Staten Island Car Accident Attorney
Did you suffer an injury in a car accident on the Staten Island Expressway? Perhaps another driver rear-ended you on Annadale Street? Maybe you got into a side impact accident at the intersection of Hylan Boulevard and New Dorp Lane?
No matter how or where your car accident occurred in Staten Island, you deserve to have an experienced Staten Island car accident attorney in your corner.
Insurance companies do not always play fair with Staten Island car accident survivors. They may purposefully offer them a reduced settlement that is just a fraction of what they need to recover. When this occurs, Staten Island accident victims need a law firm that will stand up for their rights to full compensation.
Following a serious car accident, injured victims may need to file personal injury claims to help them get the compensation they need for their injuries. Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, can help.
Table of Contents
- Jacoby & Meyers, LLP Experience
- How Much Is Your Car Accident Case Worth?
- Where Do Car Accidents Occur in Staten Island?
- Types of Car Accident Cases We Handle
- What are Common Injuries Faced After Car Accidents?
- Filing a Personal Injury Claim After a Staten Island Car Accident
- Staten Island Car Accident FAQ
- Contact a Staten Island Car Accident Attorney
Experience Matters
How a Staten Island Car Accident Lawyer Can Help Get You Results
The skilled car accident lawyers at Jacoby & Meyers, LLP have nearly 50 years of experience in the settlement, negotiation, and litigation of a wide variety of car accident cases. The firm’s dedication to client advocacy and professional excellence has resulted in recovering millions of dollars in compensation for injured clients.
No one should have to face physical, emotional, and financial pain because of another party’s wrongful actions. If they do, however, then at the very least they should recover compensation from the person or entity who did them harm.
Here are some examples of successful car accident cases:
- $5 million for a collision involving multiple vehicles on Van Wyck Expressway
- $3.5 million for a car accident on Meadowlands Parkway in Secaucus
- $2.5 million for a car and truck accident resulting in spinal injuries
- $2.5 million for a car accident in New Rochelle
- $2.5 million for a Brooklyn car accident
- $1.272 million for a Webster Avenue head-on car accident with a drunk driver
The examples above do not guarantee specific results for your car accident injury claim. However, you can count on the diligent car accident attorneys at Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, to investigate the cause of your injuries, uncover relevant facts, and build a strong case to give you the best possible chance of receiving maximum compensation for your injuries and related losses.
To better serve you, we have an office located directly on Staten Island. We believe that residents of Staten Island deserve experienced legal representation where they live. Our lawyers know the streets, intersections, and issues involved in your accident case because we know the area. This gives us the ability to represent you best and secure maximum compensation quickly.
Our Staten Island office is located in Meiers Corner at 26 Watchogue Rd Suite 1, just off of Victory Boulevard and near Fairview Cemetery. We offer FREE case evaluations for all our prospective car accident clients. If you cannot travel to our office for a meeting, don’t worry! We can meet you at your home, in your hospital room, or virtually over the Internet. We can also set up a phone consultation if you prefer. We are here when you need us, and you can count on this personalized attention throughout your case.
To set up your FREE initial consultation, call us at (718) 980-9600 or fill out our confidential Contact form.
How Much Is Your Car Accident Case Worth?
Getting the Money You Need
After a car accident, you will undoubtedly need money to help pay for your medical bills, household expenses, and long-term care. This can put a financial strain on families during an already difficult time.
At Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, we can help you get the money you need quickly. We do this by first filing a claim with your own Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance policy. However, you may face limitations due to your personal injury protection insurance coverage. Personal injury protection insurance covers the first portion of your medical bills and lost wages following a serious injury in an auto accident up to your policy limits. You cannot file a personal injury claim until your expenses exceed the amount of that coverage.
Once you exceed your coverage and exhaust your plan, you can then file a personal injury claim against the at-fault driver. How much compensation you receive is often determined by the at-fault driver’s policy limits.
