Personal Injury Resources

New York City paid $570 million in personal injury lawsuits in 2004, an increase of $12 million from 2003. Medical malpractice law suits represented about one-third of the settlements.

The payouts included $6.9 million in the case of Joel Fernandez, an 11-month-old gastrointestinal surgery patient who was discharged from Metropolitan Hospital Center although he had a serious infection.

His mother then took him to Lincoln Hospital, where doctors failed to diagnose the sepsis infection, which led to serious brain damage.

Also, $5.15 million to Daury Espinal who went to Bellevue Hospital to treat nosebleeds he kept getting after a motorcycle accident. His lawyer said doctors did not treat a pseudoaneurysm in a brain artery and later also suffered brain damage.

Leoussis said the increase was caused the city settling more cases faster and cutting the backlog down and also because appellate courts are letting more expensive verdicts stand.