Long Island Pedestrian Accident Lawyer
Skilled Pedestrian Attorneys Serving Long Island, NY
In 2015, Long Island saw approximately 15,000 pedestrian accidents. Long Island pedestrian accidents are particularly common. Nationally there were over 5,000 pedestrian deaths. According to the NHTSA, this is one of the few groups of road users with increased year over year fatalities. Many of Long Island’s roads are not safe. Our traffic control devices can only do so much. Not all drivers are safe drivers, either. To compound matters, pedestrians are unprotected on the road. Consequently, when a pedestrian accident occurs, the results can be catastrophic. At Palermo Law, you’ll find a Long Island Pedestrian Accident Attorney dedicated to maximizing your recovery.
The most common losses following a pedestrian accident:
- Property damage
- Lost wages
- Medical expenses
- Out of pocket expenses
- Pain and suffering
When to consult with a Pedestrian Accident Lawyer
If you have suffered injuries in a Long Island pedestrian accident it is a good idea to consult with a pedestrian accident attorney as soon as possible. Hiring an attorney early on in the process will help protect your legal rights, ensure your medical bills and lost wages are paid and give you an advantage building a strong personal injury case. An early investigation will also help preserve key evidence in your case.
Important deadlines to know for your Long Island pedestrian accident case:
- Medical bills and lost wages are paid through no-fault insurance. All no-fault insurance carriers require a no-fault application be filed within thirty days. Failing to do so may result in denial of your no-fault benefits and may make you personally responsible for the bills.
- In pedestrian accident cases there is generally a three-year statute of limitations to initiate a lawsuit. However, that time period may be reduced to as little as 90 days if your pedestrian accident involves a municipal, state or federal entity. So, it’s best to check with a qualified pedestrian accident attorney as soon as possible.
How much is my Long Island pedestrian accident case worth?
The worth of a pedestrian accident injury involves a combination of various factors, including economic expenses such as medical bills and lost wages, and non-economic losses like pain, suffering, and mental distress. With our extensive experience in handling thousands of accident cases, Palermo Law can accurately evaluate the value of your case to determine the most equitable settlement or jury award. If you have sustained long-term injuries, we collaborate with experts in the fields of medicine and economics to ensure that your compensation is adjusted for future inflation, providing you with peace of mind knowing that you will be compensated for years to come.
Leading Causes of Pedestrian Accidents
Distracted driving: Most pedestrian accidents are the driver’s fault. Today, with cell phones, texting, GPS and other distractions that take drivers’ attention off the road, it is no surprise that driver inattention or distraction is the principal contributing factor in pedestrian crashes.
Failure to yield the right-of-way: This is the second most common cause of pedestrian accidents. These two causes top the list, accounting for close to half of all pedestrian accidents.
Unsafe backing: This is a serious problem in busy parking lots especially around holidays and weekends.
Obstructed view: Drivers having a limited or obstructed view of the road present another significant threat to pedestrians.
Five Essential Tips for Pedestrian Accident Victims following an accident
- Seek medical attention for any injuries, even minor injuries. Often injuries that result from a motor vehicle accident intensify in the hours and days following an accident. It’s best to be cautious.
- Obtain a Police Accident Report. It is always a good idea to call the police to the scene of the accident. However, it is also possible to file a police report following the accident.
- Contact the automobile insurance carrier for the vehicle that struck you. Any medical bills will need to be paid by that no-fault insurance. That information can be obtained through the police accident report.
- Do not give any statements to the other vehicle’s insurance company without first consulting with an attorney.
- Contact a car accident lawyer for a free consultation if you have any issues.
Practical Tips for Drivers to Prevent Long Island Pedestrian Accidents
- Avoid distractions while driving, so that you are prepared for any unexpected pedestrian. Keep your eyes on the road.
- Pay special attention at nighttime or during harsh weather
- Always slow down and be prepared to stop if you see a crosswalk. Avoid sharp turns.
- Take plenty of time to slow down when you see pedestrians at a crosswalk.
