Drivers flee the scene of an accident for any number of terrible reasons. They’re under the influence, know it, and don’t want to get arrested. They don’t have insurance, know it, and don’t want to face New York’s penalty for driving without insurance. They already have a warrant out for their arrest. They panic. 

Our state sees roughly 46,000 hit and run accidents every year. Most of these incidents involve a car hitting a bicyclist or pedestrians. Car-on-car hit and run collisions are rarer, though not unheard of.

Fortunately, here in New York you have recourse if you get into a hit and run accident.

Your Own Car Insurance

If you own a car and pay car insurance then your own no-fault benefits will kick in to pay the claim even if you were on foot at the time. In New York you can only sue if you suffer from a serious injury that exceeds the no-fault threshold anyway, and your own car insurance usually pays most of the medical bills and lost wages.

If your injuries do exceed the threshold, your uninsured/underinsured motorist policy kicks in to cover the costs of a hit-and-run driver.

No Car Insurance?

Here on Long Island there are plenty of people who have neither cars nor insurance. Owning a car can be downright inconvenient and is definitely expensive. Who do those pedestrians and cyclists turn to?

In these cases, the New York Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation (MVAIC) steps in. 

The accident must be reported to the police within 24 hours of the injury, or as soon as reasonably possible. If you were unconscious and there were no witnesses and someone found you and called an ambulance after, for example, then you can report the incident after you wake up and it still counts. 

In addition, your attorney must send a Notice of Intention to MVAIC within 90 days of the incident. This must be your attorney if you wish the claim to get effective…the laws are complex and failing to meet even one of MVAIC’s arcane requirements usually means that you don’t get paid any compensation.

The Driver May Be Found

The police officers on Long Island work hard to find hit and run drivers. They simply can’t be allowed to get away with what they’ve done. Hit and run is a crime on Long Island.

Once they are found you can, if you meet the injury threshold, press a personal injury lawsuit against that driver just like you would any other driver. Your case may even be eligible for punitive damages, as the driver definitely did something worthy of punishment during the incident in question. 

Call Us, No Matter What

Involving an attorney fast is one of the best ways to ensure that your hit and run case gets taken seriously. Reach out to Miller, Montiel, and Strano to schedule a free case review today.

See also:

When is a Long Island Car Accident a Wrongful Death? 

How No-Fault Laws Impact Your Long Island Car Accident Case

Queens, NY – Critical Hit and Run Bicycle Accident on Queens Blvd

 

If your loved one was killed in a car accident and the other driver was at fault, then New York’s “no fault” laws no longer keep you from suing. Death is one of the car accident results that pushes a case past the “injury threshold” for a lawsuit.

In addition, your loved one’s PIP death benefit is usually only $2000, which is not even enough for a modest funeral.

Wrongful death compensation, by contrast, covers:

  • All funeral and burial costs
  • Healthcare expenses connected to the final injury
  • Monetary support the decedent would have contributed to the family
  • The value of services the decedent would have contributed
  • Damages for your bereavement, pain and suffering, and loss of companionship
  • Damages for the survivor’s lost inheritance

A wrongful death suit is filed on behalf of the victim’s immediate family. The executor of the decedent’s estate must be the one to file the suit.

The decedent’s estate may also bring a survivorship action. This is to compensate the estate for the victim’s pre-death pain and suffering. The claim becomes part of the estate and is distributed according to the terms of the decedent’s will, if they have one, or according to New York’s intestacy laws, if they don’t. These damages can be quite high; it’s not unheard of for a survivorship claim to be worth over a million dollars to the estate. Yet your lawyer must fight for the value of the claim, as it’s somewhat subjective.

To win such a suit, you must prove the other driver was negligent, that your loved one died as a result of that negligence, and that you’ve suffered a loss as a result. You must also bring the case within two years of the accident. You must also show that you had a reasonable expectation of support from the victim. 

These cases are not easy to win, nor is it easy to obtain full recovery amounts. The insurance company has a vested interest in painting your loved one as the at-fault party. Barring that, they will try to use New York’s comparative negligence law to increase your loved one’s percentage of fault. Every percentage point cuts into your recovery. That is, if your loved one is found to be 20% at fault then your award is reduced by 20%.

