Brigid Katsaros
Founding partner
Leads the firm’s surgical and hospital cases, and decides with the reviewing physician which cases the firm takes.
Medical malpractice, Manhattan
Before we say yes, we read
the whole chart.
Katsaros Vanderhoef represents patients and families in New York when care goes wrong: a surgical error, a missed diagnosis, a birth injury, a hospital’s neglect. A physician reviews the records before we agree to take a case, and we decline many of the cases we read.
Before anything is signed
The first conversation, in three parts
Every case begins the same way, whatever the injury.
Free
A first callYou tell us what happened. We tell you which records we would need to see.
Chart
Read by a physicianWe gather the records, and a physician in the right specialty reviews them before we accept a case.
No fee
Unless there is a recoveryCases are on a contingency fee. The agreement is written, and it says how costs are handled.
Costs such as records, expert reviews and filing fees are set out in your written agreement, including who pays them if the case does not recover. Ask before you sign.
Who you will talk to
The lawyers who read your records
Every case has a partner on it from the first call. You will meet her before you decide anything.
Hanne Vanderhoef
Partner
A registered nurse before she was a lawyer. Handles diagnosis and birth cases, and reads the nursing notes first.
Yumi Iwasaki
Associate
Builds the chronology: every note, order and result in time order, so the story can be checked.
On the record
The firm on one page
- Founded
- 2009, on West 57th Street
- Jurisdictions
- New York and New JerseyElsewhere, with local co-counsel
- Courts
- Supreme Court, in all five boroughsU.S. District Courts, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York
- Lawyers
- Three: two partners and an associate
- Office
- Midtown Manhattan, or by video, or at your bedside
- Languages
- English, Japanese and Dutch
Where care went wrong
The work, by the kind of mistake
We take few cases, and these are the four kinds we know best.
- 01
Surgical errors
Surgery on the wrong site, an injured organ or nerve, an instrument left behind, a mistake in anesthesia.
How we read these - 02
Missed or late diagnosis
A scan misread, a result no one followed up, symptoms sent home. The harm is the time that was lost.
How we read these - 03
Birth injuries
Delays in a delivery, trouble with the baby’s heart-rate monitoring, injuries to a mother in labor.
How we read these - 04
Hospital negligence
A fall, an infection, a wrong dose, too few nurses on the floor, a discharge without a plan.
How we read these
Who reads the chart with us
Physician reviewers, by specialty
For each case we ask independent physicians and nurses in the relevant field to review the records. Which specialties depends on what the chart shows.
- General surgery
- Radiology
- Obstetrics
- Neonatology
- Emergency medicine
- Pathology
- Oncology
- Nursing
Start with what you have
A discharge summary, a letter from the hospital, a date and a name are enough. We will request the full chart ourselves.
Free first call. Fees are contingency: no attorney fee unless there is a recovery. Costs are explained in writing before you sign. Please don’t send confidential details through the form.