Serious Injury Threshold
A Short Introduction to the Serious Injury Threshold in New York’s No Fault Insurance Law
New York enacted its no-fault insurance law to ensure that people involved in car accidents would receive compensation within a reasonable time. Prior to the no-fault insurance law, courts were overwhelmed with vehicle injury claims. As a result, many victims’ damage awards were extremely delayed. The Insurance Law addresses this problem.
The Insurance Law requires motor vehicle operators to carry insurance. It also requires those insurance policies to contain certain terms, insure certain people, and cover claims up to a certain limit. Additionally, the insurance law requires insurance policies to cover basic economic losses regardless of who was at fault in certain accidents (with some exceptions). This is known as “no-fault” insurance. It allows accident victims to receive their compensation from their insurance policies, without having to go through the courts.
The amount a victim may be awarded by no-fault insurance is limited. Insurance usually covers medical expenses and lost earnings up to $50,000. Damages beyond this amount, and noneconomic damages, will not be awarded under the no-fault insurance law.
Obviously, however, some accident victims suffer damages beyond this amount. Victims who miss very long periods of work may lose more than $50,000 in earnings. And victims that suffer serious injuries may want compensation for pain and suffering. The law is responsive to these situations, but it does not require insurance policies to provide the compensation. Instead, the insurance law allows victims that suffer “serious injuries” to sue the person at fault in the accident.
“Serious injury” is defined in section 5102 of New York’s Insurance Law:
(d) “Serious injury” means a personal injury which results in death; dismemberment; significant disfigurement; a fracture; loss of a fetus; permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function or system; permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member; significant limitation of use of a body function or system; or a medically determined injury or impairment of a non-permanent nature which prevents the injured person from performing substantially all of the material acts which constitute such person’s usual and customary daily activities for not less than ninety days during the one hundred eighty days immediately following the occurrence of the injury or impairment.
Some of these terms may seem rather vague. How much disfigurement is “significant”? How much limitation of the use of a bodily organ or member is “consequential”? Courts agree that these terms are not completely clear, which is why they leave it up to juries – after detailed jury instructions – to decide whether a particular injury is “serious” enough to warrant an award beyond what is provided by the insurance law.
Personal Injury Attorney in Mineola
If you have questions about this or other legal issues, and would like to schedule a free consultation with an attorney at the Law Firm of Vaughn, Weber & Prakope, PLLC, please call 516-858-2620.
New York Child Support Standards.
Child support in New York is governed by the New York Child Support Standards Act, Domestic Relations Law 240 Section 1-b and Family Court Act 413 (identical statutes). The Act assigns to courts a standard for allocating child support obligations between divorced parents. The purpose of the Act is to ensure that children of divorced parents receive the same standard of living they would have enjoyed had their parents remained together, while at the same time dividing financial obligations fairly.
Generally, the Act directs courts to take the following steps:
(1) Determine the combined total income of the parents.
Courts are directed to look at each parent’s gross income, but may make certain deductions or consider additional income sources or assets where appropriate. Additionally, if a court believes that a parent is misrepresenting income, it may assign a number it considers to represent the actual income of the parent.
(2) Calculate the children’s share of the parents’ combined total income.
Usually the court will determine the child or children’s expenses to be a statutorily assigned percentage of the parents’ total income, but some exceptions may be made in high-income cases.
(3) Assign a pro-rata share of the child/children’s expenses.
Generally, this means that each parent’s obligation to the child/children’s expenses will be in proportion to each parent’s share of the total combined income. Again, a court may assign an amount greater than the statutorily assigned proportion in high-income cases.
High income exceptions may be made at any step in this process, and a court may assign add-on expenses such a child care, medical expenses, or tuition. Tax issues also often arise in determining child support obligations.
As always, if you are have any questions regarding child support or you are having an issue with child support, please call (516) 858-2620 to speak with a Family Law Attorney today!
*Contributions of research and preparation for this blog were made by Jason Bernard Mays, J.D. (awaiting admission in NYS)
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