New York City personal injury lawyer: Over $900 million won for our clients
For over 30 years, the New York City personal injury lawyers at Raphaelson & Levine have helped thousands of accident victims like yourself win challenging cases.
Our personal injury law firm in New York City has a track record of success in cases involving car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, construction accidents, slip and fall injuries, premise liability and wrongful death claims.
Conveniently located across from Penn Station in Midtown-Manhattan, our New York City personal injury law firm has delivered over $900 million in verdicts and settlements for our clients.
With over 30 years of proven trial experience and expertise to win successful injury claims in even the most complex types of cases. We fight to win and have the resources to stand up to insurers or large corporations and demand the comprehensive, long-term compensation you need.
When you've been hurt, don't settle for less than you deserve — our award-winning personal injury lawyers will give you a voice.
NEXT STEPS: Call 212-268-3222 today or complete the free consultation form below to speak with an experienced attorney about your claim.
Millions Won for Our Clients
You deserve better.
How our top-rated New York City personal injury attorneys can help
At Raphaelson & Levine Law Firm, our NYC accident attorneys are committed to representing individuals, not case numbers. By focusing on the challenges you face recovering from injury, we can tell that story in vivid terms when the time comes to negotiate compensation or convince a jury to award damages.
We pride ourselves on how we practice injury law and dedicate time to answer any questions you may have throughout your personal injury claim.
Our firm fully invests time and resources into our clients and thoroughly prepare every case for trial. Our reputation as trial lawyers in the state of New York reflects in the quality of our settlements, the respect of our legal peers, and testimonials from clients who appreciate our approach and results.
We handle all types of personal injury claims
From a motor vehicle accident that causes catastrophic injury to medical malpractice cases, personal injury claims cover a variety of situations.
Rest assured, the personal injury attorneys at Raphaelson & Levine Law Firm have successfully represented thousands of people who have sustained a serious injury in multiple ways.
While the cause of each injury may differ, all personal injury cases have in common is that they occurred due to the negligence of another party. Below are just some of the common types of personal injury claims our law firm has handled.
Serving the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island, and greater New York State, our NYC personal injury lawyers have the skills, experience, and education to obtain the same winning results for you that we have for thousands of satisfied clients before you.
Vehicle Accidents
In New York an injured person may assume they cannot file a personal injury lawsuit due to the state's no-fault auto insurance laws. New York car accident law makes exceptions for people with serious injuries such as significant disfigurement and several other scenarios.
We can provide additional legal advice about car accident personal injury claims at your free consultation.
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Construction Accidents
Construction accidents are all too common in New York City, claiming hundreds of lives and causing thousands of catastrophic injuries every year. Thanks to special labor laws in the state of New York, you can file a personal injury lawsuit against negligent parties other than your employer and still maintain eligibility for workers' compensation — learn how our construction accident lawyers can help.
Slip, Trip, and Fall Accidents
Slipping on an icy sidewalk, falling down a flight of stairs due to a loose handrail, and tripping over an out-of-place store display are common examples of this type of personal injury claim. These accidents usually fall under the classification of premises liability because property owners have the legal obligation to prevent customers and visitors from becoming injured.
MORE: New York City slip and fall lawyer
Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Birth injuries, surgical errors, and failure to diagnose are among the most common types of medical malpractice in New York City and the surrounding boroughs. The state of New York also has the highest rate of medical malpractice claims per capita. Find out if you qualify to file a medical malpractice claim by requesting a free case evaluation today.
Mass Transit Accidents In New York City (MTA)
With roughly half of New York City residents relying solely on public transportation because they do not own a car, accidents are bound to occur. These personal injury claims can become complicated when NYC manages the bus, train, or subway where you sustained a serious harm. Fortunately, our NYC personal injury lawyers know MTA laws and regulations.
Workplace Accidents
Any type of work environment in New York City can present hazards when the people in charge of maintaining worker safety neglect their duties. As with construction accidents, you may have a valid claim outside of the state's workers' compensation system in certain situations.
