New York Car Accident Lawyers

Few things are more physically and emotionally destabilizing than a car accident, and closure doesn’t come easily to the average victim. In New York State, people injured in car accidents—whether they’re drivers, passengers or pedestrians—must reckon with tight no-fault insurance deadlines and with the state’s “serious injury” threshold, which determines their ability to file a lawsuit. These questions influence both the value of a case and how long it takes to resolve. Below, we explain our firm’s approach to car accident cases and highlight what car accident victims should know.

Need to Know:

• Car accident victims in New York State are entitled to have their accident covered up to $50,000 by no-fault insurance, but they must file a claim with their insurance provider within 30 days of the incident.
• New York State’s “Threshold Law” establishes the circumstances under which a car accident victim can file a lawsuit. Retaining an experienced attorney early can help you to interpret these guidelines and give you a better sense of whether you have a case.
• A successful car accident case requires early and thorough investigation and a willingness to think outside the box when it comes to finding evidence.

In This Article:

• Immediate Crucial Information on No-Fault Insurance
• Does My Injury Meet the Serious Injury Threshold?
• Investigating a Car Accident: Thinking Outside the Box
• Case Study: $9,950,000 Settlement for Client Hit by Careening Vehicle in a Parking Lot
• Case Study: $13,500,000 Settlement for a Young Mother Who Suffered Serious Injuries

Additional Resources:

• What to Do Immediately After a Car Crash in New York
• What to Expect During the Car Accident Lawsuit Process

Immediate Crucial Information on No-Fault Insurance

New York requires drivers to carry a “no-fault” insurance policy of $50,000, meaning that each driver involved in an accident can have related damages or medical expenses paid for through his or her own insurance company, regardless of fault. However, in order to receive this compensation, you’ll need to file a claim with your insurance provider within 30 days of the incident. Failing to do so could cause you to forfeit your right to coverage.

No-fault coverage ensures that many, if not most, car accident victims can have their immediate needs met without filing a lawsuit. It’s important to realize, however, that by filing a no-fault claim, you do not forfeit your right to file a lawsuit. If your accident meets New York State’s “serious injury” threshold, you may still pursue appropriate legal action.

Does My Injury Meet the Serious Injury Threshold?

There are several possible conditions under which your car accident injuries might meet the serious injury threshold.

• In New York State, certain injuries are “serious injuries” by default. These include death, dismemberment, fracture, trauma-induced miscarriage, and any permanent loss or limitation of a bodily organ or member. (A complete list of these injuries can be found here.) Any injury defined as a “serious injury” can serve as grounds for a lawsuit.
• An accident that incurs medical expenses beyond the $50,000 no-fault insurance policy limit could meet the serious injury threshold. However, property damage in excess of the insurance policy (for example, expensive damage to the car) does not serve as grounds to meet the serious injury threshold; any claim related to property must be filed under economic damages.
• If an injury forces a person to miss work for 90 or more days out of the 180 days following the accident, that injury meets the serious injury threshold.

While these rules can give you an idea of what to expect, only an experienced personal injury attorney can tell you for certain whether your injuries meet this threshold.  A good attorney will be very clear about whether or not you have a case. You are acting responsibly by seeking legal advice. 

Investigating Your Car Accident: Thinking Outside the Box

Our firm prioritizes early—if possible, immediate—investigation. Our attorneys, along with the investigators they retain, often travel to the location of the accident as soon as we’ve signed a case. This helps us to locate witnesses while the incident is fresh in their minds, contextualize key facts by examining the accident scene, and collect footage from nearby security cameras which might otherwise be taped over or erased. In some cases, this footage has dramatically changed the direction of the case in favor of our client.

But traveling to an accident scene doesn’t just help us collect evidence: it’s part of our larger strategy for understanding the context of a client’s accident. The up-close-and-personal perspective gained by visiting each scene helps our attorneys to uncover the what, when, why and how of the accident, which may prove critical to establishing a case, particularly if it goes to trial.

Take one case we resolved on behalf of a client who was in the middle of running an errand when her car collided with another vehicle. The driver of the car that hit her insisted that she caused the collision by making an improper turn. Our client, however, insisted that she hadn’t been turning at all: she was on her way to the bank to withdraw money, and the route she was taking to get to her bank required her to go straight.

