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Our law firm provides legal services to help victims of a broad range of serious accidents, including:
Our lawyers also represent surviving family members in wrongful death claims.
At Pyrros & Serres, you will find skilled legal help to hold liable parties responsible and pursue damages for all your losses, including wages, medical expenses, loss of companionship or consortium and physical pain and suffering.
If you sustain an avoidable injury because someone was careless, you have the right to seek compensation. You can do so by filing an insurance claim or a civil lawsuit, but you may benefit from speaking to a personal injury attorney about your options.
Personal injuries can be devastating, leaving you with mounting medical expenses and unpaid bills while you cannot work. Having an experienced personal injury lawyer on your side can help you get the financial compensation you need faster to get your life back on track.
A New York personal injury lawyer handles a broad range of accidents that result in serious injuries or even death. The most common cases in personal injury law include:
You can file a personal injury claim or lawsuit yourself without legal representation. However, representing yourself in a person injury case is difficult as there are many rules, procedures as laws that need to be followed in order to be successful.
In addition, most personal injury lawyers work on contingency. Therefore, you have nothing to lose by consulting with one before taking the matter into your own hands.
Determining and proving fault are one of the central concerns in a personal injury case. If you file a lawsuit against the person or persons that caused your injury, it is your responsibility to provide evidence that supports your claim.
This means that you have three stages of proof to go through. They are:
Ideally, you could prove the defendant was entirely responsible and, therefore, must cover the damages in your case. However, that is not always the case. For example, if you share liability with the defendant, meaning you are both responsible, you can still claim compensation under the comparative fault law conditions.
New York uses the pure comparative fault law in cases of shared responsibility. This is one of two types of comparative fault, which states that you can still recover a proportion of damages as long as you are not entirely responsible for the accident.
The other type of comparative fault, known as modified comparative fault, states that the defendant must be more at fault for you, the plaintiff, to receive any compensation. Whether the threshold for responsibility is 50% or 51% depends on the state.
In New York, pure comparative fault states that your percentage of responsibility does not matter as long you are not entirely responsible. In action, if the court values all damages in your case at $500,000 and decides that you are both equally responsible for the accident, you can only receive $250,000 of the award.
The process for determining the percentage of fault is complex, but your NY personal injury lawyers can help you understand how the specifics of your accident could affect compensation.
For your accident to qualify for a personal injury lawsuit, it must result in damages, and damages can encompass many variations of loss depending on how serious the accident was and the severity of your injuries.
Generally, there are two types of damages related to personal injuries: compensatory damages and exemplary damages.
Compensatory losses refer to the financial and emotional repercussions of your accident and injuries. The economic damages include:
The emotional repercussions, known as the non-economic damages, are not innately quantified, but New York personal injury lawyers can help you understand how to value these losses.
Examples of non-economic damages include:
Every personal injury accident is unique. If you have questions about the value of your compensatory losses, contact a New York personal injury attorney to learn more about what you can request in your claim.
Exemplary damages, often called punitive damages, are not available in every personal injury lawsuit. Instead, the court reserves these damages for cases where the defendant’s actions displayed gross misconduct or negligence.
For example, a judge may award payment of punitive damages to a plaintiff who lost a loved one in a drunk driving accident. However, the amount is subject to the defendant’s overall wealth.
Therefore, punitive damages in a car accident case may be significantly less than punitive damages in a product liability case involving a large company.
You can hire a personal injury lawyer for any case involving injuries caused by another’s negligence. However, examples of when which you may benefit most from legal representation include:
The most common type of personal injury case involves car accidents, and residents of New York, a no-fault state, often assume that they cannot file a lawsuit against the at-fault driver because of the laws requiring personal injury protection insurance.
However, suppose you suffered severe injuries, such as broken bones or temporary limitation to a bodily function or organ. In that case, you can sue for the non-economic damages not covered under PIP insurance.
At Pyrros & Serres, LLP law firm, you can speak to a personal injury attorney about your case with no financial risk. The advantage of letting us handle your case include:
As personal injury attorneys, we understand the heavy burdens that plague victims of negligent action. Our goal is to offer unwavering support and help alleviate those burdens by charging no fees until we secure a settlement or award for you.
Serving Astoria, Queens County, and NYC Borough’s accidents victims for over 30 years. Call our law offices any time of day at (718) 626-7730 for a free consultation or contact us using our online form.
31-19 Newtown Ave, 5th Floor
Astoria, NY 11102