It is best for executors to bring both wrongful death claims and survivorship claims as quickly as possible. Not only does this avoid the danger that the statute of limitations might put an end to the case, but it also ensures that we have time to collect all applicable evidence.

Have a case for us? Contact us to set up a case evaluation today.

See also:

How No-Fault Laws Impact Your Long Island Car Accident Case

What Happens in a Long Island Personal Injury Case if the At-Fault Driver Dies?

The Bronx, NY—Man Hit & Killed by Amazon Truck

 

You think you might be the victim of medical malpractice, but you have no idea what to do next. 

One Harvard study showed that the medical institution only gets it right about 75% of the time, so there is a good chance that you will end up facing malpractice at some point in your life. The good news is it usually doesn’t cause life-altering damage. For example, a doctor might well misdiagnose something minor, but your body might well correct the problem on its own.

Yet when the medical institution gets it wrong and does damage you, such as by committing a major surgical error, you should have recourse. 

When malpractice does cause damage, there are steps that can help you if you end up pressing a case later.

Talk to Your Doctor

If you think something’s gone wrong you can sometimes go to your doctor first and ask that they look into it and fix it. If it was their fault: for example, if they left a surgical sponge inside of you…then you might be able to get them to fix it at their own expense without defaulting to a lawsuit.

If they refuse, you can use that refusal against them later. Being able to say: “I went to this doctor, I told them there was a problem, and they refused to do anything about it,” can be very strong evidence in a medical malpractice case.

Get a Second Opinion

One of the key questions in your medical malpractice case will be whether the doctor lived up to the standard of care. You can help determine this by going to another doctor in the same field and having them examine you and go over what was done for you. 

If you think there was a straight up error you can get them to look for the error, too. This visit might help you discern whether you just got a negative outcome, which is an expected part of medical practice, or whether you have a true malpractice suit.

Keep a Journal

Documentation is important in any personal injury case. Keep a diary of:

  • Medical costs, with bills and receipts.
  • Pain and discomfort you feel.
  • Conversations you have with medical professionals, what you said, what they said, and the outcome.
  • Any other information that could be relevant to your case.

This reduces the likelihood that you will forget information that is relevant to your case. 

Write the New York Medical Board

You won’t always hear back from the medical complaint board when you report an error, but it can impact whether the negligent doctor gets to continue practicing medicine if there is a long track record of complaints. 

In New York, you’ll be reporting to the Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC) and the Board for Professional Medical Conduct. The complaint must be in writing

Send them to:

The New York State Department of Health Office of Professional Medical Conduct Riverview Center

150 Broadway, Suite 355

Albany, NY 12204

If you are complaining about a dentist, nurse, chiropractor, podiatrist, optometrist, or psychologist, send the complaint to:

The New York State Education Department

1411 Broadway, Tenth Floor

New York, NY 10018

Only final disciplinary actions are public information.  

Consult with a Medical Malpractice Attorney

Bring all your evidence and sit down to discuss your case. We will tell you whether we think you have one that’s strong enough to move forward.

At times you might get an offer from an insurance company after you start taking some of these steps. Once you get an offer, stop and consult with us. That’s a good signal that you have a case, and there’s a good chance the offer is way too low. 

See also:

Common Causes of Medical Malpractice on Long Island, NY

What You Need to Prove in Your Long Island Medical Malpractice Case

Most people know they need to take photos after an accident. That’s any kind of accident if you’re awake and alert enough to make it happen. Photo evidence is just as important to a slip-and-fall as it is to a car accident case. It can be very helpful in any personal injury case. 

Of course, it’s important to make your photography as effective as possible. 

#1) Your smartphone is fine. 

You don’t need a professional-grade camera to take pictures that will serve as excellent evidence in your personal injury case. Your regular smartphone camera will do. 

#2) Take as many photos as your storage will allow.

It’s sometimes better to take what will feel like an almost indiscriminate number of photos so that you can sort through them later. You never know what you’ll capture. What seems meaningless to you might be extremely meaningful to an accident reconstructionist. 

#3) Snap angles at different distances and angles.

