All across New York, people move into new apartments, condos, and homes using rental trucks. Rental trucks are a convenient option for moving but they are also capable of inflicting severe physical harm and considerable property damage. Pursuing justice is not entirely straightforward, but an experienced personal injury attorney can help you recover fair compensation for your accident expenses.

YOUR OPTIONS FOR COMPENSATION

Generally, your four options for compensation are:

• No-fault or Personal Injury Protection (PIP) Benefits
• Third-party Insurance Claims
• Filing a Lawsuit
• Small Claims Court

New York’s no-fault law requires all auto insurance policies to include Personal Injury Protection benefits. This policy gets injured parties covered quickly, regardless of who was at fault. The downside is that personal injury protection only covers up to $50,000 worth of expenses, so you will likely need to pursue other options to recover additional compensation. 

Unlike no-fault, third-party claims incorporate the concept of ‘negligence.’ This means, essentially, that a party acted carelessly when they had a legal duty to be careful. Negligent third parties could include  other drivers, vehicle manufacturers, a state transportation agency, or any other party who indirectly caused the accident.

Once you file a claim against a third party, their insurance adjuster will begin an investigation to determine who was at fault for the accident. The drawback here is that the same person who decides how much compensation is deserved is also the one responsible for paying it.

Another option is to file a lawsuit. In order to do so, you must meet New York’s lawsuit threshold. You can meet the threshold if you: suffered a serious injury, have expenses exceeding fifty thousand dollars, are suing on behalf of a deceased loved one, or don’t meet minimum insurance requirements.

One benefit of lawsuits is that they are decided by an impartial judge or jury, as opposed to an insurance adjuster. They may also include compensation for pain and suffering and don’t impose a maximum limit on your financial award.

Small claims court is for monetary disputes of less than five thousand and one dollars. Truck accident victims will sometimes file a small claim for property damage in order to fill in the gaps left by a no-fault claim, which is very limited in coverage.

DETERMINING LIABILITY AFTER A RENTAL TRUCK ACCIDENT

Rental truck accidents require you to consider the potential liability of at least two parties: the driver and the rental company. A driver could be proven negligent for speeding, distracted driving, aggressive driving, or other forms of carelessness. A rental truck company could be found negligent for leasing to an unlicensed or visibly intoxicated driver, as well as for failing to properly maintain their vehicle. Failure to properly maintain a vehicle can include:

• Bald tires
• Faulty brakes
• Faulty steering
• Defective back door 

If you or someone you love has been the victim of a rental truck accident in New York, contact Rosenblum Law for a free, no-obligation consultation. We’ll help you determine your options for compensation, handle all investigatory matters and legal paperwork, and negotiate the best possible settlement.

We’re all guilty of dividing our attention while on the road. Taking sips of coffee, eating, fixing your hair, and changing music selections are all forms of distracted driving. These activities are always dangerous, but they are especially irresponsible when the driver is operating a large tractor-trailer. Truck accidents caused by distracted driving are incredibly destructive.

WHAT ARE YOUR OPTIONS FOR COMPENSATION?

New Jersey is a no-fault state, meaning New Jersey motorists have to carry insurance with personal injury protection benefits. These are also called no-fault benefits because they provide injured drivers with compensation regardless of who was at fault for causing the accident.

However, no-fault benefits often aren’t enough for drivers injured in a serious truck accident. There are two main reasons: First, PIP benefits are capped at $50,000 and won’t cover expenses that exceed this limit. Second, these benefits only cover monetary expenses like medical expenses and lost wages. Truck accident victims frequently endure other, less tangible consequences, like pain and suffering. These non-monetary expenses are not covered by no-fault benefits.

Thankfully, New Jersey drivers can usually go outside of the no-fault system and file a lawsuit. The only drawback is that drivers with certain types of insurance policies have to first satisfy a lawsuit threshold. The lawsuit threshold basically requires that the driver’s injuries are significant enough to justify going around no-fault benefits.