When the case went to trial, our handling attorneys were well-prepared to refute the defendant’s claim. Armed with a record of her ATM withdrawal on the day of the accident, witness testimony which showed that she always used that bank branch, and a map which showed that her bank was only eight blocks up the road, our attorneys could prove that she had no reason to make the turn.

Case Study: $9,950,000 Settlement for Client Hit by Careening Vehicle in a Parking Lot

A major car accident case our firm resolved demonstrates the complexities that can arise when a police report is inaccurate or incomplete, highlighting the need for us to conduct our own investigations. Our client was an active and vibrant young social worker, dedicated to counseling children in abusive situations and helping families in dire financial circumstances.

One day, she and two coworkers were in the parking lot of the Buffalo nonprofit where they worked, loading groceries for a needy family into the trunk of her car. Without warning, a commercial van came hurtling into the parking lot, pinning our client to her own back bumper.

Because her leg was severed by the force of the impact, our client, who was only 28 years old, had to undergo a full amputation. Her life as she knew it, her relationship with her body, and her ability to navigate the world had been changed forever—and she didn’t even see it happen. The accident, and the events that led to it, had occurred behind her back.

The driver of the van that hit our client claimed that another commercial vehicle had collided with him on the road, propelling his van into the parking lot. Police arrived at the scene and interviewed both drivers, but the questions they asked didn’t adequately address where each car was on the road at the time of the accident, or the precise chain of events that caused it.

The resultant accident report did not reveal much, and if we had relied on it, the driver of the van that hit our client would have been held entirely at fault for the accident. Instead, partners Stephen J. Murphy and David L. Scher, who handled the case, subpoenaed the owner of the van for its dashcam footage. This footage showed that the driver of the van had been speaking the truth. The second vehicle, which was owned by a car dealership, had tried to illegally pass the van on the right while the van’s driver was making a turn. The collision propelled the van into the parking lot, where it hit our client.

During mediation, Murphy and Scher were able to demonstrate what had happened using the footage from the dashcam, together with a series of photographs which they took at the accident scene. They used these photographs to illustrate the turn that the van had been attempting to make.

If we had relied solely on the police report, our client would not have been able to obtain the full compensation she deserved. Murphy and Scher’s discovery of additional evidence proved that the defendant with the larger insurance policy was more at fault, enabling them to obtain a $8,000,000 settlement from the primary at-fault defendant. An additional $1,500,000 settlement from the codefendant allowed them to resolve the case for a total of $9,950,000.

Case Study: $13,500,000 Settlement for a Young Mother Who Suffered Serious Injuries

In one of the largest car accident cases we’ve ever handled, a 24-year-old single mother was walking by the side of a dark road when she was suddenly struck by a car. As a result of the collision, she suffered multiple fractures and severe brain trauma. Unthinkably, our client, who had once provided for her two young children, was now totally unable to care for herself.

Our hearts broke when we spoke to our client’s sister, who had taken her in along with her children. She told us that our client was still well aware that she was their mother—she had attempted to intervene when her sister “parented” her children in some way she didn’t approve of, and once crawled up a flight of stairs when she heard the sound of her baby crying, despite being unable to walk and barely able to speak.

We knew that our client deserved the best compensation possible in order to improve her quality of life and secure a future for the children she loved so much. We also knew that the defense would likely claim that our client was responsible for the accident because of her decision to walk on the road at night. Partners Scott Occhiogrosso and Daniel O’Toole, who handled her case, needed to demonstrate that the driver of the car that hit our client was able to see her on the road and had a responsibility to stop.

As we do in most car accident cases, we hired experts who could provide insight into how the incident unfolded. One of these experts, a U.S. Naval Officer who specialized in visibility and contrast, was able to help determine what the driver that hit our client might have seen. Additionally, a biomechanical expert explained how the impact had caused our client’s injuries.  

But Occhiogrosso and O’Toole also worked with other attorneys at the firm to stage an accident reconstruction of their own. Accounting for the time of night, the weather, and even the position of the moon in the sky at the moment of the accident, a small group of attorneys traveled to the accident scene, bringing with them several items of clothing that had been cut from our client’s body following the impact. O’Toole had purchased a car of the same make and model as the one that hit our client, which Partner Frederick Aranki drove while a professional videographer sat in the passenger seat. Partner Christina Mercado, who is roughly the same height as our client, clipped the items of clothing on over the clothes she was wearing and walked where our client had walked.

