Wantagh Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal Injury LawDepending on the nature and severity of your injuries, you could owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills for your treatment, in addition to being out a paycheck for the weeks or months that you missed work. In some cases, injuries are so severe that victims cannot return to their previous job and require ongoing therapy and care. Luckily, New York law offers a path for victims of careless, negligent, and malicious action to collect compensation for their injuries and other related losses.

A Wantagh personal injury lawyer can help you file a claim to cover your medical bills, lost wages, pain, and suffering, and more. We can offer the legal advice you need to understand your best options for compensation, and to ensure your rights remain protected. Whether you need help reviewing a settlement agreement from the insurance company or you are not even sure if you have a case, our injury lawyers can help.

Types of Personal Injuries

Personal injuries occur in a number of ways. Almost any situation where another party’s negligence caused your injuries warrants a personal injury claim. Some of the most common injuries that warrant the attention of a Wantagh injury attorney include:

  • Car accidents
  • Truck accidents
  • Pedestrian/bicycle accidents
  • Slips, trips, and falls/premises liability
  • Pool accidents
  • Dog bites
  • Bullying and cyberbullying
  • Construction/workplace accidents
  • Assaults and other crimes
  • School accidents
  • Concert and club accidents

It is important to note that New York State handles most car accident cases in a different way than the standard personal injury claim. NY drivers must carry no-fault car accident insurance, which pays out to cover your accident injuries no matter who caused the crash. Only if you meet the state’s strict serious injury threshold can you file a fault-based personal injury claim for compensation for pain and suffering and other losses.

What Has to be Established to Prove Negligence?

Before you can receive compensation for your losses, the insurance company will require you to show that its insured acted negligently. There are four factors you must establish in order to prove negligence:

  1. The liable party had a certain obligation to protect you from harm
  2. It failed to take action or took the wrong action, putting you in danger
  3. This failure directly lead to an accident and your injuries
  4. You suffered actual physical, emotional, or financial losses due to this accident

Even if the negligence is clear, there may be questions about your role in the accident and your resulting injuries. This is a tactic many insurance companies use to attempt to reduce the compensation due to accident victims, even when you did little to nothing to worsen your injuries. Under New York’s comparative negligence law, any role you played in causing or worsening your injuries reduces the amount of compensation you can collect.

For example, if you were texting when you slipped on an icy sidewalk, the court might rule you 25 percent responsible for your injuries. This would reduce the amount of compensation you could collect, limiting you to only 75 percent of your actual losses. A personal injury attorney in Wantagh can investigate and recreate your accident to help minimize your alleged contribution to your injuries, maximizing your payout.

Evidence Used in Personal Injury Claims

You or your personal injury lawyer in Wantagh will need to provide as much evidence as possible to prove both the negligence claim and your accident-related losses. This includes:

  • Medical records
  • Medical bills
  • Police reports
  • Pictures of the scene
  • Information from eyewitnesses

This is where having a knowledgeable lawyer can also make a major difference in your case. We can identify and interview expert witnesses, reconstruct accidents, and collect other key evidence in your case that might not be available to you as an individual.

Something as simple as a video of the accident from a nearby surveillance camera can sometimes almost single-handedly prove your claim, but might be difficult to get your hands on without an attorney.

Determining the Worth of An Injury Claim

It is impossible to put an exact figure on the value of your personal injury claim. However, once our injury lawyers review a case, we can offer an estimate of the damages due to you. We then use this estimate to negotiate a fair and just settlement from the insurer.

In many cases, though, we find that personal injury victims deserve a much larger settlement than the insurer believes they do. Those who pursue claims without the help of an attorney often leave thousands of dollars on the table and may walk away without enough money to cover their future medical needs or future lost wages. Let us help you calculate the estimated value of your losses, and we will ensure you do not miss anything.

Compensation from a personal injury claim can cover a wide variety of damages, including:

  • Medical treatment
  • Ongoing care costs
  • Lost wages
  • Treatment and accident-related out-of-pocket expenses
  • Pain and suffering and other noneconomic damages

What is the Length of An Accident Claim?

New York law sets a time limit of three years from the date of the injury to file a personal injury claim. While this might seem like all the time in the world, it takes a while to collect the necessary evidence and build a strong case. For this reason, it pays to call us as soon as your injuries stabilize and your doctor can offer a prognosis.

It is also important to note that if the negligent party was a city, county, or state government agency or one of their employees (e.g., you fell at a public park), New York law only gives you 90 days to file a Notice of Claim or you lose your right to compensation.

If this is a possibility in your case, you should contact us as soon as possible after your accident.

Speaking With a Wantagh Personal Injury Attorney

Goldstein & Bashner works with personal injury victims, ensuring they receive a just settlement for their losses. Our Wantagh personal injury lawyers can help you identify and investigate the cause of your injuries, file your claim before the statute of limitations expires, and fight for the compensation you deserve. Contact our firm to discuss your case.

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