Brooklyn Heights Personal Injury Lawyer
With the many sights to see, including the Brooklyn Bridge, and countless residents living here, there is no shortage of ways for people to be injured in Brooklyn Heights. When another person is responsible for your injuries, our attorneys can help you get justice by filing a claim against them.
Our attorneys have decades of experience handling numerous personal injury claims. When we take your case, we will quickly identify the defendants involved and any challenges to your claim filing against them might present. In most cases, we will have three years to file your personal injury lawsuit. However, you will have less time to file your claim if the defendant is the government or a public agency, like the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Our team can ensure your case is prepared and filed before the deadline. If time is running out, we can explore exceptions that could give you more time to file.
Call The Carrion Law Firm today at (718) 841-0083 for your free case review with our Brooklyn personal injury lawyers.
What You Should Know About Personal Injury Lawsuits in Brooklyn Heights, NY
It is common to feel overwhelmed when considering the prospect of filing a personal injury lawsuit in Brooklyn Heights. Numerous issues must be taken into account, each critical to recovering the compensation you need to recover from your injuries. When you are injured, you should work with our personal injury lawyers to ensure that nothing is overlooked in your case. We can determine how much time you have to file your lawsuit, how fault will likely be apportioned, and how we will prove your damages. We can explain every aspect of your case as it progresses from one stage to another. The following discusses the most important issues in Brooklyn Heights personal injury claims:
The Deadline to File
Determining how long an injury victim has to file their case is typically the first matter addressed. You probably know this deadline as the “statute of limitations.” The general rule is that lawsuits for personal injuries must be commenced within three years of the date the accident took place, according to C.V.P. Law § 214(5). If it is not filed within this timeframe, the court will not hear the case, and the victim will lose out on the compensation they might have received.
However, you could have more or less time to file than the standard limit, depending on the particular circumstances of your case. For instance, victims pursuing compensation for a wrongful death actually have less time to file. E.P.T. Law § 5-4.1(1) allows victims only two years to bring a wrongful death claim.
You will also have less than three years to file a lawsuit if the defendant is a state or local government agency. In cases against a municipal organization, like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), victims must commence their actions within one year and 90 days from the accident date, as per C.V.P. Law § 217(a).
Fortunately, there are exceptions to the general rule that will provide more time to file. According to § 208, “infancy” and “insanity” are valid exceptions to the three-year rule. Put plainly, if the victim is a minor or has a mental or physical disability that prevents them from filing a lawsuit, the time will not count against them until the disability is removed or the child turns 18. From that point, they will have three years to make their case.
Injury victims will also not be penalized if the defendant is absent from the state or gives a false name to avoid litigation under § 207.
Proving the Case
Most injury cases are based on negligent conduct. However, proving that someone acted negligently and owes you damages involves proving certain standard elements.
First, we must show that the person who injured you owed you a “duty of care.” Whether or not a duty exists depends on the situation, so we must assess the relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant. Of course, this relationship does not need to be personal. For instance, all drivers have a duty of care towards others when behind the wheel. In other cases, the relationship and duty will be obvious, like a doctor’s duty of care toward their patients.
After establishing that the defendant had a duty of care, we must prove that they breached that duty. In common language, the “breach” refers to how the defendant acted negligently. For example, drivers breach their duty of care when they act unreasonably or break traffic laws. A doctor would breach their duty of care by failing to get informed consent from a patient before a procedure.
Next, we must show that the breach directly caused your injuries. The best way of doing this is to provide thorough medical documentation of your injuries. Medical records will show the impact and damages the accident has caused and can rule out previous injuries being the cause of your current ailments. However, they can also be used to show how the accident caused earlier injuries to worsen.
This evidence and more will be used to justify the damages you are claiming. You must have “real” damages to recover compensation in a lawsuit. “Real” in the legal sense includes both financial and non-economic losses, like pain and suffering.
Determining Fault
In many personal injury cases, the defendant will use the “comparative” negligence defense against the victim to avoid liability. However, you should never be dissuaded from filing a claim because you contributed to causing the accident. New York’s “pure” comparative negligence rule is much more progressive than most other states, allowing victims to recover compensation regardless of their share of the fault. According to § 1411, plaintiffs are not barred from recovering compensation if partially negligent, but their award will be reduced in proportion to their level of liability.
Call Our Personal Injury Lawyers in Brooklyn Heights, NY Today for Help Starting Your Claim
For a free case evaluation with our personal injury attorneys, contact The Carrion Law Firm today at (718) 841-0083.