New York City Vehicle Accident Lawyer

Vehicle crashes in New York City happen in conditions that exist almost nowhere else in the country. Twelve-lane expressways feed into narrow residential blocks. Delivery trucks double-park on streets that were never designed for them. Cyclists, pedestrians, and motor vehicles compete for the same few feet of pavement. When a collision happens here, the injuries are real, the insurance disputes get complicated fast, and the city’s no-fault system creates a procedural maze that catches people off guard. A New York City vehicle accident lawyer at Cohan Law Firm works through that maze every day, and we have recovered over $100 million for people hurt in exactly these situations.

What the NYC No-Fault System Actually Does to Your Case

New York is a no-fault state for auto insurance. That means after most vehicle accidents, your own insurance policy covers your initial medical bills and a portion of lost wages regardless of who caused the crash. Sounds straightforward. In practice, it creates serious problems for injured people who do not know the rules.

No-fault coverage has hard caps. If your injuries require surgery, rehabilitation, ongoing specialist care, or extended time away from work, those caps get exhausted quickly. The only way to step outside no-fault and pursue a claim directly against the driver who caused your injuries is to meet New York’s serious injury threshold. That threshold is defined by statute and requires proving things like a significant limitation of a body function, permanent consequential limitation of an organ or body part, or a medically determined injury that kept you from performing substantially all of your normal activities for at least ninety days.

Insurance adjusters know this threshold inside and out. They also know that injured people rarely do. Their job is to minimize what they pay. Our job is the opposite. When we take your case, we document your injuries in a way that speaks directly to what the law requires, not just what appears in a hospital discharge summary.

The Vehicles and Scenarios That Create the Most Serious Claims in New York City

Every vehicle accident claim is shaped by the type of crash, the type of vehicle involved, and where it happened. In New York City, that covers a wide range.

Car accidents on the BQE, the Van Wyck, the Cross Bronx, and local streets across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx account for a large share of serious injuries. Rear-end collisions at highway speeds, intersection T-bone crashes, and side-swipe accidents during lane changes are among the most common. Many of these involve drivers who were distracted, fatigued, or ignored traffic signals.

Truck and commercial vehicle accidents present different challenges. The size of the vehicle means the injuries are often far worse. Liability in these cases can extend beyond the driver to the trucking company, a maintenance contractor, or a cargo loading company depending on what caused the crash. Wide-turn accidents where a tractor-trailer sweeps into a cyclist or pedestrian are a recurring problem on city streets built before commercial freight grew to its current scale.

Rideshare accidents involving Uber, Lyft, and yellow cabs add another layer of complexity because multiple insurance policies may apply depending on whether the driver had a passenger, was waiting for a match, or was off the app entirely at the time of the crash. The same is true for livery vehicles and black cars.

Bus accidents, whether involving MTA buses or private carriers, often require a claim against a government entity. Those claims carry strict notice requirements, including a deadline to file a notice of claim that is much shorter than the standard statute of limitations. Missing that window can end a valid case before it starts.

Pedestrian and bicycle accidents round out the picture. NYC’s streets are among the busiest in the world for foot and bike traffic, and the injuries when a vehicle strikes someone on foot or on a bicycle are frequently catastrophic. Head trauma, fractures, spinal injuries, and amputations are not uncommon outcomes.

Proving Fault When Multiple Parties and Insurers Are Involved

New York follows a pure comparative negligence rule. That means even if you are found to be partially at fault for an accident, you can still recover compensation, reduced by your percentage of fault. The defense in many vehicle accident cases focuses heavily on shifting fault to the injured person. You were crossing against the light. You changed lanes without signaling. You were on your phone. These arguments come up whether or not they reflect what actually happened.

Building a strong liability case means gathering evidence quickly. Surveillance camera footage from nearby businesses or traffic cameras often overwrites itself within days. Witness contact information disappears fast in a city this size. Physical evidence at the scene changes. Black box data from commercial vehicles needs to be preserved before the trucking company’s own team gets to it.

When there is a disputed fact about how the crash happened, we work with accident reconstruction professionals who can analyze vehicle damage, skid marks, road geometry, and available footage to establish what the evidence actually shows. We also work with medical experts to connect your diagnosis and treatment to the crash itself, which matters enormously when the defense argues that your injuries were pre-existing.

In cases involving city vehicles or city-maintained road conditions, such as a pothole that caused a loss of control or a broken traffic signal that contributed to an intersection crash, there are additional procedural requirements and sovereign immunity considerations that affect how and where the claim is brought.

What Compensation a Vehicle Accident Claim Can Include

Compensation in a New York vehicle accident case can cover medical expenses past and future, including surgeries, physical therapy, home care, and assistive devices. It includes lost wages for time you could not work and, where injuries permanently affect your ability to earn, the projected loss of future income. Pain and suffering, which covers the physical experience of the injury as well as the emotional and psychological toll, is often the largest component of a serious injury settlement or verdict.

Property damage is recoverable as well, though that tends to move through a separate insurance channel. In cases involving especially reckless conduct, such as a drunk driver or someone who fled the scene, punitive damages are sometimes available, though they are far less common than compensatory damages.

There is no formula that produces a settlement number. What your case is worth depends on the severity and permanence of your injuries, the strength of the liability evidence, the available insurance coverage, and the credibility of your documentation. We tell clients what we actually see in their case, not what they want to hear.

Questions About Vehicle Accident Cases in NYC

How long do I have to file a vehicle accident lawsuit in New York?

The standard statute of limitations for personal injury cases in New York is three years from the date of the accident. However, claims against government entities, including the MTA or the City of New York, require a notice of claim filed within 90 days of the incident. If that deadline is missed, the right to sue is typically lost. Do not assume you have years to sort this out if a city vehicle or city road condition was involved.

Does it matter that I have no-fault insurance if the accident was not my fault?

Yes. No-fault covers your immediate medical costs and some lost wages regardless of fault, but it does not compensate you for pain and suffering or full economic losses above the coverage limits. To go beyond no-fault, you need to meet the serious injury threshold and bring a separate liability claim against the at-fault driver.

What if the driver who hit me did not have insurance?

New York law requires your own auto insurance policy to include uninsured motorist coverage. If the at-fault driver had no insurance, or fled the scene without being identified, your own uninsured motorist coverage becomes the primary source of recovery. Underinsured motorist coverage applies when the at-fault driver had some insurance, but not enough to fully cover your damages.

Can I still recover compensation if I was partially at fault?

Under New York’s pure comparative negligence rule, yes. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault. A finding that you were 20 percent at fault in a case with $500,000 in damages would reduce your award to $400,000. Defense attorneys work hard to increase the assigned fault percentage on the injured party, which is one reason having counsel matters.

What should I do in the days right after a vehicle accident in New York City?

Get medical attention, even if you think your injuries are minor. Some of the most serious injuries, including traumatic brain injuries and soft tissue damage to the spine, do not produce obvious symptoms immediately. File a police report. Take photographs of everything you can at the scene. Report the accident to your insurance company. Contact an attorney before giving any recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer.

How does Cohan Law Firm charge for vehicle accident cases?

We handle vehicle accident cases on a contingency fee basis. That means no fees unless we recover compensation for you. There is no cost to speak with us about your case.

Talk to a NYC Vehicle Accident Attorney at No Cost

Cohan Law Firm represents people hurt in vehicle accidents throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and beyond. We keep you informed at every step, we call you rather than waiting for you to follow up, and we do not move on your case without explaining what we are doing and why. If you were hurt in a crash on a New York City street, highway, or expressway, reach out today for a free consultation with a New York City vehicle accident attorney who will give you a straight answer about where your case stands.