With Park Slope sitting right next door, Park Slope is one of the most popular areas in Brooklyn, attracting hundreds if not thousands of people each day. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most traffic-congested areas in NYC, so your chances of being in a car accident here are high.

If you were injured while taking in the sights around Park Slope or its surrounding neighborhoods of Park Slope and Prospect Heights, our lawyers can help you get the compensation you deserve. Recovering damages for your injuries is rarely a simple matter. You will need to go through your insurance before turning to other options. Fortunately, our team can gather evidence for your claim and determine if your damages were substantial enough to file a lawsuit. Having an experienced firm that can assess your damages accurately is essential to take advantage of the legal options available.

For a free case evaluation with our Brooklyn, NY car accident attorneys, call The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083.

How to Cover Damages from a Car Accident in Park Slope, NY

Recovering compensation after a car accident can be a bit of a challenge. No-fault insurance rules are used when a car collision happens in New York. Under this system, victims can file a claim with their own insurance to cover some of the damages. You might be able to file a lawsuit, as well, but that will depend on the circumstances of your accident. Our car accident attorneys can help you prepare your insurance claim and determine if you qualify to file an injury lawsuit. The following explains how you can cover all your damages after a car accident in Park Slope:

Filing for Insurance

No-fault insurance, also known as Personal Injury Protection (PIP), has a few advantages over the fault system used by other states. When someone is injured in a car accident, no-fault rules require them to file a claim for PIP coverage from their own provider, but they do not have to prove the other driver was at fault before getting compensation. This removes the adversarial nature of the process since you are not getting coverage from the other driver’s insurance provider, allowing you to typically get paid much quicker.

However, just because you do not need to prove the other driver was negligent does not mean you do not need to provide some evidence of your accident and the injuries you sustained. Your insurance company will want medical records substantiating your injuries, which our team can collect from each of the medical professionals you saw. You will also usually need to provide a police report so the insurance company has proof the accident actually occurred. You can get a copy of your Park Slope car accident online for a small fee or pick it up in person from the NYPD 78th precinct for free.

Unfortunately, the no-fault system has some major drawbacks. While victims will get coverage for their losses, PIP insurance is limited in what damages it will compensate. PIP is only designed to cover medical losses and up to 80% of lost income. If you have the basic minimum medical coverage of $50,000, you could exceed your PIP policy limits quickly. Further, PIP will not provide benefits for your “pain and suffering.”

To recover the damages that PIP will not, you will need to file a lawsuit. However, no-fault insurance limits victims’ right to sue for pain and suffering in an effort to unburden the court with frivolous lawsuits. Still, there are a few ways you can overcome this hurdle to get compensation for all your damages.

Filing a Lawsuit

To file a lawsuit for a car accident, you will either need to show that your economic losses are over a certain amount or you suffered “serious” injuries. “Basic economic losses” are set at the amount of the minimum PIP coverage of $50,000. If your economic damages exceed $50,000, I.S.C. Law § 5102(a) permits you to file a lawsuit to cover the remaining financial losses and your non-economic losses.

You can also file a claim if you sustained serious injuries in your car accident, according to § 5102(d). Victims who suffered significant disfigurement, amputation, miscarriage, or broken bones will be able to sue under this law. You could also overcome this threshold by showing that your injuries resulted in significant or permanent damage to a body part, organ, or system or that your injuries will substantially interfere with your day-to-day life. Unlike minor injuries, serious injuries are basically assumed to cause some measure of pain and suffering, which is why you can sue in these situations for full coverage.

Thus, you must get medical attention immediately after your accident. Your medical records will need to be submitted to justify your claim of serious injuries. Getting treatment later or missing appointments could cause the court to conclude the injuries were not that serious.

What You Should Do Following a Car Accident in Park Slope, NY

Car accident scenes are often chaotic, making it easy to overlook important steps you should take following one. Some of the actions you can take will be for the benefit of your legal claim later. Other steps are mandated by law.

For starters, call 911 to report your accident. Paramedics should arrive shortly after to provide you with on-the-scene care, and the police will be dispatched to investigate the crash. This will not only start building crucial evidence to use in your case later but reporting a car accident is also required by the law. Under V.A.T. Law § 605(a)(1), a vehicle accident that results in death, injury, or property damage over $1,000 must be reported to the police in Park Slope. If you do not report your accident immediately after it happened, you have ten days under the law to make your report.

You should also exchange information with the other driver and any eyewitnesses who saw your accident. Park Slope is one of the most visited places in Brooklyn, so numerous people are likely to have witnessed your accident. Ask for their contact information so they can provide testimony later and take notes, if you can, of what they saw. As for the other driver, § 600 requires all drivers involved in an accident to exchange their contact and insurance information.

You can also take pictures of your accident scene to preserve evidence the city will likely clear away soon after you leave. We can review your pictures to determine what evidence they capture and how we can use it to argue liability.

Our lawyers will also investigate Park Slope. It is one of the most densely packed areas in the country, so it is quite possible that nearby security cameras recorded your accident.

Our Park Slope, NY Car Accident Attorneys Can Help Today

Call The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083 to receive a free case review with our car accident lawyers.