If you have a car accident in New York City your search for legal assistance should begin with law firms that specialize in such cases. Start immediately after any emergency medical issues are addressed. Look for phrases like "personal injury", "injury & accident" or "car accident lawyer" in listings found in the phone book or on the Web. You may even write down contact information in advance for car accident lawyers that you see advertised in public.

There are 225,000 motorists involved in car accidents in New York City each year so there are many lawyers claiming to be experts in this area. New York City is divided into the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Ensure that your legal help is familiar and has practiced in the area that your accident happened.

Some specific highways and streets in the city if New York, are notorious "black spots". If a lawyer knows about those spots, it would be helpful. The other thing that can be beneficial is if a lawyer is familiar with the people working in the local court system. For that reason, it would be recommended for you to seek the services of a lawyer who practices in the area where your accident took place. For instance, if your accident happened in Brooklyn, obtaining a lawyer who practices in Brooklyn will be beneficial for the lawyer will have familiarity with the roads, other attorneys and judges in the area.

Most of the lawyers who specialize in car accidents have a section that details the settlements and verdicts that they have encountered when solving cases on their websites or on printed material. Usually, lawyers list the financial settlements, that their law firms have won for the victims of car accidents. You may also find client testimonials but it is not possible to speak with their previous clients. You should try your best to find a lawyer whose firm has won such settlements before agreeing to use the legal services offered by that firm. This can help you in verifying whether such settlement claims are genuine.

It is possible for car accident lawyers to offer you their services free until the time when you will collect a settlement. A few lawyers may inform you that you wouldn't have to pay anything if their firm does not win you any compensation. To be sure about such promises, you should ask the lawyers to confirm them in the form of a written document.

It is essential for you to start legal action immediately in cases related to car accidents. The kind of claim, which you are filing can affect how much time you have to do so. In New York, people usually have three years in which they can file a claim but other case issues can influence this time.

Normally, the money that lawyers keep from the net amount of money recovered after deducting the costs of contingency fees or in cases where a person does not pay money to a lawyer at first is generally 33 1/3%. The lawyer's fees can be deductions essential for recovering monetary damages. For example, if you receive 200,000 dollars as the net settlement amount, the lawyer's fee will not be greater than 66,666 dollars. These amounts are only illustrations for other issues may effect the amount taken from your net settlement.

Even if the state of New York were a "No Fault" legal authority area as regards to car accidents, you would still require a lawyer. The No Fault clause shows the idea that your insurance company will pay for the damages or injuries you incur due to an accident based on your policy limits. Your insurance company will compensate you without considering who caused the accident.

The situations when you will still want a lawyer when solving car accident cases are the following. When the accident causes serious and permanent injury, when an accident ends up with a person's death, if it is not clear who caused the accident and incase the police report is incorrect. The other situations are if you do not carry proper insurance, if you have very low liability insurance limits and if the company that insures you involves its own lawyer in solving the car accident case.