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Understanding Personal Injury Law on Long Island

Personal injury law in New York is governed by a complex framework of statutes, insurance regulations, and court rules that directly impact your right to compensation. Understanding these rules is essential — and having an attorney who knows how to navigate them is the difference between a fair recovery and leaving money on the table.

New York operates under a no-fault insurance system. After a motor vehicle accident, your own insurer covers medical expenses and lost wages through Personal Injury Protection (PIP) benefits — up to $50,000 — regardless of who caused the crash. You must file your no-fault application within 30 days. No-fault does not cover pain and suffering. To pursue full compensation from the at-fault party, your injuries must meet the "serious injury" threshold under Insurance Law Section 5102(d). This includes fractures, permanent limitation of a body organ or member, significant disfigurement, or inability to perform substantially all daily activities for 90 of the first 180 days after the accident.

The statute of limitations for most personal injury cases in New York is three years from the date of the accident. However, claims against government entities — Nassau County, Suffolk County, the MTA, school districts, and municipal agencies — require a notice of claim filed within just 90 days under General Municipal Law Section 50-e. Medical malpractice claims have a 2.5-year deadline. Missing any of these windows can permanently bar your right to sue.

New York follows a pure comparative negligence rule under CPLR Section 1411. This means you can recover compensation even if you were partially at fault for the accident — your award is simply reduced by your percentage of responsibility. If you are found 40% at fault with $500,000 in damages, you would still recover $300,000. Insurance companies aggressively try to inflate your share of blame, which is why having an experienced Long Island personal injury attorney is critical.

Types of Personal Injury Cases We Handle

Our firm handles the full spectrum of personal injury matters across Long Island. Every case type demands different evidence strategies, legal theories, and insurance approaches — and we bring specialized experience to each one.

How Insurance Companies Work Against You

Insurance companies are not on your side — no matter how friendly their adjusters seem. Their business model depends on paying you as little as possible, and they have decades of experience doing exactly that.

Within days of your accident, an adjuster will likely contact you requesting a recorded statement. This is not a routine procedure — it's a carefully designed tool to get you to say something that undermines your claim. They will ask leading questions about how you feel, whether you had prior injuries, and the specifics of the accident. Anything you say can and will be used against you.

Insurance companies also engage in surveillance. They hire investigators to follow you, photograph you, and monitor your social media accounts. A single photo of you lifting a grocery bag or attending a family event can be weaponized to argue your injuries aren't serious. They will also comb through your medical history looking for pre-existing conditions they can blame for your current pain.

The most common tactic is the lowball settlement offer — made quickly, before you've finished treatment, designed to close your case cheaply while your bills are still piling up. Once you accept, you cannot go back for more money, even if your condition worsens. Accepting a first offer without legal counsel is one of the most expensive mistakes injury victims make.

Having an experienced personal injury attorney levels the playing field. We handle all communication with insurers, counter their tactics with evidence, and negotiate from a position of strength backed by thorough case preparation and courtroom credibility.

What Your Personal Injury Case Is Worth

Every personal injury case is unique, but the compensation you can recover generally falls into three categories: economic damages, non-economic damages, and in rare cases, punitive damages.

Economic damages are the tangible, calculable losses you've suffered: medical bills (emergency room, surgery, rehabilitation, future care), lost wages from time missed at work, reduced earning capacity if your injuries limit your ability to work in the future, and out-of-pocket expenses like transportation to medical appointments and home modifications for disability.

Non-economic damages compensate for losses that don't come with a receipt: pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of consortium (the impact on your relationship with your spouse), and disfigurement or scarring. In New York, pain and suffering damages are often the largest component of a personal injury award — sometimes exceeding economic damages by multiples.

Punitive damages are available in cases involving extreme recklessness, gross negligence, or intentional misconduct. While rare, they serve to punish the defendant and deter similar behavior.

Factors that affect your case value include: the severity and permanence of your injuries, the length of your recovery, available insurance coverage limits, the strength of liability evidence, and your percentage of comparative fault. During a free consultation, we evaluate these factors and give you a realistic assessment of what your case may be worth based on outcomes in Nassau and Suffolk County courts.

How We Handle Your Personal Injury Claim

We follow a proven, methodical process designed to build the strongest possible case and pursue maximum compensation at every stage.

About Jason Tenenbaum, Esq.

Jason Tenenbaum founded the Law Office of Jason Tenenbaum, P.C. in 2002 with a commitment to providing Long Island injury victims with the aggressive, personalized representation that larger firms promise but rarely deliver.

With over 24 years of practice, Jason has built a reputation as an attorney who does the work himself. He has written more than 500 appeals and tries his own cases in court — the attorney who reviews your medical records and builds your strategy is the same one arguing your case before a judge or jury. At many larger firms, your case gets passed between associates, paralegals, and trial attorneys who barely know the details. That doesn't happen here.

Jason's deep familiarity with Nassau and Suffolk County courts, local judges, and the defense attorneys and insurance carriers that operate across Long Island gives his clients a meaningful tactical advantage. He understands the procedural quirks, the settlement tendencies, and the trial strategies that work in Long Island courtrooms.

The firm's team includes experienced attorneys and multilingual staff who serve Long Island's diverse communities. We speak English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Russian — ensuring that language is never a barrier to quality legal representation.

Why Long Island Cases Are Different

Personal injury cases on Long Island present unique challenges that require local expertise. The legal landscape here is distinct from New York City or upstate New York in ways that directly affect your case outcome.

Nassau County Supreme Court and Suffolk County Supreme Court have different procedural rules, different judicial temperaments, and different settlement cultures. Knowing which judge is assigned to your case — and how that judge handles motions, discovery disputes, and trial scheduling — is an advantage that only comes from years of practice in these specific courtrooms.

Long Island's heavy traffic corridors — the Long Island Expressway, Southern State Parkway, Northern State Parkway, Sunrise Highway, and Hempstead Turnpike — create unique accident patterns. High-speed highway crashes, rush-hour rear-end collisions, and commercial truck accidents on these routes require specific investigative approaches including accident reconstruction, traffic pattern analysis, and road design evaluation.

New York's no-fault insurance system adds another layer of complexity. Coordinating PIP benefits with third-party liability claims, navigating the serious injury threshold, and handling disputes with your own insurer all require an attorney who understands the interplay between these systems. Our firm handles both sides — no-fault claims and personal injury lawsuits — giving our clients a comprehensive approach that most firms cannot offer.