Personal Injury – Why ‘Injury’ Matters

Foley Griffin handles cases involving “significant” personal injury. We stress the word significant because in order to have a successful personal injury car accident lawsuit in New York, we as your attorneys, must be able to establish to a Judge and Jury that your injuries meet a minimum threshold as defined by the law.

Under New York State law there are nine different categories of injuries that, if shown to have been caused by your accident, will meet the threshold. For example, if you suffer a fractured bone in a car accident, you meet the threshold because a “fracture” is considered a significant injury. The more difficult cases to prove are those injuries involving soft tissue injuries such as herniations or ligament tears. It doesn’t make the injury less significant (or painful). It just means that from a lawsuit standpoint, there is more work to do.

In order to show that your injuries meet the minimum threshold required by law, we must be able to prove a few basic things:

• You have an injury that is shown by diagnostic testing such as an MRI, X-ray or CT scan;
• Your doctor gives an opinion that the injury shown on the diagnostic test was caused by your accident;
• The injury shown on the diagnostic test is more than a minor bump or bruise, namely it is “significant;”
• The injury impacts your life is some meaningful way. For example you can’t work, or go to school for a period of time.

If you have questions about your case or if your injuries meet the minimum threshold, please let us know.