Although one of our crash experts observed the reconstruction, our attorneys are not themselves accident reconstruction experts, and the resulting video would not have been admissible as evidence had the case moved to trial. But it helped O’Toole and Occhiogrosso gain deeper insight into the circumstances of the accident—insight which helped them to argue their case effectively, armed with a better understanding of the visibility of our client on the night in question. They were also able to observe driver behavior at the scene, which gave them a better understanding of the fact that drivers making the turn often drove over the shoulder of the road, which was where they believed that the driver had hit our client.

That willingness to go the extra mile helped them to achieve a $13,500,000 settlement, to this day the largest reported personal injury settlement in Suffolk County. This settlement helped to pay for the nursing care our client would need for the remainder of her life, while also ensuring that her two young children were provided with the resources they needed.

Block O’Toole & Murphy: Unparalleled Dedication in Investigation and Legal Strategy

The previously-mentioned case highlights another important quality of our firm’s approach: the ability and willingness of our attorneys to collaborate. Each case we sign has two handling attorneys, giving every one of our clients the benefit of their combined effort and their unique individual strengths. But our attorneys also seek advice from other attorneys at the firm, regardless of whether or not they are specifically assigned to the case, allowing for the broadest possible range of perspectives on an accident.

Our cooperation and dedication have led to a strong track record of car accident results, including:

