Richard Amico

Biography

I am the Chief Trial Counsel for The Barnes Firms offices in New York and California.

I began practicing law in 1989. I have focused my practice to the representation of people who have been injured in construction accidents, motor vehicle crashes and while using defective products.  I have won numerous million dollar verdicts and settlements for my clients in the more than three decades as a personal injury trial lawyer.

Although my best results are subject to confidentiality agreements, here are some of the many cases in which I have successfully obtained settlements or verdicts:

• On May 16, 2023, my partner Anna Robbins and I obtained an award for a family that lost a father.  The father, a tipper operator at a landfill in Seneca Falls, New York, was cleaning the deck of the tipper when the defendants’ truck backed onto it to off-load 50 tons of municipal waste.  The driver did not follow the landfill’s safety rules, and the truck did not have proper safety equipment to warn the worker that the truck was backing onto the tipper.  The truck driver crushed the worker from his ankles to his skull causing his heart and lungs to be ejected through his axilla.  He died on the scene but not before experiencing significant pre-impact terror and conscious pain and suffering.  The family was awarded $3,000,000.00 for the worker’s injuries and loss of parental guidance as well as $477,053 in pecuniary losses.  In addition, the plaintiffs were awarded prejudgment interest in the amount of $2,274,564.17 making the total judgment $5,751,617.17.
• In 2022, I reached a career milestone. Although I am a trial lawyer by nature, I write and argue my own appeals. I’ve argued in the 1st (Manhattan) 2nd (Brooklyn) 3rd (Albany), and 4th (Rochester) Departments and the highest in New York, the Court of Appeals.
• In April 2020, my partner Alex Bouganim and I obtained a gross settlement of more than $9,000,000 for a worker badly injured in a New York City construction accident.
• In February 2020, I won a $650,000 award for an airline pilot who slipped while exiting his aircraft and sustained a serious injury to his ankle.
• In November 2018, I obtained a $24,600,000 award for a client that lost his leg and severely injured the other in an accident involving a snowmobile.
• In October 2018, my partner Timothy Hedges and I successfully negotiated a settlement in the amount $1,600,000 for the driver of a truck that underwent three surgeries to his neck to correct injuries caused by a negligent driver.
• In March 2017, I negotiated a $2,000,000 settlement for a client that was struck on the head by an ceiling tile that fell from the food court at the Walden Galleria Mall. Our work on this case was recognized as a 2017 Million Dollar Verdict Winner, and a Top Verdict in New York.
• In May 2016, I obtained a million dollar settlement for a worker that fell from a ladder that collapsed.
• In September 2015, I negotiated a $2.2 million settlement of a construction accident that caused career ending injuries to our client.
• In January 2015, I secured a sizable jury verdict for a young lady who suffered a disc protrusion in her cervical spine from a motor vehicle crash in 2010. The insurance company refused to offer my client anything more than $65,000. Although my client did not have surgery and was able to return to her job 18 months after the crash, the jury awarded her $50,000 for past pain and suffering and $432,000 for thirty years of future pain and suffering.
• In 2013, I lead the team of trial attorneys to a verdict that held the County of Monroe and the Rochester Airport Authority accountable for causing the death of a 17 year old girl and significant injuries to many more in a 36 car collision that occurred adjacent to the a runway on I-390. The jury found the County and Airport Authority 100% liable for failing to install snow fences that would have prevented the death and injuries on a sunny cold day in February 2008.
• One of my greatest experiences was working as trial counsel with Johnnie L. Cochran in the claim against the local Galleria Mall in 1998. The Mall denied access from urban bus routes onto the Mall property which forced a young African American single mother to cross a major highway to get to her job in the food court. Tragically she was struck and killed on her way to work. The lawsuit not only resulted in damages for her young son but as forced the Mall to change its policy and promote equal access to the Mall for everyone.

I travel to Albany to lobby the New York State Assembly and Senate for the preservation of the rights of accident victims and consumers.

I give my clients my cell number to contact me whenever the need arises, and I am committed to excellence in the representation of my clients in order to bring them the justice they deserve and the compassion they need.

I’m proud to be able to provide full service representation to my clients who are harmed by the negligence of others