Personal injury lawyers help victims file claims and get payment for the injuries they faced. Most injuries involve a mix of economic damages to cover expenses and lost income and non-economic damages to pay for your pain and suffering.
No matter the injury and no matter the damages, our lawyers can investigate your claim and work to get your damages paid. Never accept a settlement before speaking with a lawyer, and avoid talking with insurance or defense lawyers. These groups will look for any excuse they can to deny your claim, including twisting what you say against you.
For a free case review, call the personal injury attorneys at The Martello Law Firm at (914) 685-6950.
Car Accident Lawyers in New Castle
Our attorneys make car accident claims a large part of our practice because these are some of the most common injury cases. Not every car accident is serious, and our lawyers can help with minor, moderate, or severe injuries.
If you suffered cuts and scrapes in a crash, you likely still need damages. However, anything less than “serious injuries” might be barred from a lawsuit. This means relying on your own insurance’s “no-fault” coverage to get your injuries paid. If the insurance company gives you trouble, we might be able to negotiate your damages or sue them for bad faith.
Moderate injuries are often on the line of when lawsuits are available. Because “serious injuries” include broken bones and serious scarring under New York law, many cases still qualify. Additionally, any injury that disables you for 90 of the next 180 days also qualifies. Medical exams and records are needed as proof of “serious injuries.”
Any crash involving amputation, lost function, permanent injuries, a lost fetus, or death automatically qualify for a lawsuit. When we sue the defendant for your injuries, we can claim pain and suffering damages; otherwise, these damages are blocked.
Our lawyers also help with complex cases like DUI accidents, hit and runs, and crashes with uninsured drivers. Often, your insurance policy has damages to help pay when the other driver cannot be found or has no or low insurance coverage.
Truck Accident Cases in New Castle
It is worth discussing truck accident injuries separately from car accident injuries. These cases are often more complex given that there are additional rules truckers must follow, and their employers might share responsibility.
Trucking regulations, commercial driver’s license requirements, and safety requirements for truckers mean there are more laws and rules that might be violated. Any of these violations can be grounds for a truck accident case if it caused your injuries.
While most car accident cases involve just the drivers, commercial truck accident cases involve the trucker’s employer, too. If the trucker was working when the crash occurred, the employer can be held liable for their employee’s actions.
While some truckers own their own trucks – and have no employer – many use trucks their employers own. If there are maintenance or equipment issues with the truck that caused the accident, that may make the accident the vehicle owner’s fault.
Trucking companies can also be held liable for other violations of their own, such as overloading trucks, encouraging drivers to violate hours of service rules, and hiring/retaining dangerous drivers.
Property Injury Lawyers in New Castle, NY
One of the other most common causes of injury is slip and falls and other injuries from dangerous premises. If an owner or renter fails to keep their property safe for guests, they are responsible for the damages they cause. This often includes injuries from…
- Slips
- Trips
- Falls from heights
- Burns
- Smoke inhalation
- Electrocution
- Drowning, and more.
Your case is often different depending on why you were on the property. Property owners owe customers and other business guests the highest level of care and need to search for potential dangers and warn about/repair them.
Mere “licensees” – people with permission to be on the property for their own purposes – are owed a lesser duty. Here, property owners need to warn them of dangers they know about or repair/clear them.
Trespassers are owed no duty, but owners still need to refrain from intentionally injuring them or setting traps to hurt them.
Slip and fall injuries can often lead to serious injuries like back and spine injuries, head and brain injuries, broken bones, and substantial bruising. Many property injuries are worse for older adults and people with preexisting injuries or disabilities.
Medical Malpractice Lawyers in New Castle
Suing a doctor or hospital for their mistakes is no easy task. These cases almost always need expert witnesses and additional medical evidence. However, juries are often on the victim’s side.
Many medical malpractice cases are based on whether the doctor’s care fell below the “standard of care” or not. Our personal injury lawyers need to hire expert witnesses – other doctors with similar training/experience – to testify as to what the standard is. The other side’s experts will give a different standard, and the jury will have to decide which standard is correct.
Then, we need to show that the doctor’s care actually failed to meet that standard. This requires evidence of what happened, which is often in the doctor’s possession. Especially if you were unconscious on the operating table, you could not witness the malpractice and will need testimony from other witnesses (e.g., nurses) and medical records to prove fault.
Damages in medical malpractice cases depend on the specific issue. Many deal with injuries and the care to treat them, while others deal with “lost chance” from undiagnosed conditions, misdiagnosis, and negligent treatment.
Many of these cases also involve the death of a loved one.
New Castle, NY Wrongful Death Lawyers
New York law allows families to sue for their loved one’s death. Usually, these cases are filed by the victim’s “personal representative” – a person appointed by the court or set in the victim’s will.
