The most recent data provided by the New York State Department of Health shows that over 100,000 vehicle occupants suffering injury after a car accident visit the emergency room each year. Of those, around 5.5% sustain injuries serious enough to require hospitalization. Just because you aren’t hospitalized, however, doesn’t mean you are not entitled to compensation. Determining whether your injury is serious enough to entitle you to compensation and just how much your injury is worth is a complex process.
In the state of New York, it’s important to understand that just because you are injured in a car accident doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be entitled to full compensation. This is because New York is one of several “No-Fault” states, meaning you will be entitled to limited compensation for lost work and medical expenses (up to $50,000) regardless of whether or not you contributed to the car accident. Recovering more than $50,000 in basic benefits, however, requires that you prove you have suffered a “serious injury” as defined by law.
The serious injury threshold, as set forth in Article 51 of New York’s Insurance Code, requires injured parties to demonstrate:
- Death
- Dismemberment
- Significant disfigurement
- 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
In addition to the fairly black and white qualifiers listed above, the law also provides that a significant limitation of body function or a medically determined injury or impairment or the loss of your usual and customary activities of daily living for 90 out of the 180 days following the accident are also significant enough to count as “serious injuries” under the law.
Overcoming the Serious Injury Threshold in New York
When you’ve been hurt in an auto accident, the last complication you want to deal with is proving the severity of your injury to an insurance company. This step is necessary when filing a successful claim, however. The process is challenging, and it’s not uncommon for injuries to be initially ignored or denied by the insurance companies. Remember, insurance companies don’t want to pay you, they want to keep their money. They have been working on denying auto claims for as long as there have been auto accidents. They have thousands of attorneys at their disposal to limit your claim. If you want to recover every penny that you are entitled to you will need a team of personal injury attorneys who understand the process and know the law. The team at Girvin & Ferlazzo, trusted advocates for the injured, know the law and the insurance companies and we have a national team of medical experts at our disposal to diagnose and prove the seriousness of your injuries.
To learn how we can help you establish the seriousness of your injury, call us now at 518-462-0300 or contact us online.