New York Pedestrian Accident Lawyers

New York City Pedestrian Accident Lawyers

If you or a loved one has been hurt in a pedestrian accident, the experienced attorneys at Parker Waichman LLP can assist you in recovering compensation for your injuries. These types of personal injury accidents can be particularly traumatic, and our team of legal professionals understands that you and your family may be under a lot of stress as medical bills come in. When you work with our law firm, we’ll skillfully handle your case, taking on the burden of holding the parties responsible for your accident accountable so you can focus on your recovery. If you or someone you love has been injured in a pedestrian accident, don’t hesitate to contact the New York City pedestrian accident lawyers at our nationwide law firm to protect your right to compensation.

What Are Pedestrian Accidents?

Pedestrian accidents are defined as accidents between a motor vehicle and someone on foot. They’re much more prevalent than people tend to think.  More and more, people are choosing to walk to work, shopping, and dining, which brings great convenience to their busy lives but also places them at risk of being involved in an accident.

Who is Liable for My Injuries after a Pedestrian Accident in New York City?

Video: Who is liable for my injuries after a pedestrian accident in New York City?

The person who is liable for your accident if you’re a pedestrian in New York city can be a variety of individuals and corporations. If you were hit by a vehicle the operator of that vehicle is responsible.

The owner of that vehicle is responsible to you if it’s a corporation that owns the vehicle they’re going to be responsible. If the person is driving the vehicle on behalf of that corporation they’re going to be responsible and the corporation is vicariously responsible for the acts of that driver so they’re all going to be responsible.

Let’s say you are driving a bicycle and maybe your tire gets caught in a hole or in a space between the pavement or two pieces of cement the people who own that area are going to be responsible to you. The people who are supposed to maintain that area are going to be responsible to you. It’s the job of your lawyer to get out there immediately and investigate exactly what happened so that a determination can be made as to who are all the possible defendants.

If you have a possible defendant you want to bring in, you only have so much time in which to sue them. When you do sue them they have a duty not to destroy evidence, not to destroy information, so if you don’t bring them in quick enough they might get rid of the information and they would be innocent in doing that so you want to put them on notice of the litigation immediately. That way they have to institute what we call a litigation hold on those documents.

A lot of companies have instituted procedures where they destroy certain information every 15 days because they know that sometimes litigation happens and if they don’t have notice of the litigation within 15 days of the event, they might destroy the evidence and they say well this is our official policy we didn’t do it intentionally, we didn’t do it to exfoliate the evidence we did it because that’s our policy and they would get away with that.

So you want to have a lawyer that is going to put them on notice quickly. We even put defendants on notice before they’re even defendants if we get a a good case in the office and we find out that there is unfortunately a very bad injury and maybe a corporation is responsible, we’ll send them by by email and by federal express a notice not to destroy the evidence.

New York Pedestrian Accident Statistics

Approximately 15,000 pedestrian accidents occur in New York every year, with hundreds of those accidents resulting in fatalities. New York City in particular sees a significant number of pedestrian accidents, including half of all pedestrian fatalities in the state. Many of these accidents occur at intersections, especially in well-populated, high-traffic areas. The New York Department of Transportation has studied which intersections in the state have been the most dangerous for pedestrians. This list included:

• West 40th Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan
• Bowery and Canal Street in Manhattan
• Utica Avenue and Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn
• East 170th Street and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx
• 27th Street and Queens Plaza in Queens
• Hylan Boulevard and Jefferson Avenue in Staten Island

Pedestrian accidents are a problem on a national scale as well. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that more than 5,000 pedestrians are killed in collisions with vehicles every year in the United States, meaning that a pedestrian death occurs somewhere in the country every 1.6 hours. When these accidents occur, people often suffer debilitating injuries.

What Are the Most Common Injuries Sustained in a Pedestrian Accident?

Our New York City pedestrian accident lawyers frequently work with clients who were struck by a vehicle and experienced injuries including:

• Fractures and broken bones
• Head or neck injuries
• Organ injury or internal bleeding
• Brain injuries
• Spinal cord injuries
• Amputations
• Joint dislocation
• Death

Our law firm understands how devastating these injuries can be for the victims and their families, and we fight for the justice they deserve.

