Long Island Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

Morelli Law Firm can connect you with a personal injury lawyer in Long Island who can break down the complexities of your case. Whether you were hit by a negligent driver, cyclist, or fellow pedestrian, we can demand the support you need to get back on your feet. We’ve won over $1 billion for our clients and are prepared to fight for you.

How to React to Pedestrian Accidents

The steps you take after an accident can make it easier for you to get back on your feet in the long run. Our personal injury lawyers recommend that you:

• Get essential medical attention
• Get an insurance company’s contact information from a liable party
• Replace your damaged property

This recovery effort can take your entire attention span – so when do you seek legal advice? We recommend that you contact a Long Island pedestrian accident lawyer even before you contact an insurance company. We can join you at the scene of an accident to begin gathering the evidence needed to hold a specific party liable for your losses.

Filing an Insurance Claim After a Pedestrian Accident

Victims of pedestrian accidents like you have the right to file insurance claims with relevant providers after serious accidents. So long as your liable party has the state’s minimum liability coverage – or ideally more – their coverage should help you pay for your medical care, property damage, and lost income.

However, there are drawbacks to working with an insurance company. Insurance claims adjusters may take seemingly extreme steps to deny you fair compensation. These parties may try to pressure you into accepting an insufficient settlement or even refuse to discuss your case with you. Some may deny your claim without further explanation.

If you find yourself dealing with an insurance company’s bad faith tactics after an accident, let Morelli Law Firm know. We can step in, mitigate that bad-faith conduct, and even file a personal injury lawsuit against the offending company.

What to Expect From Morelli Law Firm

The attorney you work with to move a pedestrian accident claim forward is more than a lawyer. They are your sword and shield. It’s our legal team’s job to ensure that your experience with the civil system is as straightforward as possible. Moreover, it’s our job to ensure you get justice for your losses.

What does this mean? To start, it means we prioritize your financial health. Our team works on contingency. We do not get paid unless we win your case. Your first case evaluation with us comes free of charge, too, ensuring you can get legal advice without worrying about legal fees.

We also take the stress of building a civil case off of your shoulders. You have the chance to rest, recuperate, and get the medical attention you need without sacrificing your right to a civil trial. While you go back to work, our team will:

• Gather the evidence needed to make your case
• Talk with bystanders
• Call on our network of expert witnesses
• Mediate between you and a liable party
• Mediate between you and an insurance company
• Calculate the value of your case’s damages
• Compile and file your claim before your statute of limitations expires
• Represent you throughout legal proceedings
• Help you appeal a court’s decision if it doesn’t rule in your favor

If you want to learn more about Morelli Law Firm’s decades of legal experience, contact us today. We’re prepared to help you make the most out of your pedestrian accident recovery.

There Are Benefits to Filing a Pedestrian Accident Claim

Insurance companies will only provide you with damages based on your economic losses. If you want to recover non-economic damages, or if you need to work around an insurance company’s bad faith behavior, an experienced pedestrian accident lawyer in Long Island, NY, can help you file a personal injury claim with New York’s civil courts.

A personal injury claim allows you to:

Discuss Compensation Your Way

A personal injury claim allows you to frame the narrative around your accident. You get to describe what catastrophic injuries you suffered, what negligence you think led to your accident, and who you want to hold responsible for your losses.

Once you file your claim, you also get to determine how conversations about a settlement proceed. Our legal team can schedule meetings with a defendant and ensure that conversations remain civil. 

Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that a liable party will take your losses seriously. If an at-fault party refuses to provide you with support, we can take them to trial. The traditional trial process allows you to undergo stages of investigation and analysis, including:

• Discovery
• Opening statements
• Examination
• Cross-examination
• Closing statements
• Deliberation and jury verdict

Don’t let the prospect of a trial intimidate you. You can count on a personal injury lawyer’s representation as your case progresses. While this process puts control over a settlement into the hands of a judge and jury, it also ensures that uncooperative parties can face the consequences for refusing to acknowledge fault.

