A severe personal injury can turn your life upside down. This is the unfortunate reality that thousands of people on Long Island have to go through at some point in their lives.
A personal injury claim may involve any accidents or incidents that caused you harm. Car crashes, work accidents, slip and falls, and more may all be part of a personal injury lawsuit. When you file a personal injury lawsuit, you must calculate your damages – the total value of all your injuries you want the defendant to pay. Filing your lawsuit with the right court is also crucial to your case. An attorney can help you investigate the accident, gather evidence, and decide the best course of action for your situation.
Call (718) 841-0083 today and schedule a free case review with our personal injury attorneys at The Carrion Law Firm.
What to Do Immediately After Experiencing an Injury in Long Island
If you are injured in an accident, the first thing you should do is call for help. If you cannot call for help – perhaps you are too badly hurt to make the call – try to make sure someone nearby calls for help.
After getting help, you can protect your potential legal claim by following the steps below:
Stay on the Scene
It would be best if you remain at the scene of the accident until the police or emergency responders arrive. If you leave an accident scene before the authorities get there, you might run into legal trouble.
For example, leaving the scene of a car accident before the police arrive is usually considered a hit-and-run, and criminal charges might be assessed in such a case.
Exchange Information
Exchange information with other people at the accident scene. Depending on the nature of the accident and your injuries, you might want to file an insurance claim, and you might need the other person’s personal information to do so.
Even if you do not file an insurance claim, you still need the other person’s information so you can file a lawsuit or take other legal action.
Get Medical Care
Once the police or emergency responders arrive, your focus should be on getting medical attention as quickly as possible. You might be transported to the emergency room in an ambulance.
If you do not believe you need an ambulance, you should have someone drive you to the hospital immediately. You might feel as though you are not badly injured, but you might have unseen internal injuries that need immediate care.
Gather Evidence
After the accident and while waiting for the authorities, you should document the accident scene as much as possible. Take photos, record videos, or just make some notes about everything you see and hear. This information might be crucial to your case as it is needed to reconstruct the scene and determine how the accident occurred.
Contact an Attorney
Finally, you should contact our personal injury lawyers sooner rather than later. The sooner your attorney can get to work on your case, the better. Even if you are uncertain about whether you want to take legal action, you should still talk to a lawyer, so you at least understand all your legal options.
Common Types of Cases Our Long Island Personal Injury Lawyers Handle
The path to compensation can vary in personal injury lawsuits. The type of accident suffered by a plaintiff can influence the strategies and analyses applied in their case. Our Long Island personal injury lawyers regularly handle cases that stem from the following types of accidents:
- Car accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Truck accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Bicycle accidents
- Slip and fall accidents
- Accidents caused by defective products
- Construction site accidents
- Drowning accidents
- Dog bites
If a potential client was injured because of one of the aforementioned types of accidents, our team can help determine who is at fault. Afterwards, our attorneys can help victims pursue financial compensation for the harm they suffered.
Elements of Negligence for a Personal Injury Claim on Long Island
The most common theory used in personal injury lawsuits is negligence. If another party was negligent in causing your injury, this provides the grounds for legal action. To prove negligence in a Long Island personal injury lawsuit, plaintiffs must establish the four key elements: duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages.
Duty of Care
The first step in making a successful negligence claim is establishing the duty of care that the defendant owed the plaintiff. A duty of care is a legal obligation created and defined by the relationship between the two parties.
For instance, a doctor owes a duty of care to their patient, and a bus driver owes a duty of care to their passengers, but these duties involve different standards. Our lawyers often introduce expert testimony to help demonstrate the standards in a particular case.
Breach of Duty
Once you have established the existence and standard of the duty of care in your case, you must then show how the defendant fell short of meeting it. Breach of duty can occur through both action and failure to act.
Typically, violations of various laws or regulations will be enough to show a breach of duty.
Still, a defendant’s behavior does not have to be illegal in order to constitute a violation of duty for a personal injury lawsuit.
Causation
It is not enough to prove that the defendant violated a duty that they owed. This violation must have been the cause of the injury. You must prove that the breach of care was a direct and proximate cause of your injury.
In other words, you must show you would not have been injured had it not been for the defendant’s conduct. Superseding causes or the plaintiff’s own comparative negligence may play a role in this element.
Damages
You must have sustained damages to recover money for a personal injury claim. Damages may include economic damages, such as lost wages, personal care costs, medical bills, and travel expenses.
They may also include non-economic damages, like pain and suffering. To help establish the direct connection between the incident and your injuries, it is important that you visit your nearest emergency room as soon as possible.
