The Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn is perhaps not the most popular place to own a car, but thousands of New Yorkers in the area drive for work, errands, and travel every day. If you were hurt in a car accident in Williamsburg or if you live there, our lawyers can help with your case.
For many, car accidents start with a no-fault insurance claim. This can cover some damages, but it will inevitably leave off damages for pain and suffering and much of your lost earnings in most cases. From there, you can potentially file a lawsuit or third-party insurance claim, but our lawyers can help you with every step of your case.
Call our car accident lawyers at The Carrion Law Firm for a free case evaluation by dialing (718) 841-0083.
Do I Need a Lawyer for a Car Accident Case?
In New York, we use a no-fault insurance system for car accidents. This might make it seem like you are working with your own car insurance company, and they work for you, so having a lawyer might be unnecessary. In most cases, this is a bad move.
You might not be able to determine how much your injury case is worth, especially if you are relying on your insurance company to tell you. Your insurance only covers limited compensation:
- Up to $50,000 unless you have higher policy limits
- Full medical care (up to policy limits)
- A portion of lost wages
- $25 per day in additional expenses.
This notably leaves off incredibly important damages:
- The rest of your lost wages
- Pain and suffering
- Other damages beyond the $50,000 coverage.
To get these damages, you need to file a claim against the other driver’s insurance or a lawsuit, but only if you are allowed to.
Accepting any money from their insurance can end your case, and not getting enough from your insurance can mean going without coverage. You can fix all of these issues by getting advice from a lawyer throughout your case.
When Can I File a Lawsuit for a Car Accident in Williamsburg?
Car accident lawsuits in New York can only be filed when there are “serious injuries” involved. This might sound like a high standard, but many common injuries would qualify under the definition of “serious injury.”
First, any broken bones are enough to qualify for a lawsuit. These, along with more serious injuries like any permanent injury, dismemberment, or loss of function all qualify.
Second, death or loss of a fetus qualifies, meaning you can always sue for a death in the family.
On top of these, any sufficiently disabling injury qualifies. This standard checks if you are unable to perform “usual and customary daily activities” for the next 90 days. These do not need to be sequential days as long as you are disabled for 90 of the next 180 days.
Should I File a Lawsuit or Settle with Insurance?
Our car accident lawyers would need to analyze your specific case to advise you as to whether you can potentially settle or whether you should go to court. Cases often need to go to court when insurance companies refuse to offer fair settlements or being to pull away from negotiating in good faith.
If your case goes to court, we need strong evidence to prove your claim at trial. Before a judge and jury, you need to present evidence and testimony that will convince them it is more likely than not that the other driver caused your crash. If you have this, then we do not need to be afraid of potentially going to trial over it.
However, most cases will settle. The question might just be when.
Early settlements are often far too low, and insurance companies do not even try to incorporate your reported damages into their calculations. Instead, it might take rounds of negotiation before they see that we are presenting them with a fair value and that they will lose if they try to fight in court.
What is My Car Accident Case Worth?
Much like how we cannot tell you whether to settle, we cannot tell you how much your case is worth until we examine the facts. However, in a free case review, we can begin to go over the potential damages you can claim and what would be relevant in your case.
Most injury cases have both economic and non-economic damages. This means claiming the full value of all expenses and lost income the accident caused you. Along with that, you can claim pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, and other “non-economic damages.”
Your insurance company will not cover all of this, so it is important to get these damages from the at-fault driver’s insurance.
Can the Defendant Afford to Pay Me?
Whether the defendant can actually afford to pay you or not will be something we always have to consider. If you were hit by a driver who was working for a company when the crash occurred – such as a trucker – then their employer can potentially afford any damages they caused you. When it comes to individual defendants, though, their insurance will be important.
Every insurance policy has a limit, and New York policies have a minimum coverage of $25,000 per person for injuries. On top of the $50,000 your insurance will cover, this might be enough. Additionally, many drivers do carry higher insurance.
If that does not cover your total damages, your policy might have additional coverages like Medpay or underinsured motorist coverage we can also look into.
We can also potentially have the defendant pay out of pocket for damages above their insurance limit. However, collecting those judgments is often difficult or impossible if the defendant is not independently wealthy and cannot afford them.
Who Can I Sue?
Most car accidents involve just two or three drivers. You can typically sue any driver involved in the crash, and they can each pay their fair share of the damages they caused you. That means that if they shared fault 50/50, each driver pays for half of your damages.
