New York City New York Personal Injury Lawyers & New York City Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Law in New York City and New York
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment. The home of the United Nations Headquarters, New York is an important center for international affairs and is widely deemed the cultural capital of the world. The city is also referred to as New York City or the City of New York to distinguish it from the state of New York, of which it is a part.
Located on a large natural harbor on the Atlantic coast of the Northeastern United States, New York City consists of five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. With a 2010 United States Census population of 8,175,133 distributed over a land area of just 305 square miles, New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. The New York City Metropolitan Area's population is the United States' largest, estimated at 18.9 million people distributed over 6,720 square miles and is also part of the most populous combined statistical area in the United States, containing 22.2 million people as of 2009 Census estimates.

With this many people, there are many opportunities for New York City car accidents, bus crashes, bicycle accidents and other vehicle accidents on the roads and New York Highways surrounding New York City. Some of the major roads in the New York City area include I-78, I-80, I-87, I-95, I-278, I-280, I-495, and I-678. If you have been hurt in a New York City bus, car, or truck accident, fill out the form below and a New York City Car Crash Attorney will contact you immediately.
- Back injuries;
- Neck injuries;
- Burn injuries;
- Brain injuries;
- Lost wages;
- Loss of income;
- Mental anguish;
- Pain and suffering; and
- Disfigurement.
What Kind of Cases do New York City Personal Injury Attorneys and Lawyers Handle?
New York City personal injury attorneys often have an undeserved reputation for being "ambulance chasers." Some people believe New York City PI Lawyers only want to take slip and fall cases. This is simply not the case. The Bronx Borough personal injury lawyers' practices are far broader than just New York City accidents. More importantly, New York City area accident lawyers and other New York City personal injury attorneys play an important role in protecting the financial and legal rights of injured people and their family members, even against large corporations with in-house lawyers. Just some of the types of cases which a New York City Personal Injury lawyer can handle throughout the State of New York are:
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Product Defects & Products Liability - Medical Malpractice
- Real Estate Malpractice
- Stockbroker Malpractice
- Dangerous Drugs
- Truck Accidents, 18-Wheeler Accidents, other Auto Accidents
- Workers' Compensation Injuries
- Maritime / Boat / Cruise-ship Injuries
- Railroad Employee FELA Injuries
- Slip & Trip & Falls
- Dog Bites
- Bad Faith Insurance
- Government Liability - City of New York City, The Bronx Borough, and State of New York Liability
- Federal Government Liability
There are endless types of injuries and ways to become injured in the New York City area. Many of them have lasting effects on the victim's life including their ability to work, their family life, and recreation. A New York City personal injury lawyer can advise a victim or their family of their legal rights. New York City Area Personal Injury Attorneys can also help you locate the best medical care. Although no one can truly fix the emotional or physical damages caused by a personal injury, a New York City personal injury lawyer will often be able to get you financial compensation to provide for you, take care of your family if you cannot work, and cover past and future medical expenses.
Why do you need a New York City Personal Injury Lawyer?
Nearly every New York personal injury case involves insurance companies, and as you surely know, insurance companies can be frustrating and difficult to work with. They profit by paying out the least money possible while collecting premiums from as many customers as possible. A trained New York City personal injury lawyer has experience working and dealing with insurance companies. A New York City personal injury attorney can help you negotiate a settlement or, if necessary, take your case to court so can you get the compensation you are entitled to by New York law.
Winning a personal injury lawsuit in court can be an extremely complicated task, especially for an untrained person who might not understand the legal concepts involved. There are many deadlines and formal requirements that can be extremely confusing. Even trained attorneys who are experienced in personal injury law need to use medical and scientific experts to prove that an injury occurred and that the person being sued was at fault. A New York City personal injury lawyer will explain to you the various legal doctrines that could allow you to recover money, such as negligence, strict liability, or intentional tort.
In a negligence-based case in New York, you must prove:
(1) The person or party that caused your injury owed you a duty to protect you from unreasonable risk;
(2) The person breached this duty;
(3) There was sufficient causation, or connection, between that person's action and your injury to constitute a breach of their duty to you; and
(4) You suffered compensable damages as a result.

The analysis only becomes more complicated in a strict liability case, such as New York Products Liability, where you seek to hold the defendant responsible for your injuries regardless of fault, or negligence.
In products liability cases, your New York City personal injury attorney must help you prove these following elements:
(1) The defendant manufactured the product which injured you;
(2) A defect which made the product unreasonably dangerous existed in the product when it was sold; and
(3) The defect caused the injury.
Often, a variety of medical and scientific experts might be involved in proving these facts and an experienced New York City personal injury attorney can arrange experts as well as properly make use of them at trial. Your New York City personal injury lawyer can also help you understand which claims may be brought on behalf of your family members for negligent or intentional infliction of emotional distress, or for loss of consortium.
