In order to qualify for No-Fault insurance benefits, you must be the driver of a motor vehicle, a passenger, a pedestrian, or a bicyclist. Motorcyclists are not eligible to receive coverage under no-fault insurance. In order to file a no-fault insurance claim, a qualified person must complete and submit a no-fault application (NF-2) within 30 days of the motor vehicle accident to their insurance carrier. Your insurance company will mail you a no-fault application once they are made aware of your accident. If you were a pedestrian, you can obtain the insurance information of the vehicle which struck you from the police report. You should consider mailing the NF-2 to the proper insurance carrier via certified mail to avoid any dispute that the NF-2 was not submitted to the carrier within 30 calendar days. If you are a pedestrian and the vehicle that struck you is uninsured, you may file a no-fault insurance claim through the car insurance of a relative within your household. However, if you is no household insurance, you may be eligible to file a claim with the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Company, MVAIC.

Under most insurance policies, a person will not be eligible for no-fault benefits after a car acciodent if any of the following facts exist:

• The applicant for no-fault benefits was driving while under the influence of alcohol
• The accident was the result of a staged event involving the applicant for benefits
• The accident occured while commiting a felony
• The applicant for no-fault benefits is the owner of an uninsured motor vehicle. 

In New York, no-fault insurance benefits (Personal Injury Protection a/k/a PIP) will cover the following “reasonable and necessary” accident-related medical bills,

• 80% of lost wages, a maximum of $2,000 per month, for up to 3 years from the date of the accident.
• $25 a day (for a year) for “reasonable and necessary expenses resulting from the accident (like household help and transportation cost to medical appointments), and
• $2,000 in death benefits to the estate of anyone killed in a car accident

New York’s no-fault insurance (PIP) covers injuries caused by car accidents but not property damage claims. Additionally, no-fault insurance does not cover non-economic losses, such as pain and suffering. Non-economic damages such as pain and suffering may be reimbursed if your injuries satisfy certain thresholds as provided by New York State law. Your injuries must meet New York’s serious injury threshold.

In order to venture outside of the state’s no-fault regime and pursue a claim against the at-fault driver, the injuries you suffered from the car accident must qualify as a “serious injury” under New York’s “serious injury” threshold. According to Article 51 of New York State’s Insurance Law, Insurance Law §5102(d), the following conditions meet the threshold requirement:

• Death
• Dismemberment
• Significant disfigurement
• Fracture
• Loss of a fetus
• Permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function, or system 
• Permanent consequential limitation of a body organ or member. 
• Medically determined injury or impairment of a non-permanent nature that 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 90 days during the 180 days immediately following the date of accident. 

Long Island

Hempstead, Valley Stream, Floral Park, East Rockaway, Garden City, Island Park, Lynbrook, Malverne, Rockville Centre, Stewart Manor, Great Neck, Baldwin, New Hyde Park, Roslyn,  Farmingdale, Bay Shore, Central Islip, East Farmingdale, Huntington Station, Copiague, Deer Park, Wyandanch, North Bellport, Brentwood, South Valley Stream, Westbury, Freeport, Inwood, Uniondale, Elmont, Glen Cove, Bellerose Terrace, Hicksville, Oyster Bay