If you’ve been injured due to someone else’s negligence or wrongdoing in New York, you may be able to seek compensation for the losses you’ve incurred. Personal injury law aims to restore the injured party to wholeness, or as close to their pre-injury state as possible, and the compensation offered to do that generally falls into two main categories: economic damages and non-economic damages. Your personal injury attorney in Queens, New York, can tell you more about the specifics of your case.
What Compensation Can I Claim After Suffering a Personal Injury in New York?
Economic Damages
Economic damages are those with tangible, readily calculable financial costs. They are designed to reimburse you for actual expenses you’ve faced because of your injuries. Common examples of economic damages in a personal injury case are:
Medical Expenses
This covers costs associated with past, immediate, and ongoing care and would include ambulance rides, hospital bills, surgeries, doctor’s appointments, rehabilitation, medications, medical equipment, and even necessary in-home care.
Lost Wages
If your injuries prevent you from working, you can be compensated for the income you lose, covering both current and past wages.
Loss of Earning Capacity
In cases where your injuries lead to a permanent disability or long-term impact on your ability to work, you can seek damages for the loss of future income potential.
Property Damage
If your personal property was damaged during the incident (for example, your car in an auto accident), the costs for repair or replacement can be included as part of your compensation.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages, often referred to as “pain and suffering,” are harder to quantify but are vital to consider in personal injury claims. These damages seek to compensate for the less tangible yet still significant consequences of your injury. Some examples include pain and suffering, which deals with the physical and emotional discomfort you experience because of your injury, including both past and expected future suffering.
New York’s “Serious Injury” Threshold
New York’s no-fault insurance system comes into play when you’re talking about car accidents in particular. Under this system, you first look to your own insurance for coverage of basic medical expenses and lost wages. To pursue a lawsuit for pain and suffering and other damages beyond what no-fault insurance offers, your injury must meet the “serious injury” threshold. This threshold is defined in New York law and includes categories such as broken bones, permanent disfigurement, significant limitations in bodily function, and substantial disability.
Proving Your Claim
To secure compensation after a personal injury in New York City, you must prove that another party’s negligence or intentional actions caused your injuries. This involves demonstrating that they owed you a duty of care, violated that duty, directly caused your injuries, and that you suffered resulting damages. Strong evidence is important here, and you’ll need medical records, photographs of injuries and the incident scene, witness statements, and maybe even expert testimony.
The Importance of a Queens, NY Personal Injury Attorney
An experienced personal injury lawyer here in Queens, NY will help you evaluate the worth of your case, guide you at every step, negotiate with insurance companies for you, and advocate for your interests in court, if necessary. Contact us today at Simon & Gilman, LLP for a FREE consultation, serving the entire New York metropolitan area for help.
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