Kelly Rode & Kelly LLP

Kelly Rode & Kelly LLP Excellence in Advocacy. Integrity in Practice. Trusted for 70 Years.

Metro New York law firm handling civil litigation involving medical malpractice, negligence, catastrophic construction site accidents, premises liability and automobile accidents.

Partner and Labor Law Team Captain Ed Kelly visited State Farm in Dallas Texas on May 20-23 to share best practices, joi...
05/28/2026

Partner and Labor Law Team Captain Ed Kelly visited State Farm in Dallas Texas on May 20-23 to share best practices, joined by Rich Salvato, Warren Holland and Joe DeDonato

The Kelly Rode Labor Law Team was proud to serve as a platinum sponsor for the Saint Nicholas Patriotic Society annual g...
05/19/2026

The Kelly Rode Labor Law Team was proud to serve as a platinum sponsor for the Saint Nicholas Patriotic Society annual golf outing

Rachel Mahoney successfully defended a Labor Law case involving an unwitnessed fall at a construction site. Plaintiff wa...
05/16/2026

Rachel Mahoney successfully defended a Labor Law case involving an unwitnessed fall at a construction site. Plaintiff was one of ten workers from the same crew who claimed injuries within a 6 month period. Rachel developed a defense that her client had no involvement in the work being done by Plaintiff. Moreover, there was a pattern of suspicious claims by a group of plaintiffs who were all undocumented migrants from Ecuador. The Court granted Rachel’s motion to dismiss the case.

Ashley Pappas recently obtained a dismissal of a Labor Law case. Plaintiff claimed he was injured while performing const...
05/16/2026

Ashley Pappas recently obtained a dismissal of a Labor Law case. Plaintiff claimed he was injured while performing construction work as a laborer, after only one week after being hired. Plaintiff reported that he
was uploading sheetrock into a wood box, when the wood box fell on his foot and a pile of sheetrock fell on his back. Plaintiff reported injuries to his right foot, back, neck and chest. Ashley developed a theme during discovery that the unwitnessed accident was staged, plaintiff’s counsel dropped the case, and the Court dismissed it.

Associate Mike Maddaloni obtained a Defense Verdict in Suffolk County in a Damages trial where a 22-year-old plaintiff c...
04/25/2026

Associate Mike Maddaloni obtained a Defense Verdict in Suffolk County in a Damages trial where a 22-year-old plaintiff claimed a concussion, seizure disorder, and epilepsy as a result of the accident. Through discovery and investigation, we learned she had a prior history of concussions (approximately four to five) as a result of playing high school lacrosse. We also learned that she had two prior incidents where she lost consciousness randomly before the accident. Due to this history, we argued, through the use of our expert reports, that plaintiff’s alleged injuries were due to a prior, undiagnosed, seizure condition rather than the subject accident. Following approximately forty-five minutes of deliberations, the jury came back with a unanimous, 6-0, verdict finding that the subject accident was not a substantial factor in causing plaintiff’s alleged condition.

Partner, Loris Zeppieri, secured a defense verdict in Nassau County in a case where plaintiff claimed that an automobile...
04/24/2026

Partner, Loris Zeppieri, secured a defense verdict in Nassau County in a case where plaintiff claimed that an automobile accident caused his atrial fibrillation to reoccur and required an Ablation that would not otherwise have been necessary. The plaintiff also claimed a cervical herniation with radiculopathy. Plaintiff’s counsel asked the jury to award $680,000. Liability had been conceded and the case was tried on damages only. The jury unanimously found that the plaintiff did not sustain a “serious injury” under any of these 3 categories: significant limitation; permanent consequential limitation; and 90 out of 180. Each party called a cardiologist and an orthopedist.

In a recent Kings County Supreme Court damages only trial, our Partner, Stephen Kusnetz, won a hard-fought defense verdi...
03/27/2026

In a recent Kings County Supreme Court damages only trial, our Partner, Stephen Kusnetz, won a hard-fought defense verdict in two-week long motor vehicle accident case. The plaintiff had claimed causally related injuries, including bilateral shoulder surgery as well as neck and back soft tissue injury claims. The plaintiff and her expert, a Board-Certified Orthopedic Surgeon, testified, and the defense called a Board-Certified Radiologist as their witness. The jury deliberated over the course of approximately one hour before unanimously finding that the plaintiff had not suffered a serious injury under three different sections of the Insurance Law. The plaintiff’s attorney, who had at one time been disbarred for unethical conduct, but later reinstated, had demanded $5.4 million during his closing argument, and had rejected a substantial offer prior to and during trial. Instead, he and his client went home with nothing.