Wrongful Death Claims
Representing families in wrongful death cases is one of the most difficult things a personal injury lawyer from Raphaelson & Levine can face. Our law firm is here to support your family by demanding a fair wrongful death settlement offer after proving how the other party’s actions caused your loved one's death.
Birth Injury Claims
Unnecessary use of forceps and allowing prolonged labor are two common causes of birth injury in New York City. Your doctor may have also provided negligent monitoring during your pregnancy. If you suffered a serious harm while giving birth or your baby was born with a preventable health issue, Raphaelson & Levine is here to help.
Nursing Home Abuse
Sadly, a minority of nursing home staff are not providing a standard of care for your loved one. If your family member faced unlawful restraint, neglect of personal care, bedsores, sexual abuse, or another form of nursing home abuse or neglect, don't hesitate to initiate a personal injury lawsuit.
Product Liability
Defective design, failure to warn of potential dangers, and deceptive advertising causing serious harm to consumers all qualify as reasons to file a personal injury claim based on product liability. Product manufacturers and designers bear responsibility for creating safe products, while retailers must not sell known defective products.
Sexual Abuse
If you or your child have suffered sexual assault or rape, you deserve justice via financial compensation from a personal injury lawsuit. Please note that lawsuits are civil claims, not criminal ones. The person who committed sexual abuse may face a separate criminal trial based on the prosecution’s charge.
Toxic Exposure
Many substances, including mold, asbestos, and lead, can cause illness from prolonged exposure. You may have a claim against your employer, the building owner where you live, or another party if you developed a serious illness due to toxic exposure.
Mass Torts
A mass tort is a legal action by several people who experienced the same type of injury. Common examples include injury from a medical device or man-made disaster such as the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City.
A mass tort legal action is often more efficient than individual personal injury lawsuits in these situations.
Police Brutality
All Americans have basic civil rights. When NYC police officers violate those rights through the use of excessive force or unlawful restraint, laws in the state of New York allow you to pursue legal action against the officer, police department, city, or other responsible parties.
Recovering maximum compensation for personal injury claims in New York, NY
New York personal injury victims suffer in many aspects of their lives. They awake the morning of an accident, living their life in an ordinary way, and then, without warning, everything changes.
The first and most obvious damage that a client sustains is their physical bodily injuries. Injured parties might sustain broken bones and often require a period of hospitalization and surgery.
During this period of time, they will accumulate medical bills and have an unexcused absence from work. These damages represent past damages that are immediately incurred and are compensable under the law.
In New York State, personal injury accident victims are eligible to seek the following types of compensation:
Medical Bills
A New York serious injury can cost thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses. A New York personal injury lawyer will make sure you are compensated for any current and future medical expenses.
Pain & Suffering
An award for these damages is based on the physical and emotional stress a serious injury has caused you, and the severity of its impact on your health and well being.
A NYC personal injury attorney can help you secure compensation for physical aches, temporary and permanent limitations of activity, physical impairment, scarring as well as mental health impacts such as insomnia, depression, post-traumatic stress, and loss of enjoyment.
Lost Wages
An accident can cause you to be out of work for any amount of time, from days to months, or even years. In New York, and experienced attorney can assist you in recovering compensation for lost wages and any diminished earning potential that will result from your injuries.
Compensation for Past & Future Damages
Past Damages are Twofold
An accident affects not only the injured party but their friends and families, as well. Past damages occur as a result of the impact to both the injured party and their loved ones. Everyone that is close to an injured party will be affected in one way or another and will need to take time from their lives to support the injured and the injured family. In many cases, children of elderly individuals at home, for example, will be at a loss as a result of a disability sustained by an accident victim.
Future Damages
Future damages are usually significantly greater than past damages. Past damages are limited, but future damages can be proven for the remainder of an accident victim’s life.
Example:
If a 35-year-old is injured in an accident and the trial occurs 3 years later, that person will have 3 years of past damages.