In a car accident you want to snap every exterior angle of both cars as well as the interior of both cars. You also want to capture skid marks from both directions, while stepping off the length of them. Snap photos of traffic lights or signs as well. 

In a slip-and-fall you’ll want to take photos of the accident site, your shoes, and local conditions. If a broken item or object caused your fall then you’re going to want to snap a photo of that, as well. 

#4) Avoid taking photos of injured people or fatalities.

You can take photos of your own injuries, but you need to avoid taking injuries of any other injured parties. Doing so can be a privacy violation. 

#5) Photograph Documentation

Don’t try to jot down the other party’s insurance policy. Get a photo of it. Get photos of drivers licenses and license plates, too. It’s the best way to ensure accuracy when it’s time to file the claim.

In a slip and fall, you should take a photo of the incident form if you fill one out. 

What if you are too injured to take photos?

If it’s possible to sue for your Long Island injury case at all you may well find it impossible to take photos at the scene. This is quite common. Some of our clients are unconscious from the moment of impact and have to be rushed to the ER. They certainly don’t get an opportunity to take pictures. 

Calling an attorney almost immediately after your accident can be very helpful here. The faster you do so, the faster we can get an accident reconstructionist to the scene, contact witnesses, or gather physical evidence. In some cases, we might be able to gather photos taken by witnesses

Don’t worry about whether you’re bothering us. We’re happy to evaluate cases and tell you whether or not it makes sense to proceed.

Contact us for a free consultation today.

See also: 

How No-Fault Laws Impact Your Long Island Car Accident Case 

What Happens in a Long Island Personal Injury Case if the At-Fault Driver Dies?

3 Items to Document After an Auto Accident

Owners and general contractors are responsible for the workers who work on their construction sites, at least in New York. This is thanks to Labor Law 240, which has been around since 1885.

“All contractors and owners and their agents, except owners of one-and-two family dwellings who contract for but do not direct or control the work, in the erection, demolition, repairing, altering, painting, cleaning, or pointing of a building or structure shall furnish or erect, or cause to be furnished or erected for the performance of such labor, scaffolding, hoists, stays, ladders, slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys, braces, irons, ropes, and other devices which shall be so constructed, placed, or operated as to give proper protection to a person so employed.” 

If the staging is more than 20 feet from the ground or floor, must provide: “A safety rail of suitable material properly attached, bolted, braced, or otherwise secured, rising at least 34″ above the floor or main portions of such scaffolding or staging and extending along the entire length of the outside and the ends thereof, with only such openings as may be necessary for the delivery of materials. Such scaffolding or staging shall be so fastened as to prevent it from swaying the building or structure.”

All scaffolding: “Shall be so constructed as to bear four times the maximum weight required to be dependent therefrom or placed there on when in use.”

If employers don’t provide proper protections against falling objects, falls from heights, or structure collapses, then they are in violation of Labor Law 240. If you can prove they were in violation of the law and that violation caused an injury due to a gravity related accident, then you can sue them for your losses. 

To file a claim you must prove that the entity responsible was the owner or general contractor on a construction project, that the accident was gravity-related, and that your injury was caused by said gravity-related accident. 

If your employer was in violation of the scaffolding law then you may still file a workers compensation claim. You can also file a scaffolding law claim. This will help you recover for future economic losses, pain, suffering, and the lost wages that workers compensation will not cover. 

Here at Miller, Montiel, and Strano we have helped hundreds of construction workers, electricians, carpenters, bricklayers, laborers, welders, and other workers recover compensation under Scaffolding Law. We have also helped citizens who were injured in gravity-related accidents while walking near city construction sites, or who have been forced to deal with scaffolding while conducting daily activities, such as going to school.

You do have recourse if you were injured in a construction accident.

Contact our office to get more help today.

See also:

Gathering Evidence in Long Island Construction Accidents

Who Is Responsible for the Damages in a Long Island Construction Accident?

A medical malpractice case is any case that results when a medical provider’s acts of omission or failure in the duty of care towards a patient result in injuries and losses for that patient. For many patients these losses are not minor. They can mean lifelong scarring, disability, illness, or even death. 

Do you think you might be a victim of a medical malpractice incident? If so, it might be useful to know the most common causes of cases like these. 

