Sustaining a personal injury is often one of the most traumatic experiences in a person’s life. Many people do not know how to recover damages after being injured.
Fortunately, recovery is possible. Each type of injury case presents its own challenges and requires different pieces of evidence to prove each element of a personal injury lawsuit. While personal injury cases can be complex, there are many steps you can take that can significantly increase your chances of recovering compensation later. Recovery in a lawsuit requires evidence, the specifics of which will depend on your case.
Contact The Carrion Law Firm today at (718) 841-0083 to have our Staten Island personal injury lawyers review your case for free.
What to Do After Suffering a Personal Injury in Staten Island
An incident that causes a personal injury can often be chaotic, and a victim might not know what to do at that moment. While that is understandable there are certain steps that, if taken, can significantly improve your chances of recovering compensation later. These include getting medical care, reporting your injuries, taking photos, and reviewing your legal options.
Once you have received medical treatment, you should reach out to our attorneys to determine your legal options. Our personal injury lawyers will start gathering evidence for your case immediately so that there are no unnecessary delays in recovering compensation. If you were hurt because of another person’s negligence, you can likely sue for injury in Staten Island.
Reporting Your Injuries After an Accident in Staten Island
Victims should take the time to report their injuries to the necessary parties. Depending on the case, you might have to call the police. Alerting law enforcement is often necessary when auto accidents occur in Staten Island.
If you were hurt at work or on another person’s property, inform the necessary people of your injuries. You can do this in writing so that there is evidence of your correspondence.
Calling the police can result in an official incident report, parts of which can be used as evidence in your case. Failing to report your injuries at all, whether to the police or directly to the negligent party, might result in insufficient documentation that an accident ever took place.
Getting Medical Care for Your Injuries
Of course, one of the first thing you should do after sustaining a personal injury is to receive medical attention. Even if you do not believe your immediate injuries are severe, you should still seek medical care.
Going to the hospital could uncover underlying injuries that you did not notice. This starts the important process of documenting your injuries and the accident.
In the days, weeks, and months following your accident, continue attending visits with doctors and medical specialists. Carefully follow all guidelines of your treatment plan, including surgeries, physical therapy, prescription medication, and any other treatments necessary to help you heal from your injuries. If you do not appear committed to your physical recovery, your case might be hindered.
Furthermore, having gaps in your medical treatment or medical records might make it more challenging to draw the connection between your injuries and the negligence of another party.
Taking Photos to Preserve Evidence of the Injury or Accident
If you can, take photos of your injuries and the accident location.
For example, suppose you were hurt in the stairwell of your apartment building because of a leak that caused you to slip. In this type of situation, taking pictures of the area can allow you to gather evidence of a landlord’s negligence.
If you were harmed in an auto accident, photograph debris and property damage to your vehicle.
Take pictures of your injuries too. This will preserve how severe they appeared at the time of the incident, rather than how they look later after having time to heal. If you are too injured to take pictures, ask emergency personnel or witnesses for help.
Recoverable Damages in Personal Injury Claims in Staten Island
Various damages are recoverable, regardless of the type of personal injury claim you file in Staten Island. These include damages for economic losses and non-economic losses.
Economic Damages
The first set of damages victims are entitled to receive is for economic damages. These are all of the financial losses you have sustained because of an accident.
When you provide proof of your financial damages in the form of medical bills, past paystubs, employment records, and evidence of other out-of-pocket expenses, you can more easily recover compensation for these losses. All costs related to an injury should be reported to our lawyers.
If there is no proof that certain damages have been incurred, victims cannot recover compensation for them.
Non-Economic Damages
Then, there is possible compensation for non-economic losses. These losses include emotional and mental challenges victims might experience in the aftermath of an accident that causes them injury.
In Staten Island, victims are typically not limited regarding recovery of non-economic damages.
That said, in certain cases, like wrongful death claims, compensation for pain and suffering is not available. However, victims’ families can recover non-economic damages by filing a concurrent survival action.
Punitive Damages
Finally, there are punitive damages. Punitive damages are not compensatory damages and are used to punish or make an example out of defendants.
Punitive damages are only recoverable if a defendant exhibited gross negligence when causing an injury. Because of this, not all injury victims are able to recover punitive damages in Staten Island. We can review the circumstances of your case to determine whether or not punitive damages are a possibility for you.
Proving Negligence in a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Staten Island
Personal injury cases caused by another person’s carelessness or recklessness are considered negligence lawsuits.
If the negligent party owed you a duty of care and breached that duty, injuring you, they can potentially be held liable for their negligence.
For example, car drivers must care for themselves and others using the road. If they negligently cause a car accident, they should be held accountable for the damages a victim incurs. Slip and fall accidents and product liability cases are other common examples of personal injury cases based on negligence.
In these cases, you must prove that the other party owed you a duty of care, breached that duty of care, the accident occurred because of the breach, and you incurred damages. This will require proof of negligence, which can be accomplished with evidence like witness statements, accident reports and medical records.
Comparative Negligence Rules in a Personal Injury Claim
Some injury victims can lose compensation for their own possible careless behavior when filing a lawsuit. Defense attorneys and insurance companies often claim that the plaintiff was negligent to avoid paying some compensation.
Luckily, people can still file a lawsuit and recover damages, even if they were partly at fault. Under C.V.P. Law § 1411, New York’s pure comparative negligence law, each party pays for their own percentage of negligence.
If the evidence shows that the plaintiff is partially at fault, the court will assign a percentage to their negligence. This share will then be subtracted from the victim’s final award.