In a personal injury claim after a car accident, the terms of the responsible driver’s insurance policy may pose substantial limitations on the compensation you receive. Many drivers throughout New York carry only minimum liability insurance, which offers $25,000 in bodily injury coverage following an auto accident.
If more than one individual in the accident suffers severe injuries, you may see that compensation drop even more: for two or more individuals injured in an auto accident, New York drivers need to carry only $50,000 minimum coverage. While many drivers, especially truck drivers, do carry more insurance, you cannot guarantee the coverage of the responsible driver.
This also doesn’t include the large number of drivers who illegally drive uninsured.
The severity of the injuries you face may also limit the compensation you receive after an auto accident. For example, if you have only broken bones or minor burns, you might receive significantly less compensation than someone who receives disfiguring burns or severe traumatic brain injury in an accident.
At Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, we will build a case to help you get the maximum compensation after a car accident. In many cases, we will look to find multiple parties that may bear liability. This can increase the amount of compensation you receive and give you more money to help with recovery.
Where Do Car Accidents Occur in Staten Island?
Roads throughout Staten Island often have high-speed limits. These roads pose an increased danger to pedestrians, cyclists, and others that must share the road. Staten Island intersections recorded more than 560 car accidents in one recent month alone. These accidents resulted in over 130 injuries.
Where do some of these car accidents occur?
- Hylan Boulevard
- Nelson Avenue
- New Dorp Lane
- Father Capodanno Boulevard
- Sand Lane
- Clove Road
- Victory Boulevard
- Old Town Road
- Rockland Avenue
- Bay Street
- Korean War Veterans Parkway
- Interstate 278
- Highway 440
- Richmond Avenue
- Arthur Kill Road
These are just some of the roads in Staten Island where dangerous and deadly car accidents occur.
Car Accident Injury Statistics in Staten Island, NY
Source: https://www.itsmr.org
Types of Car Accident Cases We Handle
At Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, our Staten Island car accident attorneys know that no two car accident cases are ever quite the same. However, certain types of car accidents do share similarities. Understanding those differences and similarities helps us build a case specifically for our clients based on the type of car accident they endured.
Our Staten Island car accident lawyers have successfully helped injured survivors involved in many types of motor vehicle accidents, including:
- Rear-end accidents
- Side-impact crashes
- Head-on collisions
- Sideswipe crashes
- Distracted driving accidents
- Hit and run crashes
- Uninsured motorist or underinsured motorist accidents
- DUI accidents
- Rollover crashes
- Truck accidents
Each of these accidents involves a different type of investigation, and cases can take different trajectories. A rear-end collision is different from a DUI accident in many ways, and lawyers must treat these cases differently while building them. This involves accurately identifying all liable parties.
In many cases, the insurance company that covers the responsible driver will look for any way to shift liability to another party, making it difficult for you to gain the full compensation you deserve for the accident. In others, the insurance company may issue a low settlement offer that does not adequately reflect the extent of your injuries or the damages covered by the policy. Talking with a personal injury attorney at Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, however, can help you better identify all responsible parties in your accident and seek the compensation you deserve for your injuries.
What are Common Injuries Faced After Car Accidents?
We Help Injured Survivors Like You
Auto accidents in Staten Island can cause a range of injuries, from broken bones to spinal cord injuries or amputations. Following those serious injuries, many car accident victims face ongoing complications that linger, causing issues throughout the rest of their lives. Some common car accident injuries include:
- Spinal Cord Injury
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Amputations
- Burns
- Chest Contusions
- Broken Bones
- Soft Tissue Damage
Should I File a Personal Injury Claim After a Staten Island Car Accident?
We Can Help You!
