Greg Sobo: What do you have to Prove to get a Settlement in a Car Accident Case?

In New York, there are two things that you have to prove in order to get a settlement in a car accident case.

Number one, we have to show the accident was not your fault. That means that you couldn't have caused the accident.

Number two, we would have to show that you suffered in the accident what the law says is a serious injury. And those words actually appear in the law: ‘serious injury.’ The law defines what a serious injury is as the obvious things like death, fractures, scarring, dismemberment.

But the most common category under New York law is called a ‘significant limitation’ of a body part, and most people, when injured in car accidents, fall under that category.

The only way we'd be able to prove that someone has a significant limitation of a body part isn't so much by what the injured person says, but more by what their doctor finds.