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Your New York City Personal Injury Attorney
If you or someone in your family was injured in New York City, you are probably looking for plain answers about time limits, fault, and what a claim involves. New York sets several of those by statute, so many answers can be checked. You will find the deadlines first, then fault and insurance, then claims against government bodies, the courts, and the most common claim types, citing the statute each time. The facts of your injury decide which rule controls, and an attorney who practices in New York courts can sort that out quickly.
The Short Answers: Deadlines, Fault, and Insurance
- Personal injury lawsuits must generally be filed within 3 years (CPLR 214(5)), unless a specific rule such as infancy (CPLR 208) changes the count.
- If a local government is involved, notice is due in 90 days (General Municipal Law 50-e), far shorter than the three-year lawsuit deadline.
- If you are partly at fault, you can often still recover. Under CPLR 1411(a) the award is reduced by your percentage, except in a motor vehicle case where CPLR 1411(b) bars a claimant found more at fault than the defendant.
- No-fault benefits come first, and lawsuits come second. Basic economic loss up to $50,000 (Insurance Law 5102(a)), then a suit for pain and suffering only for a serious injury (Insurance Law 5104(a)).
- If a loved one died: a wrongful death action has a two-year limit (EPTL 5-4.1), and the injured person’s own claim is not lost because of the death (EPTL 11-3.2(b)).
Filing Deadlines for Injury and Wrongful Death Claims in New York
The main deadline is set by CPLR 214(5): an action to recover damages for a personal injury must be commenced within three years. The exceptions listed in that subdivision, in CPLR 214-b, 214-c, 214-i and 215, carry their own periods.
Age matters. CPLR 208(a) extends the time for a person under a disability because of infancy to three years after the disability ceases, and the ten-year limit on extensions does not apply to infancy outside medical, dental, or podiatric malpractice.
When an injury leads to death, EPTL 5-4.1 requires a wrongful death action to be commenced within two years after the death, with an extension when a criminal action is pending, and EPTL 11-3.2(b) keeps the decedent’s own injury claim alive for the personal representative.
If a city, county, town, village, fire district, or school district may be responsible, the notice deadline is ninety days, not three years (General Municipal Law 50-e(1)(a)). The lawsuit must then be commenced within one year and ninety days after the event, except that a wrongful death action has two years (General Municipal Law 50-i(1)).
There is some room for late notice: on application, a court may extend the time to serve a notice of claim, but not beyond the time limited for the injured person to commence an action against the public body (General Municipal Law 50-e(5)). The complaint must also allege the thirty-day wait (General Municipal Law 50-i(1)).
State defendants have their own rule. Court of Claims Act 10(3) requires a claim to be filed and served on the Attorney General within ninety days after accrual, unless a notice of intention is served within that time, and then the claim is due within two years.
A claimant who misses those dates may ask the court for permission to file late, at any time before an action against a private person for the same claim would be barred under CPLR article 2 (Court of Claims Act 10(6)).
Medical malpractice is a different category. An action for medical, dental, or podiatric malpractice must be commenced within two years and six months, with an extension for continuous treatment for the same illness, injury, or condition, and a one-year period from discovery for a foreign object left in the body (CPLR 214-a).
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Fault Percentages and Your Recovery
The general rule is in CPLR 1411(a): damages are diminished in proportion to the claimant’s share of the culpable conduct that caused them. A claimant who is partly at fault still recovers in most injury cases, reduced by that share.
The practical result outside crash cases is a sliding reduction rather than a cutoff: the larger your share of the fault, the smaller the award, and the claim does not end at any percentage under CPLR 1411(a). Evidence about what each party did is what moves the percentages.
For crashes, there is now a bar. CPLR 1411(b) says a claimant in an action subject to Insurance Law article 51 recovers nothing if the claimant’s culpable conduct is greater than the defendant’s, or greater than the defendants’ combined conduct. The law took effect May 26, 2026 and applies to actions commenced on or after that date, not to accidents on or after it.
If a crash or fall involves several responsible parties, a defendant found 50 percent or less at fault pays non-economic damages only in proportion to its own culpability (CPLR 1601(1)). CPLR 1602 lists exceptions, so a lawyer should review who the defendants are.