Car accidents often leave their victims with serious physical and mental limitations. While you do not have to have an attorney to file a personal injury claim, consulting a Staten Island car accident attorney can:
- Give you a better idea of how much compensation you deserve
- Reduce stress, since you can leave negotiations in the hands of your attorney instead of having to handle every communication with the insurance company yourself
- Increase the likelihood that insurance companies will issue a fair offer
- Provide you with clear guidelines about the claims process: how long it might take as well as what steps come next when the other driver’s insurance company fails to provide you with a fair offer
- Issue clear advice about how to handle things that could reduce your compensation, including interactions with the insurance company
At Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, our Staten Island car accident lawyers can help you obtain maximum compensation for your injuries and for the damages you suffered. This includes:
Medical Expenses
Your medical expenses after a car accident may add up fast from even minor injuries. As you put together your claim, make sure you consider every element of your medical expenses:
- Emergency transport
- Treatment in the emergency room
- Scans and x-rays
- Hospitalization
- Physical therapy
- Occupational therapy
- A stay in a rehabilitation facility
- Durable medical equipment
- Modifications to your home, like wider doorways and wheelchair ramps
Lost Wages
Many injuries interfere substantially with your ability to return to work after a car accident. Sometimes, your employer might make modifications that allow you to come in on a limited basis as your injuries permit, work from home, or decrease your job responsibilities while you recover. In other cases, your injuries might prevent you from coming to work for weeks or months during your recovery.
Lost Earning Potential
Staten Island Car Accident Lawyer, Andrew Finkelstein
Some victims, after a serious car accident, lose the ability to return to their former professions altogether due to the extent of their injuries. If, instead of breaking his leg, a janitor suffers a spinal cord injury, he might not have the ability to return to his former occupation after the accident. Likewise, a newspaper reporter who suffers a traumatic brain injury may no longer think fast enough to track down sources or have the emotional regulation skills needed to handle much of the frustration associated with the job.
As a result, those individuals may need to pursue new types of employment. Claiming lost earning potential can help victims of severe auto accident injuries seek employment in a new field or provide vitally-needed funds throughout the early stages of the recovery process.
Pain and Suffering
Many auto accident injuries cause substantial pain and suffering during the recovery process—not just physical pain, but in terms of the emotional and mental anguish faced by the victim. Many injuries cause substantial depression and anxiety, especially if the victim cannot return to work or engage in his normal activities. Some injuries may cause ongoing difficulty or embarrassment. Talking with a Staten Island car accident attorney can make it easier to quantify your pain and suffering after an auto accident.
Staten Island Car Accident FAQ—The Information You Need to Know
A Staten Island car accident can cause significant physical, emotional, and financial pain for victims and their families. Following a crash on Staten Island, you may not know what you should do, who you should talk to, or how you can find the legal help you need to obtain compensation from the parties at fault.
In this blog post, we answer a few of the most frequently asked questions that victims of Staten Island car accidents have about their rights. For answers to specific questions about a crash on Staten Island that injured you or a loved one, contact an experienced motor vehicle accident injury attorney today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Your legal rights depend on the specific facts and circumstances of your accident and injury. However, as a general matter, Staten Island residents, workers, and visitors who suffer a serious injury in a crash often have the right to sue anyone whose unreasonably dangerous decision or actions put them in harm’s way and recover the compensation needed for paying medical and other bills.
New York law defines a serious injury as:
- Bone fracture;
- Significant dismemberment or disfigurement;
- A disability within the first 180 days following the injury that lasts at least 90 days;
- Loss of a fetus;
- The permanent loss of the use of a body organ, function, system, or member;
- A significant limitation of use of a body system or function;
- The permanent consequential restriction to the use of a body member or organ; and
- Death.
People who get hurt in a Staten Island car accident but do not suffer a serious injury typically recover compensation from their own personal injury protection (PIP) coverage, which is part of every standard New York auto insurance policy. PIP is a form of no-fault insurance, which pays benefits to cover medical expenses and some lost wages regardless of who caused an accident. Victims who suffer injuries that are not serious typically do not have the right to sue an at-fault driver for their injuries but may have the right to sue other parties.