- Give ample room so that other drivers can also see the crossing pedestrians.
- Don’t pass any vehicle at a crosswalk. They could be stopped for a pedestrian and you just don’t know it yet.
- Never drive under the influence of alcohol and drugs. A pedestrian accident could be serious and lead to a long prison sentence.
- Follow the speed limit especially if there are people walking around.
- Go slower where children may be present. Follow the speed limits at school zones and bus stops.
- Be attentive when backing up. Pay extra attention if you’re backing out of a driveway that has a sidewalk pass through and when backing out of parking lots.
Attorney Steven Palermo Answers Car Accident FAQs
What Should I Do After I Was Hit By A Vehicle?
First, assess your injuries. Getting hit by a car is a serious accident, and you should seek medical attention. You might not feel that much pain right away as it is normal for adrenaline to mask the seriousness of your injuries, but in the case of a pedestrian accident, it is a good idea to get checked out anyway.
Second, obtain a police accident report. Call the police even if you think you are fine and they will assist you. It is always a good idea to call the police to the scene of the accident. If you are injured, they will help. However, it is also possible to file a police report following the accident.
Third, contact the insurance carrier of the car that hit you to report the accident. Since New York is a no-fault state, regardless of who is at fault, the no-fault insurance of each vehicle involved will pay for their respective medical bills and lost wages. Since you as a pedestrian were not driving a vehicle, you would contact the no-fault insurance of the driver who struck you to pay for your bills. Keep in mind that you only have 30 days to complete a no-fault application.
Finally, if your injuries are serious you should call our Long Island pedestrian accident law firm right away. This will not only protect your legal rights, it will also make your life easier as we handle all no-fault and property damage issues for you while we fight to get you the most compensation possible this way you can concentrate on your recovery.
What is no-fault insurance?
No-Fault insurance is an insurance program that provides medical benefits, lost wages and other incidental expenses for victims of car accidents in New York. Every car insurance policy in New York is required to provide No-Fault coverage. In an accident, the no-fault insurance of each vehicle involved pays for the medical bills of whomever was occupying the vehicle regardless of who is at fault. If you are struck while a pedestrian, the vehicle that struck you is going to pay your No-Fault benefits. The minimum amount of coverage that is required in New York State for No-Fault is $50,000. Once their benefits exceed $50,000 the No-Fault carrier will not be responsible for your medical bills, lost wages or other incidental costs unless you have purchased additional no-fault benefits.
Palermo Law is a Long Island Pedestrian Accident law firm that is fully familiar with all aspects of No-Fault car insurance. We will complete your No-Fault application to the appropriate carrier, apply for lost wages, coordinate Independent Medical Exams and ensure that all medical bills are being paid by the insurer.
Who will pay my medical bills and lost wages once No-Fault is Exhausted?
If you should suffer a serious injury from being a pedestrian involved in an accident, it is possible that the No-Fault insurance will not suffice to pay for all of your medical bills and lost wages. Most no-fault insurance carriers have a policy of the minimum amount of $50,000, and pedestrian accidents can be especially devastating. If this should be the case, there are other options to get coverage for these expenses.
Once No-Fault is exhausted, any additional medical bills should be submitted to your private health insurance carrier. If you are a Medicare or Medicaid recipient, your medical bills should be submitted to those agencies.
In certain situations, your private health insurance will be entitled to reimbursement for any costs related to your accident should there be a recovery. Medicare and Medicaid are always entitled to reimbursement for any expenses they incur should you receive a recovery for your accident.
Once your No-Fault insurance is exhausted, there are several possible ways to receive lost wages. First, most private disability policies will cover your lost wages following a car accident. Second, if you are disabled for more than twelve consecutive months, you can apply for Social Security Disability. Finally, you can include any lost wage claim into your bodily injury claim against the responsible party’s car insurance policy. Unfortunately, this will mean that you will have to wait until your claim is resolved to receive your lost wages.
What does it cost to hire your Long Island Accident Law Firm?
