Brooklyn Legionnaires’ Disease Lawyer
Helping Brooklyn Residents Recover After Preventable Legionnaires’ Disease
Brooklyn is New York City’s most populous borough, with millions of residents living and working in apartment buildings, hospitals, hotels, nursing homes, schools, universities, office buildings, and industrial properties. These buildings depend on complex plumbing systems, cooling towers, and other water infrastructure that require regular inspection and maintenance. When those systems are neglected, Legionella bacteria can grow and spread through contaminated water droplets, causing Legionnaires’ disease. Legionnaires’ disease is a severe form of bacterial pneumonia that often requires hospitalization and can result in respiratory failure, permanent lung damage, or death. Because many cases are preventable through proper building maintenance and water management, victims may have the right to pursue compensation when negligent property owners fail to keep their water systems safe.
If you or someone you love developed Legionnaires’ disease after exposure in Brooklyn, Greenstein & Pittari, LLP is prepared to investigate your claim, preserve critical evidence, and pursue every responsible party. Call 1-800-VICTIM2 (1-800-842-8462) for a free consultation. There is no attorney’s fee unless we recover compensation for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Brooklyn at risk for Legionnaires’ disease?
Brooklyn’s combination of aging infrastructure, dense residential neighborhoods, expanding commercial development, hospitals, hotels, schools, and industrial properties creates countless buildings with complex water systems that require ongoing maintenance. Apartment buildings, cooling towers, hot water systems, rooftop water tanks, and extensive plumbing networks can all become breeding grounds for Legionella bacteria if they are not properly maintained. Many older buildings contain aging plumbing, corrosion, scale buildup, biofilm, and water stagnation, while modern developments rely on sophisticated cooling towers and HVAC systems. Regardless of a building’s age, effective water management is essential to reducing the risk of Legionella contamination.
What is Legionnaires’ disease and how does someone become infected?
Legionnaires’ disease is a serious bacterial pneumonia caused by inhaling microscopic water droplets contaminated with Legionella bacteria. It is generally not transmitted from person to person. Without prompt diagnosis and treatment, the illness can lead to severe pneumonia, respiratory failure, sepsis, kidney complications, permanent lung damage, intensive care hospitalization, or death. Exposure may occur through contaminated plumbing systems, cooling towers, rooftop water tanks, hot water systems, showers, fountains, or other improperly maintained building water systems. Early diagnosis and antibiotic treatment significantly improve the chances of recovery.
Who is most at risk for severe illness?
Although anyone can contract Legionnaires’ disease, adults over 50, smokers, individuals with chronic lung disease, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer, weakened immune systems, hospital patients, and nursing home residents are far more likely to develop severe complications.
Because hospitals and long-term care facilities often treat medically vulnerable individuals, maintaining safe water systems is particularly important in these settings.
How does Greenstein & Pittari investigate Legionnaires’ disease cases?
Every Legionnaires’ disease claim requires a comprehensive investigation supported by medical, environmental, and engineering evidence. Our attorneys review medical records, laboratory testing, Department of Health investigations, water management plans, cooling tower inspection reports, plumbing maintenance records, environmental testing, engineering reports, maintenance contracts, internal communications, building inspection records, and witness interviews. We work closely with infectious disease specialists, epidemiologists, environmental engineers, microbiologists, and water system experts to determine where exposure occurred and whether negligent maintenance contributed to the illness.
Who may be held liable?
Depending on the facts, responsible parties may include property owners, landlords, apartment building owners, management companies, hotel operators, hospitals, nursing homes, commercial landlords, maintenance contractors, plumbing contractors, engineering firms, water treatment companies, and cooling tower service providers. Determining liability requires identifying who controlled the building’s water systems, what maintenance obligations existed, and whether reasonable safety practices were followed before the exposure occurred.
What compensation may be available?
Victims may be entitled to recover compensation for emergency treatment, hospitalization, rehabilitation, future medical care, lost wages, lost business income, diminished earning capacity, pain and suffering, emotional distress, permanent respiratory impairment, and reduced quality of life. If Legionnaires’ disease results in the death of a loved one, surviving family members may also have the right to pursue a wrongful death claim under New York law.
Why is it important to contact an attorney immediately?
Evidence can disappear quickly after Legionnaires’ disease is suspected. Property owners often clean cooling towers, flush plumbing systems, disinfect water lines, replace equipment, repair plumbing, conduct environmental testing, or revise maintenance procedures. While these efforts may improve public safety, they can also alter or eliminate evidence needed to prove negligence. Prompt legal representation allows your attorney to preserve maintenance records, inspection reports, testing data, and other critical documentation before it is lost.
How much does it cost to hire Greenstein & Pittari, LLP?
Greenstein & Pittari represents Legionnaires’ disease victims on a contingency fee basis. There are no upfront attorney’s fees, and you owe nothing unless we successfully recover compensation for you. We also offer free consultations so you can understand your legal rights without financial risk.
Why Choose Greenstein & Pittari, LLP?
Legionnaires’ disease litigation requires extensive knowledge of infectious disease medicine, environmental engineering, premises liability, and complex building water systems. Greenstein & Pittari, LLP works with respected experts to identify the source of exposure, preserve critical evidence, and hold negligent property owners accountable.
We proudly represent clients throughout Brooklyn, including Brooklyn Heights, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Park Slope, Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Flatbush, Brighton Beach, Coney Island, Downtown Brooklyn, and neighborhoods across the borough. We offer free consultations, bilingual legal services, personalized representation, and trial-ready advocacy focused exclusively on protecting injured New Yorkers.
If you or someone you love contracted Legionnaires’ disease after exposure to a contaminated building water system in Brooklyn, call 1-800-VICTIM2 (1-800-842-8462) today for a free consultation.
Don’t Be a Victim Twice.