Car Accident Lawyer

Queens Lawyer for Motor Vehicle Collision Victims

If you were seriously injured in a car accident, your injuries may take weeks or months of recovery time. Medical expenses are often exorbitant. In the meantime, you may not be able to work, and you may be in pain. Your closest relationships may be adversely affected by the severity of your injuries. You may wonder whether you can hold someone accountable for what you have lost. Queens car accident lawyer Shane D. Scott may be able to represent you in a lawsuit for damages.

No-Fault Insurance

New York is a no-fault insurance state. After a car accident resulting in injuries, New York law requires you to first turn to your own no-fault insurance coverage. Through your no-fault insurance, you can be reimbursed for medical expenses and certain other economic losses, regardless of who was at fault for the car accident. You can file a lawsuit for damages only if your injuries meet the threshold for “serious injuries” under the law.

Liability in a Lawsuit

If you file a lawsuit against another driver after a car accident, you will most likely need to establish their negligence. This means that you will need to prove that the other driver owed you a duty to use reasonable care, deviated from this duty, and caused your injuries. All drivers owe a duty to use reasonable care to others with whom they share the road. Drivers may deviate from this duty in numerous ways, including by speeding, failing to yield, failing to check blind spots, failing to obey traffic signals and signs, drunk driving, distracted driving, tailgating, and weaving.

A car accident attorney in Queens can help you hold a driver responsible for negligence when their deviation from the duty to use reasonable care caused your injuries. For example, if another driver ran a red light and T-boned you, resulting in an amputation of your leg and paralysis, a jury would likely find him liable. For another example, if a driver was driving drunk and while weaving through traffic hit the side of your car, causing you to spin out and crash and suffer traumatic brain injuries, you would likely be able to establish his liability in court.

Often, defendants in car accident cases turn around and blame the accident victim for their own injuries. Under the doctrine of comparative negligence, your damages can be reduced by an amount equal to your percentage of fault. For example, if your damages are $500,000, and you were 20% responsible for a car accident, you may be able to recover $400,000 from the defendant.

Damages

When liability is established for a car accident, you can recover compensatory damages from an at-fault driver with the assistance of a Queens car accident attorney. These are damages meant to put you back in the position in which you would have been had there been no accident. Unlike no-fault benefits, which only address a portion of economic losses, damages in civil litigation can cover both economic and non-economic losses. Economic losses that might be recoverable include medical expenses, lost income, rehabilitation, replacement services, and out-of-pocket costs. Non-economic losses that might be recoverable include loss of consortium, loss of enjoyment of life, pain and suffering, and emotional distress. For example, if you were paralyzed when another driver crashed into you head-on while driving the wrong way on a one-way street, and you were unable to play recreational sports anymore and your relationship with your wife suffered as a result, you might be able to recover the cost of emergency care, medical care for the paralysis, rehabilitation, lost wages, alterations to your home to accommodate a wheelchair, and household services, along with loss of consortium, loss of enjoyment of life, and pain and suffering.

If you were injured or if a loved one was killed by a drunk driver, punitive damages may also be available. These are damages that go beyond compensatory damages in an effort to punish a defendant.

Contact a Car Accident Lawyer in Queens

Car accidents can result in devastating or even fatal injuries, including complex fractures, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, amputations, disfigurement, and paralysis. If you need to recover compensation after a car accident in the New York City area, you should consult Shane D. Scott. Call us at (800) 230-0744 or complete our online form.