Personal Injuries

The Main Areas of Injury Law We Handle

Personal injury is a broad label covering very different kinds of cases. What they have in common is that someone was hurt because another party failed to act with reasonable care. The route to a recovery, the deadlines and the parties involved change considerably from one type of case to the next.

• Motor vehicle injuries. Car, truck, bus, motorcycle, bicycle and pedestrian cases. New York is a no-fault state, so your own insurer pays first, and a claim for pain and suffering requires meeting the statutory serious injury threshold.
• Construction accidents. Falls from scaffolds and ladders, falling objects, defective equipment and heavy machinery. New York Labor Law sections 240(1), 241(6) and 200 give construction workers protections that go beyond ordinary negligence law.
• Workplace injuries. Workers’ compensation is generally the only claim against your own employer, but a separate third party claim often exists against someone else on the site.
• Premises liability. Slip and fall, snow and ice, negligent security, elevator accidents and fire hazards. These cases usually turn on notice: whether the owner created the hazard, knew about it, or should have known.
• Medical malpractice. Misdiagnosis, surgical errors, medication mistakes, birth injuries and nursing home neglect. These run on a shorter deadline than ordinary injury cases.
• Personal injury and wrongful death. Catastrophic injuries, spinal cord and brain injuries, and claims brought by families after a death.
• Post-9/11 illnesses. Claims connected to World Trade Center exposure, through the WTC Health Program and the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

Deadlines Are the Thing People Get Wrong

More valid claims are lost to timing than to any weakness in the facts. In broad terms, most New York personal injury lawsuits must be started within three years of the injury, and most wrongful death claims within two years of the death. Medical malpractice generally runs two years and six months. If a city agency, transit authority, public hospital, school district or other public entity may be responsible, a written Notice of Claim is usually required within 90 days of the accident, and that is the deadline that catches people out.

Because which clock applies depends on who is responsible, and that is not always obvious at the outset, the safe approach is to have the facts looked at early rather than close to a date you have estimated yourself.

Being Partly at Fault Does Not End a Claim

New York applies pure comparative fault. If you are found partly responsible for what happened, your recovery is reduced by your share of the fault rather than eliminated. People frequently talk themselves out of a claim because they believe they were partly to blame, when the law does not treat that as disqualifying.

What a Case Can Cover

• Medical treatment already received, and the cost of care still to come
• Lost earnings, and reduced earning capacity where an injury affects future work
• Pain and suffering, subject in motor vehicle cases to the serious injury threshold
• Out of pocket costs, and the value of help a family provides
• In a death case, the financial losses suffered by the family, and the conscious pain and suffering of the person who died

How the Firm Works

Caesar & Napoli represents injured people and their families. The firm does not act for insurance companies or large corporations. Consultations are free, most cases are handled on a no-win, no-fee basis, and clients deal directly with the attorneys handling their case. Cases are prepared as though they will be tried, which is what gives them value in negotiation even when they ultimately settle. The firm works in English and Russian and represents clients across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island.

To discuss what happened, contact the firm or call (888) 235-6766.

The information on this page is general and is not legal advice. Deadlines and outcomes depend on the specific facts of each case.