Injury Law Firm with a Proven Track Record

Block O’Toole & Murphy is a premier personal injury law firm serving New York and New Jersey. Located centrally in New York City right above Pennsylvania Station, the firm is universally regarded as one of the top best personal injury practices in the state. According to ALM’s Verdict Search, no other law firm in New York State reported more case results exceeding $1,000,000 in value than Block O’Toole & Murphy has since 2012.

We understand the stakes are high for our clients whose lives have been upended because of another party’s negligence. Our lawyers, who have dedicated their careers to fighting for hard-working people, are willing to aggressively pursue justice for our clients in every single case. Our legal team includes a number of decorated former prosecutors and seasoned civil litigators who all bring valuable trial experience to serious injury cases, including construction accidents, car accidents, wrongful death, third party work injuries, and premises liability.

Block O’Toole & Murphy is committed to ensuring that insurance companies and/or juries fully comprehend the profound impact an injury can have on an individual’s personal and professional life. We prioritize our clients’ best interests and are not interested in a “quick settlement” unless it is beneficial to our clients. Our goal in every case is to secure every dollar our clients are entitled to under the law, and we consistently achieve this with integrity, doing things the right way.

Recognized by Notable Legal Organizations

We hire only talented, hard-working attorneys, rigorously vetting them through a careful selection process. This ensures that each client receives the best possible legal representation for their case and allows the firm to continue enjoying its sterling, well-earned reputation. In some instances, our partners proactively recruit attorneys to the firm after witnessing their work up close and personal.

Our team has been recognized by the most prestigious legal organizations and publications in the country. Select awards include:

• Best Law Firms by U.S. News & World Report: Block O’Toole & Murphy has been recognized as a “Best Law Firm” in New York by U.S. News & World Report. Since 2015, the firm has achieved Tier 1 ranking, the elite level according to the ranking system, in Personal Injury – Plaintiffs law and Product Liability – Plaintiffs law.
• Best Lawyers: Several of our lawyers, including our three managing partners, are nationally recognized by Best Lawyers®, long regarded as the oldest and most respected peer review guide in the legal profession. This designation is reserved for the top 5% of lawyers in the United States for their practice category. Partners Jeffrey Block, Daniel O’Toole, Stephen Murphy, David Scher, and Joseph Donahue have been distinguished as Best Lawyers in the field of Personal Injury – Plaintiffs. Partners Stephen Murphy and Jeffrey Block were also selected by Best Lawyers as “Lawyer of the Year” for Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs in New York City for 2022 and 2023 respectively.
• Super Lawyers: Thirteen of our firm’s attorneys are included in either the Super Lawyers or Rising Stars lists. Only the top 5% of lawyers in their state are designated Super Lawyers for each practice category. Our younger attorneys are listed as Rising Stars, a designation for attorneys who are either 40 years old or younger or have been practicing for less than 10 years. No more than 2.5% of practicing attorneys are honored as Rising Stars.

Other notable legal organizations that also recognize our work include the National Trial Lawyers, Irish Legal 100, Martindale Hubbell, The New York Law Journal, Fordham Law School, and St. John’s School of Law.

Top Results in New York State

Block O’Toole & Murphy is well-known in the legal community for their landmark results. Notable verdicts and settlements include:

• $110,174,972 verdict for a cyclist who suffered serious harm, including paralysis, after he was struck by a falling beam from subway tracks above in Bushwick, Brooklyn. This is believed to be the largest non-medical malpractice verdict ever in New York State.
• $53,500,000 verdict for a construction worker who suffered serious injuries including paraplegia from the waist-down and was confined to a wheelchair after falling 10-12 feet while attempting to a lift an AC unit to the roof of a building.
• $32,756,156 verdict for a Vietnam veteran catastrophically injured in an auto accident. This is the largest negligence result ever in Long Island history.
• $30,000,000 verdict pursuant to the recently passed Child Victims Act for our client, a 53-year-old man who was a victim of childhood sexual abuse.
• $20,181,484 verdict in a lawsuit against the State of New York for a driver harmed as a result of icy roads in Westchester County
• $15,000,000 wrongful death settlement for the wife and five children of a worker who was killed when he was crushed by a 28,450-pound falling object while on the job
• $14,000,000 verdict for a motorcyclist who sustained a below-the-knee amputation after he was hit by a truck in Nassau County
• $13,500,000 settlement for a pedestrian who was hit by a car at night. This is the largest reported personal injury settlement in Suffolk County, New York.
• $12,000,000 settlement for a worker injured in a construction-related accident in Manhattan
• $12,000,000 settlement ($71,643,000 anticipated payout) in a Brooklyn case for a child hit by a car while he was standing on the sidewalk
• $11,500,000 settlement in a Bronx case for a worker with serious wrist injuries after a construction site accident

To learn more about our results, please visit the Verdicts and Settlements section of our site.

