Personal Injury Lawyer in Long Island, NY

On Long Island the practical question is usually jurisdiction before anything else. Nassau and Suffolk are separate counties with separate Supreme Courts — Mineola and Riverhead — separate municipal defendants, and separate villages and towns, each with its own notice requirements. A claim filed against the wrong entity, or served a week after a 90-day notice period, is finished before the merits are ever reached.

The core framework:

• Three years for personal injury (CPLR 214); two years for wrongful death; two years and six months for medical malpractice (CPLR 214-a).
• Against Nassau County, Suffolk County, a town, a village or a school district: a notice of claim within 90 days under General Municipal Law § 50-e, a § 50-h hearing, and suit within one year and 90 days. Many municipalities additionally require prior written notice of a sidewalk or roadway defect before liability can attach — a rule that ends a large number of otherwise viable fall cases.
• Against the State of New York (including State parkways and SUNY facilities): the Court of Claims, with a claim or notice of intention within 90 days.
• Motor vehicle claims: no-fault benefits of $50,000 with the NF-2 filed within 30 days, and the serious injury threshold of Insurance Law § 5102(d) for pain and suffering.
• Construction: Labor Law §§ 240(1) and 241(6) apply to owners and general contractors on Long Island job sites exactly as they do in the city.
• Pure comparative negligence under CPLR 1411.

When interviewing an attorney, ask which of the two counties they appear in regularly, whether they have handled a claim against the specific town or village involved, and how they document a serious injury when the initial emergency room record is thin. General information, not legal advice.

Nothing upfront and nothing hourly. New York injury attorneys work on contingency — a percentage of the recovery, nothing if the case does not recover. One-third of the net recovery is the customary arrangement in New York personal injury matters. Medical malpractice follows the separate sliding scale in Judiciary Law § 474-a, starting at 30% of the first $250,000.

What shapes the net figure:

• The stage at which the case resolves
• Case expenses: engineering, accident reconstruction, medical narratives, life care planning in catastrophic cases, transcripts, filing fees
• Whether expenses are deducted before or after the fee calculation — confirm this in the retainer
• Liens: no-fault, health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, workers' compensation
• Available policy limits and any SUM claim
• Municipal or State defendants, which add procedural steps and, in the Court of Claims, a bench trial

Settlements for minors require court approval of settlement and fee. Our consultation and referral are free.

Because Nassau and Suffolk practice is local, and the difference between an attorney who appears in Mineola every week and one who does not shows up in scheduling, motion practice and settlement posture.

• Free consultation; the referral costs you nothing.
• Available 24/7 at (800) 669-0060.
• English, Spanish, and Russian.
• Over 30 years of matching injured people with attorneys across New York and New Jersey.
• Local case experience in Nassau and Suffolk.
• Continued involvement after the introduction.

Attorneys in Michael Brook's network give the same warning about Long Island premises claims: before assuming a municipality is liable for a sidewalk or roadway condition, check whether prior written notice was ever filed. Without it, the claim usually fails no matter how obvious the defect was.

Disclaimer: Michael Brook Attorney Referral is not a law firm and provides no legal representation or legal advice. This is general information and does not replace advice from a licensed attorney about your specific situation. No result is guaranteed.