Keeping detailed records of financial losses and expenses paid during your recovery can help document damages for your injury claim.
Identifying Who is Liable for a Personal Injury on Long Island
If you suffered a personal injury through no fault of your own, you may already suspect that you have legal options to seek monetary recovery from those responsible. What you might not know is who that responsible party is.
Individuals and Multiple Parties
Some personal injury situations may point to blame fairly clearly. For instance, if you were injured in a violent assault, the aggressor would be the liable party. However, there are a number of circumstances where liability might not be clear.
Other situations that may involve issues with identifying liability include multi-vehicle collisions, product defects, and construction accidents. If you are not sure who to sue for your damages, speak to a Long Island personal injury attorney first about your options.
Property Owners
One common example where liability may be complicated is in the area of premises liability. Property owners owe a duty of care to their guests, which is a critical element of any personal injury claim. However, property owners may offload this responsibility to other entities through contractual agreements.
For instance, if the property owner leases the property to a tenant (say, for instance, a retail store), the lease agreement may contain terms that dictate who is responsible for what. In these cases, if poor maintenance of the space causes a slip and fall, the tenant may be liable for the harm.
These situations may also arise if a property owner contracts with third parties to provide services, such as maintenance companies or snow removal services.
Comparative Negligence Rules for Personal Injury Lawsuits in Long Island
Even if you are somewhat at fault for the incident that caused your injuries, you are not necessarily blocked from filing a personal injury claim in a personal injury case in Long Island. However, the amount you recover will be lowered proportionately to the amount you were at fault for the accident.
Under New York’s comparative negligence system, plaintiffs can still bring their case even if they also shared some blame in causing the accident that injured them or the injuries themselves.
A common example where this might come into play might be where a negligent driver crashed into another vehicle, but the victim in the impacted vehicle was not wearing their seat belt at the time of the collision.
If the court determines that the plaintiff was partially at fault, the amount of damages they could recover will be reduced proportionally to their level of blame.
For instance, if a court found that your negligence accounted for 25% of the accident, and you claimed a total of $40,000 in damage, the court might award you $30,000 in damage, representing the remaining 75% of the blame left to the defendant.
How to File a Personal Injury Claim in Long Island
Filing a personal injury claim may seem like a daunting task, especially if you have never been through this type of process before. Personal injury law can be confusing and challenging to understand on your own. That is why hiring an experienced personal injury attorney is always in your best interests.
To begin, you must draft a complaint. The complaint is a formal legal document explaining who you are, who the defendant is, how you were injured, and the damages you want covered. The complaint must follow specific formatting rules and contain specific information about your case. If the rules are not followed, or certain information is missing, the complaint might be rejected, and we will have to start all over.
The complaint must be filed with the correct court. Not all courts are the same, and only specific courts may hear your case. Finding the right court requires us to figure out which court has jurisdiction. Jurisdiction may be determined by the type of case you are filing, where the personal injury occurred, where you live, and where the defendant lives. J
Once your complaint is filed with the proper court, we must notify the defendant and any other parties involved in the lawsuit. They must be given a chance to review the complaint and respond. If they respond by denying your claims, we move another step closer to a trial. If they do not respond, we can ask the court to issue a default judgment in your favor.
Time Limit to File a Long Island Personal Injury Lawsuit
Under C.V.P. Law § 214(5), personal injury victims will usually have three years from the dates of their accidents to file personal injury cases in Long Island. However, waiting to file a claim can cause crucial evidence to deteriorate.
If you do not file before the deadline, your chance to recover compensation will be lost. However, there are some exceptions to the standard, three-year statute of limitations.
Exception for Legal Incapacity
For instance, parents may file personal injury cases on behalf of their kids at any point until the children turn 18. After reaching adulthood, victims will then have three years to file personal injury lawsuits stemming from accidents that happened while they were minors under § 208(a).
Victims with Disabilities at the time of the accident will also have more time to file under this law. They will have three years to file a claim once their disability is removed or does not prevent them from understanding their rights.
Exception for Out-of-State Defendants or Using a False Name
The time will not count against the statute of limitations if the defendant is outside of New York or residing here under a false name under § 207.
However, the potential defendant must be continuously absent from the state for four months or more to use this exception.
Exception for Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice victims actually have less time than the general statute of limitations to file a claim. Under § 214-A, you only have two years and six months to file a medical malpractice claim.
If you are suing for a foreign object that you later discovered in your body, you must file your lawsuit within one year of the discovery.
