October 10th, 2008

Changes in New York Insurance Law Help Injury Victims

Posted by Carol A. McKenna, Associate, Faraci Lange

Section 3420 of the New York Insurance Law, which sets forth requirements for liability insurance policies issued in New York State, was amended recently in two important ways that will help injury victims. Liability insurance policies, including automobile and homeowner’s insurance policies, typically require that the negligent party inform his or her insurance company of any possible claims within a particular period of time. These notice provisions are designed to ensure that the company has an opportunity to investigate claims right away, while witnesses can still be located and evidence has not been lost or destroyed. More…

June 2nd, 2008

How does Personal Injury Law work? An explanation of the Civil Justice System

Posted by Stephen G. Schwarz, Managing Partner, Faraci Lange

When you are injured due to someone’s negligence in an auto accident, truck accident, fall on defective stairs, or by a medical mistake or by toxic contamination released from a nearby manufacturing plant or by a defective drug or product, your remedy to recover damages is to make a claim within the civil justice system.

Introduction and background

The rules followed in this system are based upon a combination of statutory law (laws passed by the legislature) and what is referred to as common law, the law we inherited from the judicial precedents of English law, which have evolved through the judicial decisions of judges in the State of New York over the past few hundred years.
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