New York Personal Injury Lawyer

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Personal injury cases involve any incident that causes injury to a person, including product liability, premises liability, property damages, and medical malpractice. When you suffer injuries because of another person’s or entity’s negligence, you could recover damages such as monetary compensation for your injuries and losses.

Whether you think you have a case or not, you should contact a personal injury lawyer with extensive experience with similar injuries, as the law surrounding these types of cases is complex.

A New York personal injury lawyer at Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA, can conduct a free case evaluation to determine the validity of your case.

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Why Choose Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA

New York personal injury attorney

Take the burden of your complex personal injury case off your shoulders. Instead of worrying about meeting deadlines and arguing with insurance companies, let a legal team with experience in personal injury law handle these stressors for you.

Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA, handles various personal injury cases, including car accidents, slip and fall accidents, dog bites, medical malpractice, and product liability cases with personalized attention. Every case is different—you might have the same type of personal injury case as someone else but could recover more or less compensation because your injuries are unique.

The attorneys at Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA, have been recognized, being named to the top 100 trial lawyers by the National Trial Lawyers, and receiving a perfect score on Avvo.com.

Here are just a few of our firm’s previous case results.

  • $6,703,000 in a wrongful death case
  • $5,000,000 in a car accident that resulted in burn injuries
  • $3,850,000 in a truck accident that resulted in a brain injury

We cannot guarantee the outcome of your claim, no matter how similar it may seem to other incidents. However, we can guarantee that we will give every case the same level of attention and dedication to ensure you can recover the compensation you deserve.
Our New York office is in the Bronx, but we know that sometimes you can’t get to us. We’ll meet you in person in your hospital room or at your home, or we can set up a virtual meeting. Our case evaluations are always free and without obligation. Contact our office to set up your free case evaluation.

Recovering Damages After Being Injured in a Personal Injury Case

The amount of compensation you could recover after being injured and suffering losses because of another person’s or entity’s negligence varies widely depending on the circumstances of the incident and the severity of your injuries.

Personal Injury Case Injuries

Depending on how you suffered injuries, whether in a car accident, at the hands of a negligent medical professional, because of a bad product, or because of a property liability case such as a dog bit or slip and fall, your injuries could include:

  • Cuts, bruises, scratches, and scrapes
  • Road rash
  • Sprains and strains
  • Pulled and torn muscles or other soft tissue injuries
  • Simple and compound fractures
  • Crushed bones and crush injuries
  • Internal injuries, whether from punctures, blows, or errors by a medical professional
  • Infections such as MRSA
  • Face and eye injuries
  • Ear injuries, including deafness
  • Lung injuries from breathing in chemicals or smoke
  • Head, neck, and shoulder injuries
  • Traumatic brain injuries
  • Back and spinal cord injuries
  • Birth injuries

If your accident injuries caused pre-existing injuries or illnesses to worsen, you could also recover compensation for the additional expenses and pain and suffering for those injuries. Additionally, if you suffer secondary injuries, such as infections or amputations, because of accident injuries, you could claim compensation for those as well.

A personal injury attorney at Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA, works with a team of other professionals to review medical records and other pertinent documentation and evidence to determine whether your accident injuries might cause long-term or permanent disabilities. You may be able to claim additional compensation for disabilities that you will have for the rest of your life.

Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Cases

New York personal injury lawyer

New York has a statute of limitations for recovering compensation for injuries caused by a negligent person or entity.

Different types of personal injuries can carry different statutes of limitations which dictate how much time a victim has to file a suit following their injury.

  • Car accidents have a statute of limitations of three years from the date of the accident.
  • Emotional distress cases that are intentional have a statute of limitations of one year from the date of the incident.
  • Emotional distress cases that are unintentional have a statute of limitations of three years. An example might be the emotional distress you might suffer in a car accident where you don’t have other injuries.
  • Medical malpractice cases have a statute of limitations that is two years and six months from the date of the incident in most cases.
  • Negligence that results in personal injury that doesn’t have a separate statute has a statute of limitations of three years from the date of the incident.
  • Product liability cases have a statute of limitations of three years.
  • Slip and fall cases have a statute of limitations of three years from the date of the incident.
  • Wrongful death cases have a statute of limitations of two years from the date of death.

Though it might seem as if you have a long time to start legal proceedings, including settlement negotiations, you should contact a NY personal injury lawyer as soon as possible after the accident. The sooner you begin the process, the more likely evidence is still available and your memory of the incident is still fresh and accurate.

How Much You Could Recover After a Personal Injury Accident

Depending on the incident and your injuries, you could recover compensatory damages in the form of economic and non-economic damages.