The New York No-Fault System After a Crash
After a crash, the first source of payment is usually no-fault. Under Insurance Law 5102(a), basic economic loss is covered up to fifty thousand dollars per person, and includes necessary medical and rehabilitation expenses, lost earnings, and other reasonable and necessary expenses.
Inside the fifty-thousand-dollar limit, lost earnings are capped at two thousand dollars per month for up to three years, and other reasonable and necessary expenses at twenty-five dollars a day for up to one year (Insurance Law 5102(a)). Additional optional coverage of twenty-five thousand dollars can be bought for lost earnings, psychiatric, physical therapy, or occupational therapy after the base amount is exhausted.
The serious injury threshold is the gate to a pain and suffering claim. Insurance Law 5104(a) allows no recovery for non-economic loss except in the case of a serious injury or for basic economic loss, and Insurance Law 5102(d) lists the categories, including a fracture, significant disfigurement, and permanent or significant limitation of use of a body function or system.
Timing matters at the insurer as well. Under the no-fault regulation, written notice of the accident must be given to the insurance company as soon as reasonably practicable, and in no event more than 30 days after the accident, and written proof of claim for services must follow as soon as reasonably practicable and no later than 45 days after the services are rendered (11 NYCRR 65-1.1).
Recent amendments matter for any lawsuit commenced on or after May 26, 2026. The 90 out of 180 days category was deleted from Insurance Law 5102(d), and Insurance Law 5104(a) now requires the trier of fact to decide fault first and then whether there is a serious injury, before liability for non-economic loss is fixed (Chapter 58 of the Laws of 2026, Department of Financial Services Circular Letter No. 3 (2026)).
Claims Against Cities, Counties, Towns, Villages, and the State
Before suing a city, county, town, village, fire district, or school district for negligence, three conditions must be met: a notice of claim made and served in compliance with General Municipal Law 50-e, thirty days passing without adjustment or payment, and commencement of the action within one year and ninety days after the event (General Municipal Law 50-i(1)). A wrongful death action must be commenced within two years after the death.
Notice of the defect itself can be a separate hurdle. Under Town Law 65-a(2), written notice specifying the particular place must have been given to the town clerk or the superintendent of highways, and Village Law 6-628 applies a similar rule to villages, including snow and ice conditions.
State-level defendants are sued in the Court of Claims. Court of Claims Act 10(3) requires filing and service on the Attorney General within ninety days of accrual, or a notice of intention within that time and a claim within two years.
Any injury on public property, or involving a public vehicle, deserves prompt review because of the notice periods that begin at the injury.
From Local Courts to the Supreme Court
Three courts frame most injury cases: the Supreme Court, which is the court of general jurisdiction, local courts for smaller claims, and the Court of Claims for actions against the State. In New York City the Civil Court’s money limit is $50,000 (New York City Civil Court Act 202).
By statute the state has thirteen judicial districts (Judiciary Law 140), and a lawsuit from New York City that reaches the Supreme Court is filed in the Supreme Court in the county where the case is filed, which sits in the First, Second, Eleventh, Twelfth, or Thirteenth Judicial District, depending on the borough. New York City has five counties (New York, Kings, Queens, Bronx, and Richmond), each with its own Supreme Court, so where a case is filed depends on where the claim arose and where the parties are.
What Kinds of Injury Cases Do We See in New York City?
Collisions and Crash Injuries
After a collision, the questions are fault, injuries, and insurance. No-fault pays basic economic loss first (Insurance Law 5102(a)), non-economic damages depend on a serious injury (Insurance Law 5104(a)), and your share of the fault can reduce or bar the award (CPLR 1411).
If a defendant’s liability is 50 percent or less, its share of non-economic loss is limited to its equitable share (CPLR 1601(1)).
Premises Liability Claims
A fall claim asks whether the property owner or occupier was negligent, for example by failing to fix or warn about a hazard. Whatever the location, the fault rule in CPLR 1411 applies, so an argument that the injured person was not watching where they were going can reduce the award, and the three-year deadline in CPLR 214(5) applies.
If the property belongs to a local government, a notice of claim within ninety days is required (General Municipal Law 50-e(1)(a)), and a lawsuit must follow within one year and ninety days (General Municipal Law 50-i(1)).