Common Causes of Pedestrian Accidents

In most situations, pedestrian accidents are the result of a negligent driver. People make poor decisions driving or become distracted behind the wheel and end up causing an accident with someone walking or jogging. The most common causes of pedestrian accidents include:

• Reckless driving
• Speeding
• Inattentive or distracted driving
• Falling asleep while driving
• Running red lights or stop signs
• Failing to observe traffic laws
• Failing to look before turning or changing lanes
• Brake failures or improper vehicle maintenance

When drivers act recklessly and injure someone, they need to be held accountable. When you work with Parker Waichman, a New York pedestrian accident lawyer at our firm will stand up for your rights and aggressively advocate on your behalf to seek the compensation you and your family deserve.

Proving Liability in New York Pedestrian Accident Cases

In a New York pedestrian accident case, your attorney will typically file a claim for damages based on the legal theory of negligence. Under New York negligence law, we have to prove four elements of a case in court:

• The driver had a duty to use reasonable care.
• The driver breached that duty.
• You suffered harm.
• Your injuries were caused by the driver’s negligence.

Duty of Care

To prove that a duty existed, we analyze the circumstances of the accident. New York drivers have a duty to use reasonable care on the road, and in some situations, people have an even higher duty of care than that. If a person fails to use care, they have breached their duty. The court will look at what a reasonable person would have done in the same or similar circumstances and will find that there was a breach if the driver could have acted differently with minimal burden.

Injuries and Causation

We also have to prove that there was an injury and that the injury was caused by the driver’s negligent conduct. It might seem like an injury is obvious, but some injuries are latent (like brain injuries) and require experts to testify about them in order for the defense and the jury to understand the extent of your injury and the effects the injury has had on your life. We then must link the injury back to the action or inaction of the driver. Sometimes, this can be one of the more difficult aspects of a case to prove, but our New York personal injury lawyers have years of trial experience and know how to build the strongest possible case.

Alleging “Negligence Per Se“

Outside of these requirements, we can sometimes bring a lawsuit alleging negligence per se (pronounced “per say”). This doctrine holds that if someone violates a safety law and causes someone else injury, the violator is automatically deemed negligent. In other words, the injured person will no longer need to prove that the defendant owed a duty of care or breached a duty of care. However, this does not equal an immediate victory in court. The plaintiff will still need to prove the existence of an injury and the cause of that injury and tie them back to the violation of the safety law.

As you can see, no matter what allegations you advance in a lawsuit, you’ll need a great deal of energy and knowledge of New York law to be successful. At Parker Waichman, our attorneys have a firm command of New York personal injury and negligence law, and we can help you decide which allegations you should pursue against the driver who injured you. Whether your accident occurred in the suburbs or in the heart of New York City, a pedestrian accident attorney from our firm can provide the counsel you need, and we’ll evaluate your case for free.

New York’s No-Fault Law

When you decide to pursue an accident claim against a driver in New York, you must consider the state’s no-fault law. New York is one of 12 states with a no-fault law to provide faster relief for victims of collisions. If you are injured in a vehicle accident in the state, even as a pedestrian, you must seek reimbursement for your economic damages from your own insurance carrier. Economic damages include things like medical bills and lost wages if you were not able to work because of your injuries.

States have turned to these types of laws to try to hasten the process of seeking recovery for accident cases because they happen so often. The state Legislature felt that this would prevent the courts from becoming clogged with arguments about who was to blame in an accident: New Yorkers could instead just talk to their insurance company. But it’s important to understand that this process does not apply to non-economic damages like pain and suffering. The no-fault law can actually have the effect of limiting what you can recover because you can only pursue certain losses and can only bring a lawsuit against the driver if you have severe enough injuries.

Meeting the “Serious Injury Threshold” Established by New York’s No-Fault Law

To overcome the no-fault law’s limitations and pursue a legal claim, you must meet a specific injury requirement. In order to obtain relief for physical and mental pain and suffering, you must meet the “serious injury threshold” established by New York’s no-fault law.

