Back Injury Lawyer NYC

Herniated and bulging discs, annular tears, facet joint injury and lumbar radiculopathy are the most common serious injuries we see — and the ones insurers fight hardest. Their playbook is always the same: your MRI shows "degenerative changes," therefore your pain is age, not the accident. Winning a New York back injury case means beating that argument with the right medical proof, in the right order.

• MRI within weeks of the crash, compared against any prior imaging to show acute change.
• Treating orthopedist or neurosurgeon narrative tying mechanism of injury to the specific disc level.
• EMG and nerve conduction studies documenting radiculopathy into the leg or arm.
• Consistent, uninterrupted treatment records — gaps are the single most damaging fact in these files.
• Wage and vocational proof if you cannot lift, drive, stand or return to the same job.

Rear-end and side-impact car crashes

Low property damage does not mean low injury. New York requires a "serious injury" threshold for pain and suffering in most auto cases, and a documented herniation with radiculopathy commonly satisfies it.

Construction lifting, falls and scaffold collapses

Labor Law 240 and 241 can impose absolute liability on owners and general contractors for height and safety-device failures, which often makes a construction back injury far more valuable than the same injury in a car crash.

Slip, trip and fall on stairs, sidewalks and wet floors

These turn on notice — how long the hazard existed and who knew. Incident reports, prior complaints and maintenance logs decide them.

Past and future medical treatment, injections and surgery, physical therapy, lost earnings and lost earning capacity, household help, and pain and suffering. If surgery such as a discectomy or fusion is recommended, valuation changes substantially — do not settle before a surgical opinion is on record.

My MRI shows a herniated disc but the insurer says it is degenerative.

Pre-existing degeneration does not defeat a claim. New York law compensates aggravation of a prior condition, and a comparison of pre- and post-accident imaging plus a physician's causation opinion answers this defense directly.

I have been recommended for a fusion or discectomy.

Surgical recommendation materially raises case value. Do not settle before your surgical workup is complete.

I can no longer lift at work.

Lost earning capacity — not just missed paychecks — is recoverable, supported by a vocational expert and an economist.