Exception for Government Defendants
Sometimes, the defendant is the state or county government, such as cases against the MTA. Under § 217-A, claims against the government must be filed against the particular agency within one year and 90 days.
However, you must typically provide the political subdivision with notice of your impending lawsuit within 90 days of the accident to allow them a chance to settle before moving the case to court.
Exception for Wrongful Death
Certain family members can recover compensation for a loved one’s wrongful death but will have less time to file than the three-year deadline. Under E.P.T. Law § 5-4.1, the deceased’s personal representative must file a wrongful death lawsuit within two years from the date the victim passed.
Compensation in a Personal Injury Claim on Long Island
As an injured victim, you can recover compensation to cover your losses in the form of economic and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages
The court can grant compensation for your economic losses in a personal injury claim, including your medical bills, lost wages, and property damage.
Non-Economic Damages
Additionally, you can obtain compensation for non-economic losses. The best examples of these damages are your pain, suffering, and mental anguish. Due to the unique circumstances in every personal injury case, it is almost impossible to determine precisely how much your case may be worth.
Calculating Damages
Compensation is based on your calculation of damages. You can calculate your damages by keeping thorough records of all your expenses stemming from your personal injury.
Non-economic damages should also be accounted for, but they must be assessed differently. Non-economic damages are more subjective and are usually based on how they impact your daily life.
Accurate damages calculation is crucial. If you lose track of certain expenses and forget to add them to your damages, they might not be able to be claimed later.
Specific Types of Damages Our Long Island Personal Injury Lawyers Can Recover
There are multiple categories of damages that may be awarded to personal injury plaintiffs in Long Island. Our attorneys can help victims assess which of the following types of damages may be pursued in their cases:
Pain and Suffering
In addition to the physical pain caused by a personal injury, many victims suffer severe emotional anguish. For instance, a car crash victim who suffered spinal cord damage may be unable to engage in meaningful familial relationships after their accident.
Further, a slip and fall accident victim who suffered a traumatic brain injury may be prohibited from engaging in the same activities and hobbies they enjoyed before their fall.
When calculating compensation for pain and suffering, courts often look to the overall impact an injury had on a plaintiff’s life.
Medical Expenses
Our attorneys can also fight for compensation for all medical expenses related to victims’ injuries. Compensation for all past, current, and future medical bills may be sought. However, such damages are usually established through medical records. Therefore, it is important for victims to seek medical treatment and recover proper documentation of the harm they incurred.
Lost Income
Lost income is another form of monetary damages that may be awarded to personal injury plaintiffs in Long Island. In many cases, injured parties are forced to spend time away from work while their injuries heal.
Out-of-Pocket Expenses
Furthermore, personal injury plaintiffs may also seek monetary damages related to any out-of-pocket expenses they sustained because of their injuries. For example, a plaintiff may have to pay for expensive transportation to and from their medical appointments. In that case, our lawyers could help the victim recover monetary damages for the transportation costs they suffered.
Damages for out-of-pocket expenses are usually proven through receipts. Therefore, victims should save receipts for any expenses they sustain because of their personal injuries.
Property Damage
Lastly, personal injury plaintiffs can also recover compensation for any property damage they suffered because of their accidents. For instance, car accident victims usually incur some degree of damage to their vehicles.
Settlement Agreements in Long Island Personal Injury Claims
Many personal injury claims are resolved early through settlement agreements. A settlement agreement is a bargain struck between plaintiffs and defendants. The defendant agrees to pay a certain sum of money to cover the plaintiff’s damages, and the plaintiff agrees to drop the personal injury lawsuit.
How much money the defendant pays is one of the biggest issues of a settlement negotiation. Ideally, a defendant will pay close to all the damages initially claimed by the plaintiff. However, the defendant might agree to only pay a portion of these damages, depending on how strong your case is. If you have a strong case with a lot of supporting evidence, the defendant may be more willing to pay more to make the case go away.
How much a settlement is worth depends on the extent of your damages. A personal injury case with severe injuries and high medical bills may be worth a large sum of money.
Settlement negotiations may take a long time or be completed rather quickly. It all depends on the strength of your case and the willingness of the parties to compromise. A good settlement agreement should cover most, if not all, of your damages. Even if you cannot get all your damages covered, the settlement should still significantly reduce your financial burden.
Filing a Lawsuit vs. Accepting the Insurance Company’s Settlement
This is a complicated question, and the answer depends on what you want from your case. It also depends on the strength of your claims.
