Miriam Robin is a legal editor at LexisNexis, where she writes newsletters focusing on securities and financial regulation, corporate governance, ESG, cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence. Miriam also writes about federal and state court decisions on a wide variety of practice areas for the New York Law Journal, and has worked as a legal marketing and communications writer at large international law firms including Sullivan & Cromwell and Paul Hastings. Miriam received her law degree from St. John's University School of Law and was a recipient of the Brandeis Scholarship for excellence in legal studies.
Miriam Robin, J.D.
Miriam Robin is a legal editor at LexisNexis, where she writes newsletters focusing on securities and financial regulation, corporate governance, ESG, cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence. Miriam also writes about federal and state court decisions on a wide variety of practice areas for the New York Law Journal, and has worked as a legal marketing and communications writer at large international law firms including Sullivan & Cromwell and Paul Hastings. Miriam received her law degree from St. John's University School of Law and was a recipient of the Brandeis Scholarship for excellence in legal studies.
Jeffrey Johnson has written novels and movies in addition to legal analyses of eminent domain and immigration law. His experience in writing engaging fiction makes him uniquely capable of making the most dry and academic legal topics interesting (or as interesting as possible).
Reviewed
Jeffrey Johnson, J.D.
Jeffrey Johnson has written novels and movies in addition to legal analyses of eminent domain and immigration law. His experience in writing engaging fiction makes him uniquely capable of making the most dry and academic legal topics interesting (or as interesting as possible).
Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.
New York City, also known as the Big Apple, is famous for its towering skyscrapers, Times Square and endless energy. And while almost eight million people are living in this bustling town, thousands of those people are involved in truck accidents each year. Luckily, many terrific truck accident lawyers in NYC are skilled in obtaining monetary compensation for clients who have been injured or killed in truck accidents.
At Forbes Advisor, we’ve carefully weighed dozens of factors to guarantee that only the best truck accident lawyers in the New York City area make our list.
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Best Truck Accident Lawyers NYC
Compare Top Truck Accident Attorneys
Filing a Truck Accident Lawsuit in NY
New York City has a population of over 8 million people, making it the most populous city in the nation. There are so many people packed in on the island of Manhattan, and thousands of those people are involved in truck accidents each year.
NY Statute of Limitations
A statute of limitations is a law that sets out the period within which you must file a lawsuit before your action is barred. In New York, you have to file a personal injury case that arises from a truck accident within three years from the date of the accident. Therefore, if you were injured on January 1, 2023, you have until January 1, 2026 to file your lawsuit. In that example, if you try to file your lawsuit any day after the January 1, 2026 deadline, your claim is barred and you have completely forfeited your chance to sue.
The three-year statute of limitations on truck accidents applies to personal injury, property damage and emotional distress claims.
A statute of limitations exists because, as time passes, it becomes more difficult for all individuals involved to remember details and collect evidence in relation to the accident.
If a truck accident involves a truck that is owned by the State of New York or a municipality, you only have 90 days within which you can file a claim.
NY Laws for Truck Drivers
In an effort to keep truck accidents to a minimum, New York imposes strict driving regulations on commercial truck drivers, including limits on hours of service to guarantee that they are well-rested and attentive enough to drive safely. Truck drivers are also required to have the appropriate qualifications and keep logbooks documenting their hauls.
Identifying Fault for a Truck Crash
It can be difficult to determine who is at fault in a truck accident, as many involved parties could hold some percentage of liability, including the driver of the truck, the trucking company, the truck manufacturer, the maintenance company that was in charge of upkeep on the truck, the company that loaded the truck and a third-party driver.
New York is one of 13 states that recognize the rule of “pure” comparative fault, also referred to as shared fault, which assigns percentages of fault between the parties of a truck accident. Since New York is a pure comparative negligence state, an injured party can recover a percentage of a monetary award regardless of the amount of fault attributed to that injured party.
For example, if a jury finds that the truck driver is 60% at fault and the injured driver of a car 40% at fault for a truck accident, then the injured car driver can receive monetary compensation that is equal to the percent the truck driver is at fault, or 60% of the injured car driver’s total damages. Therefore, the amount that the injured car driver will recover in monetary compensation will be reduced based upon their own degree of fault.
How Can an Attorney Help You?
