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Request A Call HereInjured in an auto or motor vehicle accident? Whether the outcome of an auto accident is the unfortunate death of a loved one, or you sustained a serious injury, you may have a personal injury lawsuit in New York. You have questions:
We have the answers. Contact our experienced New York auto accident attorneys today by calling our local law office or filling out our contact form.
An auto accident can be devastating. Some recent auto accident statistics for the state of New York show that there were 294,757 auto accidents in 2012. Of those, 1,082 were so severe that they lead to the death of individuals involved in the accidents. Approximately 50% of the remaining auto accidents involved non-fatal injuries. These nonfatal injuries range in severity from painful whiplash, cuts, and bruises to:
If you or a loved one has been involved in an auto accident you may want to discuss your legal options with a New York auto accident personal injury lawyer.
Our experienced team of personal injury lawyers will investigate your accident, determine the party or multiple parties responsible for causing the auto accident, and pursue those individually and via their insurance companies to recover damages on your behalf. While often, there may only be one party, we leave no stone unturned to identify all potential causes.
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While each auto accident personal injury claim varies greatly on the facts, our experienced New York auto accident lawyers assess all types of compensation recovery options in your case. Typical options include:
Our experienced lawyers will thoroughly investigate your claim and with a detailed legal analysis determine a strategy for your case. First, we assess to see whether a claim should be brought under the no-fault insurance laws of New York. Typically these are pretty restricted recoveries, however, they are usually used in circumstances where the fault for the auto accident truthfully lies with our client. Next, we will determine if the party at fault has insurance coverage, as this will determine if we will be using New York uninsured motorist coverage laws under your insurance policy. If we determine that fault lays with another insured motorist, we will develop a different strategy to ensure you get substantial compensation for your pain and suffering.
Contact our New York auto accident lawyers today to discuss the specifics of your accident and we can better guide you as to the potential value of your auto accident lawsuit.
The term “Auto Accident” is broad when it comes to a personal injury matter in New York. At Banville Law, we represent families and individuals who have lost a loved one or have been severely injured in an auto accident. Over the years, we have successfully fought insurance companies and recovered millions of dollars in compensation for clients who were injured in the following types of accidents:
As previously outlined, our New York auto accident attorneys investigate each incident to determine fault and causation. This is key to choosing the best legal strategy for your recovery. Over the years, we have seen a lot of different causes of auto accidents that have lead to significant settlements for our clients. Here is a listing of some of the most common causes of New York auto accidents:
With the prolific explosion of use of cell phone through all ages of society today, comes the dangers of distraction. This is especially true when it comes to operating a vehicle. According to the Governor of New York, there were 25,165 fatal and personal injury auto accidents in the state of New York in 2011 due to distracted driving. Texting while driving or using your phone while driving is illegal in New York and is a common cause of auto accidents. Read more here.
Unfortunately, drunk driving is far too common today. As soon as alcohol enters the blood stream it gets to work impairing many bodily functions which result in bad decision making and reckless driving, among other actions. Our attorneys regularly see cases where drunk driving lead to excessive speeding, driving on the wrong side of the road or on one-way streets, disobeying traffic lights and road rules, and misjudging stopped traffic – resulting in nasty rear-end accidents. Our attorneys will bring the facts to light and may even be able to attach those responsible for serving alcohol to the offending driver.
We also often see severe injuries and preventable deaths because of rollover accidents. These types of accidents regularly happen with SUV or Sports Utility Vehicles and larger passenger vehicles. Our personal injury lawyers have been successful in bringing lawsuits for negligent design and road defects that caused the rollover accident.
With more drivers on the road in New York than ever before, traffic conditions have lead to flared tempers. These stressful situations often lead people to become distracted and react by speeding, driving aggressively, and intentionally trying to do harm to another by using their vehicle. In other words, assault by vehicle. Such actions often result in serious injury or death. Our personal injury attorneys have successfully recovered for injuries and wrongful death against defendants who exhibited “road rage”.
In an auto accident case, our attorneys seek out negligence by the other party in the form of driver error. Our experience enables us to quickly assess the facts and identify driver errors such as speeding, disregard of rules of the road, driving while intoxicated or ability impaired, tailgating, and failure to yield to traffic that has the right of way. Proving fault on the other party will completely change the nature of your case.
