In order to have a successful, motor vehicle, personal injury lawsuit in
New York State, a person’s injuries must meet a minimal “threshold”
as defined by law. New York State law spells out nine (9) different categories
of injuries that meet the threshold. For example, one of the categories
is suffering a “fracture.” Thus if you are in a car accident,
and suffer a fractured bone, your injuries have met the threshold as defined
by law. This means that the defendant in your case will not be able to
make a motion to dismiss your case on the grounds of non-serious injuries.
The more difficult cases are those car accidents where a person suffers
a soft tissue injury. These types of injuries are infinitely more common
than fractures, but much harder to prove. The determination of whether
an injury or injuries meet the threshold in the context of a soft tissue
injury is very fact sensitive. The basic components of this claim are
(1.) a medically determined injury; (2.) the injury was causally related
to the accident; (3.) objective proof of the injury, such as an MRI, CT
scan, etc; (4.) objective complaints of pain; (5.) a relatively significant
impact on a person’s life. Every day in our State, the Courts are
addressing the question as to whether or not a person’s injuries
meet the threshold. At
Foley Griffin
we are constantly reviewing these cases to help make sure that our client’s
case will ultimately be successful. In order to successfully represent
our client’s we make sure that we are always current on
serious physical injury
decisions.
