Nicole Brenecki, Esq. — a Polish attorney at the Brooklyn law firm Jodré Brenecki, LLP — published an expert op-ed on August 27, 2026, in the New York news outlet amNewYork regarding the workers’ compensation system. Her thesis: the greatest threat to injured workers is no longer the denial of benefits, but years of delays.
Who is Nicole Brenecki and why is she in the media
Nicole Brenecki, Esq. is a partner at Jodré Brenecki, LLP, based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which handles cases involving workplace accidents, construction accidents, and labor law — including services in Polish for clients from Greenpoint, Ridgewood, and surrounding areas. She earned her Juris Doctor from Brooklyn Law School in 2017, having previously completed her legal studies at the University of Warsaw.
Outside the courtroom, Ms. Brenecki has long served as a legal expert invited by national and local American media — providing commentary for CBS, NBC, FOX, Bloomberg, Newsweek, USA Today, and Court TV, among others. A complete, regularly updated overview of her media appearances is published on the firm’s media page.
“Delay is the new denial” — what Attorney Brenecki writes about
This time it is not a commentary on someone else’s case, but her own expert article. In the piece “Op-ed | Delay is the new denial: Inside New York’s broken workers’ compensation system“, published on August 27, 2026, in amNewYork, Attorney Brenecki reminds readers of the fundamental bargain upon which the workers’ compensation system was built: the employee gives up the right to sue the employer, and in return is supposed to receive prompt medical treatment and compensation for lost wages — without having to prove the employer’s fault. As she writes, the system “was never designed to make workers whole. It was designed to provide certainty and speed.” And that speed, in her view, has ceased to exist.
The author describes the case of her firm’s client, identified by the initials M.H., who was injured on the job on January 5, 2024. Although the case was formally designated as “expedited,” M.H. waited over a year and a half for a favorable ruling from the judge, and following the victory, nearly another year for the resolution of the insurer’s appeal, which ultimately upheld the ruling in full. When benefits were finally paid, they were — according to the author — underpaid by a five-figure sum, prompting a request for yet another hearing. “If that is what New York calls an expedited workers’ compensation case, injured workers would be forgiven for wondering what ordinary speed looks like,” she writes.
Attorney Brenecki contrasts this experience with official statistics. According to the Workers’ Compensation Board’s 2025 annual report cited in the article, hearings were scheduled on average within 35 to 37 days of a request, and 244,714 hearings were held throughout the year — yet only about 68 percent of them resolved all the issues the parties brought to the room, and New York State entered 2026 with 7,954 pending administrative appeals. “A hearing scheduled quickly is not necessarily a dispute resolved quickly,” the author notes, proposing the simplest metric that is currently missing: how much time actually passes from the moment an injured worker enters the system until they receive treatment and benefits.
Why this matters to the Polish-American community
Workplace accident cases and workers’ compensation benefits are a daily reality for thousands of Polish-American workers in New York and New Jersey — ranging from construction sites to cleaning companies. The voice of a Polish attorney in a citywide news outlet means that the problems faced by injured Polish workers reach public debate firsthand: from a lawyer who handles these cases on a daily basis, also in Polish. The firm’s profile, including contact information and the scope of cases handled for the Polish community, can be found in the PolishPages directory of Polish businesses.
Consistent media presence as an element of the firm’s credibility
Having her own expert article in a New York news outlet is the next step following numerous television and press commentaries — and a confirmation of the standing that Attorney Brenecki has built within the New York legal community. This is also evidenced by professional accolades, such as the Super Lawyers Rising Star designation, awarded to her consecutively since 2021. More about her background and experience can be found on Attorney Nicole Brenecki’s biography page.
Poland.US editorial team (Voice of Polonia in the USA). This article is for informational and editorial purposes. It does not constitute legal advice or an advertisement for legal services.