• $32,756,156 jury verdict in a Long Island case for a pedestrian who suffered life-threatening head trauma after he was hit by a drug-impaired driver.
• $22,500,000 settlement for a driver hit by a vehicle coming from the opposite direction in upstate New York.
• $20,181,484 verdict for an IT executive injured in a collision caused by icy roads in Westchester County, New York.
• $12,500,000 settlement for a client who suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) after being run over while crossing the street.
• $12,000,000 settlement in a Brooklyn car accident case for a child who was standing on the sidewalk when he was hit by a car.
• $9,750,000 settlement for a 37-year-old tow truck operator who suffered leg and head injuries after he was struck by a drunk driver.
• $9,500,000 settlement in a Brooklyn case for a client who suffered catastrophic injuries, including partial leg amputation, after he was hit and dragged by an NYCTA bus.
• $9,263,326 jury verdict for a passenger in a New York City taxi cab who suffered spinal nerve damage after the taxi was involved in a multi-vehicle rear-end collision.
• $8,000,000 settlement for a pedestrian who was struck by a Transit Authority bus and as a result, suffered a traumatic leg amputation above the knee.
• $7,525,000 settlement in a Suffolk County wrongful death case for the surviving family after a tragic car crash killed two members of their family.
• $6,000,000 settlement for a 54-year-old injured in a New York City motor vehicle accident.
• $5,160,000 verdict for a driver who suffered herniated discs after another car ran a stop sign and crashed into his car in Queens, New York.
• $5,000,000 settlement for a woman who suffered aggravation of a pre-existing condition after a multi-car collision in Levittown, New York.
• $4,600,000 settlement for a 53-year-old man with a spinal injury after he was involved in a serious car crash in Babylon, New York.
• $4,400,000 settlement for a New York City sanitation worker who suffered injuries after his vehicle flipped over on an icy road.
• $4,250,000 settlement for a 42-year-old man who sustained leg and back pain after a rear-end collision in Westchester County, New York.
• $4,100,000 jury verdict for a 54-year-old passenger who suffered herniated discs after a rear-end accident on the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge.
• $4,000,000 settlement for a driver who suffered permanent disability from his job as a result of a car crash in Woodhaven, Queens.
• $4,000,000 settlement for a client who sustained permanent injuries after he was hit by a vehicle in Forest Hills, Queens.
• $4,000,000 settlement for a pedestrian who sustained foot and ankle injuries after she was knocked down by a car in the Bronx.
• $3,800,000 recovery in a Suffolk County case for a truck driver who sustained multiple injuries after an accident involving a defective vehicle.
• $3,750,000 settlement for a laborer who was injured after being hit by a reversing truck while removing guardrails on a roadway.
• $3,500,000 settlement for a bus operator who sustained neck, back, and shoulder injuries after the bus was rear-ended by a sanitation truck owned by the City of New York in Brooklyn.
• $3,500,000 settlement in a Queens case for a client who was unable to return to work after his car was sideswiped by another vehicle, causing him to swerve and crash into a parked vehicle.
• $3,500,000 settlement for a driver whose car was struck by another vehicle at an intersection in the Bronx.
• $3,500,000 settlement for a client who suffered multiple injuries requiring surgery after his sedan was struck by a driver that sped through a stop sign in Queens.
• $3,450,000 settlement in a Queens case for a pedestrian who was crossing the street within a crosswalk when he was hit by a bus.
• $3,400,000 settlement for a 44-year-old whose car was rear-ended by a commercial vehicle.
• $3,375,000 settlement for a driver who was rear-ended by a truck while he was stopped at a red light in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
• $3,369,066 verdict for a front-seat passenger who sustained injuries requiring cervical fusion surgery after a car collision in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn.
• $3,250,000 settlement for a Brooklyn driver who suffered back and shoulder injuries as a result on a head-on accident
• $3,175,000 settlement for a 38-year-old worker who suffered knee and spinal injuries after he was hit by a forklift in Jamaica, Queens.
• $3,000,000 settlement in a Brooklyn case for a 39-year-old worker whose vehicle was struck by an NYC Sanitation Department snow plow.
• $3,000,000 settlement for a man who required a total hip replacement after he collided with an MTA bus in Flatlands, Brooklyn.
• $3,000,000 settlement in a wrongful death case for the family of an entrepreneur who tragically died in a car crash in Suffolk County, New York.
• $3,000,000 settlement for a man who injured his knees, neck and back when he was rear-ended by an Access-a-Ride bus.
• $2,840,000 recovery for a driver who suffered cervical radiculopathy after a sudden car collision in Manhattan.
• $2,760,000 settlement for a front-seat passenger who suffered injuries to his neck and back after the car was hit by a commercial truck in Brooklyn.
• $2,750,000 settlement for a car accident victim with injuries requiring multiple surgeries, including an arthroscopic knee surgery, after a rear-end crash on the Bruckner Expressway.
• $2,750,000 settlement in a Queens case for an auto accident victim who suffered herniations to the L3-4 and L4-5 discs.
• $2,700,000 settlement for a client who suffered serious leg injuries after he was hit by a commercial truck in Babylon, New York.
• $2,650,000 recovery for a van driver who suffered a herniated disc to his lumbar spine with radiculopathy after he was involved in a rear-end collision.
• $2,625,000 settlement for the estate of a married couple from upstate New York who were fatally struck by a tractor-trailer.
• $2,558,000 settlement for the family of a victim who died as a result of being struck by a drunk driver in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
• $2,500,000 settlement in a Bronx case for a driver who was rear-ended by a distracted driver.
• $2,500,000 settlement for a client whose car was hit by a vehicle exiting a parking spot in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn.
• $2,500,000 recovery in a Bronx case for a client who suffered degenerative disc disease after a serious collision.
• $2,500,000 verdict in a Nassau County case for a passenger who sustained burns and multiple fractures after the vehicle lost control.
• $2,500,000 verdict for a driver hurt in a side-impact collision with a cement-mixing truck near a Brooklyn construction site.
• $2,400,000 settlement in a Supreme Queens case for a 39-year-old man who sustained serious neck injuries after a rear-end crash on the Long Island Expressway.
• $2,250,000 award for a victim who sustained a brain hemorrhage and other serious injuries as a result of a head-on collision in Westchester County, New York.
• $2,225,000 settlement for a 55-year-old passenger who suffered lower back pain after she was involved in a car crash in Manhattan.
• $2,150,000 recovery in a Nassau County case for a driver who collided with another vehicle making a left turn at an intersection.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident, the attorneys at Block O’Toole & Murphy are here to help. We serve all five boroughs of New York City as well as the entirety of New York State. Contact the skilled attorneys at Block O’Toole & Murphy by calling 212-736-5300, or by filling out our online contact form.