Economic Damages

Sometimes referred to as special damages, economic damages have a monetary value and include:

  • Medical expenses, including doctors’ appointments, surgeries, follow-up appointments, physical therapy appointments, occupational therapy appointments, psychological therapy appointments, and cognitive therapy appointments. You could also recover compensation for prescriptions, ambulatory aids, hand controls for your vehicle, and accessibility upgrades to your home, including widened doorways and ramps. Finally, you could also recover compensation for home health care and nursing or rehabilitation care.
  • Loss of earning capacity, including loss of future earning capacity if you can no longer work or if you lose a loved one in a personal injury accident who is a bread winner.
  • In certain incidents, such as car accidents, you could recover compensation for the repair or replacement of damaged or destroyed personal property.
  • Death-related expenses, including burial and funeral expenses, cremation expenses, and probate attorney’s fees and costs.

Non-economic Damages

Sometimes referred to as general damages, non-economic damages do not have a monetary value. Not all those injured in a personal injury case can recover non-economic damages.

In most cases, if your injuries cause long-term or permanent disabilities or if you lost a loved one because of another’s negligence, you could recover non-economic damages, including:

  • Pain and suffering, including emotional distress.
  • Loss of quality of life if you have to make lifelong changes such as taking prescriptions or using ambulatory aids.
  • Loss of companionship if you can no longer enjoy spending time with your family or attend family activities and events.
  • Loss of consortium if you can no longer enjoy a physical relationship with your spouse.
  • Loss of use of a body part, such as a leg or a hand.
  • Loss of use of a bodily function, such as your eyesight or bladder.
  • Inconvenience if you have to hire someone to do the chores you usually do, including but not limited to grocery shopping, lawn maintenance, and house cleaning.
  • Disfigurement and/or excessive scarring.
  • Amputation of a digit or limb.

Types of Personal Injury Accidents

New York personal injury

Personal injury covers many types of accidents. Not all attorneys have experience in all types of personal injury cases. When looking for a personal injury attorney, always check to ensure the firm handles your type of case.

Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA, handles a wide breadth of personal injury cases, including:

  • Car accidents, truck accidents, and motorcycle accidents
  • Pedestrian accidents
  • Bicycle accidents
  • Spinal cord injury cases
  • Back and neck injury cases
  • Birth injuries
  • Traumatic brain injuries
  • Burn injuries
  • Assisted living abuse cases
  • Product liability cases, such as baby food autism, CPAP machines, defective medications, firefighting foam lawsuits, hip devices, paraquat, roundup, and others.
  • Bad faith insurance claims
  • Boat accidents
  • Bus accidents
  • Camp Lejeune injuries
  • Child injuries, including child sexual abuse cases
  • Construction accidents
  • Human trafficking
  • Maritime law
  • Medical malpractice
  • Mesothelioma lawsuits
  • Nursing home abuse
  • Oil rig injuries
  • Opioid lawsuits
  • Premises liability lawsuits, such as slip and fall incidents and dog bites
  • Property damages lawsuits
  • Sexual abuse cases
  • Train accidents
  • Lyft and uber accidents
  • Workers’ compensation cases
  • Wrongful death cases

Fighting Insurance Companies

Insurance companies cover most accidents. Auto insurance covers vehicle accidents, homeowner’s insurance covers accidents that happen on individuals’ properties, medical malpractice insurance covers medical malpractice cases, and businesses have some form of business insurance to cover accidents at businesses.

After an accident, the insurance company will investigate and determine who is at fault. They will find any reason to deny a claim, as every claim they pay decreases their profits. Barring denying a claim, insurance companies will offer the least amount possible to make your claim go away.

You cannot recover a fair and reasonable settlement from insurance companies when you don’t retain a personal injury lawyer because the insurers know that the average person doesn’t know the laws involved in accident cases.

Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA, will work to help you recover the compensation you deserve, including covering medical expenses, legal fees, and other damages.

What to Do After an Accident

You should seek medical attention immediately after an accident. If you haven’t seen your doctor as soon as possible—the longer you wait, the harder it is to convince the insurance company that you suffered injuries and deserve to recover compensation.

Always follow treatment plans and go to every doctor’s appointment. As soon as you miss one, the insurance company will argue that your injuries are not as bad as you claim. It’s also a good idea to keep a notebook journaling everything you go through during and after an accident. As you recover, document good days and bad days, how you feel, both physically and emotionally, and how physical injuries are healing. Be sure to document your pain levels, your prescriptions, and anything else that might help your case.

The documentation helps you remember what happened on specific dates so that your attorney can match it with evidence, especially medical records that show your injuries might become long-term or permanent disabilities. This is especially important if you suffer psychological issues such as anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder after an accident or depression because your recovery is challenging.