Under the law, a serious injury is defined as one of the following:

• Bone fracture
• Significant disfigurement
• Dismemberment
• Loss of a fetus
• Significant limitation of use of a body function or body system
• Permanent limitation of use of a body organ or body part
• Full or substantial disability for at least 90 days within 180 days following the accident
• Death

It’s not always clear which injuries qualify as serious under the no-fault law and which do not. This is why it’s vital to retain competent counsel to represent you after a pedestrian accident. The skilled attorneys at Parker Waichman are extremely familiar with New York laws on pedestrian cases, and we will be able to determine if you are eligible to file a third-party lawsuit against the driver in your case. We can help you and your family seek justice during this trying time.

Statute of Limitations for New York Pedestrian Accident Cases

Yet another complicating factor in New York pedestrian accident cases is the statute of limitations. Anytime you are going to file a lawsuit in New York, you must make sure you are filing within the time period prescribed by the state’s laws. If you don’t file your claim in the right court within the right time frame, your claim will be forever barred, meaning you will never be able to get compensation for your injuries.

This might seem unfair, but all states have statutes of limitations that require people to investigate their potential cases and file a lawsuit within a specific time period. This is because the sooner a claim is pursued, the more reliable the evidence for it is likely to be. For example, people’s memories of the day of the accident will be a lot more reliable one year later versus five years later. State governments also have an interest in protecting defendants, just as they do plaintiffs. They don’t want potential defendants to have to prepare indefinitely for anticipated litigation.

Types of Claims and Their Statutes of Limitations

In New York, the statute of limitations for a personal injury claim is generally three years. This means that you are required to file your claim for bodily injury within three years of the day of the accident. Many factors can go into determining the correct statute of limitations, however, and sometimes, it’s not easy to tell when the clock started running. An experienced pedestrian accident lawyer in New York City, like the ones at Parker Waichman, can help you navigate this process and ensure that your claim is timely.

However, New York’s three-year statute of limitations does not apply to a no-fault economic loss claim with your insurance carrier. In these cases, the deadline is much shorter. To pursue this claim, you must submit the appropriate documentation within 30 days of the accident. This is another situation where your lawyer will be able to help you navigate the system and decipher what you can pursue and when.

When you get a free case evaluation from one of our experienced attorneys, one of the first things we’ll do is calculate the relevant statutes of limitations and claim deadlines in order to ensure that we’ll be able to file the necessary documents on time. We know how important your rights to compensation are and we will do whatever we can to protect them.

How Can a New York Personal
Injury Lawyer Help Me?

In the aftermath of a personal injury accident, it can be difficult to know what to do, and the thought of hiring a pedestrian accident attorney in New York might seem overwhelming. Our clients often tell us when they call that they have never been involved in a lawsuit before and are not the type of people to take handouts. But let us assure you that seeking justice for the ways in which you have been harmed is not a handout and pursuing a viable lawsuit is exactly what you need to do to protect your legal rights. When you have been in an accident and injured by someone else’s negligence, you deserve fair compensation. A monetary award cannot make up for all of the ways you have been harmed, but it can ease much of the burden that has been placed upon you and your family.

When you hire Parker Waichman for your personal injury claim, your dedicated attorney will be able to pursue damages on your behalf including:

• Reimbursement for past and future medical bills resulting from your injuries
• Lost wages from the time you had to take off from work following the accident and any time you will need to take off in the future
• Compensation for the physical and mental pain and suffering you have endured since the accident
• Loss of consortium damages for the ways your injuries have affected your relationship with your spouse

To prove these damages, we will hire experts to testify about the severity of your injuries and how your life has been and will be affected by those injures. This may sometimes involve hiring a life-care planner to provide opinions about the amount of money you will need for medical care for the rest of your life. You can trust that your New York City pedestrian accident attorney will do everything possible to create a case that will maximize your potential recovery.

Stress-Free, Cost-Free Consultation

At Parker Waichman, we want to ease your stress by making it simple and painless to get the legal help you need. When you reach out to us, you’ll be able to speak with a compassionate member of our legal team who will take down some information about your potential claim and arrange for you to speak to a skilled Parker Waichman lawyer. Then, our attorney will answer your questions and explain all of the services we can provide.

