What Types of Cases Do Personal Injury Lawyers Handle in New York?

Car crashes, falls, construction, malpractice, wrongful death: Davidoff Law breaks down NY injury case types. Free case evaluation at 718-268-8800.

Personal injury lawyers handle claims for people hurt by someone else's carelessness. That covers car crashes, falls on unsafe property, construction site injuries, medical mistakes, defective products, dog bites, and deaths caused by negligence. The common thread across every one of these types of personal injury cases is a party who owed a duty of care and failed to meet it.

Davidoff Law represents injured people across all five boroughs of New York City from offices in Fresh Meadows, Manhattan, and the Bronx. Our team has handled these claims since 2012. Call 718-268-8800 for a free case evaluation.

What Makes an Injury a Personal Injury Case in New York?

An injury becomes a legal claim when another party's conduct falls below the standard of reasonable care and causes measurable harm. A bruise from your own misstep is not a case. The same fall caused by a landlord who ignored a broken stair for months usually is.

Three questions separate an accident from a claim:

• Did another party owe you a duty to act safely?
• Did that party fall short of the duty through action or inaction?
• Did the failure cause harm you can document?

Negligence Is the Common Thread

Nearly every category below runs on negligence. The setting changes and the labels change, but the underlying analysis stays the same. Our resource on what makes an injury a personal injury case walks through each element in detail.

A few claims skip negligence entirely. Defective product cases can proceed on strict liability. Certain construction claims impose duties on owners and contractors that a worker's own carelessness does not reduce.

Motor Vehicle Accident Cases

Crashes produce more injury claims than any other category in New York City. Under CPLR 214(5), most carry a 3-year filing deadline measured from the date of the crash.

Car and Rideshare Accidents

Rear-end collisions, intersection crashes, and lane-change impacts make up the bulk of this work. Rideshare claims add a layer of complexity because coverage depends on whether the driver was logged into the app and carrying a passenger at the time. Our Queens car accident lawyers pursue claims against private drivers, their employers, and commercial carriers.

No-fault benefits also require a separate application to the insurer shortly after a crash. That deadline is far shorter than the deadline to file suit, and missing it can cut off medical coverage while a claim is still being investigated.

Truck and Commercial Vehicle Accidents

Tractor-trailers, box trucks, and delivery vans cause disproportionate harm because of their weight and stopping distance. These claims often reach past the driver to the motor carrier, the company that loaded the cargo, and the maintenance contractor. 

Driver logs, inspection records, and telematics data decide many of them, and carriers routinely overwrite that data unless someone demands preservation early.

Accidentes de motocicleta

New York's no-fault system does not treat motorcycles as covered motor vehicles. Riders therefore cannot draw no-fault medical benefits the way drivers and passengers can. The trade-off is that a rider does not have to clear the serious injury threshold described below before filing suit.

Pedestrian and Bicycle Accidents

People struck while walking or cycling are covered persons under the no-fault law, so the driver's insurer generally pays their initial medical benefits. Liability may extend beyond the driver to the vehicle's owner, the driver's employer, or a public agency responsible for a defective signal or an unsafe roadway.

How No-Fault Insurance Changes a Motor Vehicle Claim

No-fault benefits pay medical bills and a portion of lost earnings regardless of who caused the crash. To recover for pain and suffering, though, an injured person must show a serious injury as Insurance Law 5102(d) defines it. That definition covers:

• Death, dismemberment, or significant disfigurement
• A fracture or loss of a fetus
• Permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function, or system
• Permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member
• Significant limitation of use of a body function or system

Whether an injury meets one of those categories is contested in a large share of crash claims. Insurers frequently move to dismiss on this ground alone, which makes early and consistent medical documentation important.

Premises Liability and Property Cases

Property owners in New York owe visitors a duty to keep the space reasonably safe. Liability usually turns on notice: Did the owner know about the hazard, or would a reasonable inspection have found it?

Slip, Trip, and Fall Accidents

Wet lobby floors, unlit stairwells, broken treads, and ice left on a walkway all produce claims. Maintenance logs, prior complaints, and surveillance footage decide most of these cases. Each of those records has a short shelf life, and footage in particular is often overwritten within weeks.

Negligent Security

When a foreseeable assault happens because a building lacked working locks, adequate lighting, or staffing, the property owner may share responsibility for the resulting injuries. Prior incidents at the same address are usually the strongest evidence that the risk was foreseeable.

Dog Bites and Animal Attacks

New York ties an owner's liability largely to whether the animal had shown vicious tendencies before the attack. Proving that the owner knew about that history is typically the deciding issue in these claims.

Sidewalk and Roadway Defects

Responsibility for a broken sidewalk in New York City often falls on the adjoining property owner rather than the city itself. Identifying the correct defendant early matters here, because suing the wrong one can waste months.

Claims involving city-maintained roadways, signals, and parks carry separate notice requirements covered further down this page.

Property owners in all of these cases commonly argue that the injured person was not watching where they were going. That argument affects the size of a recovery rather than the right to bring the claim at all.

Workplace and Construction Injury Cases

Injuries on the job split into two tracks that often run at the same time. One is the workers' compensation system, which pays without regard to fault. The other is a civil claim against someone other than the employer.

Sorting out which track applies, and whether both do, shapes the entire value of a workplace claim.

Construction Accidents Under New York Labor Law 240 and 241

New York gives construction workers protections that exist almost nowhere else in the country. New York Labor Law 240 requires owners and contractors to furnish scaffolding, ladders, hoists, ropes, and similar devices for elevation-related work. Labor Law 241 extends comparable duties to demolition and excavation work.