Ed Kelly and Rachel Mahoney teamed to get a rare voluntary discontinuance of a case where a construction worker sought m...
03/04/2026

Ed Kelly and Rachel Mahoney teamed to get a rare voluntary discontinuance of a case where a construction worker sought millions for injuries and lost wages after a disputed and unwitnessed fall at a construction site in the Bronx. Ed deposed the Plaintiff over a couple days and grilled him on his immigration status, criminal record and past history of phony insurance claims. He spooked the plaintiff by confronting him, at his deposition, with a live federal criminal arrest warrant which was issued by the US Attorney's office in Puerto Rico. Rachel filed several motions seeking corroboration of plaintiff's claims and asked the Court to impose a bond requirement on the out of state plaintiff. Finally, cornered with not one shred of credibility remaining, Plaintiff waved a white flag and sought to drop his case rather than get demolished at trial.

Mike Bartnicki obtained a dismissal of a Labor Law claim arising from a possible staged accident at a Bronx construction...
03/04/2026

Mike Bartnicki obtained a dismissal of a Labor Law claim arising from a possible staged accident at a Bronx construction site, one of a series of cases flagged for fraud by the Kelly Rode Labor Law team. An undocumented laborer claimed devastating orthopedic injuries from an alleged unwitnessed fall at a construction site in the Bronx. Mike successfully moved to dismiss when plaintiff failed to provide any corroborating documentation supporting his claim. Plaintiff’s counsel had reservations about continuing with the case after defendants raised counterclaims and affirmative defenses contending that the case was a fraud and moved to withdraw from further representation of their client.

Under the good direction of partner Ed Kelly, we moved to dismiss the complaint because the pleadings did not allege a f...
03/04/2026

Under the good direction of partner Ed Kelly, we moved to dismiss the complaint because the pleadings did not allege a factual basis for a grave injury to support third-party common law claims of common law indemnity and contribution.

We also moved to dismiss the contractual indemnity claims since there was no contractual indemnity provision in the agreement for the client’s services. The lower court found that the pleadings adequately alleged a cause of action.

Our appellate expert, Eric Tosca, appealed because we saw no merit to the third-party action based on the strict application of the Workers’ Compensation Law pursuant to standing legal precedent.

Pursuant to our joint strategy, we perfected our appeal, seeing a probable chance of success. In line with questions posed at oral argument (Eric argued the appeal and prepared the Briefs) by the appellate panel, the Appellate Division rendered a decision finding that the narrowly defined categories of grave injury were not shown, and third party plaintiff failed “to plead or evince a grave injury or the existence of an express contractual obligation will be fatal to any contribution or indemnification cause of action asserted against an employer.” The Court also found that our proof on the motion to dismiss “’utterly refute[d] the plaintiff’s factual allegations’ regarding contractual indemnification…”

In a case involving a bicyclist having been struck by our client’s motor vehicle, the Appellate Division, Second Departm...
02/28/2026

In a case involving a bicyclist having been struck by our client’s motor vehicle, the Appellate Division, Second Department issued a decision on the plaintiff’s appeal from the summary judgment order of dismissal. Based on a well-developed record and in line with the persuasive arguments presented by Rachel Mahoney in the lower court, our Appellare Specialist, Eric Tosca convinced a unanimous appellate panel of justices to affirm the order granting summary judgment in favor of the client driver.

The panel found that Rachel presented incontrovertible facts establishing that our client driver had the right of way, rightfully proceeding with the expectation that plaintiff would not merge into the lane of moving traffic until safe to do so. The appellate panel found that plaintiff’s bicycle struck the rear of the client’s vehicle as he entered the roadway consisted with the proof presented on summary judgment. The appellate panel rejected the arguments of plaintiff that the client should have yielded knowing that he was not going to fully yield. Plaintiff’s arguments that the client was a concurrent cause of the accident were similarly rejected, finding consistent with Rachel’s arguments that plaintiff was the sole proximate cause of the accident.

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