HOW DO YOU PROVE FAULT IN A DISTRACTED DRIVING TRUCK ACCIDENT?

The first thing you need to figure out when filing a lawsuit is who should be sued. Truck accidents involve a complex legal principle called vicarious liability. In the case of Carter versus Reynolds, the New Jersey Supreme Court explained that an employer is responsible for an employee’s behavior when done within the scope of their employment. So, a trucking company is usually liable for its truck driver’s distracted driving accident because the truck driver is the company’s employee and these accidents usually happen while the truck driver is on the job.

A second challenge is figuring out how to prove the truck driver’s distracted driving caused the accident. Some forms of distracted driving are easier to prove than others. For example, if the truck driver was on their phone when the accident occurred, we might subpoena their phone records. This is easier than, say, proving that the driver was eating while driving. 

Truck accident lawsuits are complicated. The law is complex, and you’re up against trucking companies with lots of resources and experience defending against lawsuits. The good news is that the attorneys at Rosenblum Law are here to help. We have decades of experience winning personal injury lawsuits involving truck accidents and will fight tirelessly until you receive the compensation you deserve. If you or a loved one has been involved in a truck accident caused by distracted driving, contact Rosenblum Law today for a free, no obligation consultation.

Truckers create unique hazards on the road. Tractor-trailers are long, heavy, and often carry hazardous materials. This is a big reason why truck accidents caused by a drunk truck driver are so infuriating. Drunk driving becomes especially unacceptable when the driver is operating a vehicle capable of great destruction, like a large truck.

Thankfully, the law recognizes these dangers. Federal trucking regulations and New York’s state laws define driving while intoxicated for commercial drivers as having a point-zero-four percent blood alcohol content level, which is stricter than the rule for non-commercial drivers. 

WHY YOU NEED AN ATTORNEY

Drivers should know that lawsuits are complicated and will almost always require a qualified attorney. First, lawsuits require significant legal expertise. For example, not everyone can file a personal injury lawsuit. New York’s no-fault system makes no-fault insurance benefits an insured New York driver’ first option for compensation. Drivers that want to go the lawsuit route have to satisfy certain criteria under a legal threshold. An attorney will evaluate whether a driver can file a lawsuit and may have to defend this right. In the case Pyeun versus Woo, for example, Ms. Pyeun’s attorney had to submit medical reports to the court to prove her injuries were serious enough to satisfy the threshold after Mr. Woo, the drunk truck driver who hit her, claimed she was not eligible to file. 

Cases are also frequently won and lost on procedural technicalities like filing the wrong form or submitting something late. An attorney helps with navigating the complex legal system.

Proving another caused an accident can also be tricky. In cases with drunk truck drivers, there’s often a lot of great evidence available, such as:

• Blood alcohol test results
• Medical records
• A criminal DWI conviction, if there is one

But this is just a starting point. These cases can require more specialized evidence like expert testimony or vehicle damage analysis. Maybe you can’t prove the driver was drunk, but their drunkenness caused them to veer into your lane and hit your vehicle. Well, evidence that they veered into your lane might support an alternative theory that the driver was at-fault for driving carelessly. Gathering all this evidence isn’t easy for the average person who doesn’t have the experience and resources of an attorney.

And evidence alone isn’t enough. A judge or jury still has to be convinced the driver was drunk and that their drunkenness caused the accident. When evidence is sparse, an attorney must come up with back-up arguments or alternative theories to give a client the best chance at recovering compensation.

Finally, most cases don’t even end up at trial. They are resolved in a boardroom, with attorneys negotiating a settlement. Most ordinary people don’t fare well in negotiations with seasoned attorneys.

Fortunately, the experienced personal injury attorneys at Rosenblum Law have all this expertise and more. We don’t stop until our clients receive the compensation they justly deserve. If you or a loved one has been involved in a truck accident caused by drunk driving, contact Rosenblum Law today for a free, no-obligation consultation.

