An injury can disrupt your life, adding financial strain and daily challenges that feel overwhelming. You don’t have to go through this process alone. If your injury was caused by the negligence of someone else or a company, contact our personal injury attorneys immediately. We’ll investigate your accident, determine if you have a case, and help you file within the statute of limitations. Recovering full compensation for your financial losses and personal suffering is difficult without legal support. Our team can build a strong case to hold the responsible party accountable.
How Often Are People Injured in Queens?
It likely comes as no surprise that accidents are common in Queens. Since January of 2023, Queens has seen over 13,000 car accidents alone. Queens’ car accidents accounted for almost 14,000 injured drivers and passengers during this period. In addition, nearly 3,000 pedestrians were injured, as well as over 1,000 cyclists. A number of these accidents even proved fatal, with over 100 injury-related deaths in the borough since the beginning of 2023.
Queens is also a hotspot for slip and fall and workplace injuries, given the many businesses and industries that are based here. This means that negligent accidents can happen virtually anywhere in Queens and on a daily basis. Regardless of the type of accident you suffered, our personal injury attorneys can help you get compensation by filing a lawsuit. Even if you take every precaution, other people can still inflict injuries upon you. When they do, our team will be there to help hold them responsible.
The Average Value of a Personal Injury Case in Queens
Personal injury victims in Queens are naturally concerned with the value of their claims. However, there is no true “average” in the sense that certain types of cases get certain kinds of compensation. Each case is unique, and the amount of damages you get will depend on a number of factors specific to your circumstances. Fortunately, our attorneys can assess your claim to get an average value of what we should demand from the defendant.
Our team will evaluate several criteria that can positively influence the value of your claim. The severity of your injuries will be a crucial factor in our settlement negotiations. For instance, you will likely receive much more compensation for a traumatic brain injury than a broken arm. You will need to visit the doctor more often after a serious accident and might require several surgeries as part of your rehabilitation.
Broken bones heal, and, in most cases, victims move on to a perfectly normal life. Victims of serious injuries, like spine and head trauma, often require treatment long into the future, if not indefinitely. Thus, the value of your case will tend to be higher, and your injuries will be more significant.
You will likely have extensive costs from the long-term impact of serious injuries. Maybe you need to make structural adjustments to your car or home to accommodate the changes your injuries have created. In other cases, you might need extensive mental health treatment to cope with the accident. These should be included in your settlement, increasing its value.
Our lawyers will also assess how your injuries have impacted your daily life. For instance, your claim should be more valuable if you cannot participate in normal activities and hobbies you did before your accident. Perhaps you cannot play a sport you enjoy or spend the same amount of time playing with your children. You should be compensated for this loss in the enjoyment of life.
What Compensation is Available for Personal Injury Cases?
Injured victims in an accident often struggle with expensive medical treatment and are prevented from returning to work. This can make it impossible to continue life normally. This can be made worse if you have family members or others depending on your income. The good news is that compensation or “damages” is often available, and you can fight to get money to cover your losses for medical treatment, pain and suffering, and lost future wages.
Medical bills can be one of the most significant losses you can face after your accident. The medical treatment, medication, and therapy you may require can be costly. Even if you have medical insurance, the costs associated with medical services can be too steep. However, this is something you can recover through your personal injury claim. In many cases, the damages awarded for medical bills are one of the most significant. Your personal injury lawyer in Queens can help you fight for this compensation.
If your injuries keep you from returning to your job, you may fight for compensation. In a personal injury claim, injured victims can fight to get compensation for their lost wages during and after medical treatment. If your injuries prevent you from performing the work you once did and you are now forced to take a less-paying job, the damages for lost wages can cover the difference. Compensation meant to compensate victims for the financial impact of an accident, such as medical bills and lost wages, is known as economic damages in a personal injury lawsuit.
As we mentioned, insurance companies often leave your pain and suffering out of their compensation equation. However, you can fight for these types of damages through a personal injury lawsuit.
How Are Damages Calculated in a Personal Injury Claim?
It is helpful to have a personal injury lawyer by your side when calculating and projecting your potential compensation. Moreover, your attorney can help you maximize your compensation through a compelling and effective presentation of your case. Some of your damages, such as hospital expenses, lost wages, and loss of property, can be easily calculated because there are ways to quantify them. However, calculating your non-economic damages may be more challenging.
