Automobile and all other motor vehicle accidents make up the majority of cases handled by my office. Over a million Americans are injured and thousands are killed every year . Although not every accident results on a claim, Joseph Giaramita has been told of numerous cases that were not filed because the client “did not believe in bringing a case” and the individual was later disabled as a result without any compensation. While accidents generally have a 3 year statute of limitations in New York, a case against the City of New York has a 90 day filing requirement. Therefore, it is essential to seek counsel immediately after an accident. Insurance companies always take immediate action where there is an accident: they do investigations and assign an attorney to defend it and always seek minimize the amounts they will pay. Joseph Giaramita prefers to bring a lawsuit quickly upon verification of a person’s injury and liability in favor of the client.

A critical factor in deciding whether to bring a case is whether a client is at fault in an accident. Passengers are usually never at fault but an examination of the happening of the accident is always required as proper analysis when you bring a case. A lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court is expensive, time consuming and requires attention to a great amount of details. In addition, the clients must go through a detailed examination of their lives by the insurance companies that represent their clients. Insurance companies believe a judge or jury will award less money to people they do not like and therefore place the life of the client on trial. This is an ordeal that a client should to be prepared to face, and irrespective of the magnitude of the injuries and fault of the other driver.

Several other factors must be considered in the decision of whether to accept a case. Insurance coverage in New York is required in a minimum amount of $25,000.00. Sometimes the injuries greatly exceed coverage. For this reason, it is crucial that all drivers have uninsured motorists/under insurance coverage on their own cars for much higher amounts (at least $100,000.00) and preferably $300,000.00. This will allow a second case against your own company since you pay for this protection. Believe it or not, your own company will also fight you tooth and nail if you would bring a claim against “your own insurance company”despite having paid premiums for years. It doesn’t matter that they accepted your payment for years when you had no claims.

Most people are under a misconception that your own insurance company is on your side and that is not always true. An insurance company is a business and the bottom line is to pay out as little as they have to when a client is injured. As a result, your own insurance company will frequently attempt to cut off medical benefits quickly when you are injured in a motor vehicle accident, even though you still need treatment. Limitation of treatment saves your insurance company money since they pay medical bills, even though you are required by law to pay for this medical coverage in the minimum amount of $50,000.00. It is advisable to increase this to $100,000.00 since additional coverage will be needed for a major injury. Moreover, if you do not properly file the paperwork within 30 days “your” company will not pay any medical bills. For this reason, you need an attorney to help you immediately when you bring a claim and to properly handle the paperwork. Your own insurance company will happily pay much less to an individual, without an attorney, even if you would factor in the legal fee received by my office Joseph Giaramita does not charge the clients a legal fee until the case is completed. All cases are covered by a standard fee agreement whereby the legal fee and expenses are paid at the conclusion of the case from the amount recovered.