Worby Vecchio Edelman, LLP

Focus and practice areas

Personal injury is the whole of the work at Worby Vecchio Edelman, LLP, a firm based in White Plains, New York. It handles claims across Westchester County and in other parts of the state. The website sorts the work into motor vehicle accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, product liability, premises liability, wrongful death and workers' compensation.

The firm dates its personal injury work to the 1970s. The site does not list an exact founding year. In my opinion the steadiest signal in this listing is how long the firm has worked in one field, because a firm that has stayed in injury law for that span has had time to see the same kinds of cases many times over.

The areas the firm lists

Medical malpractice is one of the named areas. The firm describes claims tied to surgical errors, diagnostic failures, birth injuries, hospital negligence and nursing home negligence. Product liability covers injuries that a defective product causes, and premises liability covers injuries that happen on someone else's property.

Workers' compensation and wrongful death round out the list. Workers' compensation runs on a no-fault basis: an injured employee claims benefits through a state board, and fault is usually not the question. Wrongful death claims run on behalf of a family after a fatal injury, and New York limits who may bring them and what they may recover.

How the team is built

The site names six attorneys and gives titles for most of them. Their listed experience runs to litigation, negotiation, mediation, arbitration and appeals in state and federal courts.

David E. Worby, senior founding partner

David E. Worby founded the firm and holds the senior partner role. He graduated from Villanova University School of Law in 1976. He has appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CNN, and he has spoken at law schools, trial lawyer associations and bar associations.

Richard S. Vecchio, managing partner

Richard S. Vecchio manages the firm's complex personal injury case unit. He graduated from Boston University School of Law. His cases have covered construction accidents, medical malpractice and product liability. He has been president of the Westchester County Bar Association.

Michael R. Edelman

Michael R. Edelman has appeared in Westchester County Courthouse matters tied to the firm's litigation for more than 30 years. He also worked as a political commentator on Cablevision News 12, and local and national television and radio stations have consulted him. He continues to interact with clients as their cases move through the courts.

The associates and of counsel

Raphael J. Basso joined the firm in August 2023 as an associate. He attended St. Thomas University School of Law and also earned a Master of Business Administration. His personal injury work has included motor vehicle accidents, premises liability, product liability and catastrophic injury cases against municipal defendants.

Michelle N. Daly represents personal injury clients in litigation, mediation and arbitration. Her work runs to filing actions, depositions, discovery, settlements and trials. She has also appealed court rulings in state and federal court.

Heather Nappi holds the of counsel role. She graduated from Thomas M. Cooley Law School and began practicing in Michigan, where she represented drivers, passengers, motorcyclists and pedestrians injured in car accidents. After moving to New York, she represented claimants in workers' compensation and personal injury matters, including medical malpractice, nursing home neglect and wrongful death.

The firm's base and reach

The firm works out of White Plains, the county seat of Westchester. From there it takes cases through Westchester County and into the wider New York court system, and its attorneys have appeared in both state and federal court. That mix matters in injury law, because a product case against a national manufacturer can land in federal court while a car accident stays in state court.

The bench of six gives the firm a spread of experience across its named areas. David E. Worby and Richard S. Vecchio anchor the partner level, Michael R. Edelman brings long courthouse experience, and Raphael J. Basso, Michelle N. Daly and Heather Nappi handle the associate and of counsel work. A roster of that size, held to one field of law, lets the firm keep a case in-house through each stage.

The September 11 representation

One matter sits above the rest on the firm's site. It was co-lead counsel in lawsuits for more than 9,000 rescue, recovery and cleanup workers who developed illnesses or disabilities after the September 11 attacks. That figure comes from the firm's own account.

A case of that size runs on a scale far past a single injury claim. Thousands of plaintiffs means medical records for each person, exposure histories, and years of work before any resolution. As a reviewer, I read the 9,000 figure as the plainest single marker of what this firm has handled.

Large groups of injured plaintiffs are usually handled as consolidated or coordinated litigation. Courts group similar claims so a shared question, such as what a defendant knew about a hazard, can be decided a single time and applied across the group. Co-lead counsel in that setting helps steer the shared work for the whole group, and the firm places itself in that role for the September 11 worker cases.

How these claims move through the courts

A personal injury claim in New York usually starts with an investigation of how the injury happened and who bears responsibility. The lawyers gather medical records and incident reports, and in a construction or product case they secure the physical evidence. A complaint follows once the theory of liability is set.

Discovery comes next. Both sides exchange documents, and attorneys take depositions under oath. Michelle N. Daly's listed work in filing actions, depositions and discovery maps onto this middle phase, where much of a case takes its shape well before trial.

Many claims resolve through negotiation, mediation or arbitration. The rest go to trial, and a losing side can appeal. Settlement talks often run alongside the court schedule, and a strong discovery record gives the plaintiff's side more to negotiate with. The firm lists all of those steps among its attorneys' skills, so the same team can carry a case through filing, trial and appeal.

Medical malpractice adds a step

New York requires a certificate of merit in a malpractice suit. A qualified medical professional must review the file and confirm a reasonable basis for the claim before it goes forward. That rule filters out claims without medical support before a defendant has to answer, and the firm's malpractice work in surgical errors, diagnostic failures and birth injuries all passes through it.

The main types of case the firm names

Four areas carry most of the described work: personal injury generally, motorcycle accidents, product liability and medical malpractice. Each behaves differently once a claim is filed.

Motor vehicle and motorcycle cases turn on fault and on New York's no-fault insurance rules, which set a threshold a plaintiff must cross to sue for pain and suffering. Heather Nappi's earlier work with motorcyclists and other road users falls in this group. Construction accidents, a strand Richard S. Vecchio has handled, often bring in New York Labor Law sections that govern site safety and can place responsibility on owners and contractors.

Premises liability covers injuries on another party's property, such as a fall in a store or a hazard on an unsafe stairway. The claim usually turns on whether the owner knew or should have known about the danger and failed to fix it. This kind of case appears across several of the attorneys' listed work.

Product and catastrophic injury cases

Product liability claims ask whether a design, a manufacturing step or a missing warning made an item unsafe. These cases lean on engineering analysis and testimony from outside witnesses. Raphael J. Basso's listed matters include product liability and premises liability alongside catastrophic injury claims against municipal defendants.

Catastrophic injury cases, which Basso's profile names, involve harm that changes how a person lives: spinal cord damage, brain injury, amputation or severe burns. Damages in these matters often include future medical care and lost earning capacity, so the proof reaches well beyond the original accident. Claims against a municipal defendant add a notice-of-claim step, usually within 90 days of the injury.