Fatal Accident Claims
The wrongful death period is counted from the date of death, not the date of the injury, and is two years (EPTL 5-4.1). A claim against a local government has the same two-year limit for wrongful death (General Municipal Law 50-i(1)).
A criminal action for the death can extend the deadline to at least one year after that action ends (EPTL 5-4.1).
On-the-Job Injuries
For injuries at work, an employer’s liability under the Workers’ Compensation Law is exclusive and in place of any other liability to the employee (Workers’ Compensation Law 11). An injured employee can still pursue a claim against a third party who was not in the same employ, while taking compensation benefits (Workers’ Compensation Law 29(1)).
A fall from a ladder or scaffold at a job site can raise Labor Law 240(1), which covers furnishing scaffolding, hoists, stays, and ladders for the work.
Injured in New York City? Talk to an attorney about your deadlines.
A Note on New York City and the Local Courts
An injury in New York City belongs to the county where the case is filed and its Supreme Court. Local practice, such as how quickly cases are listed and how motions are handled, shapes how the general rules on this page play out, and a local attorney can tell you what that looks like.
If your injury happened in a different city, start from our statewide New York personal injury directory. People in this part of the state also look to our pages for Long Beach, Mount Vernon, and New Rochelle. If your issue is a patent, trademark, or copyright matter instead of an injury, see our New York City intellectual property page.
Local Hospitals and Your Medical Records
Hospitals in New York City include NYU Langone’s Tisch Hospital at 550 First Avenue in Manhattan, Montefiore Medical Center at 111 East 210th Street in the Bronx, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center at 8900 Van Wyck Expressway in Queens, and Staten Island University Hospital at 475 Seaview Avenue in Staten Island.
Treatment records from any hospital involved are part of an injury claim, and the dates in them help show when an injury happened and what care followed. Mentioning a hospital here is only a factual reference to its location.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I still file a lawsuit for an injury from a while ago?
It depends on how long ago. Three years is the general limit (CPLR 214(5)), but some situations change the count, such as a claim by a minor (CPLR 208(a)) or a claim against a public body. An attorney can look at the date of the injury.
Is there a shorter deadline for claims against the government?
Yes: ninety days for the notice of claim (General Municipal Law 50-e(1)(a)) and one year and ninety days to commence the action, or two years for wrongful death (General Municipal Law 50-i(1)), compared with three years in an ordinary injury case.
What happens to my claim if the other side says I share the blame?
Your claim can survive, with the damages reduced by your share of the culpable conduct (CPLR 1411(a)). Evidence about fault often decides the number, and in motor vehicle cases it can decide whether the claim is barred (CPLR 1411(b)).
What changed in New York car accident law in 2026?
Chapter 58 of the Laws of 2026 added CPLR 1411(b), removed the 90/180-day category from the serious injury definition, and changed the order of proof in Insurance Law 5104(a). The changes took effect May 26, 2026 and apply to actions and proceedings commenced on or after that date.
Is my medical bill covered no matter who caused the crash?
Yes. No-fault benefits for basic economic loss are available up to $50,000 per person regardless of fault (Insurance Law 5102(a)), subject to the timing rules in the regulations.
Can I sue for pain and suffering after a car accident?
Only for a serious injury. There is no right of recovery for non-economic loss except in the case of a serious injury, or for basic economic loss (Insurance Law 5104(a)).
Can a criminal case affect the wrongful death deadline?
It can. Under EPTL 5-4.1, where a criminal action is pending, the personal representative has at least one year from the termination of the criminal action to file, even if the usual two years has passed.
Which judicial district is New York City in?
New York City is in the First, Second, Eleventh, Twelfth, or Thirteenth Judicial District, depending on the borough (Judiciary Law 140), and a Supreme Court case from New York City is heard in the Supreme Court in the county where the case is filed.
How do workers’ compensation and a personal injury claim fit together?
The employer’s liability is exclusive (Workers’ Compensation Law 11), but the employee’s claim against another party who was not in the same employ is preserved (Workers’ Compensation Law 29(1)). The three-year deadline in CPLR 214(5) still applies to the lawsuit.
What happens to the deadline if the injured person is a child?
It is extended: CPLR 208(a) allows three years after the disability of infancy ceases, and outside medical, dental, or podiatric malpractice the ten-year limit on extensions does not apply to infancy.
Speak With Someone Who Handles Cases Like Yours
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