Always talk to an experienced Staten Island car accident attorney about your rights after suffering any kind of injury, serious or otherwise, in a Staten Island crash.
Assuming you have the right to take legal action (see above), a potentially wide range of individuals, companies, and government entities may owe you monetary damages. As a general proposition, anyone whose unreasonably dangerous decisions or conduct causes an accident on Staten Island may have a legal liability to injured accident victims.
Every case is different, of course, but often the parties who a victim can sue may include:
- Motorists who make mistakes behind the wheel that cause a crash;
- Employers of motorists who cause an accident while driving a work vehicle;
- Auto manufacturers, if a defective product they made fails and causes an accident;
- Local government agencies and contractors who have a duty to maintain Staten Island streets and thoroughfares in a reasonably safe condition for motorists, and to warn about unreasonably dangerous road hazards.
This is just a representative list. One of an attorney’s most important jobs is to evaluate the facts and circumstances of a Staten Island auto accident to identify all parties who may have legal liability to injured crash victims. Always seek the help of an experienced Staten Island auto accident injury attorney to help you figure out who owes you compensation for your injuries and losses.
First, there is no guarantee that you will get paid for your injuries. Hire an experienced Staten Island car accident attorney to represent you, to give yourself the best shot at obtaining compensation.
Every case is different, so there is no one-size-fits-all answer to where compensation for your injuries might come from. However, typically, Staten Island crash victims have two general sources of potential payment for the harm they suffered: their own insurance, and parties with legal liability (and their insurance).
Your own insurance may cover some of your costs resulting from crash injuries, such as:
- PIP insurance (see above), which covers medical expenses and some lost wages;
- Health insurance, which covers medical treatment costs subject to co-pays and deductibles;
- Long-term disability insurance, which replaces some portion of your income if your injuries leave you disabled and out of work.
Obtaining compensation from parties with legal liability typically requires taking legal action with the help of an experienced Staten Island auto accident attorney. A Staten Island car accident attorney may file a lawsuit on your behalf in New York court, may negotiate on your behalf with defense lawyers and insurance companies representing the liable parties, or both.
It depends on the specific facts and circumstances of your Staten Island crash and injuries.
Factors affecting the amount of money you may have the ability to receive from your own insurance and/or a party with legal liability include:
- The severity of your injuries;
- Your prospects for making a full recovery;
- Your age, income, and general state of health at the time of your injury;
- Coverage limits of any insurance policy (yours or someone else’s) available to pay for your injuries;
- The degree of disagreement over who owes you money; and
- The number of individuals, companies, and/or government entities that have a legal liability to you for your injuries and losses.
Speak with the experienced Staten Island car accident injury lawyers at Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, as soon as possible after your crash to give yourself the best possible chance of obtaining maximum payment for your injuries and losses.
That also depends on the facts of your case. We have represented car accident victims in personal injury cases that wrapped up in a month or two. We have also had cases that take a year or more to resolve. The same factors that affect the amount of money you might have the ability to recover also impact the timeline for getting your hands on that money.
To ensure that your claim moves along as quickly as possible, Contact an experienced Staten Island car accident lawyer today.
In the typical Staten Island car accident case, each party’s PIP insurance coverage pays for at least some of their medical expenses and lost wages. However, PIP may not cover all of those expenses, which can cause financial strain. An experienced Staten Island car accident lawyer may have the ability to help you negotiate with your creditors, especially medical providers to whom you owe money, to give you some flexibility. Be sure to mention any financial concerns to a lawyer when you meet for the first time.
Yes, you do.
Sometimes people think they can handle the process of getting paid for their Staten Island car accident injuries and losses on their own. Take it from us: that is not a good idea. Car accident victims have enough on their plate already, without having to try to figure out who owes them money, how much money they have a legal right to get paid, and the best strategy for forcing those parties to pay. Leave those tasks to our seasoned legal professionals.