A rear end collision typically inflicts the most damage on the lead car. Speed and size of the offending vehicle are two factors that suggest the extent of damage done to the lead car. However, even if cars of the same size are involved and are traveling at 20mph, serious neck injuries such as whiplash or spinal injuries are usually the result. Unfortunately, we have also seen very serious spinal injuries resulting in paralysis.
More and more we are encountering cases where the other party was asleep at the wheel at the time of the accident. These types of cases typically involve truck and commercial vehicle drivers who are typically always driving when fatigued. The U.S. DOT recently reduced the number of hours a truck driver is legally allowed to drive behind the wheel in a week from 82 to 70 hours. Obviously, such incidents result in serious injuries and death, and an experienced personal injury lawyer is crucial to ensure maximum recovery.
An intersection collision will typically result in side trauma or “T-bone” based accidents. Such blunt force from the side can cause serious injuries and even death. There are many reasons why an intersection collision can occur, which vary from drunk driving, texting while driving, road rage, driver error, and even traffic light outages.
Speeding and reckless driving are two very large contributors to road accidents in the state of New York. Excessive speeding reduces the ability of the driver to respond and control their vehicle. Aggressively changing lanes, and disobeying the rules of the road often result in collisions with innocent drivers. Our experienced team will investigate and bring the facts to light that prove negligence and causation.
While these causes are not as common as others, they still exist. Our New York accident lawyers have seen several instances where the cause of the accident was due to debris from construction on the roadway, or negligent design of temporary roadway during construction. Other road defects include traffic light/control failure. Our legal team will hire experts to help build a strong case for your recovery.
This cause typically arises in the context of a commercial vehicle, such as trucks, and semi-trucks. The DOT has mandated common maintenance guidelines that require commercial vehicles to be roadworthy, ensuring the safety of all on the road. Negligence in maintaining the road worthiness of a truck is a cause that our personal injury attorneys pursue. Common examples of such negligent maintenance and repair are bald tires, worn down brakes, and non-lubricated ball bearings.
While we have already discussed texting while driving and using cell phones, there are several other distracted driver causes that we have encountered, such as: using GPS devices, changing radio channels, reading books, reading billboards, eating food, drinking coffee, refocusing mirrors, applying makeup or fixing hair etc…, all while driving. Taking your eyes off the road for 4 seconds can be the difference between life or death. We will investigate the facts and circumstances to determine any causes of distraction.
A head on collision is widely cited by medical experts as one of the most severe in terms of resulting injuries from auto accidents. Unfortunately, many of these cases involve claims for wrongful death on behalf of the families who have to get by without their loved one. In many other situations quadriplegia, paraplegia, and traumatic brain injuries are the results. Such auto accident cases are defended vehemently by insurance companies because of the substantial damages sought. As a result, you will need an experienced, detail-oriented, and aggressive legal team to investigate, prepare, and fight your case.
Another category of auto accident injury causes is in the legal doctrine of product liability. In such instances, our experienced attorneys focus the case on the manufacturer of the vehicle to prove some manufacturer defect. In the past, the news had focused on the mass recall of Takata airbags. This is just one example of a case that we are investigating where the explosion of a defective airbag can cause very serious injuries, including death, to drivers and passengers of cars.
We have been successful in cases involving failed airbag deployment, defective safety belts, and several other product recalls.
Under New York law, each insurance policy provides what is known as no-fault insurance coverage. This type of coverage exists to cover medical expenses, lost wages, and any other necessary expenses resulting from the accident irrespective of who was at fault for the accident. This coverage typically also extends to you if you are hit by another car or vehicle when you are outside your insured vehicle as a pedestrian. In order to be eligible for recovery, you must file your claim within 30 days of the accident.
Whether you were involved in a fender bender or a more serious accident, there are many different strategies under New York auto accident law for you to recover. Our experienced auto accident law firm is here to help you with your case by building a solid legal strategy for recovery. We ensure you are apprised and understand our strategy from the beginning until the conclusion where we focus on securing substantial financial compensation for your injuries.
While our main offices are located in Manhattan and Westchester, NY, we serve clients throughout the state of New York given our depth of experience in handling motor vehicle accidents. In New York City, we regularly represent clients in the following boroughs:
Call our firm today and speak with an attorney within 24 hours about your auto accident case. It is our privilege to serve those in need of legal representation and our goal is to always be a “bridge to recovery”.