Recoverable Damages
Generally, plaintiffs who win lawsuits tend to see larger damages awards and more compensation than those who accept settlements. This is often due to the nature of settlement and the need for compromise. Plaintiffs who accept settlements usually give up some damages in exchange for faster compensation without the need for a trial.
If you have significant damages and very strong evidence to back them up, your odds of successfully winning a lawsuit might be greater, and it might be wiser to pursue a full trial to get the full extent of your damages covered.
Evidence Obtained
If you and your attorney have a hard time finding evidence, your claims might not be as strong as you would like, and accepting a settlement might be a good idea. This way, you will at least get some of your damages covered rather than losing everything in a trial.
This is a tough decision to make. The defendant might offer you a tempting settlement, but you and your lawyer might know your case is worth far more. Your decision to sue or accept a settlement should also take your wants and needs into consideration.
Personal Considerations
Trials and lawsuits are known for being complicated, time-consuming, and difficult. Many plaintiffs would rather accept a settlement than pursue a lawsuit to avoid the headache and anxiety of a trial.
On the other hand, some plaintiffs are not in this for the money. Instead, they want their day in court, and they want the defendant to be held accountable for the pain and injuries they caused.
Is Long Island Friendly to Personal Injury Cases?
Whether or not a jurisdiction is friendly to plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits typically comes down to the residents who will ultimately comprise the jury pool. Fortunately for injury victims, New York is one of the more plaintiff-friendly states in the country.
In general, judicial districts that are more liberal, like metropolitan areas, tend to be more favorable to plaintiffs, while conservative districts might not grant as high an award.
Filing in Nassau County vs. Suffolk County
Nassau County is closer to NYC and considered more moderate, so it might be more advantageous to file there if possible. Nassau County juries consistently return large verdicts for plaintiffs. In fact, a Nassau County jury granted the highest award in a personal injury lawsuit there in early May of 2025, which was over a $60,000,000 verdict.
Alternatively, Suffolk County tends to lean more conservative, which can make juries less sympathetic to plaintiffs’ cases. For comparison, the record-breaking personal injury award in Suffolk County was over $30,000,000. While awards can still be large, they might be considerably less than what victims might recover in Nassau County.
That said, no one can say for sure what a jury is likely to do in a particular case. Fortunately, your lawyers can question potential jurors before being selected, giving you a better chance of having a friendly jury.
State Court vs. Federal Court
Personal injury claims are typically filed in state court, but cases are sometimes filed in or removed to federal court, like those involving corporate defendants. However, NY state courts are considered much more favorable to injury victims than federal court.
Local court will typically draw jurors from the local population, who might identify with plaintiffs more than a larger jury pool drawing from areas outside of Long Island.
State court judges also tend to be more sympathetic to plaintiffs than federal ones, who are considered more conservative justices. State judges are elected in New York, while federal judges are appointed for life, and therefore, not directly accountable to the people in court.
However, you cannot file in any jurisdiction of your choice. Certain rules determine where personal injury lawsuits must be filed, but our team might be able to change venues to a more friendly one depending on the circumstances.
Where Do I File a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Suffolk and Nassau Counties?
Filing a personal injury lawsuit is not a simple task. Lawsuits can be filed at the courthouse where the case will be heard, but you cannot simply walk into any courthouse and file a lawsuit. Where you file your case depends on the jurisdiction your case falls under.
A number of factors about your case can help you determine what court has jurisdiction over your lawsuit. A personal injury lawsuit is a civil matter, so a civil court will hear your case. There are multiple civil courts in New York with multiple locations across Long Island and Nassau and Suffolk counties.
A personal injury case will likely be filed in either a County Court or the Supreme Court. County Courts are unique to the county in which they sit. This means that if your personal injury case arose in Nassau County, you would file your case in Nassau County Court. Similarly, a Suffolk County case would be filed in Suffolk County Court. These courts typically hear cases that are valued at less than $25,000.
If your case is valued at more than $25,000, it may need to be filed in the state Supreme Court.
What Evidence Do I Need for a Long Island Personal Injury Lawsuit?
The evidence needed for a personal injury lawsuit depends on the kind of injuries involved in the case. Anything that helps you prove that the defendant is liable for your injuries may be introduced as evidence as long as it meets legal evidentiary standards.
Photos and Videos
Photos and videos are common forms of evidence, especially since almost everyone has a phone with a camera nowadays. Photos and videos can be used to show a court what the accident looked like shortly after it occurred. This may be crucial in cases where the accident scene has been cleared away.
