An injury changes your finances as fast as it changes your health. Here is how personal injury claims work in New York, what the deadlines are, and what we do at each stage.
An injury changes your finances as fast as it changes your health. The treatment starts immediately, the income stops, and the first call you get from an insurer usually comes while you are still working out how badly you are hurt.
We are a personal injury firm in Bayside, Queens, and we handle these cases across New York. This page explains how a claim actually works here: the deadlines that apply, what determines the value, the mistakes that reduce it, and what we take off your hands at each stage.
A personal injury claim arises when someone else's negligence causes you harm. What you can recover falls into these categories:
We work out which of these apply to you at the start, because the ones people tend to overlook, future care and reduced earning capacity, are usually the ones worth the most.
We take on the full range of injury work. Each of these has its own page explaining how that kind of case runs:
Here is what working with us actually involves, stage by stage:
Three rules shape almost every claim in this state:
The one people most often miss is the 90-day municipal notice. If a city bus, a sanitation truck, or a government-maintained sidewalk is any part of what happened, the three-year figure does not apply to you. We work out who is properly in the case early, precisely so that clock does not run out while everyone assumes there is time.
A case cannot be valued accurately at a first phone call. What the value turns on:
Where a case warrants it, we bring in treating physicians, economists, and vocational experts to document what the injury will cost you over a lifetime rather than what it has cost you so far. That difference is usually the difference between a quick offer and a fair one.
What you do in the first days affects what the claim is worth later:
If you call us early, we can help with these steps rather than work around them later.
A valid claim can still be reduced or lost. These are the ways it usually happens:
We take over communication with the insurer from the day we are retained, which removes most of these risks at once.
Most cases settle. Knowing the sequence makes it easier to judge whether an offer is reasonable:
We do not recommend settling before your treatment has progressed far enough to know what the injury means for you. A settlement is final, and it covers future treatment as well as the care you have already received.
Serious injuries do not stop mattering when the treatment ends. These effects belong in the claim:
We document these with medical and vocational evidence rather than asserting them, because an insurer will pay for what is proved and not for what is described.
We are a boutique firm, which means your case is handled by an attorney who knows it rather than passed down a chain. You get a direct line and your calls are returned.
Most cases settle, but the settlement value of a case depends on what the other side thinks will happen if it does not. We prepare accordingly, and we are willing to try a case when the offer does not reflect what it is worth.
We handle personal injury matters on a contingency fee. Our fee comes out of the recovery, so there is no fee if there is no recovery. We will go through exactly how the fee and any case expenses work before you sign anything.
We practice in Queens and the surrounding boroughs, in the courts where these cases are actually heard, and we know how the municipal notice requirements work in this city.
This article is general information about New York law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case turns on its own facts. For advice about your situation, call (718) 878-1177 or contact us.
For a minor claim with no real injury, sometimes not. Once there is meaningful treatment, lost income, or a dispute about fault, yes. The insurer will have its own lawyers and adjusters, and the process is difficult to manage on your own. Our consultation is free, so finding out costs nothing.
It depends on the injury and on whether liability is disputed. Straightforward cases can resolve in months. Cases involving serious injury usually take longer, partly because settling before your treatment has progressed means settling without knowing what the injury is worth. Cases that go to trial take longer again.
Probably not. The large majority of personal injury cases settle. We prepare every case as though it will be tried, because that is what makes a reasonable settlement offer more likely, and we are willing to go to trial when the offer does not reflect the case.
You can still recover. New York applies pure comparative fault under CPLR 1411, so being partly responsible reduces your recovery by your share of the fault rather than barring it. Someone found twenty percent at fault can still recover eighty percent of their proven damages. Do not decide on your own that you have no claim.
Personal injury matters are handled on a contingency fee, which means the fee comes out of a recovery and there is no fee if there is no recovery. The initial consultation is free. We will go through the fee and how case expenses are handled with you in writing before you retain us.
Most personal injury lawsuits in New York must be started within three years of the date of the injury (CPLR 214(5)), but several situations run shorter. Medical malpractice is two years and six months. Wrongful death is two years from the date of death. A claim involving a city or public authority generally requires a written notice of claim within 90 days. Because the deadline depends on who is responsible, it is worth confirming early rather than assuming three years applies.
A free consultation is the fastest way to find out where you stand and what your options actually are.
