James DiPasquale Dicusses New York's No-Fault Law

Oct. 2, 2010 - PRLog -- James D. DiPasquale - Several years ago, New York passed a law which requires insurance companies to pay for accident related medical bills, regardless of fault. Before this, insurance companies would often dispute even the most minor of injuries leaving victims helpless and needing to file a lawsuit to recoup the significant out of pocket costs they incurred for medical care and treatment. By passing this law, New York's Legislature made a trade off. They would require insurance companies to pay for the care and treatment of injured parties, but would limit injured parties from suing the at-fault driver unless they had suffered a "serious injury." A "serious injury" is an artful term used to describe nine categories of injuries, at-least one of which must be demonstrated before an injured party can prevail in a lawsuit against an at-fault driver. Those categories are:

Death;
Dismemberment;
Significant disfigurement;
A fracture;
Loss of a fetus;
Permanent loss of use of a body organ, member or function or system;
Permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member;
Significant limitation of use of a body function or system; or
A medically determined injury or impairment of a non-permanent nature which prevents the injured person from performing substantially all the material acts which constitute such person's usual and customary daily activities for not less than ninety days during the one hundred eighty days immediately following the occurrence of the injury or impairment.

If this sounds confusing, that's because it is. The No-Fault Serious Injury threshold is one of the most litigated areas of law, resulting in countless decisions each year which both clarify and further confuse the issue. Most frequently litigated are back and neck injuries which are inherently difficult to diagnose, treat and prove. For information on common back and neck injuries, click here.

Notably, No-Fault does not apply to motorcycle accidents, although pedestrians who are injured by motorcycles may collect.

For more information on James DiPasquale please visit: http://www.gdlawoffice.com

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James DiPasquale is an Attorney at Gifford DiPasquale LLC. James DiPasquale Attorney at Law, Gifford DiPasquale LLC.