Misdiagnosis

Some doctors don’t spend a lot of time with their patients. They run in and out, assuming they know exactly what’s going on. Very few doctors actually listen to what their patients have to say. Some doctors are dismissive or callous, and don’t heed patient concerns.

When this results in a misdiagnosis or a diagnosis that is delayed for long enough to cause further harm, you may have the grounds for a medical malpractice case. Failure to diagnose leads to a failure to treat, and the results are often tragic.

Surgical Mistakes

There are over 4000 preventable surgical mistakes every year.

These can include performing the wrong procedure, leaving foreign objects inside of the patient’s body, operating on the wrong part of the patient’s body, and other mishaps are much more common than most can believe.

Anesthesia can also cause dangerous errors. Anesthesiologists have caused patients to suffer heart attacks and strokes. They’ve asphyxiated patients, causing brain damage.  Some unlucky patients have been left in a coma. Others have died. General anesthesia is very dangerous if a patient is not given a proper dose.

Birth Injuries

Failure to provide proper medical care during the pregnancy, labor, or delivery processes means tragic results. Children have been born with severe birth defects as a result of doctor incompetence. 

Some babies have even died. 

The reasons that doctors fail parents and their babies are manifold. Some fail to realize there’s anything wrong with a fetus. There are are problems with C-section procedures and problems with common tools like forceps or clamps. 

Medication Errors

Medication must be administered in its proper dosages or it is practically poison. Giving patients the wrong medication, or the right medication but in the wrong amounts, can cause lasting harm, or even death.

Doctors can also cause medication errors when they fail to ask the patient about other medicines they may be taking. Contraindications can kill. 

The problem has become ubiquitous enough for the FDA to start exploring methods to help prevent the problem from happening quite so often. For example, they’re exploring the use of standardized medication bottles for different sizes of medication to make it easier to see when one is choosing the proper dose.

Poor Documentation

In settings like hospitals where multiple people will be attending to a patient’s needs, proper documentation is paramount. This ensures that everyone knows what care the patient has and has not received, what medicines the patient has and has not taken. 

Medical providers may chafe at having to perform record keeping, but it can be a lifesaving exercise. In cases where there aren’t sufficient notes to track the patient’s care we have been able to successfully prove that a medical malpractice event took place.

Faulty Medical Equipment

Manufacturing and design errors can plague medical equipment just like they can plague every other piece of technology sold on the market today. When this equipment fails it’s not the provider that gets held responsible, but the manufacturer.

They were still negligent, so they should still be held accountable for your suffering.

You don’t have to do any guesswork.

Not sure whether your case counts as a medical malpractice case? Reach out to Miller, Montiel, and Strano today.

Our free case review process will help determine whether it makes sense to move forward with a lawsuit. Don’t wait. The longer you wait the harder it is to win your case.

Contact us today.

See also:

What You Need to Prove in Your Long Island Medical Malpractice Case

Medical Malpractice

Verdicts and Settlements

New York is a no-fault auto-insurance state. This has a lot of benefits, including lower insurance rates. It also means for minor accidents, that there’s a lot less stress. Your insurance covers your losses, and the other driver’s insurance covers theirs. You just file your claim with your own insurance company and for most accidents, this means everything gets taken care of. 

Yet catastrophic accidents still happen. Some accidents still require lawsuits. These are the suits that the $50,000 in no-fault benefits just aren’t enough, the ones that meet New York’s “lawsuit threshold.”

Here’s what you need to know.

What does no-fault insurance cover?

No-fault covers medical benefits, lost wages, and property damage but not pain and suffering. They cover the drivers, passengers, and occupants of motor vehicles, as well as cyclists and pedestrians hit by motor vehicles. Cyclists and pedestrians file the claim with the insurance company of the car that struck them. 

No-fault can be especially beneficial to cyclists and pedestrians, who are often blamed for their own accidents so that insurance companies can get out of paying benefits. Under this plan, as long as their medical bills total $50,000 or less, they will get the help they need. Some might also get help under Additional No Fault (PIP) protection coverage with their auto policies. 