Uphold Civil Communications Throughout Negotiations

No one tells you how many phone calls you’ll have to make after a pedestrian accident. You may have to have conversations with insurance adjusters, police officers, a defense attorney, and the defendant themselves. How are you supposed to manage all of those conversations while recovering from serious injuries?

Suffolk County lawyers are here to help. We manage all of your communications with relevant parties after you file a personal injury claim. This means that if the liable party wants to talk to you, they have to go through us first. Our relationship to your case allows us to prevent the liable party or any other parties from:

• Intimidating you out of legal action
• Misrepresenting the nature of your accident
• Pressuring you into giving statements about your case
• Offering you insufficient settlement offers

It’s our job to make your case as straightforward as possible. That can mean stepping in when conversations turn south. It can also mean limiting a defendant’s access to you via email, phone calls, or other forms of communication. At the end of the day, you are our client. We advocate for your right to a peaceful pedestrian accident lawsuit.

How to Hold the Right Party Responsible for Your Pedestrian Accident

You’ve decided to move forward with a personal injury claim. How can you use your claim to hold the right party accountable for your losses? Our Long Island pedestrian accident attorneys can examine the scene of your accident to find the evidence needed to meet or exceed New York’s burden of proof.

The evidence we use to make your case may include the following:

• Witness statements
• Expert witness statements
• Electronic evidence
• Debris at the accident scene
• Black box data, if applicable
• Photos from before and after the accident
• Video footage of the accident

Your right to hold someone accountable for your accident hinges on more than evidence. If you were hit by someone operating a commercial vehicle, the contract that person works on might influence your ability to sue them. Fortunately, our team can step in and assess relevant contracts to identify the responsible party involved in your case.

Estimating the Value of Your Pedestrian Accident Claim

When filing your pedestrian accident injury claim, you have an obligation to outline the value of all of your losses. This means establishing the dollar value of your:

• Medical expenses, including ambulance fees
• Lost wages and/or reduced income
• Property damage and property restoration
• Property rentals
• Pain management and mobility aids
• Emotional distress
• Pain and suffering
• Mental anguish
• Reduced quality of life
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Wrongful death and funeral expenses, if applicable

If you want to benefit from the full value of your estimated compensation, make sure to submit your claim before New York’s statute of limitations expires. New York Civil Practice Law & Rules §214 limits your actionable time to three years from the day your accident occurs.

Qualifying for Punitive Damages

If you go to trial after a pedestrian accident, you may receive punitive damages alongside loss-based damages. A judge can choose to award you punitive damages if they believe you suffered from someone else’s gross negligence or absurd negligence. 

You may not request punitive damages when putting your case forward for consideration. Your right to receive these damages is entirely up to an attending judge. What’s more, you may only receive punitive damages if you go to trial. You cannot negotiate for this additional support privately.

An attorney can let you know how punitive damages may impact your compensation should you stand to receive them.

Civil Pedestrian Accident Cases Versus Criminal Pedestrian Accident Cases

The state of New York may bring criminal charges against the party responsible for your pedestrian accident. You can’t demand that the state do so, but if the state does, its representatives may ask you to contribute to the case they file.

It’s worth your time to keep up with any criminal charges brought against the parties involved in your pedestrian accident. If New York’s criminal judges convict your liable party of a crime, you can use that conviction to further your case.

Criminal convictions serve as proof of negligence in the eyes of New York’s civil justices. While a conviction won’t win your case outright, it can make it easier for you to recover essential damages after an accident. Your Long Island, NY, pedestrian accident attorney can keep you up to date if the state moves against your negligent party.

Let Our Long Island Pedestrian Accident Attorneys Fight For You

As a pedestrian, you have the right to take legal action against any party whose negligence you believe resulted in your personal injury. While you can do this on your own, it’s often easier when you have a Long Island, NY, pedestrian accident lawyer on your side.

Morelli Law Firm can answer any questions you may have about your right to legal action. You can request a case evaluation from our team to learn more about what compensation a pedestrian accident claim might get you. Call or contact us online to book a meeting with our team.