Injuries can happen in surprising and sudden ways. Whether you were injured in a crash merging onto the Bronx River Parkway or you slipped and fell on a platform at the Bronxville train station or you were hit by a drunk driver while walking on White Plains Road, you could be entitled to substantial compensation for your injuries.
Our attorneys represent injury victims in all sorts of accident cases, fighting to get them and their families the damages they need. Coverage for medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages is often available if someone else was responsible for your injuries, and you should never accept a denial from an insurance company or a defendant until speaking with an attorney about your case.
For a free case review, call The Martello Law Firm’s personal injury lawyers at (914) 685-6950.
Civil Injury Lawsuit Basics in Bronxville, NY
When you file a civil lawsuit, you – the plaintiff – make a claim against another party called the “defendant.” Cases are different than criminal cases, given that civil injury cases are filed by private citizens and companies against other people and companies, whereas criminal cases are filed by the government. The goal is also different in that civil injury cases are focused on reimbursing the victim and making right what happened to them, whereas criminal cases are focused on punishing the defendant.
When you are injured, many situations involve some kind of insurance policy that could potentially cover the accident. For example, if you were hurt in a car crash, then your insurance will cover you. However, there are many situations where insurance will not pay for everything, and our personal injury lawyers might recommend a lawsuit to either force them to pay or get the damages directly from the defendant for the money that insurance will not cover.
Elements of a Personal Injury Claim in Bronxville, NY
In order to sue someone for an injury, you need to prove that they committed each element of a “tort” – like the civil law version of a “crime.” These are also commonly called “causes of action.” The most common cause of action that personal injury claims are based on is a claim of negligence, though claims are also filed for things like assault and battery.
To win a negligence lawsuit, you have to show that the defendant was responsible for your injuries because they owed you a duty and violated that duty, and that the violation caused your injuries. This means showing, for example, that a driver violated the law by running a red light and caused your injuries by crashing into you. Alternatively, a doctor who failed to run reasonable tests might be liable for failing to catch your condition and allowing it to get worse.
In cases involving assault and battery, you instead have to show that the defendant put you in apprehension that they would injure you to prove assault or that they intentionally touched you in a harmful or offensive way to prove battery.
Wrongful death claims can also be filed for negligence using the same elements above, but you can also sue for murder, manslaughter, or any other loss of life.
Bronxville Car Accident Lawyer
Perhaps the most common type of injury case is a car accident case, where we focus on the other driver’s mistakes and traffic violations to hold them responsible for the injuries you sustained in a crash. Crashes can happen on any of the backroads and neighborhood roads throughout the area, but they are also possible on main thoroughfares in the area, like Midland Avenue and White Plains Road, as well as on the Bronx River Parkway that runs just outside of town.
In a car accident, it is important to understand how your insurance works. New York uses a no-fault car insurance system. This means that your own insurance is what covers you in a crash, regardless of who caused the accident. It also means you cannot actually sue the other driver or file a claim with their insurance unless you meet certain criteria. Namely, your injuries have to be considered “serious” to sue, which includes death, lost fetuses, permanent injuries, broken bones, and any injury that will effectively disable you for 90 out of the next 180 days.
No-fault rules in New York are also important because they block access to pain and suffering damages if you are unable to sue. This means that our lawyers will need to examine your case and find sufficient medical evidence that your injuries meet the standard of “serious” to get you pain and suffering damages at all.
Bronxville Slip and Fall and Premises Liability Lawyer
Premises liability cases are another common type of personal injury claim, where our personal injury lawyers sue a property owner for dangerous conditions on their property, such as slippery sidewalks or collapsing handrails. This is the type of case that covers “slip and fall” and “trip and fall” cases.
Slip and falls are one of the most common types of personal injury cases there are. Icy and snowy sidewalks are perhaps one of the most common ways that people get into these kinds of accidents, but you can also file a slip and fall injury case after a fall in a lobby, in a grocery store, or at another business, restaurant, bar, etc.
Other premises liability accidents are often based on similar circumstances, where the safety defect on the property was allowed to go on because the property owner failed to warn you about it, repair it, or clean it up. Hazards and defects can be things like a slippery floor or wet, leaf-littered outdoor staircase, but they can also be things like loose floorboards, broken or missing handrails, electrocution risks, fire hazards, open pits, and more.
Although the type of case might vary, the claim is often pretty similar: you were injured because the owner or operator of the premises failed to keep you safe. This makes them responsible for damages, which can be surprisingly severe given how many accidents cause serious back injuries, broken hips for older adults, and brain injuries if you hit your head on the way down or land on concrete.