No-fault policies often exclude those who get into accidents because they were driving under the influence, committing a crime, injuring themselves on purpose, is a passenger in a stolen car, or is injured while racing or fleeing from the police. 

No-fault policies also exclude motorcyclists, who must file personal injury claims for most accidents just as if they lived in a fault-based insurance state. Riders must also have their own insurance policies.

Who can sue for an automobile accident?

Anyone who has suffered serious injuries in a car accident can sue for the rest of the damages. These include death, dismemberment, disfigurement, fractures, a loss of a fetus, the permanent loss of any bodily organ or function, permanent consequential limitations of an organ or bodily function, significant limitation on the use of a body function or system, or a non-permanent impairment that nevertheless causes total disability for 90 days or more.

You must file the claim within three years of the accident, though in truth you should file a lot faster. It’s generally best to get help from a Long Island personal injury lawyer almost as soon as you are awake and conscious enough to make the phone call. 

When should you call a Long Island car accident lawyer?

You should call a Long Island car accident lawyer just as soon as you’re medically capable of picking up the phone. The earlier you involve an attorney, the better. We will happily review your case and tell you whether you have a strong one, as well as whether your case meets the threshold for a lawsuit.

Don’t try to go it alone. Contact us today to get the help you deserve.

See also:

What Happens in a Long Island Personal Injury Case if the At-Fault Driver Dies?

3 Items to Document After an Auto Accident

After An Auto Accident, Gather As Much Information As Possible

 

Usually workers compensation and personal injury cases are “either or” affairs. If you were injured on the job, then  you’d file a workers compensation claim. 

Workers compensation is a sort of bargain made by employers: they agree to cover part of your wages and your medical bills and you agree not to sue them for everything else you could generally sue someone for in an injury case. It’s a concept that dates all the way back to ancient Sumer. Both parties ignore the issue of fault.

But there are exceptions to this rule. If you are injured on the job you may indeed have a personal injury claim, especially if you are a construction worker. Construction injuries are some of the most common injury claims, and they rarely are the fault of just one party.

Construction Injury Cases are Third-Party Cases

When a third party, other than your employer, is responsible for an injury you sustain on the job then you may file both a personal injury case and a workers compensation case.

In a construction case, this could be the designer or architect, a subcontractor, a materials manufacturer, a vendor, or one of the dozens of other people who touch a construction project.

Bringing both types of cases allows you to sue for pain and suffering, which workers compensation doesn’t cover. You can also get 100% of your lost wages instead of just 70% of your lost wages. Finally if you’ve lost your earning capacity or become permanently disabled you can get money for this loss that you may be able to live on in the future. Workers compensation payments don’t always take care of you for the rest of your life.

In addition, holding both parties accountable helps to shield you from the dirty tricks that employers like to play. Many employers don’t want their insurance companies to pay claims because it drives up their premiums

Other Third-Party Cases Exist

Other third-party cases do exist. For example, if you drive for your job and get injured in a car accident, you may have a worker’s comp claim and a claim against the at-fault driver.

Most companies interact with third-parties at some point as well. The manufacturer of equipment that you use could be at-fault for your accident. A vendor or client could cause an injury. Any time you think the possibility of a third party claim exists you should at least explore the possibility of bringing both types of claims.

You Don’t Have to Do Guesswork

If you think you might have a claim it’s always important to move fast. Involve an attorney. Call our office to get a free case review. If we decide to take your case we can move fast to secure evidence before it disappears, and can deal with all relevant parties and insurance companies on your behalf so that they don’t mislead you into making mistakes that could have a negative impact on your case.

We’ve been helping injury victims for four decades, and we can help you, too.

See also:

Gathering Evidence in Long Island Construction Accidents

Who is Responsible for the Damages in a Long Island Construction Accident?

What Happens in a Long Island Personal Injury Case if the At-Fault Driver Dies?

It’s not easy to launch a successful medical malpractice suit. Only 42% of claims ever make it to settlement or trial. 

Thus it’s important to know what you’d have to prove to make a successful claim. This will help guide you even before you choose an attorney, allowing you to understand what evidence you should be collecting. 

A Doctor-Patient Relationship Existed

Before you can bring a medical malpractice suit, a doctor-patient relationship must exist. 

