Question: So Joe, I understand that there is a threshold that has to be met when you are suing someone that you have been in a car accident within New York State. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? …
Question: So Joe, I understand that there is a threshold that has to be met when you are suing someone that you have been in a car accident within New York State. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
Joe: That is always a problematic issue when you meet with new client and you are trying to discuss with them how the system proceeds in New York. New York has this magical serious injury rule. Which means that you have to have an injury that meets the statutory described words. The problem is that the courts are constantly interpreting those rules and in fact, the highest court in the state just interpreted again and again very recently what those rules mean. Except for the obvious ones, death and broken bones, the other criteria are very difficult. The unfortunate thing is the way the rules are interpreted. Very, very seriously injured people with long-term disabilities have a hard time meeting the qualifications. What we do as lawyers, we get involved in this seriously injured threshold issue all the time. It is something that is very, very complicated and it is something that you need a lawyer to help you through.