If you’re involved in a truck accident, you want the truck driver, trucking company, or a variety of other possible parties held responsible. Experienced attorneys know who to sue in order to obtain the highest possible monetary compensation for their clients who are injured or undergo property damage in truck accidents. Experienced truck accident attorneys also know the steps that need to be taken in order to determine who can be held accountable for the truck accidents.
They can also help you decide whether to accept a settlement, whether or not a settlement can be negotiated higher or if you should go to court.
How to Find the Best Truck Accident Lawyer in NYC
Look for a lawyer with a lot of experience and a high success rate in truck accident lawsuits. They should also be able to work toward settlements and have a manageable caseload so that they can focus on your lawsuit. Further, a truck accident attorney must be communicative, responding within a short period of time to your queries about your case and being consistent in providing you with the status of your case.
- What’s the First Step I Should Take When Trying to Find a Truck Accident Attorney? The best way to find a truck accident lawyer is through a referral. You can ask family and friends if they know of any attorneys who handle truck accidents. Your local, city or state bar association likely has a referral program, so check with them for the name of an attorney in your area who has experience with truck accidents.
- What Is the Communication Style of the Truck Accident Attorney? You want to make sure that your truck accident attorney will be able to communicate effectively with you. Attorneys’ communication styles can vary. You should ask your truck accident attorney how often you will hear from them and if you will be able to communicate via text and email as well as phone. If a paralegal will be working on your case, find out who and how best to reach them since they are often more accessible than your attorney.
- Who Will Actually Be Working on My Case? You need to know whether anyone else in the truck accident attorney’s law office will be working with you. Some attorneys pawn off their cases onto junior associates. This is not always a bad thing, as a senior lawyer is most likely supervising those associates, but you might not want to hire a truck accident attorney who will not actually be doing the work for your case.
Methodology
To come up with the Best Truck Accident Lawyers in NYC in 2024, Forbes Advisor considered many factors. Forbes Advisor’s mathematical module considers and weighs the information collected to calculate a specific rating and reviews these results to find the best attorneys in a given practice area.
Within the model, we take into account factors that legal professionals and consumers value in an attorney’s qualifications. After assigning weighted scores to hundreds of data points, we narrowed the field down to our top choices based on:
- Legal experience
- Special licenses & certifications
- Ethics and bar disciplinary measures
- Legal thought leadership
- Education & employment background
- Scholarly lectures & writings
- Awards & Honors
Forbes Advisor collects public data from a variety of sources, including state bar associations, court records and other published sources on the internet. This information should not be considered comprehensive, however. It might not include additional relevant information on an attorney’s legal skills and experience.
Each lawyer listed here has their own merits. Bear in mind that our list relates to these lawyers’ legal backgrounds, but does not evaluate their personalities or their knowledge of the law. One attorney may be more suitable than another for your specific legal situation.
One thing that can’t be quantified, though, is the rapport you establish with your attorney. Personality goes a long way when teaming up with an attorney, especially when facing a potentially difficult legal situation. These rankings should serve as a reference and potential starting point in your search for the right lawyer for you and your legal concerns.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
If I was injured in an accident with a truck where the truck driver was at fault, am I entitled to money for time missed at my job?
Yes, if you recover monetary compensation in a truck accident, it can include financial compensation for lost income through missed work, in addition to monetary compensation for your loss of earning capacity as a result of the truck accident. A truck accident lawyer can help you get all of the money to which you’re entitled if you miss work due to a truck accident-related injury.
In addition to suing the truck driver, can I also sue the truck driver’s trucking company for my injuries?
It depends on whether the truck accident attorney is able to establish an actual employer/employee relationship between the truck driver and the company that owns or leases the trucks. If the attorney is able to demonstrate this sort of relationship, then the trucking company can be held liable for the truck driver’s negligence. However, if the truck driver is not an “employee” of the trucking company but is instead an “independent contractor,” then the trucking company’s liability for the accident depends on the supervision level it exercised over the independent contractor truck driver.
If a trucking company’s insurance company offers me a settlement, should I just accept that settlement?
No, because a trucking company’s insurance company will most likely offer you the lowest reasonable amount, which will probably not be enough to cover the expenses that arise from your truck accident-related injuries. Injuries from truck accidents are often severe, life-threatening and even fatal and you want to be sure you are adequately compensated for those injuries. This is another reason why it’s important to hire a truck accident attorney who can help you get you the maximum compensation you deserve.