In general, a patient-physician relationship forms when the physician “affirmatively acts in a patient’s case by examining, diagnosing, treating, or agreeing to do so.” Once the physician acts in this fashion he has a duty of care towards the patient. 

If you never see the doctor and they never take any of these “affirmative actions” then a doctor-patient relationship does not typically exist.

The Doctor Acted Negligently 

Doctors are considered to have acted negligently if they failed to uphold a reasonable standard of care. The standard of care is “a duty determined by a given set of circumstances that present in a particular patient.

It essentially asks whether any competent medical professional would have acted in the same way given the same patient, the same circumstances, and the same equipment.  It may also ask if the physician engaged in adequate communication with the patient to make a reasonable diagnosis, or whether the physician ordered appropriate testing.

The Negligence Was the Cause of the Patient’s Injury or Death

If there’s no actual loss, you don’t have a case. There’s also no case if there was a loss, but the loss was caused by something other than what the doctor did.

This happens more often than you might think. A preexisting medical condition could rear its head and cause a problem, for example. It takes an experienced medical malpractice attorney to keep these sorts of case facts from muddying the waters and providing the doctor or hospital with a viable defense.

The Injury Resulted in Compensable Damages

If the injury is basically harmless there is no case. Yet if you had additional medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering above and beyond what you would have suffered normally as a result of the injury or illness you presented with, mental anguish, scarring, disfigurement, disability or a loss of earning capacity then you can have those losses compensated with a medical malpractice suit.

If the patient died, their loved ones can press a medical malpractice wrongful death suit to recover compensation for the expenses and loss of income created by the loss of their loved one, as well as for emotional losses. 

So, do you have a medical malpractice case?

Despite this information, you shouldn’t do guesswork about whether you have a case or not. Reach out to one of our lawyers to get a case review.

If we decide you have a case, involving us early will make your case stronger. This is because it will give us a head start on securing evidence that might otherwise be difficult to locate. 

Contact us to get started today.

See also:

You Can’t Trust the Grades at Long Island Nursing Homes

Limiting Hours for OR Doctors and Nurses

A construction accident case is like any other legal case. You’ll have to gather evidence to support your claims that your injury was caused by someone else’s negligence. 

Here are the different forms of evidence in a construction accident case, and what you must do to make that evidence as valuable as possible.

Medical Records

All of your medical records counts as evidence. This includes:

  • Discharge paperwork
  • Medical bills
  • Psychiatric bills
  • Dental bills
  • Prescriptions
  • Doctor’s instructions
  • The hospital’s records of your treatment

Your attorney will get the hospital records, but you should preserve the rest.

To make this form of evidence as valuable as possible, you will need to seek medical treatment immediately and follow all of your medical provider’s instructions, no matter how minor they seem to be. 

Financial Records

To keep track of your financial losses, preserve:

  • Pay stubs
  • Receipts from services, like housekeeping services
  • Receipts for mobility aids

Changes in your standard of living can be used to help determine your pain and suffering compensation, so document those issues, as well. 

Photographs

If you are awake and alert enough to do so after your accident you should try to take photographs if you can. Some construction accidents don’t allow this, as the victim is in so much pain that photographs can be impossible. Nevertheless, if you can, you should.

Sometimes we may be able to get photographic evidence if you involve us early enough. For example, there may be video cameras recording footage of the construction site. We might be able to get copies of that footage, but it’s usually only possible if you call a construction accident attorney as soon as you’re medically capable of doing so.

Physical Evidence

If possible, you should work with your attorney to gather physical evidence from the accident site before it gets lost or “accidentally” destroyed. This is usually only possible if you involve a construction accident attorney right away. 

Your attorney will subpoena the evidence and make sure it is preserved properly and stays safe.

Construction Cases Are Complex

In a construction case, you are often holding multiple parties liable for their negligence. These cases quickly grow contentious.

Our firm specializes in ensuring that your expenses are covered. Contact us today to ensure your case remains strong and that all applicable evidence gets preserved.

See also:

Construction Lawyers

7 End-of-Summer Tips for Construction Site Safety

Two Injured in Construction Accident on Lincoln Road