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Why Patients Turn To Our Manhattan Medical Malpractice Attorneys
Firm founder Judge Jacob Fuchsberg secured the first million-dollar personal injury verdict in the country, and that trial-first approach still shapes how our Manhattan medical malpractice lawyers build cases today. Managing Partner Bradley Zimmerman has spent his career on failure-to-diagnose claims involving heart attacks, strokes, amputations, and vision loss.
Attorney Joseph Lanni, recognized on Forbes' list of personal injury attorneys practicing in New York City, handles malpractice cases alongside construction and civil rights matters. Our team takes on cases other firms have turned down, and we do not send a case to trial unless we have built it to withstand one.
Medical Malpractice in Manhattan Explained
A doctor, nurse, or hospital commits malpractice when their care falls below what a reasonably competent provider in the same field would have done, and that failure directly harms the patient. A bad outcome by itself is not proof of malpractice. The test is whether a similarly trained provider, treating the same patient under the same circumstances, would have acted differently.
Parties who can be held liable in a Manhattan medical malpractice case include:
- Physicians and surgeons across every specialty;
- Anesthesiologists and certified nurse anesthetists;
- Nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants;
- Hospitals and the staff they employ directly;
- Nursing homes and long-term care facilities;
- Pharmacists and pharmacy chains;
- Manufacturers of defective medical devices and pharmaceuticals.
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One Conversation Can Tell You If You Have a Case
Tell us what happened and where you were treated. Our medical malpractice attorneys can review the facts, explain what records may matter, and discuss whether further medical review is warranted.
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Types of Medical Malpractice Cases We Handle in Manhattan
Birth Injuries and Delivery Errors
Birth injuries happen when a provider misses warning signs during pregnancy, labor, or delivery. Not every complication is negligence, but a pattern shows up again and again in the cases we investigate:
- Delayed C-sections, prolonged labor, and failure to respond to fetal distress;
- Improper fetal heart rate monitoring;
- Hypoxia, birth asphyxia, and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE);
- Cerebral palsy, Erb's palsy, Klumpke's palsy, and brachial plexus injuries;
- Shoulder dystocia, broken bones, and nerve injuries during delivery;
- Improper use of forceps or vacuum extractors;
- Placental abruption, placenta previa, and umbilical cord complications;
- Failure to diagnose or treat maternal or fetal infections;
- Gestational diabetes and prenatal testing errors;
- Improper Pitocin use and VBAC errors;
- Prematurity linked to medical errors;
- Maternal hemorrhage, C-section errors, and maternal death;
- Kernicterus, perinatal stroke, and other newborn injuries.
Misdiagnosis and Delayed Diagnosis
Misdiagnosis cases we handle include:
- Cancer and gynecological cancer misdiagnosis;
- Stroke, DVT, and pulmonary embolism misdiagnosis;
- Meningitis and serious infection misdiagnosis;
- Abdominal aortic aneurysm and heart disease misdiagnosis;
- Diabetic ketoacidosis and other serious conditions;
- Delayed or missed diagnosis;
- Failure to order necessary testing or follow-up care;
- Misread imaging, laboratory tests, or diagnostic results;
- Failure to refer a patient to the appropriate specialist;
- Failure to consider relevant medical or family history.
Our lawyers have handled cases involving cancer caught after it had already progressed, stroke symptoms dismissed as something less serious, a missed pulmonary embolism or abdominal aortic aneurysm, cardiac events read as anxiety or indigestion, and meningitis mistaken for a routine flu.
Hospital and Emergency Room Negligence
Hospitals can be responsible for negligent care provided by employees or for failures in hospital systems and procedures. Cases handled by our attorneys include:
- Emergency room errors and unreasonable treatment delays;
- Nursing malpractice;
- Pediatric hospital malpractice;
- Hospital-acquired infections;
- Bedsores and pressure sores;
- Failure to monitor a patient's condition or fluid levels;
- Failure to order or properly interpret diagnostic tests;
- Medication and antibiotic errors;
- Improper supervision or treatment;
- Inadequate staffing;
- Delayed diagnosis, surgery, or other necessary care;
- Wrong-patient, wrong-site, or wrong-procedure surgery;
- Wrongful amputation and negligent amputation care.
A hospital negligence claim may involve an individual provider, the hospital itself, or multiple responsible parties.
Surgical and Anesthesia Errors
A preventable mistake during an operation or invasive procedure can cause organ damage, infection, neurological injury, or the need for additional surgery. Our team handles cases involving:
- Wrong-site, wrong-patient, and wrong-procedure surgery;
- Surgical instruments left inside the body;
- Nerve, organ, tissue, bowel, or bile duct injuries;
- Gallbladder and abdominal surgery errors;
- Gynecological surgery errors;
- Unnecessary hysterectomies and failed sterilization procedures;
- Laparoscopic surgery complications;
- Plastic surgery malpractice;
- Improper post-operative care;
- Infections caused by improperly sterilized instruments;
- Lack of informed consent.