Wrongful death cases involve two lawsuits:
- Survival actions recover the damages the victim could have claimed if they lived, such as medical care, lost wages, and pre-death pain and suffering.
- Wrongful death actions recover economic damages for the surviving family, such as burial costs and lost wages/support.
Note that wrongful death claims cannot include damages for the family’s pain and suffering. Only economic or “pecuniary” damages are allowed to cover costs and expenses.
Work Injury Lawyers in New Castle
Most states, including New York, have laws preventing lawsuits against employers for work injuries. Instead, victims generally have to file with their employer’s insurance unless they meet an exception. Our attorneys help you find those exceptions and file for full damages rather than the limited payments from insurance.
The first exception deals with independent contractors. Only “employees” are blocked from suing employers, not independent contractors.
The law defines “employee” broadly, classifying many workers who might be paid with 1099s as “employees” anyway. Tests to determine status usually involve looking at whether the worker’s time and manner of work are controlled, whether they work under their own name or a company name, how they are paid, and whether they perform a different kind of work from the person hiring them.
Alternatively, you can always sue someone other than your employer if they caused your accident. Victims often sue equipment manufacturers, drivers, outside suppliers, and property owners for injuries at work.
Lastly, you can sue your employer in limited circumstances. First, if they did not have insurance, you can sue instead. Second, if they violated certain safety rules to cause your accident, you can sue them despite the usual restrictions. Lastly, you can sue them for intentional injuries they caused you on purpose (e.g., assault).
Basics of a Personal Injury Case in New Castle, NY
In a personal injury case, you (the plaintiff) sue the responsible party (the defendant) for the injuries they caused you. Usually, these claims are based on negligence, and defendants are responsible for their share of damages, which might mean suing more than one party.
To prove negligence, you must show the defendant breached a duty they owed you and that that caused your injuries. This often involves violating a law, such as traffic laws, building codes, or other regulations. Otherwise, it means violating an objective standard based on what is reasonable.
When a case goes to court, judges decide the law, and juries decide the facts. Judges rule on issues like whether the elements could be legally met in your case, whether evidence should be accepted, what jury instructions are used, etc. Juries, then, rule on what happened, what the duty was, whether it was breached, and whether an outside cause was involved.
Juries can assign partial fault to multiple parties, meaning you could potentially have multiple defendants to sue. Usually, parties can only be held liable for the percentage of fault they caused, so if the fault was 50/50, each pays half.
Juries can also find plaintiffs partially at fault. This fault will reduce your share of damages by your percentage of fault. For example, if you were 10% at fault in a $100,000 case, defendants only pay you $90,000.
How Insurance Claims Work in Personal Injury Cases
Most cases begin with some kind of insurance claim. Drivers must carry car insurance, and employers must carry Workers’ Compensation insurance. Other defendants may have homeowners insurance or business liability insurance. This helps guarantee there is money to pay for injuries, but insurance will not always pay.
Many cases require our personal injury lawyers to negotiate for damages. Insurance companies typically offer to settle for low amounts that will not fully cover you. Never trust insurance or settle before speaking with a lawyer about the value of your case.
Sometimes you file with your own insurance, like in car accident cases. This insurance is often a stop-gap to cover you immediately and might not “settle” your case. However, your insurance company can often claim back anything they pay you when you win your final case against the defendant.
When insurance is too low or when they deny you full payment, we often have to file in court. However, most cases are still settled by the end.
In a settlement, we want to get you all of the damages you are owed. If we can do that without going to court, that is often the best – and quickest – way to get your case paid. If the trial starts, settlements can still happen at any time. However, cases often settle in/after the “discovery” stage when evidence is exchanged and both sides see the full case details.
Damages for Injury Victims in New Castle, NY
Most injury claims involve two classes of damages: economic and non-economic. These all fall under the broader umbrella of “compensatory damages” – damages that pay you back for your injuries. Other “non-compensatory” damages can include things like punitive damages.
Medical Bills
Medical bills are a major category of economic damages, paying you back for the cost of treatment. These can pay for surgery and hospitalization as well as follow-up care, physical therapy, and mental health treatment.
Lost Wages
Any income you miss should also be claimed as economic damages. These damages can cover past wages you missed while recovering, as well as wages you will miss going forward if you now have a disability.
Pain and Suffering
“Pain and suffering” is often used interchangeably with “non-economic damages” to represent the harms that have no bills or receipts. This covers mental and emotional distress, physical pain, discomfort, fear of reinjury, and the emotions you experience during the accident.
Punitive Damages
As the name implies, these damages are a punishment. The court orders defendants to pay punitive damages in cases involving worse fault beyond mere negligence, usually requiring reckless actions. Punitive damages are somewhat rare, while these other damages are involved in most cases.
Call Our Personal Injury Lawyers in New Castle, NY Today
Call (914) 685-6950 for a free case evaluation with our personal injury lawyers at The Martello Law Firm.