The practical effect is substantial. When a required safety device was missing or inadequate, and that failure caused a fall or a struck-by injury, the worker's own carelessness generally does not reduce the recovery. The exception is narrow, and it applies only where the worker's conduct was the sole cause of the injury.

These duties are non-delegable, which matters on sites with layered contracts. Our construction accident claims reach owners and general contractors even when a subcontractor employed the injured worker.

When Workers' Compensation Is the Only Remedy

Workers' compensation covers medical treatment and wage replacement without any proof of fault, and it generally bars a lawsuit against the employer. That trade-off surprises many injured workers, because compensation benefits do not include pain and suffering.

A separate claim frequently remains against a third party. Depending on the site, that may be a property owner, a general contractor, an equipment manufacturer, or a negligent driver.

Medical, Product, and Wrongful Death Cases

These claims share a feature that sets them apart from a typical crash or fall. Each generally requires expert testimony to establish what should have happened, and each carries its own procedural rules.

Medical Malpractice

These claims require proof that a provider departed from accepted medical practice and that the departure caused the harm. Poor outcomes alone do not establish a case, which is why expert review comes early. 

The deadline is shorter than the general injury rule: CPLR 214-a sets 2 years and 6 months, subject to exceptions.

Defective and Dangerous Products

Design defects, manufacturing flaws, and inadequate warnings all support claims against manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. Because strict liability may apply, an injured person does not always have to prove carelessness. Preserving the product itself, along with its packaging and instructions, is often the most important step after treatment.

Reclamaciones por muerte por negligencia

Bajo EPTL 5-4.1, only the personal representative of the estate may bring a wrongful death action. Families therefore need a Surrogate's Court appointment before the case can be filed, and that process takes time. The filing period runs 2 years from the date of death.

Our wrongful death claims frequently pair the death action with a survival claim for the pain and suffering the person experienced before passing.

New York Laws That Shape Every Personal Injury Case

Filing Deadlines by Case Type

Deadlines vary by the type of claim and by who the defendant is. In rough order of how quickly they arrive:

1. 90 days to serve a notice of claim on a public corporation under General Municipal Law 50-e
2. 2 years from the date of death for a wrongful death action under EPTL 5-4.1
3. 2 years and 6 months for medical, dental, or podiatric malpractice under CPLR 214-a
4. 3 years from the date of injury for most other personal injury claims under CPLR 214(5)

Missing the first deadline can end a case that would otherwise have had years remaining. Deadlines can also shift when the injured person is a minor, so the dates above are a starting point rather than a final answer.

Shared Fault and the 2026 Change to CPLR 1411

New York applied pure comparative fault for decades. Under CPLR 1411(a), an injured person's share of blame reduces the award in proportion but does not eliminate it. A person 30% responsible for a fall still recovers 70% of the damages.

That rule changed in part during 2026. CPLR 1411(b) now bars recovery in personal injury actions subject to Article 51 of the Insurance Law when the injured person's culpable conduct is greater than the conduct of the party being sued, or greater than the combined conduct of several parties being sued.

The dividing line is worth stating plainly: In a covered motor vehicle case, a person found more than half at fault recovers nothing. Outside that carve-out, in premises, product, and construction claims, the older proportional rule still governs.

Claims Against the City, the MTA, or a Public Hospital

Suing a public entity requires an extra step before the lawsuit. General Municipal Law 50-e requires a written, sworn notice of claim served within 90 days after the claim arises. In wrongful death actions, those 90 days run from the appointment of the estate's representative instead of the date of death.

Bus and subway injuries, falls in public parks or schools, and treatment at a public hospital all fall under this rule. Because the window is so short, these claims deserve attention within days rather than months.

Types of Compensation Available in a New York Injury Case

Damages in these claims fall into two groups, and most cases involve both. What a specific case is worth depends on the severity of the injury, the length of treatment, and how the harm affects work and daily life.

No two claims of the same type carry the same value, and any figure quoted before treatment stabilizes is a guess.

Economic damages cover documented financial losses:

• Emergency treatment, surgery, and ongoing medical care
• Future medical and rehabilitation costs
• Lost wages during recovery
• Reduced earning capacity
• Daños materiales

Non-economic damages cover harm that arrives without a receipt:

• Dolor y sufrimiento
• Angustia emocional
• Pérdida del disfrute de la vida
• Pérdida de consorcio

Non-economic damages are frequently the larger figure in a serious case, and they are also the category insurers dispute most often. Punitive damages remain rare in New York and are reserved for conduct that goes well beyond ordinary carelessness.

How Our Team Handles These Cases

We work on a contingency fee basis, so legal fees come out of a recovery rather than out of pocket. Our attorneys stay involved with medical treatment while the claim develops, instead of waiting for records to arrive at the end. Gaps in treatment are one of the most common reasons an otherwise strong claim loses value.

Our team handles investigation, evidence preservation, and communication with insurers, so clients are not fielding adjuster calls during recovery.

The firm's published results include a $10 million recovery in a wrongful death case arising from a motor vehicle accident, a $5 million trip-and-fall settlement, and a $2.5 million rear-end collision result. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Our team serves clients in English, Spanish, Hindi, Punjabi, and Russian, and the phones are open 24 hours a day. You can review the full range of injury cases we handle across Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island, and Long Island.

Frequently Asked Questions About Types of Personal Injury Cases in New York

Contact Our New York Personal Injury Lawyer at Davidoff Law

If you were hurt and are not certain which of these types of personal injury cases fits your situation, that question is worth putting to a lawyer rather than to an insurance adjuster. Deadlines run from the date of the injury, and the records that decide these claims tend to disappear first.

Davidoff Law handles injury claims throughout New York City and Long Island. Call 718-268-8800 or reach our team through the contact form to schedule a free case evaluation with attorney Ruben Davidoff and our staff.