There is absolutely no cost to hire our law firm. We work on a contingency basis. That means that if we are not able to win your case there is no charge. If we are successful in winning your case, we earn a fee of 1/3 of the recovery for your bodily injury claim. We never charge additional fees for handling No-Fault and property damage issues. We also will lay out all of the litigation expenses in the case. This way there is no financial risk to you.
Where are you Located?
We have six locations throughout Long Island. Our main office is in Hauppauge. But we also have offices in Huntington, Babylon, Patchogue, Riverhead and Garden City. We can also arrange in home or hospital appointments if you are unable to make it to one of our locations. We even offer after hours and weekend appointments.
If I Hire Your Law Firm Who Will Handle My Case?
I personally handle all of the cases that my law firm takes on. Along with me, I have a team that assists me in every case. My case manager makes sure that all phases of the case are progressing appropriately, including gathering of evidence, gathering of medical records, and dealing with any insurance issues. My legal assistant handles all communications with healthcare providers and insurance adjusters. My paralegal assists in drafting legal documents.
This allows me to focus on building your case for trial, handling of depositions and legal work, and to negotiate settlements. I always handle all of the depositions, mediations, arbitrations, settlement negotiations and of course trials. Your case is never passed off to a junior partner or associate. You can rest assured that the attorney that you hire for your pedestrian accident is going to be the attorney that represents you the entire time your case is with my office.
How Much Compensation Am I Entitled To After An Accident?
When you make a claim for injuries resulting from a pedestrian accident, the ultimate goal is to claim financial compensation for the losses as a result of the accident. Losses for a bodily injury claim can be broken down into two categories, economic losses and non-economic losses. Adding your economic losses and your non-economic losses will summate the amount of compensation that you are entitled to following an accident.
Economic Losses: Economic losses include medical bills, lost wages and other out of pocket expenses. In most pedestrian cases, your medical bills will be paid for by some form of insurance. However, not all expenses may be covered. Other losses such as co-payments and unreimbursed medical expenses that you incur are reimbursable through your lawsuit. Also, in some cases you may be required to reimburse your healthcare provider for medical expenses that they have incurred if you receive a settlement. In such cases that amount of money will be passed onto the defendant in the case. For example, if you incur $10,000 in medical expenses that have to be reimbursed to your health insurance company, that amount of money would be added to your settlement so that the cost is passed on to the responsible party.
Also, many people have disability policies that pay them a portion of their salary following an injury. In a personal injury lawsuit, you are entitled to receive your total lost wages from the defendant. If your insurer is entitled to reimbursement from your lawsuit then you will receive the total amount of lost wages from the defendant and be required to repay the insurer the portion that they paid to you.
There are often out of pocket expenses associated with an injury such as travel expenses and cost of modifications to your home or vehicle. This is also the responsibility of the at fault party, because these are not expenses you would have to make should you not have been injured by the at fault party.
Finally, your economic damages may last into the future and in some cases may be permanent. For example, if you cannot return to work you are entitled to life-long lost wages. In such situations it may be necessary to hire an economist to figure out your future lost wages so that they can be reimbursed in your lawsuit.
Non-economic Losses: Non-economic losses include your pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life and other emotional injuries. Unlike economic damages, non-economic damages are more subjective. Therefore, it can often be difficult to put a financial figure on such damages. The way it is usually done is by comparing people that have suffered similar injuries and seeing what juries have awarded them at trial. However, if a settlement cannot be reached then that amount of money is decided by a jury. This can often lead to a wide discrepancy from case to case. Also, like economic losses, non-economic losses can also be permanent. In such cases that will have to be accounted for in the jury’s verdict or in the settlement.
Finally, perhaps the most important factor in determining the amount of money that you are entitled to following an accident is the amount of insurance the responsible party has to satisfy any judgment you obtain. For example, if your total losses equal $1,000,000 but the responsible party is only insured for $25,000, your only way of recovering the difference will be by personally enforcing the judgment you obtain at trial against the responsible party’s assets. In my experience as a Pedestrian Accident Lawyer, most people do not have assets to pay that type of judgment. Therefore, for most accidents your recovery will be limited by the other party’s insurance. However, there are situations where you can make an additional claim against your own insurance carrier if the responsible party is underinsured.