Witness Testimony
Witness testimony is also important to consider. If other people saw your accident happen, they can tell the court what they saw. Even if they did not witness the accident, they might still be able to discuss issues surrounding the case that are within their knowledge.
Physical Evidence
If your accident left behind any traces of physical evidence, these pieces must be collected and examined. For example, photographs of the damage to a car after a crash can be used to demonstrate the extent of your damages. If your case involves a faulty product, the faulty product itself can be used as physical evidence.
Accident Reports
Accident reports are often crucial to showing that an incident took place at the time and location it did.
For instance, you should report a car accident to the police while still on the scene. The police report will include important factual details, the defendant’s information, witness statements and contacts, and the police’s observations. We can determine which law enforcement agency wrote your report and recover it.
If you were injured in a business, report it to the manager. If they file an official report, we can obtain it when we demand evidence from their attorneys.
Medical Records
Without medical records, you cannot prove a large share of your economic damages. It will also be more challenging to link your injuries with the accident if you wait to get care. The defendant’s lawyers can argue that you were injured in some other way and blaming the previous accident.
If your doctors advise you on certain treatment plans and schedules, follow it to the letter. Insurance companies and defense attorneys will use any gap in your treatment to lower your compensation.
Financial Records
Financial records can help prove damages like lost income and lost earning capacity. Employment documents, tax returns, and other records can show was you made before the accident and what you earn now.
They can also prove the financial contributions a loved one made to their family in wrongful death cases.
How Our Long Island Personal Injury Attorneys Can Help Investigate Your Case
The details surrounding many personal injury claims are often fuzzy at best, but we have strategies to make the process clearer.
Investigate the Accident
A thorough investigation is usually required before we can put together a clear picture of how you were injured. While the police sometimes assist in investigating when criminal charges are implicated, this is not so in every case. Often, the police do not investigate or get involved at all.
Of course, investigations tend to begin at the location of your accident and injuries. For some, a lot of evidence is found at this location.
For others, the scene has been cleared away, and details are lost forever. We might use things like photos taken of the accident or your own recollection of the event to piece things together.
Employ Expert Witnesses
We might also employ accident reconstruction experts. These experts can take details from an accident and scientifically recreate how it happened. The more details we can provide the expert, the more accurate their reconstruction results may be.
Interview Eyewitnesses
We can also talk to witnesses. Eyewitnesses are people who saw your accident unfold before them. They might have details about how your accident occurred and who caused it.
Other witnesses might not have been present at the accident but still have some personal knowledge relevant to the case that links the defendant to the accident. Remember, not all witnesses are reliable.
Other Ways an Attorney Can Help Your Long Island Personal Injury Claim
Personal injury claims often take a long time to resolve and are rife with legal and procedural complexities. A skilled lawyer can help you begin your lawsuit, overcome any legal hurdles you might encounter, and get you the compensation you need to cover your damages.
File in the Appropriate Court
Our team can help you begin your case by filing with the right court. Multiple civil courts across Long Island in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties exist. Filing with the right court is crucial to your case. Filing with the wrong court may cost you precious time.
Collect Evidence
A lawyer can also help you with evidence gathering. Evidence comes in many forms, and plaintiffs might not know what kind of evidence they should be looking for in their cases. An attorney can help you find the right evidence to support your claims and use it in the most advantageous way possible.
Prepare You for Trial
Preparing for trial is a long and grueling endeavor, and a lawyer can help make the process easier. There are numerous pre-trial hearings to get through and rules that must be followed. A lawyer can help you navigate the process. If a trial is not the best option for your case, an attorney can assist you in settlement negotiations instead.
Long Island Personal Injury Referrals
Generally, two situations can arise requiring an attorney to refer a Long Island personal injury lawsuit. We can offer aid to attorneys who are seeking to make either of the following types of referrals:
Referrals from Attorneys in Other States
Personal injury cases usually should be filed where the accident at issue happened. When lawyers are contacted regarding personal injuries that occurred in far-away locations, they may need to refer the case to an attorney who is licensed to practice law in the right jurisdiction.
For example, if an out-of-state lawyer is contacted by a resident of their state regarding an injurious car accident that occurred in Long Island, they can refer the case to our Long Island personal injury lawyers. Our team can help victims of accidents that occurred in Long Island pursue the compensation they deserve.
Referrals from Attorneys in Other Fields
Also, our Long Island personal injury lawyers can accept referrals from attorneys specializing in other law fields. An attorney who does not usually handle personal injury cases can help victims by referring them to lawyers who can more easily address their needs.
Our Long Island Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help
For a free case assessment with our personal injury attorneys, call The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083.