Car Accident Lawyer in New York

Who pays after a car accident in New York?

New York is a no fault state. After a crash, the no fault coverage on your own policy, or on the vehicle you were in, pays your medical bills and part of your lost wages regardless of who was at fault. Insurance Law 5103 requires that coverage on every policy, and Insurance Law 5102 caps basic economic loss at 50,000 dollars per person. That 50,000 dollars covers medical expenses, lost earnings up to 2,000 dollars a month for up to three years, and other reasonable expenses up to 25 dollars a day for a year. Pedestrians and cyclists struck by a car collect no fault benefits from the policy on the vehicle that hit them.

No fault has deadlines that arrive before you are thinking about lawyers. The written no fault application is generally due within 30 days of the crash under 11 NYCRR 65-1.1, and medical bills must be submitted within 45 days of treatment. Under Insurance Law 5106, once the insurer has proof of claim it must pay within 30 days or owe interest. Missing the 30 day application is the most common way New Yorkers lose the benefits they already paid for, and it is the first thing we handle.

No fault pays bills. It does not pay for pain, scarring, the things you can no longer do, or wages above its cap. Those losses come from the driver who caused the crash, through that driver's liability policy, and, if the driver was working, the employer's policy. Under Insurance Law 5104 you can sue that driver for pain and suffering only if you sustained a serious injury as defined in Insurance Law 5102(d).

The serious injury categories are death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement, a fracture, loss of a fetus, permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function or system, permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member, and significant limitation of use of a body function or system. For lawsuits filed on or after May 26, 2026, the old 90 of 180 day category is gone, so eight categories remain. A fracture clears it automatically. A herniated disc, a torn meniscus or a rotator cuff tear clears it when a doctor documents the limitation objectively, with range of motion measurements and imaging. A strain that resolves in weeks does not.

New York requires liability, no fault and uninsured motorist coverage on every registered vehicle, and offers supplementary underinsured coverage. When the driver who hit you carried a minimum policy, or none, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage responds, and so can a household relative's policy. A New Yorker with no household coverage at all can claim through the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation, known as MVAIC, which has its own short deadlines. We review every policy in your home before we tell you what the case is worth.

MVAIC is the fallback when no policy responds. The Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation may pay a New Yorker who has no household coverage and was hit by an uninsured or unidentified driver, and its deadlines are short. UM and UIM coverage on your own policy or a household relative's policy is usually the better source, which is why we read every policy first.

How much is a New York car accident claim worth?

A claim is worth the sum of what the crash took from you. Economic damages are the measurable losses: medical bills above the no fault limit, future treatment your doctors anticipate, lost wages above the no fault wage benefit, lost overtime and benefits, reduced earning capacity if you cannot return to your job, and out of pocket costs. Non economic damages cover pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and scarring, and are available only if your injury meets the serious injury definition.

Severity and permanence drive value more than anything else. A soft tissue injury that resolves in a few months usually stays inside no fault and produces little or no third party recovery. A herniated disc with documented limitation, a fracture, or a tear requiring arthroscopic surgery moves a claim into a different tier. A spinal fusion, a traumatic brain injury, a spinal cord injury or a wrongful death is valued in a category of its own, and we pursue every policy that can be found.

Insurance limits set the ceiling in practice. A minimum policy pays its limit no matter how badly you were hurt, which is why we search for every source: the vehicle owner's policy if the driver borrowed the car, an employer's policy, a rideshare company's commercial coverage, and your own supplementary underinsured motorist coverage.

Venue matters. A case is heard in the Supreme Court of the county where the crash happened or where a party lives. Adjusters value a Bronx County or Kings County case differently from a Westchester or Nassau County case because of how juries in each county have decided injury cases in the past, and so do we.

We do not quote a number on the first call. A number given before the medical picture is clear is a guess, and a guess helps the insurer more than it helps you. We explain the categories, gather the records, and when your doctors can describe your future, we put a demand on paper backed by evidence. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is decided on its own facts.

Types of car accident cases we handle in New York

We handle every kind of New York crash that involves a negligent driver. The type of crash tells us where to look for the evidence and who else may share responsibility.