Nursing Home and Rehab Facility Neglect
Nursing homes owe residents a baseline of medical attention. When understaffing, medication mix-ups, or slow responses to a declining resident cause harm, families can pursue a claim. When neglect happens at a publicly run facility, a civil rights claim may sometimes run alongside the negligence claim.
Related Defective Medical Device and Dangerous Drug Claims
An injury associated with medical treatment is not always caused by the treating doctor or hospital. When a defective drug or medical device causes the problem, the claim may fall under product liability rather than medical malpractice.
Our firm handles medical product claims involving:
- Depo-Provera, Elmiron, and Ozempic;
- Exactech hip and knee implants;
- Transvaginal and hernia mesh;
- Philips CPAP machines;
- Olympus scopes and scope-related infections;
- Other faulty medical devices.
Claims Against Public and Federal Medical Providers
Claims against private and government-run medical facilities follow different procedures and may have different deadlines.
Bellevue, Harlem Hospital, and NYC Health + Hospitals Claims
Bellevue, Harlem Hospital, and Metropolitan Hospital Center are all part of NYC Health + Hospitals, the city's public hospital system, and claims against them follow municipal rules rather than the standard court process. Under General Municipal Law § 50-e, you must file a Notice of Claim within 90 days of the incident, and you file it directly with H+H rather than a private insurer.
City data shows how often these claims arise: the NYC Comptroller's FY2023 Annual Claims Report recorded 398 medical malpractice claims filed systemwide against NYC Health + Hospitals. Of those, 347 were filed against H+H acute-care hospitals, including 48 involving Bellevue Hospital, 26 involving Harlem Hospital, and 16 involving Metropolitan Hospital Center.
VA Hospitals and Federal Facility Claims
A claim against the VA's Manhattan campus or another federal facility goes through the Federal Tort Claims Act instead of state court. That means you must file a Standard Form 95 administrative claim first. An administrative claim against a federal facility generally must be filed within two years of the injury, and the agency then has six months to respond before a lawsuit can be filed. If the case proceeds to trial, a judge decides it rather than a jury.
Medical Neglect in Jails and Prisons
People in custody keep their constitutional right to adequate medical care. When that right is denied inside Rikers Island, a state prison, or a federal facility, the case can involve both malpractice and a civil rights claim. Our firm secured a record-setting $3 million settlement against the Federal Bureau of Prisons in an inmate abuse case, and our Manhattan medical malpractice lawyers regularly handle claims where a denial of care crosses that line.
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Already Know Which Category Fits Your Case?
Bring the records, imaging, discharge papers, or treatment notes you already have. Our team can identify what additional material may be needed for a case review.
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Elements of a Medical Malpractice Claim in Manhattan
A medical malpractice claim generally depends on proof of four core points:
- Duty of care. A provider-patient relationship existed when the alleged negligence happened.
- Breach. The care given fell below what a reasonably competent provider would have delivered under the same circumstances. Both sides typically bring in outside medical experts to argue this point.
- Causation. The breach directly caused the injury, not a pre-existing condition the defense will point to instead.
- Damages. The injury caused real, documented harm. Courts do not award money for an error that caused no measurable harm.
Most New York medical malpractice complaints must include a certificate of merit under CPLR § 3012-a. The attorney certifies that they reviewed the facts and, in most cases, consulted a qualified physician before the lawsuit began. The statute allows limited exceptions, including situations involving an expiring filing deadline or medical records that have not been produced.
New York Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations
New York gives you two years and six months from the date of the negligent act to file a medical malpractice claim under CPLR § 214-a. If a provider kept treating the same condition, the clock starts when that treatment ends. A few exceptions change the calculation:
- Foreign object left in the body: A patient generally has one year from discovering the foreign object or from when facts reasonably should have led to its discovery.
- Missed cancer or malignant tumor diagnosis: Under the discovery rule commonly known as Lavern's Law, a patient may have two years and six months from discovering the alleged negligent failure to diagnose, subject to the statutory seven-year limit.
- A claim involving a child: CPLR § 208 can toll the limitations period for minors, but a medical malpractice action generally cannot be commenced more than ten years after the act or omission. Ask our Manhattan medical malpractice attorneys how this rule applies to the specific timeline.
- A claim against NYC Health + Hospitals or another city facility: A Notice of Claim generally must be served within 90 days, so these cases can involve much shorter preliminary deadlines.
A missed deadline can limit or bar a claim. Different rules may apply to continuous treatment, foreign objects, minors, public hospitals, wrongful death claims, and federal facilities, so the timeline should be checked as early as possible.
Compensation Available in a Medical Malpractice Case
Economic Damages
- Past and future medical bills, including surgery, rehabilitation, and home care;
- Lost income and reduced future earning capacity;
- Out-of-pocket costs directly tied to the malpractice.
Non-Economic Damages
- Physical pain and ongoing discomfort;
- Emotional distress, anxiety, and loss of enjoyment of life;
- Loss of consortium for a spouse, where legally available.
New York does not impose a general statutory cap on pain-and-suffering damages in medical malpractice actions. The amount depends on the evidence and can be reviewed by the courts. A Manhattan jury decides what that number should be, not a statutory cap. Courts rarely award punitive damages, but they are available for especially reckless conduct.
