When you or your loved one has been injured in a car accident in New York, the law mandates that you are entitled to compensation. But how much can a passenger really get? Long story short, since New York has no upper limit on compensation, it can range from around $10,000 to well over $1 million. As an auto accident lawyer in New York, we’ve been helping clients secure compensation for their accidents for many years, and in this post, we’ll point out everything you need to know about compensation for car accidents in New York.
Understanding New York’s Auto Insurance Requirements
In New York, car accidents are covered under ‘no-fault’ insurance. This means regardless of who bears the fault/responsibility in the accident, the insured individuals are reimbursed for the damages they’ve sustained by their own insurance company. As such, New York law requires all motorists to obtain an insurance policy that appropriately satisfies the financial responsibility needed to register their cars and obtain license plates. According to the New York DMV, these insurance policies must include:
- No-Fault (Personal Injury Protection): to cover medical expenses, lost earnings, and other reasonable and necessary expenses associated with the injury;
- Liability: to protect against the harm your car might cause to other people and property; and
- Uninsured Motorists: to protect against injuries and accidents that involve uninsured vehicles.
As such, the minimum insurance coverage values are:
- $25,000 or $50,000 for bodily injury per person
- $10,000 for property damage per accident
- $50,000/$100,000 for death
The purpose of ‘no-fault’ insurance is to provide financial relief to those injured in car accidents and return them to good health & productivity as quickly as possible. However, based on the insurance policy you have entered into, you may be precluded from no-fault benefits in instances such as driving while intoxicated or intentionally causing their own injuries.
When Can I File a Lawsuit for Car Accidents?
In cases where insurance settlements are insufficient to cover all the expenses, injured individuals can request their Manhattan car accident attorney to file a lawsuit on their behalf. To file such a lawsuit, the injured party must first prove that the damages suffered in the car accident have exceeded New York’s ‘serious injury threshold’ or have a monetary loss that exceeds $50,000.
If your injuries do not satisfy these prerequisites, you are limited to the compensation that can be obtained from your insurance claim. In the event these prerequisites are satisfied, an auto accident attorney in New York will take into account all your tangible & intangible losses and present them in the lawsuit as economic, non-economic, and punitive damages.
The economic damages account for all the financial losses suffered due to the injury and include medical expenses, loss of earnings, and damages to property. Non-economic damages are those that cannot be claimed through insurance and have no defined financial value. They include pain & suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium. On rare occasions, the court can also consider awarding the punitive damages in favor of the plaintiff. These damages are introduced with the intention to punish the wrongdoer and to deter them from similar conduct in the future.
What if I am partly responsible for the accident?
In New York, even if you are partly responsible for the accident, you may still recover compensation. This is because New York is one of the few states that has adopted the ‘pure comparative negligence’ rule. Under this rule, so long as you are not completely to blame for the accident, you can claim compensation. However, the compensation you can claim will be reduced proportional to the extent of your fault. For example, if you are deemed 30% responsible for the accident, your compensation will be reduced by 30%.
Conclusion
When you or your loved one is injured in a car accident, New York law states that you are entitled to compensation. This compensation can be obtained through an insurance claim or lawsuit that you file with the guidance and assistance of a car accident lawyer in Brooklyn.