In New York City the crash is often between more than a car and a car: a yellow cab, a rideshare vehicle, a delivery rider or a city bus can be involved, and each brings its own insurance and its own deadlines.

• Rear end collisions on the Belt Parkway, the Long Island Expressway and the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, where whiplash and disc injuries are common.
• Intersection and left turn crashes on Queens Boulevard, Atlantic Avenue, Flatbush Avenue and the Grand Concourse, where signal timing and camera footage decide fault.
• Side impact and lane change crashes on multi lane expressways and avenues.
• Head on collisions on two lane roads upstate and on Long Island.
• Multi vehicle pileups in bad weather, where several insurers and drivers share fault.
• Hit and run crashes, where your uninsured motorist coverage or MVAIC can respond and we work to identify the driver.
• Drunk driver and distracted driver crashes, where the driver's conduct can support additional claims.
• Taxi and rideshare crashes involving yellow cabs, green cabs, Uber and Lyft.
• Bus crashes involving MTA and New York City Transit vehicles, where a 90 day notice of claim applies.
• Pedestrian, bicycle, e-bike and motorcycle crashes, where injuries are often serious and no fault comes from the vehicle that struck you.

Common causes and dangerous roads for New York car accidents

Most New York crashes come from a small set of causes: following too closely, failing to yield on a turn, running a red light, unsafe lane changes, speeding for conditions, distracted driving and impaired driving. What changes from place to place is the road.

In the city, the Belt Parkway, the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Long Island Expressway carry heavy volume and sudden stops. Queens Boulevard, Atlantic Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, the Grand Concourse and Hylan Boulevard produce turning and pedestrian crashes. The George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and the Verrazzano Bridge back traffic onto neighborhood streets every weekday.

Road conditions matter to a claim when they contributed to the crash. A missing signal, a poorly marked work zone or a broken guardrail can bring a city, county or public authority into the case, which is where the 90 day notice of claim under General Municipal Law 50-e applies. If you think the road played a part, tell us early.

Common injuries in New York car accidents and how they change value

The injury you have, and the proof of it, decides whether you can sue for pain and suffering and how much the claim is worth. These are the injuries we see most often after a New York crash.

Insurance Law 5102(d) lists the categories that meet the serious injury definition. Most soft tissue and disc claims turn on the permanent consequential limitation or significant limitation categories, and those turn on objective medical findings.

• Whiplash and soft tissue injuries to the neck and back, which are common and often resolve, but can become chronic when a disc is involved.
• Herniated and bulging discs in the neck or lower back, confirmed on MRI, which can require injections or surgery.
• Fractures of the wrist, ankle, ribs, pelvis or facial bones, which meet the serious injury definition on their own.
• Shoulder and knee tears such as rotator cuff and meniscus injuries, often needing arthroscopic surgery.
• Concussion and traumatic brain injury, which can show up days after the crash as headaches, memory problems and mood changes.
• Spinal cord injury, which changes a life and a claim more than any other injury.
• Scarring and disfigurement, which can meet the definition as significant disfigurement.
• Internal injuries, including organ damage and internal bleeding that only imaging finds.

What if the insurance company denies or lowballs your New York claim?

A denial or a low offer is the insurer's opening move, not its final position. In New York, adjusters lean on three arguments: that you were partly at fault, that you did not sustain a serious injury, and that your treatment was unnecessary or unrelated. Each has an answer, and the answer is evidence.

On fault, for lawsuits filed on or after May 26, 2026, New York applies modified comparative negligence to motor vehicle injury claims under CPLR 1411. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, and if you are found more at fault than the other side you can be barred from recovering. A person found 30 percent responsible still recovers 70 percent of their damages. Because percentages are argued rather than measured, the recorded statement an adjuster asks for in the first days is where fault arguments are born. Do not give it. We handle every call.

On the threshold, the insurer will send you to its own doctor and will argue that your MRI shows age related degeneration rather than trauma, or that your limitation is not significant. We answer with your treating physicians' objective findings, range of motion measurements, imaging read by a radiologist, and, where needed, a narrative report tying the injury to the crash. The serious injury question under Insurance Law 5102(d) is a medical question, and we make sure the record answers it.

