Hit and Run Accident Lawyer in New York

Who pays when the driver is never found, and who pays when the driver is found?

No fault pays first, and it pays whether or not the driver is ever identified. The no fault coverage on your own policy, or on the car you were riding in, covers medical bills and part of your lost wages up to the basic economic loss limit set by Insurance Law 5102, and under Insurance Law 5106 the insurer owes interest if it does not pay within 30 days of receiving proof of claim. A pedestrian normally collects no fault from the vehicle that struck them; when that vehicle is gone, a household policy steps in, and MVAIC steps in when there is no household policy.

When the driver is never found, the rest of the claim is paid by uninsured motorist coverage, which New York requires on every auto policy issued in the state. The coverage treats an unidentified driver as an uninsured one and pays what that driver would have owed: lost wages above the no fault benefit, future care, out of pocket costs and, if the injury is serious under the statute, pain and suffering, up to the uninsured motorist limit. Supplementary uninsured motorist coverage, if you bought it, raises that limit, and a household relative's policy may apply as well.

Pain and suffering in a hit and run claim runs through the same door as any New York crash claim. Insurance Law 5104 allows a claim for non economic loss only if you sustained a serious injury as defined in Insurance Law 5102: a fracture, significant disfigurement, permanent loss or consequential limitation of use of a body part, or significant limitation of a body function. For lawsuits filed on or after May 26, 2026, the older 90 of 180 day category no longer applies. A pedestrian struck by a car that never braked usually clears it. A sprain that heals in a few weeks does not.

MVAIC is the backstop for New Yorkers with no coverage anywhere in the household, and for pedestrians and cyclists hit by an unknown vehicle when no household policy exists. It pays no fault style benefits and an uninsured motorist style claim, subject to its own conditions: the crash must be reported to the police within 24 hours, and a notice of intention to make a claim must be filed with MVAIC within 90 days. MVAIC defends claims the way an insurer would.

When the driver is found, the driver's liability insurer becomes the primary source, and under New York law the owner of the car is generally answerable for a permissive driver's negligence, which adds the owner's policy when the car was borrowed. A conviction for leaving the scene under Vehicle and Traffic Law 600 is admissible and persuasive. Your own uninsured motorist claim does not close; if the driver carried a minimum policy, your supplementary coverage responds to the shortfall.

How much is a New York hit and run claim worth?

The value is the sum of what the crash took from you. Economic damages cover medical bills beyond the no fault limit, future treatment, lost wages above the no fault wage benefit, lost overtime and benefits, reduced earning capacity, and out of pocket costs. Non economic damages cover pain and suffering, scarring and the loss of the life you had, and they are available only when the injury is serious under Insurance Law 5102. Severity and permanence move the number more than anything else.

In a hit and run the ceiling is set by your own coverage. If the driver is never found, the most the claim can produce is the uninsured or supplementary uninsured motorist limit on the policies available to you. New York's required minimums are modest, and a household with one basic policy has a low ceiling regardless of how serious the injury is. We read every policy in the household and on the car you were in, because the highest available limit controls what the claim can pay. We do not quote a number on the first call. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Identifying the driver raises the ceiling and changes the tone. A found driver adds a liability policy, the owner's policy and, for a driver on the job, an employer's policy. The flight itself matters before a jury; a driver who left an injured person on Atlantic Avenue at night is not a sympathetic defendant, and adjusters price that in. We treat the search for the driver as part of building the value of the claim,.

What if your own insurer denies or lowballs the uninsured motorist claim?

In an uninsured motorist claim your own insurer sits across the table, and its denials come in four forms: no physical contact, no report within 24 hours, no serious injury, and unrelated treatment. The physical contact and reporting arguments are answered with the record. The paint transfer on your bumper, the debris collected from the road, the damage pattern on your car, the 911 recording with its time stamp, the NYPD report, the camera footage from the corner store and the witness who called it in all establish that a second vehicle existed, that it struck you and that you reported it promptly. A report delayed by a hospital admission is documented as exactly that.

The serious injury argument is answered with medicine. The insurer sends you to a physician it selects, who reports that your MRI shows degeneration and that your limitations are mild. We answer with your treating doctors' objective findings, range of motion measurements, imaging read by a radiologist and a narrative report tying the injury to the crash. The categories in Insurance Law 5102 are medical questions, and we make sure your records answer them before the insurer's doctor does.

