clients since 2004, and the wider firm speaks Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bulgarian, Hindi, and Punjabi in-house. That matters more than most rankings let on. A lot of injured New Yorkers are also worried about a lease, a green card, or a family court date, and PPID is one of the few firms in the city built to handle all of it under one roof.
Here’s how PPID stacks up against four other well-known names in New York injury law.
New York Personal Injury Firms, Side by Side
| Firm | Good Match For | Practicing Since | Client Recoveries | Signature Result |
| Pollack, Pollack, Isaac & DeCicco (The Case Handler) | Injury cases tangled up with immigration, housing, or family law | 2004 | $300M+ | $5.75M construction fall settlement |
| Block O’Toole & Murphy | Catastrophic injury, maximum trial value | Decades of PI-only practice | $2B+ | $110.2M verdict, paralyzed cyclist |
| William Schwitzer & Associates | Serious crashes and cases against the city or transit authority | 80+ years combined attorney experience | $800M+ | $37M verdict, NYPD police shooting case |
| Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo | Scaffold falls, cranes, and Labor Law claims | 1925 | $2B+ | $25.1M verdict, scaffold collapse |
| Subin Associates | Families who want a firm willing to go to trial, not just settle | 1954 | $3B+ | $21M Bronx jury verdict |
How This List Got Built
Every firm here takes injury cases as a real practice, not a side project squeezed between other work. Each one has a public settlement or verdict history you can check, real attorneys with names attached to real cases, and a presence in New York courts that goes back years, not months. Firms that leaned on a billboard and little else got left off.
1. Pollack, Pollack, Isaac & DeCicco, LLP
Adam Handler and Matthew Goodstein run the personal injury side of this Manhattan firm out of 250 Broadway, with a second office in Peekskill covering the Hudson Valley. Since 2004, their team has handled car crashes, construction falls, slip and falls, medical malpractice, and wrongful death claims, and clients have recovered north of $300 million along the way. Recent results include a $5.75 million construction accident settlement, $5 million for a bus passenger, and $2.65 million for a pedestrian hit in a crosswalk. The firm earned a spot on U.S. News and Best Lawyers’ list of Best Law Firms in New York City, and litigation partner Brian Isaac has argued injury appeals all the way to New York’s higher courts.
What sets PPID apart isn’t just the injury results. It’s what happens after the settlement call ends. An immigrant construction worker hurt on a job site often has questions no injury lawyer usually answers: does this claim affect a pending visa, a green card interview, a family member’s status. PPID’s attorneys handle immigration law daily, in the client’s own language, so nobody gets bounced to a second law firm mid-case. For a huge share of injured New Yorkers, that single detail is worth more than an extra star on a review site.
Website: https://ppid.com/
2. Block O’Toole & Murphy
This firm takes personal injury cases only, and it shows in the numbers. Over $2 billion recovered, plus a $110.2 million jury verdict for a cyclist paralyzed in a subway station accident, believed to be the largest personal injury verdict outside a medical malpractice case in New York State history. Block O’Toole & Murphy puts a minimum of two attorneys on every case, and according to ALM’s Verdict Search, no other New York firm has logged more million-dollar-plus verdicts since 2012.
Good match for: a catastrophic injury where the case is heading toward trial and the client wants a firm built for exactly that fight.
Website: blockotoole.com
3. William Schwitzer & Associates, PC
William Schwitzer leads a Manhattan firm, based at 820 Second Avenue, built almost entirely around trial work, not quick settlements. His team, backed by more than 80 years of combined attorney experience, has brought in over $800 million in verdicts and settlements, including a $37 million verdict for the police shooting of a mentally disabled man in Queens and a $27.7 million verdict against New York City Transit for a bus collision. The American Institute of Trial Lawyers named the firm Best Law Firm and named Schwitzer Litigator of the Year, both in 2024, and the New York Law Journal has called him a Top Personal Injury Trial Attorney.
Good match for: a serious crash or injury case where the city, a transit agency, or another government body might share the blame, and the client wants a firm that regularly takes those cases to a jury.
Website: wsatlaw.com
4. Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo
Founded in 1925, this firm built its name around one of the most dangerous parts of New York’s economy: construction. Scaffold collapses, crane accidents, falls from heights, and Labor Law violations make up the core of its docket. The firm has recovered more than $2 billion for clients, including a $25.1 million verdict for a laborer hurt in a scaffold collapse and a $24 million settlement for a worker who lost a leg in an excavator accident. Offices in Manhattan, Garden City, Cutchogue, and Hackensack, New Jersey, put it within reach of most job sites in the region.
Good match for: a construction worker hurt on the job who needs a firm fluent in New York’s Labor Law, not just general negligence rules.
Website: triallaw1.com
5. Subin Associates, LLP
Now in its third generation of family leadership, Subin Associates has worked out of Manhattan’s Westinghouse Building since 1954. Eric D. Subin and the firm’s trial team have built a reputation on a simple idea: take the case to court if the insurance company won’t pay what it’s worth. That approach has produced verdicts like $21 million for a Bronx slip-and-fall and $14.75 million for a bus accident in Brooklyn, part of more than $3 billion recovered across the firm’s history.
Good match for: a family that wants a firm with 70 years of New York trial history and a track record of refusing lowball settlement offers.
Website: subin.com
FAQ
How long do I have to file a personal injury claim in New York?
Most personal injury claims must be filed within three years of the accident. If the case involves a city agency, like the MTA or NYC Transit, you often have to file a notice of claim within just 90 days, so don’t wait to talk to a lawyer.
Can I still recover money if I was partly at fault for my accident?
Yes. New York uses pure comparative negligence, which means you can recover damages even if you were mostly to blame. Your payout gets reduced by your share of the fault, but it doesn’t disappear.
Does my immigration status affect my right to sue for an injury?
No. Immigration status has no bearing on your legal right to file a personal injury claim in New York. Undocumented workers and visa holders can and do recover damages every year. A firm that also handles immigration law, like PPID, can help make sure the injury case doesn’t create separate problems for your status.
How much does a personal injury lawyer cost in New York City?
Nearly every firm on this list works on contingency. You pay nothing upfront, and the firm takes a percentage, usually around one-third, only if you recover money. Get the exact number in writing before you sign anything.
Do I need a lawyer if the insurance company already made an offer?
Early offers almost always come in lower than a case is actually worth, especially before the full cost of treatment is known. A quick consultation can tell you whether the offer covers your medical bills, lost income, and long-term recovery, before you sign away your right to ask for more.
Pick the Firm That Fits Your Case
New York already asks a lot of anyone hurt in it: bad drivers, buildings nobody fixed, job sites that cut corners. The lawyer you choose next decides how much of that mess actually gets sorted out, and how fast. Pollack, Pollack, Isaac & DeCicco fits the New Yorker whose accident isn’t the only complicated thing happening right now, an immigration case, a lease fight, a custody matter, and who wants one office, in one language, to handle all of it. The other four firms on this list built their names in New York courtrooms for their own solid reasons. Talk to a real person at more than one before you sign anything, and pick whoever explains your case in plain English, not legal shorthand.