For instance, the court concludes that the defendant was 70% at fault and you 30% liable after awarding you $100,000 in compensation. The defendant would owe you $70,000, leaving you responsible for the remaining $30,000 in damages.
The rule is very plaintiff friendly, so you stand a good chance of recovering something. Allow our team to review the facts before deciding that you are to blame.
Evidence Used to Prove Fault in a Personal Injury Lawsuit
Proving fault in a personal injury case requires evidence. Otherwise, victims will be unable to meet the burden of proof and recover the compensatory damages they need in Staten Island.
Some personal injury cases can be fairly straightforward, taking little time to resolve in a victim’s favor. For instance, a small fender bender that causes minor injuries might only require a select few pieces of evidence for our attorneys to successfully negotiate an insurance settlement on your behalf.
Other personal injury cases are incredibly complex, requiring a great deal of evidence gathering, investigation, and expert testimony. There may be many different sources from which evidence will need to be collected depending on the type of personal injury case.
Some common pieces of evidence used to prove fault in a personal injury lawsuit in Staten Island include police accident reports, other accident reports, physical evidence from the scene, photographic evidence of the scene, photographic evidence of a victim’s injuries, surveillance camera footage, medical records, business and employment records, property records, witness testimony, and expert testimony.
This list is by no means exhaustive. Many other sources might harbor important evidence that our we can help you obtain.
When investigations are delayed, things like surveillance footage and eyewitness statements might become increasingly difficult to obtain. Some evidence might get lost or destroyed if not collected immediately after an accident.
Strict Liability for Personal Injury Cases in Staten Island
Rarer types of personal injury cases are based on what is known as strict liability. In typical strict liability cases, a business or property owner is held responsible for injuries, regardless of whether they were negligent in causing a victim’s injuries.
Essentially, the plaintiff in a strict liability lawsuit is not required to prove negligence on the part of a defendant but must show that they did not assume the danger. Our lawyers are ready to help you with your personal injury case, no matter how your injuries came about.
Filing Deadlines for Personal Injury Cases in Staten Island
If you have been negligently injured in Staten Island, you usually have three years under § 214(5) to file a personal injury claim. The limitations period starts from the date of your accident. If you fail to file within this time, you will lose your chance to get compensation. However, there are some exceptions to this rule for certain situations.
Parents can file personal injury cases for their children anytime until they turn 18. After they reach adulthood, these victims have three years to file a claim under § 208(a).
If a victim had a legal disability at the time of the accident, they also have three years from the date the disability is removed.
If a defendant resides out of the state or provides a false name and cannot be identified after four months, the time will not count against the statute of limitations under § 207.
According to § 214-A, you must file your medical malpractice lawsuit within two years and six months. If the claim is over a foreign object that you later discovered in your body, you have one year from the discovery to file.
To file a claim against the government, you must typically do so within one year and 90 days of the accident under § 217-A. Before that, you must provide the government agency with notice of your claim within the first 90 days following your accident.
Is Staten Island More Friendly to Plaintiffs in a Personal Injury Lawsuit?
There is not much data showing that Staten Island is any more favorable to plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits than other boroughs in New York City.
Whether a location is considered “friendly” to plaintiffs often depends on various factors, such as where the plaintiff can file their lawsuit, the jury pool, and past personal injury awards in that jurisdiction.
Potential Jurors
There is a general understanding that jurors in so-called liberal counties, like Bronx and King County, are typically more friendly to plaintiffs than those in conservative ones, like Richmond County, where Staten Island is located.
Over half of Staten Island’s households have an annual income of over $100,000. A jury pool comprised of these residents might not be as sympathetic to an injury victim as a jury in Brooklyn, where household income is more evenly distributed throughout the community.
For instance, a Brooklyn jury awarded a plaintiff over $110,000,000 in damages, which eventually settled for $65,000,000. Comparatively, the highest civil award in Staten Island was nearly $23,000,000.
Other Considerations When Filing a Personal Injury Lawsuit
Besides the statute a limitations, there are some other things to keep in mind if you are considering filing a personal injury case.
Filing in the Proper Venue
While injury victims cannot file in any court they want, there is some flexibility in their options. Under C.V.P. Law § 503(a), you can file in either the county where one of the case’s parties resides or where substantial parts of the accident happened.
For example, if you live in Staten Island, but the accident occurred in Brooklyn, if might be better to file where you were injured since Brooklyn juries tend to be more sympathetic to personal injury victims.
If the defendant is a corporation, the lawsuit can typically be filed in the county where its principal office is located.
Auto Insurance Rules
Many personal injury claims are for car accidents, so the state’s no-fault insurance limitations are important.
Under these rules, auto accident victims do not have an automatic right to file a lawsuit. Only those with “serious injuries,” as defined by I.S.C. Law § 5102(d), can file a claim for economic and non-economic damages. This rule also applies to filing third-party claims against the other driver’s insurance.
If you cannot file a third-party claim or a lawsuit, you will only recover compensation for certain economic losses, like medical expenses and lost income. We can gather your medical records and have your doctors certify that your injuries are serious.
Workplace Accidents
Employees injured on the job might also be prevented from filing a lawsuit against their employer or coworker because of Workers’ Compensation laws. For most injured workers, these benefits are their sole remedy.
However, workers injured in a scaffolding accident can usually overcome Workers’ Compensation’s limits on lawsuits under L.A.B. Law § 240. Property owners, general contractors, and others responsible for scaffolding and safety devices can be sued for these accidents.
Our Staten Island Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help
For a free case assessment from our personal injury lawyers, call The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083.
