The New York "No-Fault" Law

Some thoughts on injuries in car accidents. Insurance companies try to sell the idea that if there is not a lot of damage to your car, you can't be seriously hurt. This has been disproved by numerous studies, but let me tell you about a demonstration that some attorneys have used at trial to demonstrate injury to the jury. A low speed car accident can push your body and brain back and forth, even without a lot of property damage.

A good lawyer trick: A trial attorney may hold up and drop a carton of eggs to the ground. The eggs break, yet the carton remains visibly undamaged. Like the eggs, the human body can be hurt, yet a car, like the egg carton, can show very little outside damage.

Insurance companies seem to have the attitude that everyone exaggerates or fakes pain. In thousands of negotiations with insurance companies, I've heard them "poo-poo" clients' complaints of pain. Pain alone won't carry the day, either for settlement, or in Court.

Find out why by reading on.

What do we mean by "no-fault"?

Simply put, no-fault refers to the accident in connection with your medical bills paid up to $ 50,000, regardless of who bears the blame of the accident.

Two different things happen after a car accident. First: No-Fault insurance pays your medical bills and lost wages, except in certain cases, buses, motorcycles and heavy trucks. No-Fault also protects pedestrians and cyclists. Secondly, this should notconfused with issues of liability in an accident, which are very much about who is at fault, and the focus of the second thing that may happen: a lawsuit. Let's learn about No-Fault insurance and what it means for your he satisfies the requirements of the No-Fault law. The No-Fault law precludes recovery for pain and suffering, between "covered persons," unless the accident victim proves a "serious injury." This is one of the most litigated sections of New York law, with many, many reported case decisions. And at this point, we are not even talking about liability (fault for the accident), which is a completely separate issue. We are only talking about the degree of injury.

The nine No-Fault serious injuries in New York State's Insurance Law are:

1. Death (brought about by the accident);

2. Dismemberment - mangling, mutilation or dismemberment (loss of) a body part;

3. Significant disfigurement (a scar; there's no hard and fast formula for scar size - depends on the visibility of the scar, usually on scalp scar line is not clear) the threshold;

4. A fracture (broken bone);

5. Loss of a fetus (traumatic abortion);

6. Permanent loss of use of an organ, member, function or system (the first of the "difficult" classes);

7. Permanent consequential limitation of use of an organ or member (pain alone will not suffice, headaches alone will not suffice, a herniated disc / disc vaulted alone will not suffice;Sprains / strains are not);

8. Significant limitation of use of body function or system, or

9. A medically determined personal injury or a non-permanent nature that the injured person from performing substantially all of the material acts which constitute such person usual and customary daily activities no less than ninety days in the one hundred eighty days, prevented immediately after the occurrence the injury or impairment (such as the 90 known) from the 180-day rule.

The first five of the categories are easy, they are fairly simple.

The two less tricky Categories:

Number "6": If you can no longer be able to use a part of your body, you qualify.

Number "9" usual and customary daily activities generally means that you miss three months of work in the first six months after the accident, but there are two folds. First, determine your failure to work on medical. In other words, tell your doctorYou can not work. Second, you must show that you could do any of your other normal daily activities. This may housework, driving the kids to school or other things.

The two difficult categories:

Numbers "7" and "8" have no fixed definition or explanation. In some cases, make it, some do not. Your lawyer needs a thorough understanding of current law to know how the courts are on the application of these two categories of threshold. Often, it covers the documentation of aDetects restriction of movement in the injured body part - for example, the doctor that you are not fully bend or twist or turn
Back or neck.