Diligent Pursuit of Justice

During the course of our investigation of your case, we will be able to do all of the following on your behalf:

• Draft a summary of the accident and your injuries by speaking to you and anyone who was with you on the day of the accident
• Obtain the police report and any other pertinent documents to your case
• Order and review medical records documenting the treatment you received following the accident
• Identify and interview all witnesses to the accident
• Contact and work with insurance carriers for you and the negligent driver
• Obtain photos of the accident, including any business surveillance footage that might have captured the incident
• Hire experts to evaluate your case and injuries
• Determine the statute of limitations for your case and the proper venue for filing your case
• Draft a petition for damages
• File your claim on your behalf

These are just the beginning steps and much of the harder work begins after filing a claim. A successful personal injury case takes time and significant effort to build, but we have the knowledge and skills to litigate your claim with the passion it deserves. Contact Parker Waichman today to learn more about our claims process and to take advantage of a free consultation with one of our experienced, compassionate lawyers.

Why Work With
Parker Waichman?

Our law firm is one of very few law firms to secure more than $2 billion in settlements and verdicts for our personal injury clients, and we have decades of experience handling pedestrian accident claims in New York.

We have also earned a reputation for being one of New York’s top personal injury firms, receiving numerous honors and accolades from fellow lawyers, judges, and clients, including:

• 9.8 (out of a perfect 10) rating by AVVO, a service that rates every attorney in America
• The highest possible peer-review rating from Martindale-Hubbell, which has rated attorneys for more than 100 years
• Lawdragon’s prestigious “5 Dragons” ranking
• Listing in Best Lawyers, an honor based on extensive peer review

When you hire Parker Waichman for your New York pedestrian accident claim, you can feel confident that your case will be managed by attorneys with the knowledge and experience to achieve the results you need.

Get Skilled Representation at No Cost to You

When you are seriously injured in a pedestrian accident, you and your family must deal with an extraordinary amount of emotional, physical, and financial turmoil, and as medical bills come in and you are forced to take time off from work, you might begin to worry about making ends meet. The last thing you should worry about is whether you can afford to hire an attorney to pursue the compensation you’re entitled to receive. This is why Parker Waichman offers free case evaluations and contracts pedestrian accident cases on a contingency-fee basis. That means that not only will you pay nothing to speak with one of our attorneys, but you’ll pay nothing out of pocket for our services.

We strongly believe in maintaining access to the judicial system for everyone, so we take on all of the financial risk of litigation ourselves. We will advance the expenses of litigating your claim, including costly depositions and expert fees, and put our years of experience to work on your case without ever sending you a bill. And if you do not receive a settlement or verdict in your favor, we will not receive anything, either. We only get paid if you do. We recognize that the average person can’t always afford the expenses associated with a personal injury lawsuit, and we never want that to prevent someone from seeking the fair resolution they deserve.

Call Today and Let Us
Fight for Your Rights

If you have been injured in an accident in New York, the attorneys at Parker Waichman are ready to help you recover the compensation you deserve, starting with a free consultation and case review at absolutely no cost to you. When you hire our firm, you can immediately feel more at ease knowing that your case is in the hands of caring legal professionals who will fight tirelessly to get the best possible results for you and your loved ones. Contact us today by filling out our online form or calling 1-800-YOUR-LAWYER (1-800-968-7529).

How Do I Get My Police Report in Manhattan?

In the hours following an accident or arrest, a police report is generated by the investigating Manhattan police officer. Once the report has been generated a "public portion" of the report is available immediately. The public portion of the police report withholds information until the case is completely closed. Once the case has wrapped up, you or your attorney can talk to your local Manhattan police precinct to obtain a copy of the full police report. How you are able to get your report varies depending on the preference of the precinct. Some prefer to do it electronically, others via mail, and others in person. Regardless, there may be a waiting period and your precinct may charge a fee to request a copy of the police report. When it comes to help in getting a police report under New York personal injury law, Manhattan, NY, residents should know that Parker Waichman is here to help you make the most of your case. Our law firm is recognized nationally for our care of clients and skill in gathering evidence to get you the compensation you deserve.

New York City Pedestrian Accident News

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