Uninsured motorist disputes in New York generally go to arbitration under the policy rather than to a jury, and MVAIC claims follow their own procedure. We prepare either as a trial, with medical experts and the reconstruction. When a no fault carrier cuts off treatment or refuses to pay a bill, Insurance Law 5106 gives you the right to arbitrate that dispute and collect interest, and we file it. Where the driver has been identified, we file suit in the Supreme Court and use discovery to put the insurer's own investigation on the record.

How long do you have, including the short insurer and fund deadlines?

The lawsuit deadline is the longest clock. New York gives three years from the crash to file a personal injury action under CPLR 214, and a wrongful death action must be brought by the estate's representative within two years of the death under EPTL 5-4.1. Neither one is the deadline that ends hit and run claims. Those come from the policy, from MVAIC and from the no fault regulations, and they are measured in hours and days rather than years.

The police report comes first: within 24 hours of the crash, or as soon as it was reasonably possible, under the uninsured motorist endorsement and the MVAIC rules alike. The no fault application is generally due within 30 days of the crash, and each medical bill within 45 days of the service. The uninsured motorist claim requires prompt written notice to your carrier that a hit and run occurred and that you intend to claim. A carrier that receives late notice argues prejudice, and a late no fault application can forfeit benefits you already paid for.

MVAIC has the shortest and least forgiving timetable of all. Beyond the 24 hour police report, MVAIC requires a notice of intention to make a claim within 90 days of the crash, and it requires proof that no household policy exists. A person who waits to see how the injuries develop before contacting MVAIC can lose the only source of recovery available. When MVAIC is the path in your case, the notice goes out the week we are retained.

Public entities add their own clock. If the vehicle that fled is later identified as a city bus, an MTA or New York City Transit vehicle, a police car or a sanitation truck, or if a broken signal or a poorly lit crosswalk contributed to the crash, General Municipal Law 50-e requires a notice of claim within 90 days. Because the owner of a fleeing vehicle is unknown at first, we serve the notice whenever a public vehicle is a possibility rather than waiting for the investigation to confirm it.

What to do in the first 72 hours after a New York hit and run

Call 911 from the scene, or from the hospital if you were taken there first, and make sure a police report is written within 24 hours. In the city, NYPD officers from the local precinct respond, and when the injuries are serious the Collision Investigation Squad takes over with its own reconstruction and canvass. Give the officer everything you remember: color, make, body style, any part of the plate, the damage you saw and the direction the vehicle went. Leaving the scene of an injury crash is a crime under Vehicle and Traffic Law 600, so a report opens an investigation, and the report number is what every insurer will ask for.

New York has more cameras than any city in the country, and their footage is overwritten within days. Department of Transportation traffic cameras, MTA buses, bodegas, building lobbies, doorbells, the dash cameras in taxis and rideshare cars, and the license plate readers at bridges and tunnels all record the street. Note every camera you can see, ask the nearest businesses to hold their video, and get the name and number of anyone who saw it happen; a witness who caught three characters of a plate is worth more than any camera.

Do not wash or repair your car, and keep anything that came off the other one. Paint transfer on your fender can be matched to a manufacturer's color, and a broken mirror housing or headlight fragment left in the road often carries a part number that narrows the make and model. Photograph both where they lie, bag the pieces, and keep the car out of the body shop until we have documented it.

See a doctor the same day, at Bellevue, Kings County Hospital, Elmhurst, Jacobi, Lincoln, Jamaica Hospital or an urgent care, and tell every provider that a vehicle that fled struck you. Then notify the insurer of the car you were in, or your own insurer if you were on foot, in writing that a hit and run occurred and that you were hurt, and get the no fault application filed within 30 days. If there is no household policy, MVAIC's notice of intention is due within 90 days, and we prepare it. Give no recorded statement without us, refuse any quick settlement, and stay off social media about the crash.

What Your Claim Can Cover

• Uninsured motorist claims on your own policy
• Claims through a household member's policy
• State backstop funds where they exist
• Camera, plate reader and witness investigation
• Medical benefits while the driver is unknown