However, if that same person reaches their average life expectancy between age 78 and 83 (depending on whether they are male or female), then there will be between 40 and 50 years of future damages.
Those damages could include loss of earnings if the person is disabled and unable to work in the future. If the client requires future surgery, the cost of future medical care and treatment can also be projected.
Our law firm has fought and recovered hundreds of millions of dollars in future damages. Though not always easy to prove, we combine our skills and resources with medical experts, economists, life care plan specialists, and vocational training experts.
Our responsibility to our client is always to address every need our client may have for the rest of his or her life arising from the accident and its related injuries.
A history of award-winning personal injury verdicts & settlements
Founding attorney Howard Raphaelson is the grandson of Jacob D. Fuchsberg, an esteemed New York lawyer highly recognized for winning the first million-dollar recovery in U.S. history.
Since 1992, the accomplished trial lawyers at Raphaelson & Levine law office have followed in that tradition and obtained numerous million-dollar and multi-million-dollar jury awards and settlements.
Recent personal injury verdicts and settlements include:
- $10,000,000 for former child victims of sexual abuse
- $8,500,000 for a young child injured in a building collapse
- $6,000,000 for a construction worker injured in a scaffold fall
- $5,750,000 for a HVAC contractor injured in a fall
- $5,300,000 for the family of fatal train crash victim
- $3,750,000 awarded to a carpenter hurt in a construction accident
- $3,000,000 for a union construction worker with a crush injury
- $3,000,000 for a child paralyzed due to a product defect
- $2,800,000 for two passengers injured in a rear-end car crash
- $2,750,000 for a worker injured in a scaffold crash
- $2,500,000 for the family fatal airplane crash victim
- $2,500,000 for an electrician injured in a slip and fall accident
These results are a function of our diligent efforts to understand our clients’ needs, document the harm in tangible terms, and ensure that a court of law hears their story.
MORE: Recent personal injury lawsuit settlements & verdicts
What is the New York City statute of limitations on personal injury claims?
The statute of limitations in the state of New York is typically three years from the date you sustained serious injuries. You lose your right to file a personal injury lawsuit if you fail to initiate your claim before the three-year statute of limitations expires.
We urge you to take our law firm’s legal advice and request your free consultation as soon as possible. Gathering evidence, preparing a lawsuit, and negotiating a settlement offer takes time.
The sooner you secure legal representation, the less you have to worry about the statute of limitations running out on you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What factors can influence the value of my case settlement?
Numerous elements can influence the worth of your personal injury claim, ranging from medical expenses to emotional damage.
Variables that should be taken into consideration when determining the value of your personal injury claim include; the level of pain endured by the victim, effects on earning potential due to impaired mobility or ability to work, associated medical expenses accrued as a result, and any property damage incurred.
The amount of a personal injury settlement in New York can also be influenced by other components such as each party's degree of fault in an incident, available insurance coverage, and where exactly the injury occurred.
- Amount of your medical bills: This includes hospital stays, doctor visits, medical equipment, and any other medical products or services you required after sustaining serious injuries.
- Future Medical Expenses: Your personal injury lawyer NYC may consult with a medical expert in your specific diagnosis to determine future costs for medical care you require stemming from another party’s negligent actions.
- Severity of Your Injuries: You can typically expect a larger settlement offer if you sustained catastrophic injuries such as traumatic brain injury (TBI) or paralysis. Injured parties who suffer from chronic pain could potentially receive a higher settlement offer even if the initial injury did not appear serious.
- Property Damage: If the accident caused property damage in addition to serious or catastrophic injury, it would add to the amount of your settlement offer. Clients typically receive the current market value of items they must replace.
- Financial Resources of the Other Party: Our personal injury attorneys typically negotiate with the insurance company representing the other party first.
For example, we would request negotiations with the other party's auto insurance company after a car accident or homeowner's insurance company if your serious injury occurred on someone else's property.