Calculating amounts for damages that re more abstract in nature, such as pain and suffering, may require a unique approach and presentation of evidence. When the court assigns a value to your case, it considers all of the facts in your case. In order to accurately represent your damages, it’s essential to track and accurately describe the full extent of your losses in a way that guides the court toward awarding an amount that truly reflects what you’ve endured.
To achieve this, your personal injury lawyer may advise you to start a log/journal and keep all medical documents following a devastating accident. While calculating non-economic damages can be challenging, our attorneys will strive to properly demonstrate your pain and suffering so that you can recover sufficient compensation for all difficulties caused by a defendant, financial and emotional.
Filing a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Queens
The victims of serious accidents are often presented with different ways to deal with their injuries and recovery process. In many cases, injured victims have the option to settle a claim with an insurance company. However, the damages available in this case may not be enough to cover the entirety of your losses, medical bills, and/or suffering.
Insurance claims will only provide coverage for economic losses in an accident. This means you will only be able to recover compensation for property damage, medical bills, and lost wages. What insurance companies will leave out – and will never tell you about – is compensation for non-economic damages, which include things such as your pain and suffering. This is the main reason why filing a personal injury claim can be the best option for you.
How Long Do You Have to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Queens?
According to C.V.P. Law § 214, victims will typically have three years from the dates of their accidents to bring their personal injury lawsuits to court in Queens. Failure to adhere to this deadline could cause you to forfeit your claim. Furthermore, crucial evidence can become difficult to collect and preserve as time goes on. The sooner a potential plaintiff gets in touch with our Queens attorneys for a personal injury referral, the more easily we may gather the information needed to support their case.
Proving Fault in a Personal Injury Case
The vast majority of personal injury cases in Queens stem from other people’s negligence. To prove fault, we need to show that the defendant acted in a way that fell below the level of care a reasonable person would have given, and it caused your harm. This can be broken down into the following elements discussed below:
Duty
The first step to prove fault is to show that the defendant owed you a legal duty. This might sound complex, but it is relatively straightforward to prove. For instance, drivers have a duty of care to all other road users to act with care by following the traffic laws.
In other cases, duty is established by the relationship between you and the defendant. In medical malpractice cases, we would show that the doctor or other healthcare provider had a duty to you as their patient.
Breach
Next, we will have to prove that the defendant breached their duty of care. “Breach” is a legal term of art that simply refers to the defendant’s action or inaction that caused your injuries.
In the example above, a driver would breach their duty of care if they injured you because they were texting while driving. Your doctor could breach their duty of care without acting, such as a misdiagnosis. Our lawyers have the experience to identify where the breach occurred in your case and argue it in court.
Causation
The third element we need to show to prove fault is causation. Your damages must be the result of the breach. They cannot be the result of some prior accident or condition. However, you can claim damages if the accident caused prior injuries to worsen.
Causation might be obvious in some cases. For instance, we usually do not need to argue much over causation for neck injuries after a rear-end accident. Sometimes, though, causation is murkier, especially if there are multiple defendants in the case. Either way, our team will present evidence that proves your injuries would not have happened but for the defendant’s negligence.
Damages
The last element to prove is that you suffered “real” damages. In most cases, unkind words or offensive acts are not enough to recover compensation. You will need to show that you sustained financial or psychological harm.
The most common forms of damages are medical bills, property damage, and lost wages. However, you can also get compensation for your emotional damages, also known as “pain and suffering.” Our team will organize and submit the documentation that shows these damages and determine an estimate for your non-economic damages.
Contributory Negligence
Contributory negligence is not actually an element you need to prove, but one that can present serious issues in a personal injury claim. If you are found to have contributed to your accident, you will lose out on some of the compensation you are awarded, according to C.V.P. Law § 1411.
The good news is that this law will not completely bar you from recovering damages. You can still file a lawsuit even if you partially caused the accident. Even if you think it was mostly your fault, we can still help you recover compensation for the portion of the accident the defendant caused.
Basically, the award granted by the court will be reduced by the percentage you were found at fault. For instance, if you won $100,000 but were found 25% at fault for the accident, your award would be reduced by $25,000. However, you will be responsible for your share of other victims’ damages if you are found contributorily negligent. Our team will gather evidence to fight claims you caused your injuries.
