Perhaps if the City would make timely repairs to those areas of the City which are clearly defective and hazardous, attorneys like myself wouldn’t have to continue to seek compensation for those injured plaintiffs.

According to a recent report, $321.2 million in legal settlements where paid over the past five years for slip and fall accidents caused by defective sidewalks.

An annual claims report also shows sidewalk settlements cost the city $54 million last year.

Properly inspect 20% of the sidewalk complaints and, on average, violations remained unfixed for four years. These broken, cracked and uneven sidewalks are costing taxpayers plenty, according to a review of settlements.

A jury awarded $16 million in 2007 to a plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit who suffered a brain injury when she tripped over the stump of a sheared traffic pole.  

In January 2008, another female plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit received $1.65 million after she slipped in an unrepaired catch basin, causing a severe injury her knee.

In 2006, another female plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit was awarded $1.25 million after she tripped on a broken sidewalk in lower Manhattan causing her to sustain a bad back and leg despite several surgeries.

Property owners have submitted 22,229 requests to inspect and repair tree-damaged sidewalks, but so far, only 4,491 have been fixed under a pilot program.

And even though slip and fall lawsuits against New York City have plummeted since 2003, when a law moved the responsibility for faulty sidewalks to commercial property owners — absolving the city of most claims, New York City is still liable for accidents on sidewalks in front of one, two and three-family homes.