Personal Injury

Most negligence claims in New York must be started within three years of the injury (CPLR 214(5)). But when the responsible party is a city, county, town, village, school district, or public authority — a city bus, a sidewalk the City maintains, a public housing development — the rules are far stricter: a notice of claim generally must be served within 90 days (General Municipal Law § 50-e), and the lawsuit itself usually must follow within one year and 90 days (General Municipal Law § 50-i).

Claims belonging to children are generally paused until they turn eighteen (CPLR 208). Because the deadline turns on who is at fault, one of the first things we do is identify every potentially responsible party — and the clock that applies to each.

New York is a no-fault state. After a motor-vehicle accident, basic economic losses — medical bills and a portion of lost earnings, up to the policy limit — are paid through no-fault insurance regardless of who caused the crash. The application must be made quickly, generally within 30 days of the accident, and missing that deadline can forfeit benefits.

To recover for pain and suffering from the driver who caused the accident, New York law requires proof of a “serious injury” as defined in Insurance Law § 5102(d). The categories are death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement, a fracture, loss of a fetus, permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function, or system, permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member, and significant limitation of use of a body function or system. A 2026 amendment removed the former category for injuries that prevented usual daily activities for 90 of the 180 days after the accident. Whether an injury qualifies is decided on medical evidence, which is why consistent treatment and documentation from the start matter so much.

In most New York injury cases, being partly responsible does not bar recovery; it reduces the recovery in proportion to your share of fault (CPLR 1411). Motor-vehicle cases are now different: under a 2026 amendment, an injured person who is found more at fault than the defendant — or, where there are several defendants, more than all of them combined — recovers nothing (CPLR 1411(b)).

Insurers routinely argue comparative fault to lower the value of a claim, and in car-accident cases that argument can now decide whether there is any recovery at all. Answering it with evidence — photographs, witnesses, vehicle data, and the police report — is part of preparing a case properly.

Get medical care, and tell every provider how the injury happened. If you can, photograph the scene, the vehicles or the hazard, and your injuries; collect the names and numbers of witnesses; and obtain the police or incident report number. Keep your receipts and records of missed work.

Be careful with the other side’s insurance company. Adjusters may ask for a recorded statement or broad medical authorizations early on. You are not required to give a statement to the other party’s insurer, and it is wise to speak with a lawyer before you do.