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On July 9, 2009 around noon, a traffic accident took place at the intersection of West Sunrise Highway and North Bayview Avenue in Freeport, New York in the County of Nassau.
Complicating this accident was the fact that it involved three vehicles actively and one vehicle in a more passive aspect. A 2005 Nissan which was involved in the accident was owned and operated by the person who was injured and who filed a personal injury lawsuit as a result of the accident. The injured party contends that a BMW which was owned and operated by the defendant in the personal injury suit did not stop at the traffic signal located at that location. Rather, they went through the red light and struck a U-Haul rental truck that was in the intersection. The U-Haul truck was pushed by the force of the impact into the complainants Nissan. The Nissan was then shoved backward into a fourth vehicle. As a result of the accident, the complainant who was the driver of the Nissan claims that he suffered from a serious bodily injury as defined in the New York State Insurance Law guidelines.
In order for an injury to be categorized as serious under the New York State Insurance Law guidelines, the person who is claiming the injury must be able to prove that they suffered from an injury that caused them to lose the use of a part of their body, a serious spinal injury, or a brain injury that was debilitating. Alternatively, they can show that as a result of the accident, they were unable to perform their usual daily activities or go to work for at least 90 days out of the 180 days that immediately followed the accident. That type of claim is referred to as a 90/180 claim. In order for a claimant to be able to prove that they suffered from a serious injury, they must have corroborating evidence in the form of court certified documentation from a licensed medical professional in the state of New York.
That Queens medical professional must be able to show that he or she used quantitative medical tests to demonstrate that the injured person has lost a percentage of their use of a body part, or that they qualified for the 90/180 claim as prescribed by the Insurance law. These laws were put in place to prevent people who have minor claims of injury from overloading the court system with minor complaints. The doctors who are involved in the treatment of the patient, must be able to demonstrate through sworn testimony why they determined that the person received a serious injury. An opinion of a doctor that is not backed up with legitimate diagnostic test results will not win a personal injury monetary award. Further, the doctor is required to articulate the percentage of injury. That means that the doctor has to state to the court under oath or enter a document to the court that has been sworn as truthful about what the normal range is for an uninjured person. The doctor or chiropractor must be able to identify a measurable difference in the range of motion of the injured person as compared to the range of motion of an uninjured person. If they cannot determine that there is a difference, or that there was a difference under the 90/180 rule, then the person will not be able to recover damages.
In this case, the doctors presented MRI reports and testified clearly about the injury that the plaintiff sustained in the accident. Because of the doctor’s testimony, the Staten Island complainant passed the test of incurring a serious injury in the course of the accident. The motion that was pressed by the defendant driver in this case to dismiss the entire case on the grounds that the injury was not serious, was denied.
At Stephen Bilkis & Associates with its spinal injury Lawyers, have convenient offices throughout New York and Metropolitan area. Do not lose monetary compensation. Our brain injury lawyers can provide you with advice to guide you through difficult situations. Without a personal injury Lawyer, you could lose precious compensation to help your family.