Bronxville Product Injury Lawyer
Products liability claims are often filed against product manufacturers for dangerous and defective products that injure consumers. Product injury cases can be broken down into three common areas:
Failure to Warn
When a product is inherently dangerous, the manufacturer often needs to include warnings and instructions so that the user knows what dangers to avoid and how to safely use the product. Many product warnings exist in the first place because someone tried it once, got injured, and sued, leading companies to put warnings on the product from then on.
If you were came across a serious problem and faces a serious injury because of a missing warning, we may be able to help you recover compensation.
Design Defects
If the product was dangerous in its design but should have reasonably been made safer, then you might be able to sue for the dangerous design. Some manufacturers and designers go out of their way to include safety features, such as automatic shutoffs, surge protection, guards to keep your fingers out of the way, and protection around batteries and flammable/explosive materials. If the product that injured you had insufficient safety mechanisms or was missing reasonable safety features, then you could be entitled to compensation.
Manufacturing Defects
When the defect is in your specific product because it was not assembled or manufactured up to design specifications, that is often an obvious case against the manufacturer. Missing screws, weak substitute materials, or products that simply came broken often fall into this category.
Bronxville Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Medical malpractice claims are filed against doctors and other care providers whose mistakes and negligent care result in misdiagnoses, surgical errors, and other worsened conditions or injuries. In these cases, the claim is often that the doctor’s care fell below the “standard of care,” a bar that can fluctuate heavily depending on the circumstances. To bring these cases, you often need another doctor of similar training and experience to testify as to what your doctor did wrong and what they should have done differently in the same situation.
Bronxville Wrongful Death Lawyers
Wrongful death claims are often based on the same sorts of injury claims discussed above, but they result in death instead of injury. The family of the deceased can often bring lawsuits for the damages associated with a death in the family through the deceased victim’s personal representative. These claims actually involve two parallel claims that compensate different areas of damages:
Survival Actions
A survival action compensates the deceased victim’s estate for the damages the victim would have been able to claim if they survived the accident and filed a personal injury suit. This means claiming medical expenses between the accident and their death, lost wages before death, and pain and suffering for the victim. Damages are paid into the estate and distributed to their heirs according to their will or New York’s intestacy statute.
Wrongful Death Lawsuits
Wrongful death lawsuits reimburse the family for their losses. Obviously, a person cannot be replaced by money, and so the lawsuit only covers economic harms the family faces. This could include the cost of end-of-life care if it was not reimbursed in the survival action, burial and funeral costs, and ongoing lost wages for the family. This can also include the cost of lost household services and other financial benefits the victim supplied to the family.
Bronxville Work Injury Lawyers
You may be able to use Workers’ Compensation for some reduced wage-loss benefits and coverage for medical expenses. However, these claims will not cover pain and suffering – which could be an incredibly important part of your case. Personal injury lawsuits usually cannot be filed against your boss, but we may instead be able to claim your full lost earnings, medical bills, and pain and suffering damages in a lawsuit against a negligent third party after a work injury. Additionally, there are exceptions that allow work injury lawsuits to be filed against your employer if they were negligent and there were certain safety violations committed.
Most work injury cases are going to be based on one of the other types of accidents or injuries discussed above. In the context of your job duties, an auto accident claim can be filed against a driver who hit you, whether you work as a driver or whether you were hit by a car while working. Product liability claims can be filed against manufacturers for defective and dangerous products they used in their job, including defective machinery or safety gear.
It is vital not to rely on insurance claims or payouts before you speak with a lawyer, as accepting benefits from your employer and filing a lawsuit can lead to complicated subrogation claims where the insurance company tries to claim part of your lawsuit damages, potentially trying to unfairly go over and above what they actually paid you.
Do I Have a Case?
The only way to know whether you have a case or not is to look at the facts of what happened in your situation and see how we can apply these legal rules to the case. Was there an individual or company who caused your accident? Did they violate a duty? Did you suffer damages like medical bills and lost wages?
You are not expected to be a legal expert, and it is not up to you to determine whether you have a case all on your own. Our attorneys can analyze the facts of your specific case, look into the potential at-fault parties, and determine whether or not you have the grounds to bring a case – and then we can file the case for you and fight to get you the compensation you deserve.
Call Our Personal Injury Lawyers in Bronxville, Westchester County Today
If you were injured, call (914) 685-6950 for a free case evaluation with the personal injury attorneys at The Martello Law Firm today.
