If you were injured by the City of New York, the MTA, the Housing Authority, a school, or another public agency, a NYC municipal liability lawyer can help you protect a claim that runs on rules almost nobody knows about until it is too late. The case may be strong, but the deadline is short, it starts on the day you were hurt, and it is not the three years people expect.
Government claims also carry requirements no ordinary case has: a formal notice, a sworn hearing before a lawsuit is even filed, and in some cases proof that the agency was told about the danger in writing before you were injured. Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower handles these claims and moves immediately, because the first step has a clock on it. Below are the questions injured people ask our municipal liability attorneys most.
Call us at (212) 732-4992 24/7 to arrange to speak with a personal injury lawyer about your case, or contact us through our website today.
You may, and the standard is largely the same as any other injury case: a public agency or its employee did something careless, or allowed a dangerous condition to exist, and you were hurt because of it. What changes is the procedure around the claim, not whether carelessness counts. The most important thing is timing, so if you were hurt on a bus, in the subway, on a sidewalk, in a public building, or by a city vehicle, have the deadline confirmed now rather than later. That review costs you nothing.
Four things, and each one ends cases that would otherwise succeed:
A notice of claim is a written, sworn statement telling the agency who you are, what happened, where and when it happened, and what your injuries are. In most cases it has to be served within ninety days of the date you were injured, and the lawsuit itself generally has to be started within one year and ninety days.
The details matter as much as the deadline. The notice has to identify the location precisely enough for the agency to investigate, which in a sidewalk or roadway case means the specific defect and not just the block. It has to go to the correct entity, and the correct entity is not always obvious, since the City, the transit authority, the Housing Authority, a school authority, and a public hospital system are separate defendants with separate rules. A notice served on the wrong agency does not preserve the claim.
It may not be over. New York allows a court to permit a late notice of claim in some circumstances, and that request generally has to be made within the same one year and ninety day window. Courts look at whether the agency already knew the essential facts within a reasonable time, such as through a police or ambulance report, an internal incident report, or its own repair records, whether there is a reasonable explanation for the delay, and whether the delay has actually harmed the agency's ability to investigate.
None of that is automatic, and it gets harder as time passes. If you are outside ninety days, the worst move is to assume nothing can be done. Have it evaluated, quickly.
It is a sworn question and answer session, taken by the agency's lawyer before a lawsuit is filed, named for the section of law that allows it. You answer questions about the accident, your injuries, your treatment, and your background, and the transcript is used later in the case. The agency can also require you to be examined by a doctor of its choosing.
Attendance is not optional. Failing to appear can end a claim. It is also the earliest point at which the case can be helped or hurt, because the answers given at that hearing follow the file all the way to trial, which is why preparation for it matters.
Often, yes, and this rule surprises everyone. For many defects in streets, roadways, curbs, and some public walkways, the City can only be held responsible if it received written notice of that specific condition beforehand, or if it created the condition itself through its own work. Verbal complaints usually do not satisfy it.
This is why the pothole and sidewalk defect maps filed with the City by an outside committee matter so much in New York cases. Those maps, along with prior repair records, work permits, and complaint histories, are how a claim gets past this requirement, and locating them is early work in any street or sidewalk case.
Sidewalks add a second wrinkle. City law shifted responsibility for most sidewalks to the owner of the abutting property, with an exception for smaller owner-occupied homes, so a sidewalk case often runs against a private building owner as a premises liability claim rather than against the City, or against both while that is sorted out.
The answer decides the deadline, the notice, and sometimes the court.
The City of New York and its departments, including transportation, sanitation, parks, police, fire, and correction, along with City vehicles and City-run construction projects.
Buses, subways, commuter rail, and bridges and tunnels, each operated by a related but separate entity. Subway and bus cases are covered on our subway injury page.
Injuries in public housing from building conditions, broken elevators, dark stairwells, inadequate security, lead paint, and failed repairs. The Housing Authority is its own defendant with its own notice requirement.
The Department of Education, the School Construction Authority, and individual districts, for supervision failures, dangerous conditions, playground and gym injuries, and bus incidents. See our school injury page.
The city's public hospital system, where a malpractice claim carries both the ninety day notice and the malpractice rules described on our medical malpractice page.
Claims against the State of New York go to a separate court with its own filing requirements that also begin at ninety days. The Port Authority, which runs the bus terminal, the PATH system, and the airports, has its own shorter notice rule and its own filing window. Both are easy to miss when an injury happens somewhere that feels like City property but is not.
Sometimes, but this is the hardest category of municipal case. When an agency is performing a governmental function such as policing, responding to emergencies, or answering 911, New York generally requires more than proving the response was inadequate. A claim usually depends on showing a special relationship between the agency and the injured person, built on a promise or assurance that the person relied on to their detriment.
That is a demanding standard, and it is why cases about a call that went unanswered are difficult while cases about an agency vehicle striking a pedestrian are not. The distinction turns on what the agency was doing at the time, and it is worth having someone look at rather than deciding on your own that nothing can be done.
Yes, and that is not cynicism, it is how these cases are defended. Agencies routinely argue that the notice was late, that it described the wrong location, that it went to the wrong entity, that no prior written notice of the defect existed, or that the claimant did not appear for the hearing. Many valid claims end on those grounds rather than on the facts of the accident.
The answer is to treat the procedure as part of the case from day one: serve a precise notice on the correct agency, prepare properly for the hearing, and go after the records that establish notice of the condition before anyone argues about it.
The categories are the same as any injury case. A claim can pursue past and future medical care, lost earnings and lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, home and attendant care where a permanent injury requires it, and, in a fatal case, the losses a family carries forward through a wrongful death claim.
Public entities defend these cases seriously and try more of them than private carriers do, which is another reason a file needs to be built as if a jury will see it.
No. Our municipal liability lawyers handle these cases on a contingency fee basis, which means there is no fee unless there is a recovery. The first consultation is free and carries no obligation.
Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower carries the procedure so a good case does not die on a technicality. Our municipal liability lawyers:
Our municipal liability lawyers prepare every case as if it will be tried, because public entities settle the files that are ready. A settlement on the right number is welcome. A settlement that shortchanges what the injury cost you is not one this firm accepts just because it comes early.
If a City agency, the MTA, the Housing Authority, or a school was involved in your injury, the ninety day clock is already running. The consultation is free, and Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower does not get paid unless you do.
Call us at (212) 732-4992 24/7 to arrange to speak with a personal injury lawyer about your case, or contact us through our website today.
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