New York Personal Injury Attorneys

No-fault comes first in New York car accident claims

New York is a no-fault state, and that shapes every crash claim from the first week. Under Insurance Law § 5103, the owner's policy on a New York vehicle pays "first party benefits" for loss arising out of the use or operation of that vehicle. You do not have to prove the other driver was careless to collect them.

Those benefits cover "basic economic loss," which Insurance Law § 5102(a) caps at $50,000 per person. Inside that cap the statute sets its own limits:

• Medical, hospital, surgical, dental, ambulance, prescription and therapy costs, with no time limit as long as it is clear within one year of the accident that more treatment may be needed.
• Lost earnings up to $2,000 a month for no more than three years from the accident.
• Other reasonable and necessary expenses up to $25 a day for no more than one year.

Two deductions apply under § 5102(b). The insurer takes 20% off lost earnings, and it subtracts amounts you recover from workers' compensation, Social Security disability or Medicare for the same injury. A policyholder can also buy an optional extra $25,000 for lost earnings and therapy once the first $50,000 runs out.

No-fault does not pay for pain and suffering. You can sue the at-fault driver for economic loss above what no-fault covers, but a claim for pain and suffering has to clear the serious injury threshold.

The serious injury threshold, as amended in 2026

Insurance Law § 5104(a) bars a claim for non-economic loss between covered persons "except in the case of a serious injury." The definition in § 5102(d) now reads in full:

"Serious injury" means a personal injury which results in death; dismemberment; significant disfigurement; a fracture; 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; or significant limitation of use of a body function or system.

Until this year, the list also covered a non-permanent injury that kept a person from substantially all of their usual daily activities for 90 of the first 180 days after the accident. Part EE of Chapter 58 of the Laws of 2026, signed May 26, 2026, deleted that category. The New York Department of Financial Services, in Insurance Circular Letter No. 3 (2026), states that the amendments "took effect on May 26, 2026, and apply to all actions and proceedings commenced on or after May 26."

The same law changed the order of a trial. A jury must now decide who was at fault before it decides whether the injury is serious, and no liability for pain and suffering can be fixed until a serious injury is found. A new § 5104(d) also limits non-economic damages to $100,000 for an at-fault injured person who was driving uninsured (a lapse under 30 days excepted), was impaired and convicted, or was committing a felony and convicted. That cap does not apply where the injuries caused death.

If your lawsuit was filed before May 26, 2026, ask your attorney which version of the statute governs it.

The vehicle owner can be responsible too

Under Vehicle and Traffic Law § 388(1), every owner of a vehicle used in New York is liable for injuries caused by the negligence of anyone driving it with the owner's permission, express or implied. When the driver who hit you borrowed a relative's car or drove a company vehicle, the owner's policy may be in play as well.

What changed in CPLR 1411 on shared fault

Before the 2026 amendment, CPLR 1411 applied pure comparative fault to every injury case. A person who was partly to blame could still recover, with the award reduced by their share. That rule still applies to most injury cases under CPLR 1411(a): a slip and fall, a construction accident, a dog bite, a defective product.

Car cases are different now. The 2026 amendment added CPLR 1411(b), which covers personal injury actions "subject to article fifty-one of the insurance law," meaning motor vehicle claims inside the no-fault system. In those cases the injured person's own conduct "shall bar recovery" if it is greater than the fault of the defendant, or greater than the combined fault of all the defendants. Per the DFS circular letter, this applies to actions commenced on or after May 26, 2026.

A quick example. A jury finds a driver 40% at fault and the other driver 60% at fault. Under 1411(a) the 40% driver recovers 60% of their damages, and under 1411(b) the result is the same, because 40% is not greater than 60%. Flip the numbers and the 60% driver recovers nothing in a car case, though the same split in a slip and fall would still allow a 40% recovery.

Construction and workplace injuries under the New York Labor Law

An injured employee in New York usually cannot sue their own employer. Workers' Compensation Law § 11 makes workers' compensation the employer's exclusive liability, unless the employer failed to carry coverage. What the law does allow is a lawsuit against someone "not in the same employ" under § 29, and on a construction site that is often the property owner or the general contractor.

Two sections of the Labor Law do most of the work in those cases:

• Labor Law § 240(1) requires contractors and owners, and their agents, to furnish scaffolding, hoists, ladders, slings, braces, ropes and other devices that give "proper protection" to workers erecting, demolishing, repairing, altering, painting, cleaning or pointing a building or structure.
• Labor Law § 241(6) requires that areas where construction, excavation or demolition work is performed be arranged and operated to give "reasonable and adequate protection and safety" to the people working there.

Both sections exempt owners of one- and two-family dwellings who contract for the work but do not direct or control it. A homeowner who hires a roofer and leaves the work to the roofer falls inside that exemption.

A third-party case and a comp claim run side by side. You can take workers' compensation benefits and still sue the owner or contractor, but the comp carrier holds a lien on the recovery for what it paid. For the timing rules and the carrier's rights, see our guide to workplace injury claims.

New York filing deadlines at a glance

Some clocks pause. Under CPLR 208, when the injured person is a minor, a three-year deadline is generally extended to three years after the disability ends. The section's ten-year outer limit does not apply to infancy, except in medical, dental or podiatric malpractice cases. A court can also allow a late notice of claim on application under § 50-e(5), but waiting for that is a gamble.

Lawsuit procedure is covered step by step in how to file a personal injury lawsuit.

Which New York court hears an injury case

New York names its courts in a way that surprises people. The Supreme Court is the main trial court, not the highest court. Article VI, § 7 of the New York Constitution gives it "general original jurisdiction in law and equity," and most serious injury cases are filed there, in the county where venue is proper.

Smaller money claims inside New York City can go to the Civil Court of the City of New York, which hears actions for money up to $50,000 under NYC Civil Court Act § 202.

One more local rule: a New York injury complaint does not state a dollar figure. CPLR 3017(c) requires a prayer for general relief "but shall not state the amount of damages." A complaint filed in Supreme Court says only whether the damages exceed the limits of the lower courts.

Licensed in New York

My Injury Pros is a brand of Rockpoint Law P.C. Our managing partner, Steven P. Nassi, was admitted to the New York bar in 2004 and appears in the New York attorney registry under registration number 4263489 (registered as Pejman Nassi). He is also admitted in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. See our pages for New Jersey and Pennsylvania injury claims.