Pedestrian Injury Attorney
The streets of Long Island have never been completely safe for pedestrians. While NYC and several Long Island municipalities have taken great strides in improving pedestrian safety, there are still far too many tragic accidents and deaths that happen every year.
From 2014 to 2016 there were 256 accidents involved pedestrians or bicyclists on State Route 24 in Nassau County, according to the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. 6 of these accidents were fatal.
Suffolk County’s State Route 25 had 224 crashes in the same period, resulting in 206 injuries and 9 fatalities.
These incredibly dangerous roads show just a fraction of the overall problem of pedestrian injuries and deaths. Across Long Island, pedestrian accident victims are left with substantial medical bills, lost income from missed work, and other losses.
Working with a Long Island pedestrian accident lawyer can help them recover these losses through a claim with the driver’s insurer. If an insurer refuses to pay, your attorney can file a lawsuit and take your claim to trial.
TonaLaw handles cases like these for injured clients all across Long Island. We work aggressively to seek all available damages from all at-fault parties, increasing the likelihood that you’ll have the money you need to recover from your accident.
Call us at 1-833-TONALAW or contact us online, and you can schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our Long Island pedestrian injury lawyers today.
Damages Available in a Pedestrian Accident Case
Your losses in a personal injury case are called “damages.” Damages can refer to money you’ve lost as well as the other types of losses you have suffered, such as a loss of enjoyment of life while you were seriously hurt.
Specifically, the state of New York allows for pedestrian accident victims to seek the following types of damages:
- Medical bills, past, and future
- Out of pocket treatment expenses
- Lost wages, past, and future
- If the pedestrian accident victim died from their injuries, funeral and burial costs
When your accident resulted in a serious injury and was caused by a driver or another person who was negligent, then you can recover more types of damages through a bodily injury liability (BIL) claim.
Injury liability claims pay for a larger portion of your accident costs. For instance, a No-Fault claim only pays for 80% of your lost wages, while a BIL claim will cover the remaining 20%. You can also seek compensation for the pain and suffering you experienced as a result of your injuries.
When You Can Sue for Bodily Injury Liability in Long Island after a Pedestrian Accident
New York is a No-Fault state, meaning you are required by law to carry at least $50,000 in personal injury protection (PIP) insurance coverage if you own a registered vehicle. This type of insurance can pay for your injury costs even if you weren’t driving, such as after a pedestrian accident.
In fact, in pedestrian knockdown cases, the at-fault driver’s insurance will have PIP/No-Fault insurance that will be primarily responsible for paying your medical bills.
In New York, a personal injury claim can only be filed against at-fault parties in the event of a “serious injury” (Insurance Law §5102). The threshold of a serious injury can include:
- A fracture (broken bone)
- Death
- Dismemberment
- Loss of a fetus
- Significant disfigurement
- Permanent loss of an appendage, organ, or member
- Permanent limited use of a bodily organ, system, or member
- Significant limited us of a bodily function or system
- Any medical injury costing more than $50,000 to treat
- An injury that is significantly limiting for 90 out of 180 days after the accident
Because of this threshold, you will have to prove that your injury was serious before you can file a bodily injury claim against the at-fault driver’s insurance or sue them directly.
An experienced Long Island pedestrian accident attorney can help you document how your injury meets this threshold. They can also compile all of your medical bills and other expenses to help you seek the highest amount of compensation possible.
Don’t Trust Insurance Companies, Trust Your Pedestrian Accident Lawyer
Insurance companies want to make a profit, so they will do anything they can to reduce the value of your claim or deny it altogether.
The insurance company may seem friendly on the phone, but keep in mind that they want to avoid paying any way they can. As such, they may ask to see your entire medical history in order to claim that some of your injury costs were the result of a prior condition.
Third-party bodily injury insurers will attempt to say that your injury doesn’t meet the threshold for a claim. They may ask leading questions about what you did during the accident to later accuse you of being partially at fault. New York’s comparative fault laws allow them to reduce your settlement by the amount of fault you are responsible for, so be careful what you say.
Never answer leading questions from an insurer, and don’t sign a settlement agreement until you’ve spoken with a lawyer.
The pedestrian accident attorneys at TonaLaw are familiar with the tactics insurers use, and we know the type of strategies that have convinced them in the past to pay up.
You don’t have to fight with the insurance companies; your lawyer can do it for you. Their experience and knowledge of the law reduce your stress while helping you seek the maximum amount of compensation for your injuries.
Call a Pedestrian Accident Attorney in Long Island Today
TonaLaw is ready to listen to you about your case and offer advice on what to do next. Your first appointment is always free. You also don’t pay anything for our services unless we win money for your accident injuries.
There’s no risk to you to make a consultation appointment and talk to our pedestrian accident injury lawyers today.
Call us at 1-833-TONALAW or contact us online to schedule your free, no-obligation case review now.