On treatment, no fault carriers deny bills through independent medical examinations and peer reviews. When a carrier cuts off your physical therapy or refuses to pay for an MRI or a procedure, the dispute goes to no fault arbitration, and we file it. Your care should not stop because an insurer's doctor spent ten minutes with you.

If the liability insurer will not pay fairly once treatment is complete, we file suit in the Supreme Court and use discovery to put the insurer's own driver, the camera footage and the medical experts on the record. Most cases still settle before trial. They settle for more when the insurer knows a jury is the alternative.

How long do you have to file a car accident claim in New York?

New York gives you three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit under CPLR 214. Three years is longer than most states allow, and it still runs out faster than people expect once treatment, the wait for a permanency opinion and negotiation are counted. When it passes, the claim is gone.

A wrongful death action must be brought by the personal representative of the estate within two years of the death under EPTL 5-4.1. That clock runs from the death, not the crash, and it requires that an estate be opened first, which takes time. We start that process immediately.

Public entities have a much shorter fuse. If a city bus, an MTA or New York City Transit vehicle, a police car, a sanitation truck, a county vehicle or a defective road maintained by a municipality was involved, General Municipal Law 50-e requires a notice of claim within 90 days of the crash. The notice must contain specific information and be served in a specific way, and a defective or late notice can end the claim no matter how clear the fault. Claims against the State itself go through the Court of Claims on their own timetable.

The no fault deadlines are the shortest of all: the application within 30 days of the crash and each medical bill within 45 days of service under 11 NYCRR 65-1.1. MVAIC claims require a police report within 24 hours of a hit and run and a notice of intention within 90 days. Waiting to see how you feel is the most common way New York crash victims lose coverage they already had.

What should you do in the first 72 hours after a New York crash?

See a doctor the same day, even if you feel more shaken than hurt. Adrenaline masks injuries, and a gap between the crash and your first medical visit is the first thing an adjuster will use against you. Bellevue, NYU Langone, Jamaica Hospital, Kings County Hospital, Elmhurst, Lincoln Medical Center and Jacobi are the city's Level I trauma centers; an urgent care or your own doctor is fine after a lower speed crash. Tell every provider that the injury came from a car accident so the records say so.

Make sure a police report exists and get the report number. In the city, NYPD responds to injury crashes and the report is retrievable online within days. Photograph both vehicles, the street, the signals, the weather, debris and skid marks and your injuries. Collect the other driver's name, license, plate and insurance card and the names and numbers of witnesses.

Look for cameras. New York has more of them than any city in the country: Department of Transportation traffic cameras, MTA buses, storefronts, building lobbies, doorbells and dash cameras in the cars around you. Most footage is overwritten within days. Tell us where the crash happened so we can send preservation letters immediately.

Open the no fault claim. Notify the insurer of the car you were in that a crash occurred and that you were hurt, and get the no fault application, called an NF-2, filed within 30 days. We do this for you the day you retain us. Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer and do not sign anything from them. Stay off social media about the crash.

Keep a file: every bill, every appointment, every missed day of work and a short daily note about pain and what you could not do. Months later, when the insurer argues your limitation was not significant, that file and your medical records are the answer.

How Top USA Law handles a New York car accident case

We work in the same six steps on every case, and we tell you where you are in them.

Step one is the free consultation and policy review. We listen, pull every household policy and tell you which coverages apply.

Step two is the no fault claim. We file the application within the 30 days New York allows and keep your bills moving.

Step three is evidence. We send preservation letters for camera footage, request the crash report and photograph the vehicles before they are repaired or scrapped.

Step four is proving the injury. We work with your treating physicians to document objective findings so the claim meets the serious injury definition, and we calculate every loss.

Step five is the demand and negotiation. We send the insurer a documented demand and negotiate with the adjuster. You approve any settlement.

Step six is suit and trial when needed. If the insurer will not pay a fair amount, we file in the Supreme Court and prepare the case for trial. Most cases still settle first.

What Your Claim Can Cover

• Medical bills and future treatment
• Lost wages and reduced earning capacity
• Pain and suffering when the law allows it
• Vehicle damage and out of pocket costs
• Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage