Millions of Dollars Recovered for Our Clients
A Bayside Queens Car Accident Attorney Can Help You After an Accident
Bayside is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Whitestone to the northwest, Douglaston to the east, Oakland Gardens to the south and Fresh Meadows to the west. CNN Money ranked Bayside as one of the most expensive housing markets nationally when analyzing comparable detached homes throughout the United States. Despite its large housing stock of free-standing homes, it nationally ranks high to very high in population density.
ZIP Codes: 11360, 11361, 11364
At Michael J. Redenburg, Esq. P.C., our primary mission is to obtain financial relief for our clients who are suffering because of someone else’s negligence or recklessness. We have seen firsthand how important monetary settlements are to injury victims as they seek to recover from their injuries and rebuild their lives. We fight diligently for these funds.
Contact us for a free, in-office case review at 212-240-9465 see how we can get the Wheels of Justice Spinning for You!
Is There a Time Limit for Personal Injury Cases?
Yes. According to the State of New York’s statute of limitations, Queens car accident cases are governed by a three (3) year SOL and your case must be filed in court within three years after the accident. Furthermore, important no-fault documents must be completed within thirty (30) days after the accident or the insurance company may deny paying your medical bills.
Important: If your Bayside Queens Car Accident involved a New York City Transit or MTA Bus and they will need to be named as defendants in the suit, then a Notice of Claim must be filed within ninety (90) days after the accident, so time is of the essence and you should retain counsel immediately.
Because of this time limit, it’s important to speak with an Queens car accident lawyer soon after your injury. Don’t leave the compensation you deserve on the table by waiting too long to file your lawsuit.
How Much Does a Bayside Queens Car Accident Attorney Cost?
When you’re trying to recover from a car accident, you don’t want to worry about costly legal bills. You should expect personal injury law firms to offer their services on a contingency basis. This is how we operate at Michael J. Redenburg, Esq. PC.
This means you pay nothing up front because your lawyer’s service fees will be taken out of the settlement or verdict award you receive once the case has been won. The fee agreement signed up front will spell out any court fees that may be due in the event of an adverse ruling.
What Is My Car Accident Claim Worth?
Every case is different, and injuries vary from case to case. As such, the value of your personal injury claim will depend greatly on the impact your injuries have had and will have on your life and livelihood.
Generally speaking, these are the factors that will decide the ultimate value of your case:
- Medical bills, from treatment, to equipment and devices, to prescription medication
- Lost wages from time out of work to recover or help a loved one recover
- Lost future earning power from life-changing injuries
- Future medical expenses from continuing medical care over the years
- Physical therapy expenses to regain functionality and independence
- Home and car modifications to adapt your environment to your injuries
The above-listed factors—are the economic damages. There are also non-economic damages that are compensable. They include:
- Physical pain and suffering caused by the injury
- Inconvenience from having your life turned upside down
- Mental suffering caused by debilitation, including depression and anxiety
- Loss of consortium
Non-economic damages are more difficult to prove than economic damages. There’s no receipt for your pain that quantifies an exact dollar amount. Instead, the courts have rules for assigning dollar values to non-economic losses.
An experienced Bayside Queens car accident attorney will know these methods inside and out and will work diligently to ensure that you are compensated for your losses.
What If I am Partially to Blame for My Accident?
Not all car accidents are the sole fault of one driver. In many cases, the injured victim shares some responsibility for his or her injuries. In New York, the law allows injured parties to still seek compensation for damages, even when they share in the responsibility for the underlying accident.
When a plaintiff is partially to blame, the amount of the compensation will be reduced in proportion to his or her degree of blame. Having a skilled injury attorney representing you is important because the other side will do what it can to assign more blame to you and thus reduce your payout.
How Can I Prove the Other Party is Liable?
New York law provides that if another person’s negligence caused your injuries, you can recover damages from that person. All drivers in NY owe a duty to others to drive safely and reasonably. If someone breaches that duty—for instance, if they drive drunk or operate their vehicle recklessly—and injures you directly because of that breach, then that person is liable for driving negligently, and they will have to pay you to compensate you for your injuries and damages.
In legal terms, your burden of proof is to show that the other person’s conduct “proximately caused” your injuries, meaning your injuries were a natural and direct consequence of their actions and without which you would not have been injured.
A plaintiff or injured person in New York must show the following elements to prove negligence:
- The defendant (negligent party) owed a duty to act with reasonable care.
The defendant breached this duty.
The defendant’s breach of duty caused the plaintiff’s injuries.
The defendant’s actions were the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries, and the plaintiff suffered actual damages.
An example looks like the following:
- A driver uses their cell phone to text while driving, knowing that this conduct could injure another person, thereby ignoring their duty to follow traffic laws and drive safely to avoid harming others on the road.
- Texting while driving is breaching a duty to operate a vehicle safely and reasonably.
- The driver’s texting causes an accident, and another person is injured.
- The texting driver acted negligently, implicating them for liability. In addition, the injured party has medical records and other evidentiary support of their incurred damages due to the accident.
In NY, a car accident lawyer can help you investigate and build your case to show that another person’s negligence caused the accident, resulting in your injuries and other damages.
What Should I Do After a Car Accident in Bayside Queens
If you have been in a motor vehicle accident in Bayside, there are a few steps you need to take immediately to protect yourself and ensure your legal rights.
- Call 911 immediately to report the accident. A police officer will come to the scene and write a police report detailing the event of the accident. Unless you need emergency medical attention, it is essential to remain at the accident scene.
- Gather contact and insurance information from everyone involved in the accident, including names, addresses, telephone numbers, license plates, and vehicle identification numbers. Insist on seeing everyone’s driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations. If the accident involved a parked car with no occupants, leave a note on the car with the names and addresses of everyone involved in the accident.
- You should also document everything you can about the accident, including photographs of the vehicles, the accident scene, and your injuries. Finally, determine whether there were any witnesses and, if so, collect their contact information, as they may later become invaluable in piecing together the cause of the accident.
- Report the accident to the DMV. In any accident involving injuries or damages NY law requires persons involved to report the accident to NY Department of Motor Vehicles. Failure to do so may lead to the suspension of your driver’s license.
- Seek immediate medical attention after the accident, even if you think your injuries are minor, to ensure you aren’t suffering from any latent injuries and to document your injuries. Injuries are sometimes not always apparent right after a car accident, so you may also want to conduct a follow-up examination with your doctor.
- Contact a car accident attorney as soon as possible after the accident. Your insurance company will likely try to settle your claim soon after the accident. Insurance companies have an interest in maximizing their profits; therefore, they may try to get you to accept a settlement offer that is well below what you are entitled to recover.
Should I Be Speaking with the Other Party’s Insurance Company?
As an injury victim, you may be contacted by the other party’s insurance company. It is in your best interests to refrain from speaking with them in most cases. They are not calling to attend to your interests. Instead, they are most likely looking to lessen their financial responsibility.
One tactic insurance companies use is persuasion. They know victims desperately need compensation to pay bills and such. So they often dangle paltry sums in front of financially-strapped victims, hoping they bite.
Insurance companies may also call looking for information that could damage your case and reduce the money you are owed. For example, an insurance investigator or adjuster may ring you up to hear your side of the story only for the purpose of looking for negligence on your part.
As such, the only professional you should speak to about your case is a car accident attorney. Your lawyer’s number one concern is getting you the maximum settlement or verdict allowable under the law.
How Long Does It Take to Get a Settlement?
The time it takes to receive a settlement after a car accident depends on the facts of your case. After you report an accident to your insurance company, an insurance claim representative will usually contact you within a reasonable amount of time.
If you have not heard from a claims representative within two weeks of your accident, you should follow up with your insurance company. If the insurance company does not respond within a reasonable time after that, or if you believe that the company is taking an extraordinary amount of time to settle your claim, you should contact the NY State Department of Insurance.
NEWS: May 23, 2022: Four people were injured after a driver lost control in a Bayside, Queens crash.
The owner of a local Greek restaurant and three others were hurt after a driver lost control mid-turn and crashed into another car, according to the FDNY and witnesses. The two cars collided shortly before noon near 172nd Street and Francis Lewis Boulevard, officials said. The FDNY did not specify the cause of a crash, but an employee of nearby A1 Arch Threading & Beauty Salon said that she saw it happen.
The eyewitness was quoted as saying, “I saw the black car turn as the white car came from the other direction.” She went on to say,”It looked like the black car lost control and hit the back of the white car.” According to the FDNY, four people were injured and two were taken to the hospital.
Among those injured was the owner of Kalamaki GR, a nearby Greek restaurant, who was taken to the hospital but did not appear to be seriously injured, employees said. “I heard a loud sound and then we came outside of the restaurant and saw the two cars,” said a restaurant employee. “Thankfully everybody is OK.”
Five Star Google Review
Literally one of the best in the business. Wouldn’t want anyone else to handle situations of the law if it isn’t Mr. Redenburg. I can say and been a witness of Mr. Redenburg’s work to the point where he basically schooled the judge about how a certain law works. The judge learned something new, literally the judge thanked Mr. Redenburg for teaching him something for the future.
Bayside Queens Car Accident Attorney
If you have been injured in a Car Accident in Bayside Queens due to someone else’s negligence, contact the Bayside Queens Car Accident Attorney at Michael J. Redenburg, Esq. PC and get the wheels of justice spinning for you. Call 212-240-9465 now!