How Do I Know if I Should Hire an Attorney for my Pedestrian Accident?
If you have been injured in a pedestrian accident, it is always a good idea to at the very least consult with a qualified pedestrian accident attorney so you understand what is involved in a pedestrian accident claim. Most attorneys offer a free consultation which eliminates any risk in speaking to an attorney. Also, many personal injury attorneys work on a contingency basis. That means they do not charge a fee unless they win your case. So, there’s no financial risk should you decide to pursue the case. However, since attorneys work on a contingency basis, they will not usually take on a case unless they believe they have a chance of winning compensation for you.
Our Long Island Pedestrian Accident Law Firm has handled victims of pedestrian accidents for over two decades. We are fully familiar with the devastation that a vehicle can cause and serve as aggressive advocates for the seriously injured and will use all of our knowledge and experience fighting for you.
Is My Injury Considered Serious?
While any injury from an accident can completely disrupt your life, New York has a statute called the “Serious Injury” Threshold that determines whether or not a person is able to file a personal injury claim. Here is what the State of New York considers to be a serious injury:
- Wrongful Death
- Dismemberment
- Significant disfigurement
- Fracture
- Loss of fetus
- Permanent loss of use of body organ, member, function or system
- Permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member
- Significant limitation of use of a body function or system
- Medically determined injury or impairment of a non-permanent nature which prevents the injured person from performing substantially all of the material acts which constitute such person’s usual and customary daily activities for not less than ninety days during the one hundred eighty days immediately following the occurrence of the injury or impairment
Clearly, not all of these types of injuries are straightforward, so it is still a good idea to get a free consultation with an experienced pedestrian accident attorney to see if you are eligible to file a claim.
What Should I Bring to My Free Consultation?
You are not required to bring anything to your initial consultation, but the goal of the consultation is to give both you and the attorney as much information needed before deciding whether or not to pursue a case. Therefore, if you have certain information with you, it will make it easier to fully evaluate your case and discuss it in more detail. All documents that detail how you’ve been affected financially, physically, and emotionally can be brought to your case evaluation. The more documentation you have, the more accurate your claim can be evaluated. The items that might be helpful are the following:
- Copies of police reports or incident reports connected to your incident
- Copies of records as well as bills from all medical providers that treated your injuries since your accident, including emergency medical services, physicians, and physical therapists
- Documentation from medical providers that detail a diagnosis/prognosis of your injury
- Any information from insurance companies that detail their coverage of your medical bills
- Any documentation of missed work (due to your injury) and the income you’ve lost due to missed work
- A list of important dates, such as your date of injury, dates of surgeries you needed performed, and dates of medical treatment
- If you’ve experienced emotional distress since your incident and required professional counselling as a result, bring documentation with the names and phone numbers of your therapist or psychiatrist and copies of documents detailing how much they’ve billed you, and dates you were treated
- Copies of claims that have been filed in connection with your accident (such as the No-Fault application)
- Any photographs you may have taken related to the incident, such as images of the scene, property damage, your injury, and anything that may be relevant to your claim or serve as photographic evidence
- Journal entries describing the emotional and psychological impact your accident, treatment, and the pain you’re enduring from your injury
Why Hire Palermo Law?
- We always offer a free no-obligation consultation.
- We never charge a fee unless we win your case.
- We provide personal one-on-one attention to every client.
- We handle all no-fault insurance communications and paperwork for you free of charge.
- We have over two decades of experience litigating car accident cases on Long Island.
- We have obtained numerous million-dollar verdicts and settlements for our clients.