It costs nothing—zero—to meet with our experienced personal injury lawyers for the first time to talk about your Staten Island car accident injuries and whether you have a case.
If you do, then our Staten Island car accident lawyers will agree to represent you on contingency, which means you pay nothing upfront or over time. Instead, we work for a percentage of whatever money the lawyer can recover on your behalf. You pay nothing unless the lawyer recovers compensation for you.
No. Talk to an experienced Staten Island lawyer first. Chances are, that offer is a trick designed to cheat you out of far more money.
Anyone who offers you money as a settlement, especially if they say they want to keep the lawyers out of it, is trying to take advantage of you. If you take that money, you will give up valuable legal rights in exchange, and there is no going back on it later on.
So, never take money from anyone as a settlement unless you have spoken first with an experienced lawyer and have a complete understanding of your legal rights to compensation—both who owes you money damages, and how much money you have a legal right to receive. Without that information, you risk getting taken for a ride.
Sometimes it’s required. Still, in talking to your own insurance company, always just stick to the facts. Do not offer your opinion about who was at fault for your Staten Island crash. Leave discussions of fault and blame to an experienced Staten Island car accident attorney who speaks the language of insurance companies and knows what to say to protect your legal rights to payment from your own insurance coverage, as well as from anyone else.
Also, remember that sometimes both you and the person who has a legal liability to you for your injuries and losses might have the same insurance company. That is yet another reason to be careful about what you say about your accident to any insurance company. If you don’t know about who you should talk to, or what you should or should not say, then ask us for help.
Yes. You can:
- Get the medical care you need, and follow your doctor’s instructions. This is the single most important thing you can do to help your case. See a doctor immediately after any Staten Island car crash, even one in which you think you did not get hurt. Sometimes serious injuries go unnoticed right after an accident, but a doctor can spot them with simple tests. Going to the doctor right away, and following your doctor’s instructions, ensures that you keep yourself healthy, and creates medical records that your lawyer may need to get you paid damages.
- Hold on to all evidence. Any object, photograph, video clip, or document that has anything to do with your Staten Island car accident, or the injuries you suffered in it, can constitute evidence that may help to prove your case. Hold on to all of it. Do not throw anything away. Keep everything—from the clothes you were wearing at the time of the crash to a receipt for pain meds at the pharmacy—in a safe place and give it to your Staten Island car accident lawyer to review. You never know what item of evidence might be the smoking gun that helps prove your case for damages.
- Contact our experienced Staten Island car accident attorneys right away. Do not wait to have your free, no-obligation case evaluation with an experienced Staten Island car accident lawyer. The sooner you meet with an auto accident attorney after your crash, the better your chances of obtaining the maximum compensation you need and deserve.
Do You Need an Attorney After a Staten Island Car Accident?
If you suffered injuries in a Staten Island car accident, you may need a Staten Island car accident attorney to help file your personal injury claim and pursue the compensation you deserve for your injuries. Contact Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, today at (877) 488-1707 to schedule your free case evaluation and learn more about how we can assist you in filing your personal injury claim. Whether you can negotiate with the insurance company to settle out of court or need to go to trial for your car accident claim, Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, can work with you every step of the way.
Client Testimonial
“After my accident I contacted a law firm and explained the situation. They told me about cases they’ve had in the past and the most compensation they got for clients. They made me aware that they were not interested at the time but, I could contact them in the future if anything changed. After my surgery 2 years later my wife suggested I contact an attorney. Since it happened in a different state I contacted an attorney in that state and was told the statute of limitations was up. My wife told me not to give up, that’s when I contacted Jacoby & Meyers. They were able to figure out how to proceed with the case and settled it for 15 times the amount that the original law firm had said might be possible. I highly recommend Jacoby & Meyers, they were professional and kept me informed throughout the entire process.” -Charles D.
★★★★★
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Jacoby & Meyers, LLP
26 Watchogue Rd Suite 1
Staten Island, NY 10314
(877) 488-1707