Are you looking for a TBI lawyer in Manhattan?
At The Edelsteins, Faegenburg, & Blyakher LLP, we are trusted brain injury lawyers serving clients across Manhattan and the surrounding area.
If you or someone close to you suffered a head injury in Manhattan because another person was careless, the medical questions come first and the legal ones follow close behind. Brain injuries rarely show themselves all at once. Our Manhattan, NY TBI lawyer can carry the claim while you focus on treatment. Three generations of our attorneys have represented injured New Yorkers, and our brain injury work includes some of the largest settlements ever reported in the state. Reach out for a free consultation and we’ll tell you plainly where your case stands.
TBI Lawyer Manhattan, NY
Our team represents people whose brains were injured by a blow, a jolt, or a loss of oxygen that someone else caused, and who assembles the medical and legal proof needed to recover for that harm. A Manhattan TBI attorney spends most of that effort on the medical record, because the injury is often invisible to everyone except the person living with it.
Traumatic brain injuries kill or hospitalize New Yorkers 157 times a day, and falls, motor vehicle crashes, and assaults remain the leading causes. Our brain injury attorneys in Manhattan, NY, trace the injury back to the moment it happened and to the party responsible for it.
Types of TBI Cases We Handle in Manhattan
Almost any accident involving a blow or jolt to the head can cause a brain injury, and the shape of the legal claim depends on how it happened. Our firm handles TBI cases arising from every kind of negligence in Manhattan, NY, and the list below covers the situations we see most often.
- Car accidents. A rear-end crash on the FDR Drive can whip the head hard enough to injure the brain without any visible wound. We reconstruct the collision, pull the vehicle and phone records, and connect the impact to the diagnosis. A car accident brain injury claim also has to show that the crash, and nothing before it, caused the symptoms.
- Truck accidents. The force of a commercial truck striking a passenger car produces some of the most severe brain injuries we handle. Driver logs and maintenance files are the evidence, and we serve preservation demands before they are overwritten.
- Motorcycle accidents. Even a helmeted rider can suffer a TBI when thrown from a bike on the West Side Highway. Insurers start from the assumption that the rider was speeding, and we correct that with physical evidence and witness accounts.
- Pedestrian accidents. A person on foot who is struck by a vehicle usually hits the pavement head first. These cases often turn on signal timing, driver attention, and the same causes of brain injuries that recur in Manhattan crash reports.
- Construction accidents. Falls from scaffolds and ladders, along with falling tools and materials, injure workers on Manhattan job sites all year. Workers’ compensation rarely covers the long-term impact of a brain injury, so we look to the owners and contractors who owe more.
- Slip and falls. An icy stoop, a broken subway stair, or an unlit stairwell can cause a fall that ends in a skull fracture or a bleed inside the skull. We prove the owner knew about the hazard, or should have, and left it alone.
- Medical malpractice. Some brain injuries come from a delayed diagnosis or from oxygen deprivation during a procedure. Two of our largest brain injury recoveries arose from medical negligence. These cases need physician review before they are filed, and we arrange it.
- Sports and recreational injuries. Off-road vehicles, boxing rings, and contact sports produce head trauma when safety rules are ignored. We examine supervision, equipment, and the response after the injury.
- Wrongful death. When a brain injury proves fatal, the family may bring a claim for the loss. The law limits who can bring the claim and what it covers, and we walk families through both.
Why Choose The Edelsteins, Faegenburg, & Blyakher LLP as My TBI Lawyer in Manhattan, NY?
Brain Injury Recoveries That Set Records in New York
Our attorneys have recovered more than $131 million for injured clients, and brain injury cases account for several of the largest results in the firm’s history:
- $22,000,000 for professional boxer Magomed Abdusalamov, whose brain injury went undiagnosed by medical personnel until it was too late. At the time, this was the largest personal injury settlement ever recovered against the State of New York.
- $8,250,000 for a child who sustained serious head and brain injuries in an off-road vehicle accident.
- $2,000,000 for the family of a brain injury victim after medical malpractice caused oxygen deprivation during an endoscopy.
Attorneys Recognized by Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers
Paul J. Edelstein and Glenn K. Faegenburg both earned their law degrees at Brooklyn Law School, and both have spent their careers on the plaintiff’s side of injury litigation. Glenn graduated in 1990 after completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and Best Lawyers has recognized him for plaintiff’s personal injury litigation since 2018. Paul is a member of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, the American Bar Association, and the Brooklyn Bar Association, and he volunteered with the Trial Lawyers Care 9/11 Project. The firm’s attorneys also appear on the Super Lawyers list for personal injury.