About Us
Palermo Law was founded in 1994 as a general practice. In 1997, Steven Palermo joined the firm and by the early 2000s, the law firm shifted its primary focus to personal injury law. Steven Palermo focuses his entire practice on Personal injury law, with a large majority of those cases being Long Island car accidents. He personally oversees every car accident case that the firm handles. He brings to each case over twenty years of experience, numerous successful trial verdicts, and a passion for helping Suffolk County fracture victims in their fight for justice against large insurance companies.
While Steven and his team are proud of their record of achievements in the courtroom, they are equally excited about how their clients feel about their experiences with the law firm. The firm has over two hundred positive reviews from former clients on various websites such as Google, Lawyers.com, Avvo, and Facebook. Palermo Law takes particular pride in the fact that they have some of the best reviews in Long Island. If you would like to set up an appointment for a free initial no-obligation consultation with an experienced Long Island personal injury attorney, feel free to call today.
Service We perform
- Identifying all potential sources of recovery including no-fault insurance limits and all bodily injury insurance limits.
- Complete investigative services including the gathering of all relevant documentation such as accident reports and witness statements, medical records, and reports. We often engage the help of experts in the field of accident reconstruction, medicine, and economics to help support your claim.
- We will handle all no-fault insurance communications and paperwork free of charge.
- We litigate your case. If your case cannot be settled we will litigate it in court. It is always our goal to obtain fair compensation for our clients without the need for trial. But rest assured, if your case does not settle we will be prepared to take your case to trial.
Trial Ready Strategy
Most personal injury lawsuits are settled out of court at some point before a trial. Many personal injury law firms on Long Island don’t fully prepare their cases for trial when anticipating a settlement. This weakens their position when it comes time to negotiate a settlement. At Palermo Law, we always fully prepare every case as if it is going to trial. This level of preparation gives us the leverage to negotiate the highest possible compensation for our clients and puts us in a strong position should a trial become necessary.
Focused on Helping the Injured
We realize that being really well-versed in any one area of law takes focus. Personal injury law is no exception. That’s why our Long Island personal injury lawyers only handle personal injury cases. Steven Palermo, our managing partner, has been exclusively handling personal injury cases for the last two decades. We handle all types of personal injury cases for the injured, including car accidents, slip and falls, and work-related accidents. We have never represented an insurance company and never will. We do what we do because we love helping people.
Free Consultation
We offer every potential personal injury client a free, no-obligation consultation at any of our five locations throughout Long Island. During the consultation, we will discuss your case in detail and give you our opinion on the chances of success. We will also discuss our potential strategy and our process for handling your case. If after fully discussing your case we feel it is a good fit for our Long Island Personal Injury law firm, we will discuss our fees and give you the option of moving forward with us as your lawyers.
We have litigated hundreds of accident cases over the last two decades. As a result, we’ve become very proficient in handling all aspects of accident litigation including no-fault and property damage claims. We know all the ins and outs of Long Island accident claims and will use our experience to make sure you receive full compensation. We handle all Long Island accident cases on a contingency basis. This means we never charge an upfront fee and only get paid if we win your case.
Additional Car Accident Resources
- What Is No-Fault Coverage?
- How To File Your New York State No-Fault Application
- What To Know Before Handling Your Own No-Fault Claim
- Understanding New York State’s “Serious Injury Threshold” Statute
- Additional No-Fault Coverage (“APIP” & “OBEL”)
- Understanding MVAIC – For Victims Of Motor Vehicle Accidents With No Access To No-Fault or Bodily Injury Coverage
- Receiving Compensation For Household Help Through No-Fault Benefits
- Receiving Compensation For Transportation To/From Medical Appointments Through No-Fault Benefits
- Liability In Pedestrian Accidents
Call Our Long Island Pedestrian Accident Lawyers
We have litigated hundreds of accident cases over the last two decades. As a result, we’ve become very proficient in handling all aspects of accident litigation including no-fault and property damage claims. We know all the ins and outs of Long Island accident claims and will use our experience to make sure you receive full compensation. We handle all Long Island accident cases on a contingency basis. This means we never charge an upfront fee and only get paid if we win your case. To take advantage of a free consultation, contact us today.