Insurance companies often place caps on personal injury lawsuit payouts that can affect the final settlement offer you receive. However, our years of experience have taught us how to uncover additional financial resources to help pay the amount you deserve.
If your personal injury claim ends up in court after insurance company negotiations fail, a jury will consider factors such as your age, general health, how many years you have left to work, and whether others count on you for financial support when determining a settlement offer.
Having legal representation from experienced trial lawyers means you have someone on your side fighting for maximum compensation.
How much is my personal injury case worth?
The settlement offer you might receive from your lawsuit depends on several factors unique to your case. The first thing your NYC personal injury lawyer will do after accepting your case is to determine liability.
Because the state of New York uses the legal concept of pure comparative negligence, you could receive less in a settlement offer if a jury or the other party's insurance company determines that you share a percentage of the blame.
Working with an experienced personal injury attorney is essential to prove the other party bears all or most of the responsibility for causing your serious injuries.
"Insurance payouts are, on average, 3.5 times higher for clients who have hired personal injury attorneys than for those without one." — Insurance Research Council
What factors are considered when determining negligence in a personal injury claim in New York?
To prove negligence in a personal injury claim, your personal injury attorney must demonstrate that the defendant had a duty of care towards you, breached that duty, and caused your serious injuries. Then, our attorneys must also prove a connection between the defendant's breach of care and your injuries.
One trick we often see is the insurance company trying to reduce their liability by attempting to assign you with a percentage of the blame for your injuries. Our skilled personal injury attorneys will fight to clear you of any blame to ensure you receive full financial justice.
Here's some more details:
We begin the process of determining negligence in a personal injury case by proving that the defendant had a duty of care towards you. This may be as simple as proving that someone failed to look to the left before making a turn or as complex as a botched surgical procedure, but in both cases, the person responsible for causing your injuries had a duty of care for your safety.
The next step is to prove that the other party breached the expected duty of care by comparing their actions to what a reasonable person would do in the same situation. If this breach of care is proven, we must then prove that you suffered serious injuries due to the accident or injury.
Lastly, we must prove a connection between the defendant's breach of care and your serious injuries to ensure that you receive the financial justice you deserve. With decades of trial experience, we know the common pitfalls and have strategies to overcome even the most challenging obstacles.
What steps should I take after an accident nearby?
After you have been injured, the first step is to seek any required medical attention. Once your health is in stable condition, there are three important steps you can take to maximize your compensation, including:
Step 1: Write down all the information you can about the accident, including the time before the event itself and the time after the event occurred. Details like time of day are easily forgotten and writing them down right away can help later on.
Step 2: Retain all medical records, including the doctor’s diagnosis and prognosis for your recovery. Also, be sure to keep receipts from the associated purchase of any needed medical supplies.
Step 3: Keep any and all evidence from the accident. If you were able to recover evidence from the scene of your injury (photographs, clothing, damaged property, names of witnesses) keep these pieces in an organized location.
Step 4: Do not make any written or verbal statements to the insurance company or other claims handlers until you have called an attorney. If your claim goes to court they may be able to use anything you say as evidence against you.
No win, no fee! Get a free consultation with our New York City personal injury law firm nearby
Every personal injury case is unique and often involves multiple complex factors. If you are suffering from serious injuries due to someone else's negligence, you have the opportunity to seek compensation for any pain, suffering, medical bills, and lost wages incurred due to your serious injuries.
We invite you to contact our law firm today to schedule a free case evaluation with one of New York City's most respected personal injury trial lawyers.
In addition to offering all new clients a free case evaluation, Raphaelson & Levine works on a contingency fee basis. That means you pay nothing unless we secure a successful settlement offer from your personal injury lawsuit.
Our law firm proudly serves injured New Yorkers and their loved ones in New York City, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, and all surrounding boroughs.
NEXT STEP: Schedule your free consultation today. Call 212-268-3222 today or complete the case evaluation form below to speak with an injury lawyer at Raphaelson & Levine.
