New York Personal Injury Cases & Accident Info

New York statutes online

This is where you’ll find New York's consolidated laws. The website has details about how long you have to bring a case, monetary limits on personal injury cases (which are also known as damage caps), and other important information.

New York Consolidated/Unconsolidated Laws

To read:

• Do I have a legal case after my accident?
• What is personal injury law?
• What are damage caps?

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New York's car accident statutes of limitation

In New York, you have three years to bring both a personal injury and a property damage claim. That means you have three years to file your paperwork with the court, not that your case has to be completed in that time frame.

New York's Statute of Limitations

To read:

• What is the statute of limitations?
• The claims process and how long a personal injury lawsuit takes

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Hiring the right New York lawyer

The first meeting with a personal injury attorney is normally free of charge. (Note that other legal specialties, such as real estate law or taxation law, are different.) After that, lawyers work on a contingency basis, which means that they will take a third of the eventual reward, plus whatever office expenses they incur along the way.

If your case goes to trial, that percentage could rise to 40% of the eventual reward or judgment. These numbers aren't determined by law, so don't be surprised if your lawyer suggests something else.

Find a lawyer in New York

Want to hire a lawyer and need some help? Check out some of our best articles:

• Choosing a personal injury attorney – interview questions
• Why might a personal injury lawyer deny my case?
• Preparing to meet with a personal injury attorney
• Negotiating lawyers fees - how do accident lawyers charge? Are there any hidden costs?
• When do you NOT need an attorney after an accident?
• Jurisdiction: Accidents that involve multiple states

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Cases of interest in New York

These are some cases of legal importance that came out of New York's courts:

• New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971): This was a landmark decision regarding the First Amendment and the Pentagon Papers. President Richard Nixon had forced the Times to suspend publication of classified information that it had acquired. The question was whether the freedom of the press was subordinate to the executive branch's need to protect and maintain the secrecy of its information. In the end, the Supreme Court ruled that the Times and the Washington Post could print the material in their possession.


• New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1954): This case established the "actual malice" standard for defamation cases. The concept of public figures is important in freedom of the press cases, because if someone is considered a "public figure" versus a "private figure," the standard for defamation is much higher. This particular story was about the Montgomery Police Department, and in particular, the police commissioner, L.B. Sullivan, took offense. He asked that the Times publish a retraction of the story, and the paper refused. The Supreme Court held that the paper's conduct was not sufficient for a libel suit. Sullivan had to prove that the Times knew the statements were untrue and published them anyway in an act of reckless disregard.


• Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905): This was an oddity in which the high court struck down the legal maximum hours that bakers could work (10 hours per day, 60 hours per week). As an interpretation of the infringement of the freedom to contract, the majority held that bakers – who worked in dingy conditions, many of which were not properly heated and were only five feet high – should have the ability to sell their services at their leisure. This drew a particularly nasty dissent from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, which became the main interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, as a reasonable person would find the law related to health.

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Data and statistics

Here is some intriguing data about New York:

• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Statistics
• Department of Health: Statistics
• Crime Statistics: Data
• U.S. Census: Data

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New York law libraries

There are many issues you can solve without the help of an attorney. If you don't know where to start, a law librarian can help you. They are usually legally trained, and they can help you both with texts or online research engines like LexisNexis or Westlaw.

• New York Public Access Libraries
• New York Law School: Mendik Law Library
• New York Public Library
• New York University Law School: Law Library
• Library of the New York City Bar Association
• New York Law Institute
• New York County Access Law Library
• Columbia Law School: Arthur W. Diamond Law Library
• CUNY School of Law: Law Library
• Essex County, New York: Law Library
• New York State Supreme Court Library Locations
• University at Buffalo School of Law: Charles B. Sears Law Library
• Cornell University Law School: Law Library
• Albany Law School: Schaffer Law Library
• Yeshiva University: Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Library
• Maurice A. Deane School of Law: Hofstra Law Library
• Brooklyn Law School: Law Library
• Touro College: Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center
• Fordham Law School: The Maloney Library
• St. John's University School of Law: The Rittenberg Law Library
• Syracuse University College of Law: Law Library
• Pace Law Library

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