“I would definitely recommend this firm. They exceeded every expectation I ever had of them. They were just unbelievable from start to end.” — Client testimonial

Our Process

We prepare every case as though it is going to trial. From each case’s inception till its resolution, our attorneys are prepared to fight. Our firm’s philosophy is:

• We will not be outworked.
• We will not rest until justice is done for our clients.
• Our results speak for themselves.

If defense attorneys and insurance companies do not want to settle on a fair amount, we are prepared to bring them to trial and advocate for our clients in front of a jury. And we only hire attorneys that adhere to this mindset.

Each case is prepared with deliberation and focus, so that the client can recover the maximum amount that they are legally entitled to. As such, Block O’Toole & Murphy limits the number of cases we take on so that each case receives the attention and time that it demands.

We are willing to invest in experts outside of the legal field to help us bring forward the best case possible. Our firm pays for insights and analysis from financial, medical, and other professionals. Depending on the case, we’ve hired nighttime visibility experts, if a car crash happened at night, or an elevator technician if a client is harmed in an elevator accident.

Legal Associations and Publications

Our attorneys advocate for the rights of workers and injury victims in New York and are active in the New York State Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA), where Partner Daniel O’Toole serves as Co-Chairman of the Labor Law Committee and Partner David Scher served a term as President from 2023-2024. We keep up-to-date with the latest legal news and legislative changes that may affect our current and potential clients, and our partners have published articles on legal topics. Select works include:

• Workers Deserve Reform to 1847 Wrongful Death Law—History Tells Us Why, New York Law Journal.
• Don’t fall for scare tactics: The Grieving Families Act will help New Yorkers, Times Union.
• Justice Suffers Without Pay Parity for New York’s Judges, New York Law Journal.
• Court of Appeals Refuses to Limit Scope of Labor Law Section 240(1), New York Law Journal.
• Recent Section 240(1) Decisions Offer Guidance, New York Law Journal.
• Can Injured, Undocumented Construction Workers Recover Lost Wages?, New York Law Journal.
• Still Debating What ‘Falls’ Within Labor Law Section 240(1), New York Law Journal.
• Labor Law Symposium, Bill of Particulars.
• A Look Back At Runner v. New York Stock Exchange: What Did It Mean For Labor Law Section 240?, Bill of Particulars.

Our attorneys are experienced and respected in their field, as they give lectures to other attorneys in continuing legal education (CLE) courses and speak in seminars to other legal professionals. In April 2024, Partners Daniel O’Toole and David Scher, along with Senior Associate Christina Mercado, gave lectures at the New Jersey Association for Justice’s Boardwalk Seminar. Mr. Scher Co-Chaired the event and spoke on New York Labor Law, Mr. O’Toole gave a lecture titled “Strategies for Trying Catastrophic Cases in NY vs. NJ,” and Ms. Mercado rounded out the event by discussing NY Motion and Appellate Practice.

Our attorneys have served as commentators on a variety of legal issues and a number of our cases have been featured in multiple media outlets, including the New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post, and New York Newsday.

Community Involvement and Charity Work

Our law firm is built around the tenet of fighting for the underdog. It is a theme we pursue outside of the office as well. Every year since 2007, Block O’Toole & Murphy has hosted the New York City Wine Tasting to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, raising nearly $1 million annually. In 2019, Partner Stephen J. Murphy was honored as the national 2019 Event Chairperson of the Year by St. Jude’s.

We also sponsor important charities like the Frances Pope Memorial Foundation, United Cerebral Palsy Organization, American Lung Association, and Autism Speaks. Additionally, our firm provides relief to communities devastated by natural disasters. In 2012, our team traveled to one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy – the Rockaway peninsula in Queens – to help the crew and other volunteers clean up the area. After Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017, Partner Jeffrey Block and his wife, Maritza, organized a fundraising drive to send essential supplies to the island. They collected over 2,400 pounds of rice, 800 bars of soap, 80 boxes of cereal, 100 cases of water, 64 jars of peanut butter, 120 toothbrushes, and much more from their family, friends, and the firm’s employees.

Our firm’s mission is to be of service to others. We are fortunate to be able to live by that value both in our personal and professional lives. Our clients are what help us push the cases forward day after day. We are honored to have a diverse clientele of hard-working people that includes laborers, construction workers, electricians, carpenters, police officers, firefighters and ironworkers who trust us to propel their case forward to the best resolution possible. We continue to keep in touch with many of our former clients, as we consider them part of the BOM family.