While documenting your accident and recovery is not mandatory, and your legal team can help you recover the compensation you deserve, it makes the attorney’s job easier if they know when certain things happened or if your injuries prevent you from doing certain tasks.

After a personal injury accident, never post on social media. Insurance companies troll your accounts to see if you are really injured. They’ll even stoop low enough to claim that you were out partying and having fun when you were out with your loved one for a quiet dinner in a restaurant.

New York Personal Injury FAQ

New York personal injury lawyer

Following a serious injury, you may have questions about your legal right to compensation. If you have specific questions about your claim or your rights following an accident, contact an experienced New York personal injury attorney as soon as possible. For more general questions about New York personal injury law, we’ve provided answers to some of the most frequently asked questions that we hear from clients.

Most New York personal injury claims settle out of court. Typically, insurance companies and big companies recognize that going to court adds to a claim’s legal expenses, so companies may negotiate a settlement that meets both your needs and their needs. In some cases, however, you may need to take your claim to court to ensure fair compensation. Having an experienced New York personal injury attorney on your side can make it easier to handle your claim, present your case, and determine the funds you need and when to accept a settlement.

You should expect it to take some time to settle your New York personal injury claim. While you may receive a settlement offer from the insurance company shortly after your accident, this offer may not accurately reflect the funds you need to cover the costs of your injuries.

Instead, consider the following factors that may make your New York personal injury claim last longer than expected:

  • How long do you need to heal before your doctors to have a solid assessment of your prognosis? In the case of many types of injuries, your doctors will need to wait for you to progress through your recovery before offering a full assessment of your eventual prognosis. In the case of incomplete spinal cord injury, for example, it could take as much as six months for your doctors to fully assess how much your injuries will impact your mobility in the future. The extent to which you heal will likely impact the time you spend out of work, what work you can return to after your injuries, and the amount of your medical bills, all of which will affect your New York personal injury claim. Talk to your attorney to learn more about how much your healing may need to progress before you can file a New York personal injury claim.
  • How much compensation should you seek? In a New York personal injury claim, the amount you ask for may vary. Most claims, however, begin with your medical bills: the medical costs you experience as a result of your injuries from the accident. Severe injuries naturally lead to higher bills, since you will need more treatment in addition to more time hospitalized or a higher level of care. In many cases, however, insurance companies and legal teams will fight harder to reduce the compensation you ultimately receive when you ask for a higher dollar amount in compensation for your injuries. This does not mean that you should lower your request, but it does mean that if you have a high-dollar request, you should expect your claim to take longer to resolve.
  • How much do you need to negotiate? You cannot control how many rounds of negotiation it will take to reach an agreement with the liable party or the liable party’s insurance company. Sometimes, you may realize quickly that you cannot reach an agreement and decide to take your claim to court. Other times, you may reach an agreement very quickly. Often, this depends on the company’s policies and procedures. Every round of negotiation you need to go through can add to the amount of time it takes to reach a settlement agreement in your New York personal injury claim. If you must go to mediation or negotiation, it can take even longer to settle your claim.

Once you reach an agreement in your claim, the liable party has 30 days to pay your settlement or to begin making payments on a larger claim, depending on the terms set out in the agreement.

Working with an attorney can help you more effectively determine who bears liability for your accident and, therefore, for your injuries. An attorney will consider the following when assessing liability in your claim:

  • Who owed you a duty of care at the time of your injuries? For example, when you place your medical needs in the hands of a doctor, that doctor owes you a high duty of care to ensure that you receive adequate care that doesn’t cause you additional suffering. On the other hand, a doctor who happens to be in the hospital when you receive care, but who does not consult on your case, does not owe you a duty of care as a patient.
  • How did the individual or entity breach the duty of care? If you slipped and fell due to inadequate maintenance on the stairs of a hotel, the hotel violated its duty of care to you by failing to rectify that dangerous situation. In an auto accident, a driver who drives distracted or while inebriated clearly violates his or her duty of care to others on the road.
  • How did the breach lead to your injuries? Showing how the entity’s violation of its duty of care to you at the time of the accident led to your injuries can prove critical to your New York personal injury claim. If, for example, a drunk driver swerves past you and hits a lamppost, and you don’t sustain any injuries, you do not have grounds to file a New York personal injury claim. On the other hand, if that driver strikes your car, causing you to hit your head on the steering wheel and sustain a traumatic brain injury, you likely have grounds for a New York personal injury claim.

