If you suffered personal injuries due to someone else’s careless, reckless, or otherwise negligent behavior, New York law allows you to hold them responsible. At Gacovino, Lake & Associates, P.C., we can help you file a claim and collect compensation for the damages you suffered.
Our legal team is ready to go to work for you, recovering compensation to pay your accident-related expenses, including medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and more. We offer complimentary consultations where we discuss your legal options for compensation and the best route to get you the payout you deserve from the party or parties responsible for your accident and injuries. Call us today at 631-600-0000 to make an appointment with a personal injury lawyer in Sayville, Long Island.
How Do Personal Injuries Occur?
Personal injuries occur because someone else acts in a negligent or malicious way, leading to an accident and your injuries. This may include an almost endless number of incidents and accidents, but some of the most common we handle include:
- Slips, trips, and falls;
- Car accidents with serious injuries;
- Construction site accidents;
- Defective product injuries;
- Dog bites;
- Diving and swimming accidents; and
- Assaults and other crimes.
While most personal injury cases we handle are similar, state auto insurance laws make car accident claims somewhat more complex. These laws limit your options for compensation unless you meet the state’s serious injury threshold. We can help you understand how state statutes apply to your case so we can get you the compensation you need.
How Can We Prove the Other Person’s Negligence Caused My Injuries?
To win compensation for your accident-related damages, we need to demonstrate with little doubt that the other party acted in a negligent manner and this caused your injuries. To do this, we must show:
- They had an obligation to act or not act in a certain way in order to keep others from suffering injuries;
- They failed to uphold this obligation and behaved in a way that put you in jeopardy of suffering injuries;
- This failure lead directly to an incident where you suffered injuries; and
- You suffered physical or emotional injuries or financial losses due to this incident.
Even when we can document all four of these factors, the insurance company often tries to reduce or eliminate the amount they have to payout by blaming some or all the fault of the accident on you. This is important because New York has contributory negligence laws that reduce the amount you can recover based on the role you played in causing or exacerbating your injuries. We need to collect strong evidence to minimize your possible contributions to your injuries in order to recover the maximum amount possible.
For example, imagine you slipped and fell at a local restaurant. There was a spilled drink on the ground, but you were also wearing slick shoes. The court might find you are 10 percent at fault for your injuries, meaning you can only collect 90 percent of your losses from the restaurant owner.
How Can I Collect the Evidence to Win My Personal Injury Claim?
We know what it takes to win a personal injury claim and go to work to collect all available evidence to prove both negligence and your accident-related losses. We have the knowledge and resources necessary to identify eyewitnesses, enlist the help of experts, and even reconstruct accidents if we need to. Sometimes, we even have access to evidence you could not collect on your own. For example, we can often obtain copies of surveillance video of your accident that the management would be unlikely to hand over to you if you did not pursue the proper legal channels.
Other common evidence we collect in personal injury claims include:
- Police reports;
- Incident reports filed on the scene;
- Medical records;
- Medical bills; and
- Pictures from the scene.
How Much Is My Claim Worth?
There is no way to know how much you will go home with until we settle your claim or the court awards a payout in your case. However, we can give you an idea of what a fair settlement may look like after we collect documentation to show your accident-related damages. We can often recover compensation to pay for:
- Medical bills, including ambulance transport and hospitalization;
- Rehabilitation and therapy;
- Prescription drugs;
- Ongoing care costs;
- Current and future lost wages;
- Related out-of-pocket expenses;
- Property damage;
- Pain and suffering; and
- Other non-economic damages.
In our experience, we typically find people do not do a very good job of estimating their losses after an accident. Often, they believe their bills and other losses are thousands of dollars less than they really are. Many also forget to consider future care needs or lost wages in the months and years to come. These are important to consider in order to ensure you are not left paying out-of-pocket years down the road.
This is one reason it is vital to have one of our skilled lawyers on your side. When we calculate the estimated value of your losses, you can feel confident we are working to recover the maximum amount possible based on the details of your case.
How Long Do I Have to File a Personal Injury Suit?
In most cases, New York State gives personal injury accident victims three years to file a lawsuit. However, you have significantly less time in some situations. For example, if you fell in a public park, you only have 90 days to file your claim. If there is any chance the liable party is a municipal, county, or state government agency, you should call us as soon as possible.
In all other cases, you do have a little while to wait. You should consider calling us as soon as your injuries are stable, however. These time limits only apply to filing a lawsuit, but we need to keep this option available while we collect evidence, build a case, and pursue compensation through an insurance claim. Having the ability to file a lawsuit if the liable party refuses a fair settlement is often the best motivation for negotiating the payout you deserve.
How Can I Discuss My Case With a Personal Injury Lawyer in Sayville, Long Island?
At Gacovino, Lake & Associates, P.C., our attorneys can help you identify the liable party and hold them responsible for your losses. We are ready to fight for the full amount of compensation you deserve. Call us today at 631-600-0000 to schedule your free case review with a Sayville personal injury attorney.