Sometimes there is more than one person at fault. In these situations, a New York City personal injury attorney can, and in some instances, must join all necessary parties to make a claim against multiple parties. Take the following example:
If you were hurt by a defective consumer product, the manufacturer could be responsible under the law of strict products liability. Other defendants in the chain of distribution, including the seller or distributor could also be liable for your damages. A New York personal injury lawyer will also explain comparative fault or contributory negligence--that is, the idea that your own negligence might, sometimes, reduce your recovery. This often occurs in a vehicle accident, where you are 25% at fault but the other person is mostly responsible for the crash.
This analysis changes depending upon the specifics of your situation, and proving all of these elements to a jury becomes quite complicated. A licensed New York City personal injury attorney or New York City, New York personal injury lawyer will help make these difficult legal concepts clearer and guide you through New York's justice system.
Finally, a New York City personal injury attorney or other New York City Area personal injury attorney can help you determine what your claim is worth and which damages you can likely recover. Under New York law, a defendant found legally responsible for your injury is liable for:
• Past, current, and future estimated medical expenses
• Time off from work due to injury, including lost wages and lost earning capacity
• Property damage, such as damage to your car during an automobile accident
• The cost of hiring help to perform household chores you couldn't perform because of your injury
• Damages for permanent disfigurement or disability
• Emotional distress, including anxiety, depression, interference with family relationships, loss of consortium and loss of enjoyment of life
• Other expenses that are a direct result of your injury
For more information on which damages you may be entitled to, including punitive damages and damages for specific types of injuries and wrongful death, please refer to the page on Damages.
New York City personal injury lawyers represent not only accident victims but also their families and spouses in cases throughout the Greater New York City area. If you or a family member has been injured, you may be able to recover for medical expenses as well as other types of damages. Contact one of the experienced New York City personal injury attorneys listed in the top left corner of this page to represent you and protect your rights.
How much does it cost to hire a New York City Personal Injury Attorney?
Other types of lawyers often charge an hourly rate in addition to a retainer fee. These lawyers use billable hours and keep records of how much they work on your case, and make you pay accordingly. New York City personal injury attorneys, however, charge in a completely different, and much more convenient, way. New York law allows personal injury attorneys, or "PI lawyers" for short, to enter into "contingency fee" contracts with their clients. This means that your New York City personal injury lawyer usually accepts a percentage of any money recovered as payment if they win the case for you. The availability of a contingency fee agreement for an injured victim is extremely important because it can be quite expensive for an injured person, who might already be out of work because of an injury, to pay a lawyer up-front. The details of a contingency fee agreement can change between attorneys and in different states; but, a contingency fee agreement means that if the injured person does not get money, then they do not have to pay the lawyer anything for representing them. You can see how this makes lawsuits easier for injury victims: they only pay for a lawyer if they win or settle their case. Since the lawyer makes more money if he gets you more money, he has an extra reason to try to win the case. In New York, there are maximum amounts that an attorney can charge depending on the facts of your case. The laws explaining these amounts can be found on our New York Contingency Contract Page. Please contact a New York City, New York personal injury lawyer to discuss your case.
Qualified New York City trial attorneys are capable of investigating, preparing, presenting, and filing your lawsuit at all levels of the state and federal courts.
If you have been injured, seek immediate medical care at a New York City Hospital like the ones below, and then contact a New York City Personal Injury Attorney.
Hospitals in the Greater New York City area:
Bellevue Hospital Center
Beth Israel Medical Center Petrie Division
Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hosp. and NF - Goldwater Campus
Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital and NF - Coler Campus
Harlem Hospital Center
Lenox Hill Hospital |
New York City Emergency Services Contact Information
New York City Police Department
257 Alexander Avenue, Bronx, NY-10454 (718) 402-2270 www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/home/contact_information.shtml
The Bronx Borough Sheriff's Department
3030 Third Avenue Bronx, New York 10455 (718) 993-3880 www.usacops.com/ny/s10455/index.html
New York City Fire Department
New York Fire Department142 West 31st Street, New York, NY 10001 (718) 999-2000 |
Hire a New York City Personal Injury Lawyer Now!
Serving clients throughout Southern New York, including Arlington, Arverne, Bath Beach, Baychester, Beechhurst, Blissville, Boerum Hill, Bronx, Brooklyn, Castleton Corners, Chelsea, City Island, Clinton Hill, Country Club, Downtown, East Elmhurst, Elm Park, Financial District, Flatlands, Forest Hills, Gowanus, Great Kills, High Bridge, Howard Beach, Inwood, Lighthouse Hill, Manhattan, Manhattan Beach, Maspeth, Morris Park, Navy Yard, New Dorp Beach, Norwood, Park Slope, Port Morris, Port Richmond, Queens, Remsen Village, Richmond Hill, Rossville, SoHo, South Corona, Starrett City, Staten Island, Steinway, University Heights, Upper East Side, Wingate, areas in the vicinity of John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia International Airport, and surrounding areas in Bronx County (The Bronx), Kings County (Brooklyn), The Bronx Boroughs(Manhattan), Queens County (Queens), and Richmond County (Staten Island).
Don't hesitate! Call one of the New York City Personal Injury Lawyers on this site today for a consultation!