An attorney will go through the evidence related to your accident to identify all parties who may share liability for your injuries. This process may include taking witness testimony, going over any video evidence from the accident, and checking out the scene of the accident. The attorney may also evaluate additional evidence; in the case of an accident with a commercial truck driver, for example, the attorney may look over the driver’s logs to determine whether he or she exceeded the federal limits that commercial drivers may not exceed behind the wheel in a given time.

Often, the company that covers the at-fault party in a serious accident, including the insurance company that represents a driver who caused an auto accident, will contact an accident victim shortly after the accident to issue a settlement offer. This offer may appear attractive on the surface; if you accept, it will provide you with quick money.

The initial offer, however, rarely provides full compensation for severe injuries. Consult an experienced New York personal injury attorney to get a better idea of how much compensation you should expect for your injuries and when to accept a settlement offer. In many cases, working with an attorney can give you a better understanding of your claim’s true value and prevent you from inadvertently accepting a low offer.

To submit a timely personal injury claim in New York, you must file it before the statute of limitations runs out. However, the statute of limitations may vary based on the severity of your injuries, who caused your injuries, and the factual circumstances surrounding your accident. An attorney may also identify exceptions to the statute of limitations that can make it easier for you to file a claim, even if some time has passed since your accident. Consult an experienced New York personal injury attorney to learn more about how long you have to file your claim.

Ideally, you should contact an attorney as soon after your accident as possible. That does not necessarily mean that you need to contact an attorney from the scene of the accident or your bed in the emergency room, but it does mean that you should take steps to contact an attorney as soon after your accident as possible. Do not wait to get in touch with an attorney.

An attorney can offer many services starting early after your accident, including:

  • Preventing you from mistakenly accepting a low settlement offer. The insurance company may, for example, pressure you to accept an offer quickly, perhaps even indicating that you will not have the chance to accept the same offer once some time has passed. An attorney will help you better understand your legal rights and how you should handle issues surrounding initial settlement offers.
  • Helping to collect evidence immediately after the accident. Collecting evidence often proves harder as time passes after an accident. Eyewitness testimony can grow more unreliable as time passes. Many pieces of evidence may also disappear: the scene around a car accident might disappear, or a construction site might get cleaned up to remove potential hazards, for example. The sooner you contact an attorney, the sooner that attorney can begin working on your behalf to collect all relevant evidence.

Yes. If you suffered injuries on the job, you have different rights than if you had suffered an injury in a different environment. For example, in New York, you will receive a percentage of your income while recovering from serious injuries in addition to coverage for all of your medical expenses. In a workers’ compensation claim, however, you cannot claim compensation for your pain and suffering.

Most of the time, workers’ compensation claims pay out over time, while New York personal injury claims may pay out in lump sums. However, if you suffer injuries on the job that prevent you from ever returning to your usual duties, you may ultimately receive a lump payment that terminates your company’s obligation to you.

Sometimes, you may not discover your injuries immediately after an accident. Ideally, you should always receive medical attention after an accident, even if you believe that you did not suffer serious injuries. Sometimes, adrenaline can conceal the pain from the injuries, or you may not notice even serious injuries immediately.

If you do not seek medical attention immediately after your accident, you may still have grounds to file a New York personal injury claim; however, you may need to provide evidence of when your injuries occurred. Talk to an attorney to learn more about what you can expect from a New York personal injury claim if you did not discover your injuries immediately.

Anthony J. Russo, Jr.
Anthony J. Russo, Jr., New York of Counsel

Many victims avoid retaining legal representation after their accidents because they fear it will cost more than they can afford. An experienced New York personal injury attorney, however, will often prove more affordable than you may realize. Most attorneys will start with a free consultation to get a better idea of the circumstances that led to your accident and the injuries you suffered. Many will also offer to take your claim on a contingent fee basis; instead of paying upfront for legal assistance, you will issue payment as a percentage of the damages awarded.

Contact Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA

Negotiating a settlement with an insurance company is stressful, especially if the insurance company refuses to come to a fair and reasonable settlement—which happens much of the time. Instead of arguing with the insurance company, let a personal injury lawyer handle the struggle and negotiations. The firm can also ensure you don’t miss any important deadlines that could jeopardize your case.
Your initial case evaluation with Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA, is always free and without obligation. Additionally, you only pay for our representation if we win your case. Contact Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA, at (718) 550-3471 today for your free case evaluation.

New York Office Location
3250 Westchester Ave, suite 200A/B
Bronx, NY 10461
(718) 550-3471

Client Testimonial

“AMAZING and understanding attorneys! Did great on my case and I highly recommend Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA for anyone that has been injured in an accident!”
Rating: 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Koralis R.
Jan 2020
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