New York City Car Accident Lawyer

There is no single average. Minor soft-tissue NYC crash claims often settle between $15,000 and $50,000. Fractures, herniated discs, and surgery cases generally settle from $100,000 to $750,000. Catastrophic outcomes (TBI, spinal cord injury, multiple surgeries, wrongful death) routinely exceed seven figures. Your case value depends on injury severity, whether you meet the serious injury threshold under Insurance Law §5102(d), past and future medical bills, lost wages, and your share of fault under CPLR §1411.

For a private-driver crash, the statute of limitations is 3 years from the date of injury under CPLR §214(5). Wrongful death is 2 years under EPTL §5-4.1. If the at-fault vehicle was an MTA bus, NYPD, sanitation, or any other public vehicle, you must serve a Notice of Claim within 90 days under GML §50-e, and the lawsuit is due within 1 year and 90 days. The 30-day no-fault application (NF-2) is the shortest of all and is the deadline most people miss first.

Two statutes work together. Insurance Law §5102(d) defines "serious injury" through nine categories: death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement, fracture, loss of a fetus, permanent loss of use of a body organ or system, permanent consequential limitation, significant limitation of use of a body function or system, or a 90/180-day medically determined injury that prevents usual daily activities. Insurance Law §5104(a) then bars suit against a covered driver for non-economic loss unless the injury clears one of those nine categories. The Court of Appeals interpreted the proof standards in Toure v. Avis Rent A Car Sys., 98 N.Y.2d 345 (2002), and reaffirmed in Pommells v. Perez, 4 N.Y.3d 566 (2005) that unexplained gaps in treatment can defeat a threshold claim. Soft-tissue claims without imaging and contemporaneous treatment routinely fail.

For minor property-damage-only crashes, no. For any collision involving an injury, an MTA bus, a commercial vehicle, a rideshare, a yellow taxi, or a disputed-fault scenario, yes. New York's no-fault rules, serious injury threshold, comparative fault, layered insurance for TLC vehicles, and 90-day Notice of Claim windows for public defendants are too procedure-heavy to handle alone. Long-standing Insurance Research Council data shows insurers settle unrepresented claims for a fraction of what represented claims recover.

New York is a no-fault state under Insurance Law §5103. Every policy carries at least $50,000 in Personal Injury Protection (PIP) for the driver, passengers, and pedestrians struck by the vehicle, paid by the car's own insurer regardless of who caused the crash. PIP covers necessary medical care, 80% of lost wages up to $2,000 per month, and $25 per day in other necessary expenses, all subject to the policy cap. To collect PIP you must submit form NF-2 to the insurer within 30 days and treat with providers who accept no-fault

Your own auto insurer pays the first $50,000 in medical bills through no-fault PIP, regardless of who caused the crash. If you were a passenger in another person's car, that car's no-fault policy pays. If you were a pedestrian or cyclist hit by a vehicle, the vehicle's no-fault policy pays. Once PIP is exhausted, your health insurance picks up. If you meet the serious injury threshold under §5102(d), the at-fault driver's liability carrier eventually reimburses lost wages above PIP, future medical care, and pain and suffering as part of the third-party claim.

Your own policy steps in. Every New York auto policy carries mandatory uninsured motorist (UM) coverage of at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. If you bought higher supplemental UM/UIM limits, those apply too. Hit-and-run crashes and crashes with uninsured drivers can also be brought against the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation (MVAIC), a state-funded backstop. The MVAIC notice deadline is 90 days.

You can still recover. New York is a pure comparative negligence state under CPLR §1411. The jury assigns each party a percentage of fault, and your recovery is reduced by your share. If a jury awards $500,000 and finds you 25% at fault, you receive $375,000. Even a plaintiff found 90% at fault can collect 10%. There is no 50% bar like in New Jersey or Texas. Defense lawyers will fight to raise your percentage, which is why dashcam, photos, witness names, and a thorough NYPD MV-104 matter so much.

Pre-suit settlements with clear liability and threshold-met injuries often close in 6 to 12 months. Filed cases generally resolve in 18 to 30 months from suit. Cases against the MTA, NYPD, or other public agencies tend to follow tighter statutory schedules but can drag because of agency procedure and Notice of Claim hearings (50-h). Surgical and catastrophic-injury cases take longer because of treatment timelines and life-care planning.

These claims follow different procedural rules. Claims against the New York City Transit Authority and the MTA are governed by Public Authorities Law §1276 and GML §50-e. Claims against the NYPD, FDNY, sanitation, and other city agencies follow §50-e directly. You must serve a Notice of Claim within 90 days of the crash, and the lawsuit deadline is 1 year and 90 days. MTA claims also require a 30-day waiting period after the Notice of Claim before suit can be commenced.

Inside NYC, Uber, Lyft, and Via drivers are TLC for-hire vehicles and carry the NYC TLC commercial liability minimum of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence, the same floor as yellow and green taxis. The $1.25 million state rideshare liability requirement does not apply inside NYC; it applies only to TNC trips outside the city. Many TLC carriers and fleets purchase higher excess limits in practice. Passengers, struck pedestrians, and other drivers all have access to this commercial coverage.