Distracted driving seems more common than ever in the smartphone age. Driving with a smartphone means constant distractions, from emails to texts to phone calls. Drivers also divide their attention when they do things like drink coffee or eat a fast food burger while on the road. Truck drivers are no exception. When tractor trailers are operated by distracted drivers, the results can be tragic and expensive.

WHAT ARE YOUR OPTIONS FOR COMPENSATION?

By default, insured New York drivers injured in a traffic accident can be compensated through no-fault benefits. These benefits cover up to fifty-thousand dollars of monetary expenses regardless of who was to blame. But with truck accidents, these limited benefits don’t normally cover all the damage. Luckily, drivers that satisfy certain conditions can go outside the no-fault system–by filing a lawsuit.

HOW DOES THE LAWSUIT APPROACH WORK?

Filing a lawsuit is basically telling the court that someone was careless in a way that caused an accident, and that they should be held responsible for your expenses. Distracted driving truck accident lawsuits are complicated for many reasons. Some of these challenges are well illustrated by Yao versus World Wide Travel.

In this case, a World Wide Travel bus was driving tourists from a Connecticut casino to Manhattan when it crashed into the guardrail on Interstate ninety-five. Tragically, fifteen passengers were killed, while another seventeen were injured. Predictably, lawsuits followed.

One challenge was deciding who could be held liable. The passengers sued the driver, the bus company, and the travel agency that sold the tickets. Ultimately, the bus company was held responsible because of 

the concept of vicarious liability. This concept holds that an employer is responsible for its employee’s bad acts if they are done within the scope of employment. World Wide Travel was held vicariously liable because they were the employers of the bus driver and the crash happened while the bus driver was working. Similarly, in a truck accident lawsuit, you must first figure out who can be held responsible and who it makes sense to sue.

Another challenge was actually proving the bus driver’s distracted driving caused the accident. Proving distracted truck driving usually takes thorough investigation requiring an attorney’s experience and resources. To prove the bus driver’s fault, the passengers relied on expert testimony. The bus driver said he crashed because a truck cut him off, but an expert used event data recorders showing the vehicles’ speeds to prove the bus wasn’t cut off. These electronic logging devices are installed on busses and trucks to record speed and braking. Their relative speeds showed the truck could not have overtaken the bus. The expert also used the narrow angle of the tire marks left at the scene. They said gradually veering off the road at this angle is more consistent with distracted driving than someone swerving off the road because they were cut off. 

Distracted truck driving is the height of irresponsibility. Recovering compensation after these accidents is likely but proving a case can be complicated. At Rosenblum Law, we have the experience, resources, and know-how to make sure our clients receive the compensation they deserve. So if you or a loved one has been involved in a truck accident caused by distracted driving, contact Rosenblum Law today for a free, no-obligation consultation.

We’ve all experienced the uncertainty of sharing the road with large trucks. Non-commercial vehicles simply aren’t equipped to deal with things like cargo falling into the roadway or a collision with a swerving tractor-trailer. Truck accidents involving these sorts of hazards happen all too frequently, leaving destruction in their wake.

WHAT ARE OVERLOADING AND IMPROPER LOADING?

Two common causes of truck accidents are overloading and improper loading. Overloading is when a truck carries more weight than it can handle. This can cause the driver to lose control or the truck to tip over or fold into itself, which is known as jackknifing. Improper loading is when cargo is secured improperly or is unevenly distributed in the trailer. This also causes drivers to lose control and has the added risk of cargo falling into the roadway.

Thankfully, the law recognizes these dangers. Both state and federal laws regulate trucking cargo, so when these laws are broken and cause an accident, it can form the basis of a lawsuit. 