Establishing Liability in an Injury Case in Queens
To prove the elements above and establish the defendant’s liability, you will need evidence. Evidence in most personal injury cases comes from a variety of sources. Some of the evidence will be in your possession, while other pieces will need to be fought for. Our lawyers will gather everything relevant to your case while you focus on your recovery. Below are common types of evidence we use to establish liability in Queens:
Accident Reports
Accident reports will likely be the first place we start investigating your claim. Accident reports typically have many details about the accident, including who was involved, when it happened, and where. If you were injured in a Queens vehicle accident, the police should have made a report that could include whether blame was assigned. You can get a free copy of your crash report from the NYPD online.
If you were injured in a store, nightclub, or sports venue, the business likely made an accident report. Our lawyers will get a copy for your claim if they do not provide one on the scene. In many cases, these reports will lead to other forms of evidence.
Evidence from the Scene
You might already have some evidence. If you took photos or videos of the accident scene or your injuries, these can be used as evidence in your case. Or, you might have the evidence in hand, like a defective product that injured you.
Our team will also investigate the scene to obtain additional pictures that could help give context to the court. If cameras were installed nearby, we might also be able to obtain surveillance footage.
Witness Testimony
Many personal injury cases come down to witness testimony, including your own. Our lawyers will help prepare you so that you can explain your case and how it has impacted you. We will also arrange for other witnesses to testify. Even if they cannot appear physically in court, our team can usually take their statements under oath during discovery, which could be used later. If your accident or injuries are complex, we will make sure an expert testifies so the court understands the extent of your damages.
How Much Does it Cost to Hire Our Queens Personal Injury Attorneys?
Some personal injury victims do not pursue the justice they should because they falsely believe they cannot afford an attorney. That is because they think lawyers work on flat and hourly fees. Many corporate attorneys charge a flat fee for basic services, like writing a will, while others charge hourly because the timeframe of the case is uncertain.
However, most personal injury attorneys, like ours, work on a contingency fee basis. This method pays your attorney for their results rather than the specific work they did on your case. The contingency fee will be different in each case, as it is a percentage of the final settlement or award you recover. For example, if you recover $50,000 and your contingency fee is 30%, your attorney will collect $15,000 for legal fees and work time. This system has several benefits and allows our team to get your case started immediately.
You Pay Nothing Upfront
The fact that you pay nothing upfront is arguably the most beneficial aspect of using contingency fees. This way, you do not need to worry about the initial costs you would need to pay just to get your case started. At our initial meeting, our lawyers will sign an agreement with you detailing the contingency fee in your case. From there, we will take care of all the court costs, including the filing fees for your complaint.
You Pay Nothing if We Lose
Contingency fees are based on results. If our team does not recover compensation in your case, then we have not earned our fee. As mentioned, the fee is determined by the final amount of your settlement or verdict, and any percentage of $0 is nothing. So if we do not win your case, you pay nothing.
Contingency Fees Cover the Costs of Your Case
Your contingency fee agreement not only allows you to start your case immediately, but it will also cover the costs associated with litigating it. This includes the costs of preparing your insurance claims. It will also pay for the time it takes to respond to claim denials and file your complaint in court if settlement negotiations fail.
If we do need to take the case to trial, you will still not be required to pay a fee. The costs of preparing for trial, gathering evidence, and presenting the case to a jury will be covered.
You Get an Honest Evaluation of Your Case
Because our lawyers work on a contingency, there is an economic incentive to fight for the maximum compensation possible. Our team will never settle for less than what your injuries deserve. Our lawyers tend to have a good idea of whether a case is winnable when we take one on, so you will get our honest assessment of your chances and the options you have.
We will also take the time necessary to thoroughly evaluate your damages. We need to fully understand your injuries so the right amount can be negotiated. We will never rush your case just to get a faster settlement. While some cases can take time, it is often necessary to get the full value of your claim.
Referrals for Personal Injury Cases in Queens County
Our experienced attorneys are prepared to accept personal injury case referrals from lawyers in other states and lawyers in other areas of practice. Our team has years of experience recovering compensation for injuries related to accidents that occur in Queens.
Our Queens Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help
Call The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083 to receive a free case review with our personal injury lawyers.