Our personal injury lawyer in Manhattan, NY knows that brain injury litigation rewards patience with the medical record and a willingness to try the case. That combination is how our TBI attorneys have approached these cases since the firm opened in 1937.
What Is Important to Understand About TBI Cases?
Damages, Liability, and Compensation for TBI Cases
A brain injury claim depends on negligence: someone owed you a duty of care, failed to meet it, and that failure caused the injury. The compensation that follows is meant to cover the whole cost of the harm, not only the hospital bill.
- Economic damages cover medical treatment, rehabilitation, future care, lost wages, and reduced earning capacity. For a severe TBI, future care is frequently the largest number in the case.
- Non-economic damages compensate pain, cognitive loss, personality changes, and the loss of the activities that made up your life before the injury.
- Loss of consortium. A spouse may bring a separate loss of consortium claim for the damage the injury does to the marriage.
- Comparative fault reduces an award by the injured person’s share of the blame. Under CPLR 1411, partial fault does not end most claims, though a 2026 amendment bars recovery in motor vehicle cases where the claimant’s fault is greater than the defendants’ combined fault.
- Multiple defendants can each carry a share of liability and a separate insurance policy, which is common when an owner, a contractor, and a driver all played a role.
Important Aspects of a TBI Case
The defense in a brain injury case almost always argues that the symptoms are exaggerated, pre-existing, or caused by something else. Meeting that argument is most of the work.
- Proving a TBI usually requires imaging, neuropsychological testing, and treating physicians who can explain what changed.
- Insurers schedule independent medical examinations with doctors they select, and those reports are written for the carrier, not for you.
- A carrier that delays, lowballs, or ignores the medical proof may be acting in bad faith, and we document that conduct as the claim moves.
- Family members, coworkers, and friends often make the most persuasive witnesses, because they can describe who you were before the injury.
- Psychological trauma frequently accompanies a TBI and belongs in the damages picture alongside the physical injury.
What Is the TBI Case Timeline?
Brain injury cases move slower than most, because no one should settle before the doctors know how much recovery to expect. The stages are predictable even when the pace is not.
- Emergency care, imaging, and the first weeks of treatment
- Investigation, evidence preservation, and identification of every liable party
- Filing suit and exchanging medical and liability records in discovery
- Depositions, defense medical examinations, and life-care planning for future needs
- Settlement negotiation, mediation, or trial
CPLR 214 gives most injury victims three years from the date of the injury to file suit in New York. Claims against the City or another public agency carry much shorter notice deadlines, so the date of the accident matters from the first day.
What to You Bring to Your TBI Consultation
You do not need a complete file to start. The records that help most at a first meeting include:
- Emergency room and hospital discharge records, including any CT or MRI reports
- Notes from neurologists, therapists, or other treating providers
- The police report, incident report, or workplace accident report
- Contact information for witnesses and for anyone who has noticed changes in you since the injury
- Pay records showing time missed from work
The consultation is free and confidential, and we will give you a candid read on the claim, including how to manage medical bills before settlement, before you decide anything.
Most Dangerous Locations for Brain Injuries in Manhattan
Pedestrian and cyclist knockdowns produce a large share of the brain injuries our Manhattan, NY TBI lawyers see, and the borough’s wide avenues are where they cluster.
- NYC DOT identified 8th Avenue from Hudson Street to Columbus Circle as a Vision Zero Priority Corridor after 20.9 pedestrians per mile were killed or severely injured there between 2012 and 2016.
- Houston Street carries the same designation. Falls, the leading cause of TBI statewide, happen on construction sites and subway stairways as often as on sidewalks.
- NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, the only Level I adult trauma center in Manhattan south of 68th Street, is designated to treat neurosurgical trauma, and its records often become the first evidence in a case.
Reach Out to The Edelsteins, Faegenburg, & Blyakher LLP to Schedule a Consultation
A brain injury claim is stronger when the evidence is gathered while it still exists. We will review how the injury happened, explain your options in plain language, and answer questions as they come up. You pay no fee unless we win. Contact us to schedule a free consultation with a Manhattan TBI attorney.