Sometimes auto manufacturers or mechanics can be sued if they contributed to the crash with defective auto parts or negligent maintenance. This might help you get damages when injuries are made worse because your brakes did not work or a defective airbag failed to deploy properly.
As mentioned, we can also potentially sue employers when their driver injures you while on the job.
Lastly, the owner of the vehicle and the driver are not always the same person. This, again, happens with commercial accidents, so the truck or bus company could be responsible for dangerous vehicles. It also happens with borrowed cars, where the owner might be liable to one or both drivers for injuries from a dangerous vehicle.
Can I Sue if I Was Partially at Fault?
Not every accident victim is perfect. You may have been speeding or following too closely, and the court might say that contributed to the crash. This does not block you from suing for damages in New York.
You can still claim the defendant’s share of damages against them. As with crashes involving multiple drivers, the court assigns partial blame to each driver with a percentage. This can include the victim, who loses that percent of the total damages.
The defendants still each pay you their fair share, no matter how high your percentage of fault was. This means you could even potentially sue for a crash where you were 99% at fault, but the payout would likely be too small to be worth it.
If you shared only a small percentage of fault, it is likely still worth pursuing damages.
Can I Sue if I Wasn’t Driving?
If you were hurt as a passenger, you can still potentially sue for injuries. However, you do still have to meet the serious injury threshold.
The driver of your car has to use their no-fault insurance to cover you and themselves, meaning some of your damages should be covered without proving fault. However, you still need to have serious injuries to sue the at-fault driver for damages beyond that.
Passengers usually cannot be blamed for a crash, so you should not have to worry about your damages being reduced for partial fault.
Can I Sue for a Hit and Run?
If you were involved in a hit and run crash, you can still sue if we can locate the driver. With the prevalence of security cameras – and through cooperation with the police – we might be able to locate the driver who hit you and take them to court as we would with any other driver for you.
Connecting them to the crash might be harder if they did not get out of the car and give you their contact information, but that is an issue for our car accident lawyers to worry about.
If you cannot locate the driver, your policy should have uninsured motorist (UM) coverage. New York law requires this coverage and allows it to be used for hit and runs. UM covers you as if it were the at-fault driver paying, meaning you can get pain and suffering this way even though it is your own insurance paying.
This means you would get your no-fault benefits plus UM coverage.
How Long Does a Car Accident Case Take?
The length of your case depends on a few factors:
- How much evidence you have
- How complex the situation was
- How much proof of fault there is
- How much proof there is (if any) that you contributed to the crash
- How serious your injuries are
- How expensive your damages are.
Generally, low-dollar cases with straightforward facts settle quite quickly, as insurance companies do not want to end up in court over what they consider small cases. On the contrary, a more expensive case with more complex facts might require months of evidence collection and negotiations, and it may need a week or more for a potential trial.
Most cases are not at these extremes, and a range of 4-8 months is somewhat common. However, it always varies, so discuss your potential timetables with your attorney.
Does My Immigration Status Affect My Lawsuit?
The courts in Williamsburg, throughout Brooklyn, and throughout New York City are open to everyone, regardless of immigration status. The same is true of insurance claims.
It is illegal to discriminate against you based on your immigration status or country of origin, and our attorneys can help you pursue compensation regardless of your status. We also have plenty of Spanish-speaking staff and attorneys, as well as a lawyer who speaks Arabic.
Can I File a Car Accident Lawsuit in Williamsburg if I am From Out of State?
Many people who find themselves in car accidents in Williamsburg may be visiting friends from out of town, in the City for a limited time, or just sightseeing on the weekend. Our lawyers can help you file your case here regardless of where you are from.
In most car accident cases, accident claims need to be filed in the court where they happened. This means that if you are from out of state, we can file your claim in Kings County (i.e., Brooklyn) and handle as much of your claim as possible without you needing to come back.
If your case does go to trial, we may need you to appear in court, but we can always discuss remote and videoconferencing options.
Do I Need to Call the Police to Report a Crash?
All accidents involving injuries or sufficient property damage must be reported to the police. When you are involved in a crash, call 911 and request a police officer and an ambulance if anyone needs medical care.
Reporting the crash to the police means they will write a police report, which can help you access evidence you might have missed. It should include the names and contact info of all parties, the location of the accident, lists of injuries, and more.
Call Our Car Accident Attorneys in Williamsburg Today
For your free case review in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, call The Carrion Law Firm’s car accident attorneys at (718) 841-0083 today.
