Car Accident Lawyer NYC

New York is a no-fault state, which surprises most people: your own policy pays your first medical bills and lost earnings regardless of who caused the crash, and you must apply within 30 days. Separately, you can pursue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering — but only if your injury meets New York's statutory serious injury threshold. Those two tracks run at the same time and both are easy to damage in the first month.

1. Get the police report number (MV-104AN) and a copy of the report.
2. File the no-fault (PIP) application within 30 days.
3. See a doctor immediately, and keep going — treatment gaps are the most damaging fact in a New York auto file.
4. Preserve footage: intersection, bus, dashcam, storefront and building cameras cycle in days.
5. Do not give the other insurer a recorded statement before speaking to a lawyer.
6. Notify your own insurer if the at-fault driver may be uninsured or underinsured.

To recover pain and suffering you generally need a fracture, significant limitation of use, permanent consequential limitation, or disability for 90 of the first 180 days. Herniated discs with documented radiculopathy commonly qualify when the imaging and specialist opinions are in place early. See our back and disc injury page.

New York's minimum bodily injury coverage is only $25,000 per person. A single surgery exhausts it. Recovery then depends on finding other layers — commercial or employer policies, umbrella coverage, or your own underinsured motorist coverage. Read how bodily injury liability coverage works, and if the driver fled, our hit and run page.

• Rear-end and stop-and-go collisions on bridges, tunnels and the BQE.
• Left-turn and failure-to-yield crashes at avenue intersections.
• Collisions with commercial trucks, rideshare and for-hire vehicles.
• Passenger claims where two drivers blame each other.
• Single-vehicle crashes caused by road defects or vehicle failures.

Manhattan · Brooklyn · Queens · The Bronx · Staten Island

Call +1 650 278 4421, message us on WhatsApp, or book a call. No fee unless we win.