Why I Hate handling NYC Personal Injury & Trip and Fall Cases

(Or, My Long, Tiring, and Slightly Sarcastic Love Letter to the New York City Law Department and MTA)

Let me paint a picture for you: You file a personal injury or trip and fall lawsuit against the City of New York, hoping for a modicum of justice for your injured client. You imagine a swift, fair resolution—because, after all, the City must care about the well-being of its citizens, right? Wrong. Here’s why litigating these claims feels like trudging through wet concrete in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

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1. Early Settlement? In Your Dreams

In most jurisdictions, there’s at least a glimmer of hope for an early settlement. But in New York City? Every case feels destined for the courtroom. The City’s policy all but shouts, “Why settle when you can pay your lawyers to argue in court for a decade?” It’s as if the official stance is: If it’s not litigated, did it even happen? Good luck trying to find that mythical early settlement unit. It might exist in some alternate universe—just not the one we’re stuck in.

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2. Lost Settlement Demand Packages

On the rare day you do manage to track down someone claiming to represent this elusive “early settlement unit,” you gather your client’s medical records, compile a thorough settlement demand package, and send it off. You carefully check the address: Yes, it’s the right one. You pay extra for overnight shipping. Then what happens? Radio silence. Your precious package basically disappears into a bureaucratic void—like a sock in the dryer. Months later, you find out it was never received, or it’s on some desk, or the person handling it left three weeks ago. Nobody can find it. Shocking, I know.

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3. Offering Pennies on the Dollar

Let’s pretend for a moment the City actually acknowledges your case and it’s time to talk numbers. This is the moment every attorney waits for—until you realize you’ll be offered a settlement that barely covers the cost of a slice of pizza in Midtown (and I’m talking day-old pizza, not the fresh kind). Regardless of your client’s injuries, their livelihood, or the undeniable liability facts, the City’s approach to negotiation is: We have twenty dollars—take it or leave it. As if paying anywhere near the real value of a case might destroy the local economy.

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4. Waiting Years for Real Money

In any personal injury case, waiting is part of the game, but in NYC? You’re basically setting up camp for the long haul—pitching a tent, starting a fire, roasting s’mores, and settling in. Because if you actually want compensation that resembles something close to fair, you’ll need to wait until your case is on the brink of jury selection. That’s when, magically, someone with actual authority emerges from the shadows to say, “Oh, so that’s the number you’re looking for. Let’s talk.” But until you reach that stage—sometimes years down the line—expect to hear crickets.

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5. The Whirlwind Turnover at the New York City Law Department

You’d think a major city’s law department would have some stability. (I can’t keep a straight face while typing that.) The turnover at the New York City Law Department can feel like a revolving door spinning at high speed. No self-respected attorney wants to work for NYC. The NYC Law Department is highly disorganized, inefficient, and grossly mismanaged. But you can’t expect anything less from a city run by Liberal Democrats. One day, you think you’ve finally gotten an attorney on the phone who knows the file, only to find out the next week they’ve moved on. Good luck tracking down who’s next in line. It’s a game of telephone tag with no end in sight. Who’s on first? No one knows. There is no general number to call who can tell you who’s actually handling the claim.

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6. Sneaky Tactics and No Contact Information

In normal circumstances, pleading documents might list the attorney who is handling the file. But we’re dealing with NYC. Surprise! They never provide the direct contact info for the attorney who can actually make any decisions. Instead, you might get a generic email or phone number that leads you straight back into the labyrinth of bureaucracy. Usually the head honcho for the Corporation Counsel. Heaven forbid you try calling the main line for the Law Department—you’ll be transferred so many times you’ll feel like an extra in a Monty Python sketch.

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7. The Greatest Hits (So Far)

There are countless other irritations, but these top the chart of why I’d rather spend a day stuck in gridlock on the Brooklyn Bridge than negotiate a personal injury or trip and fall case against the City. Every step is a new, exciting challenge—from deciphering cryptic responses to scheduling depositions with attorneys who vanish faster than New York’s baseball postseason hopes.

Despite all the fun and excitement involved, some of us are just gluttons for punishment (or perhaps fueled by a sense of justice for our clients). We keep marching forward, well aware that personal injury and trip and fall cases in NYC are a maze of shifting attorneys, vanishing settlement offers, and endless waiting.

But hey, if you enjoy a legal roller coaster that runs on unpredictable timelines and minimal communication, then NYC is your place! The rest of us will be over here, flipping through dog-eared case files, muttering about lost settlement packages, and wishing for the day the City decides to operate with a dash more efficiency. If that day ever comes, I’ll eat my words—and maybe a slice of that NYC pizza they keep offering as a settlement.

Who knows? Miracles do happen in the city that never sleeps. In the meantime, I’ll be here, simultaneously loving and hating every minute of this never-ending litigation carnival. After all, if I wanted things easy, I’d have picked another line of work. Or, you know, another city.