FILING A LAWSUIT

Drivers considering a lawsuit should first understand New York’s lawsuit threshold. New York is a no-fault state. This basically means New York wants insured drivers to first turn to their own no-fault insurance benefits and only pursue a lawsuit if it’s absolutely necessary. The lawsuit threshold defines this necessity as:

• Having a sufficiently serious injury
• Being uninsured
• Having covered expenses exceeding $50,000 dollars
• Sustaining injuries resulting in death

Drivers should also know that holding the responsible party liable is possible, but challenging. 

First, many parties can be held responsible if an improperly loaded or overloaded cargo causes an accident, including:

• Truck owner
• Trucking company
• Driver
• Merchants shipping or receiving the goods

Second, there are laws that formally require these parties to follow specific rules. This creates an objective basis for showing someone did something wrong. For example, a New York state law says the maximum weight for a single-axle truck is twenty-thousand, four-hundred pounds. If a truck heavier than this causes an accident, the fact that the truck was allowed to travel at this weight establishes someone’s wrongdoing.

Third, there are many potential sources of evidence. Records of cargo weight are usually kept by the merchants, the trucking company, and the truck driver. Records are also created when trucks stop at weigh stations. 

Winning these types of cases  is challenging. It isn’t always apparent who should actually be sued. Moreover, the web of state and federal laws restricting truck cargo can be very difficult to interpret. Finally, gathering evidence is a monumental task, requiring significant resources and know-how.

At Rosenblum Law, we have spent decades fighting and winning these types of cases. Our unrivaled experience and extensive resources make us an invaluable tool to drivers hoping to be fully compensated for their injuries. If you or a loved one has been involved in a truck accident caused by overloading or improper loading, contact us today for a free, no-obligation consultation.

Ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft are an increasingly common way to get around. However, with so many ridesharing cars on the road, accidents are bound to happen from time to time. Whether you’re a passenger or someone who’s been hit by an Uber or Lyft, you can end up with serious injuries.

Car accidents can be expensive and overwhelming to deal with but an experienced personal injury lawyer can help get you the compensation you need.

WHO PAYS FOR A RIDESHARING INJURY?

How you get compensation from a ridesharing driver depends on what the driver was doing at the time of the accident. New York law requires ridesharing companies and their drivers to maintain special insurance policies so that they can compensate accident victims. How much these policies will pay out depends on exactly what the driver was doing.

The policy limits vary based on whether the driver was inactive, awaiting requests, or fulfilling requests. If the driver was not logged into the app and working at the time of the accident, ridesharing insurance doesn’t apply. Instead, normal car insurance rules apply. If the driver was awaiting requests for a ride but not providing a ride or driving to a customer, ridesharing insurance will cover one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in injuries and twenty-five thousand dollars in property damage. If the driver was providing a ride or driving to a customer to provide a ride, the insurance will cover one million, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in personal injury or property damage.

These policy limits don’t mean you automatically get that amount. Ridesharing insurance policies will only pay out to the extent of your injuries, and they only pay out if the ridesharing driver was at fault. This means you’ll probably have to file a lawsuit against the driver.

SUING AN UBER OR LYFT DRIVER

As in most personal injury cases, the main question in a ridesharing accident case is who was at fault. If you were a passenger at the time of the accident, chances are either the Uber or Lyft driver was at fault or another driver was at fault. You’ll have a case against either or both.

If you were driving and were hit by an Uber or Lyft driver, the case may be a little more complicated. New York uses a comparative fault model, meaning any money awards are reduced by your percentage of the blame for the accident. A personal injury attorney can examine all the facts of the accident to build the best case possible that the Uber or Lyft driver was at fault instead of you.

Most car accident cases end in a settlement, not a trial. However, settlement negotiations largely depend on how strong your case would be at trial. 

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF YOU’VE BEEN INJURED BY AN UBER OR LYFT DRIVER?

If you or a loved one has been injured by an Uber or Lyft driver, contact Rosenblum Law for a free consultation today. Our experienced personal injury lawyers will assess your case and find the best strategy to get you all the compensation you deserve.