(718) 249-7447
Call Us Now
Injured in a bicycle accident in Brooklyn, NY? Our knowledgeable bicycle accident lawyers in Brooklyn, New York help injured cyclists recover compensation after a crash.
Brooklyn has more cyclists on its streets than ever before, and the numbers show what riders already know: crashes are climbing right alongside ridership.
From the delivery e-bikes weaving through Bushwick to the commuters riding Bedford Avenue every morning, cyclists share tight lanes with distracted drivers, double-parked rideshares, and city buses whose blind spots swallow a bike in a single turn.
When a driver’s mistake sends you to the pavement, the injuries are rarely minor and the fight for fair compensation starts immediately. The driver’s insurance carrier will treat you as a claim number to close out cheaply.
They count on injured cyclists not knowing that New York’s No-Fault rules, comparative negligence standard, and serious injury threshold can be leveraged to maximize recovery in the right hands.
That is where our award-winning Brooklyn bicycle accident attorneys come in. Grigor Law Injury & Car Accident Lawyers represents injured Brooklyn cyclists from our Ridgewood office, and we approach every case ready to litigate from day one, because settlement offers only get serious when the insurer knows we will take them to trial.
Contact us today for a free consultation.
Who Is Liable for a Brooklyn Bicycle Accident?
Most injured cyclists assume the driver who hit them is the only party they can pursue. That assumption leaves money on the table. Our investigation identifies every responsible defendant, because more defendants means more available insurance coverage for your recovery.
Potentially liable parties include:
- The driver who struck you
- That driver’s employer, if they were on duty at the time of the crash
- A rideshare company like Uber or Lyft
- The City of New York, for dangerous road conditions like potholes or defective grates
- Property owners who created hazards adjacent to the roadway
Claims against government entities require a formal Notice of Claim filed within 90 days of the accident. Miss that deadline and you permanently lose the right to sue those parties, no matter how strong your evidence is.
A tactic our Brooklyn bicycle accident lawyers see repeatedly from adjusters handling liability disputes on corridors like Flatbush Avenue and the BQE service roads is pointing to the cyclist’s lane position rather than the driver’s failure to yield, hoping to manufacture a comparative fault argument before an investigation is complete.
In our experience handling these Brooklyn claims, collision reports from NYPD’s 60th through 94th Precinct Collision Investigation Squads almost always tell a different story once we obtain them.
When a pothole or damaged roadway is part of the cause, we move quickly because the city’s own repair records can disappear from public view once a claim is filed.
Across the liability disputes we have worked through in Kings County, early evidence preservation is consistently what turns a contested claim into a resolved one.
Who Pays Medical Bills and Lost Wages Under New York No-Fault?
New York’s no-fault system, formally called Personal Injury Protection (PIP), requires the at-fault driver’s insurer to pay your medical bills and 80% of your lost wages while your claim is active. You file directly with that driver’s insurance company, not your own health insurance.
If the driver fled the scene or carried no insurance, you are not left without options. We can access coverage through a household auto policy or the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation (MVAIC), a state fund that steps in when no responsible insurer can be identified.
One pattern our Brooklyn personal injury attorneys consistently see in Brooklyn No-Fault claims is that insurers slow-walk the 80 percent wage reimbursement once a rider is treated at Kings County Hospital or Brookdale Hospital, citing missing employer wage verification forms as a reason to delay payment for weeks at a time.
Adjusters handling these Kings County claims often request the same paperwork more than once, hoping an injured cyclist gives up on the follow-up before the check is issued. We respond with certified payroll letters and direct calls to the claims examiner to keep the payment moving. That persistence is frequently what separates a rider who stays current on rent from one who falls behind while still recovering.
Can You Sue for Pain and Suffering After a Brooklyn Bike Crash?
No-Fault pays bills. It does not compensate you for physical suffering, emotional trauma, or the permanent limitations a serious injury can leave behind. To file a lawsuit against the at-fault driver directly, your injury must meet New York’s “serious injury threshold” under Insurance Law §5102(d). Insurance companies fight relentlessly to keep your case inside the No-Fault system because it caps what they are required to pay.
Injuries that meet the threshold include:
- Significant disfigurement or permanent scarring
- Permanent loss of use of a body part or organ
- A medically documented injury that prevented normal activities for at least 90 of the first 180 days following the crash.
We build the medical record and line up the expert support needed to prove your injury crosses that line.
What we see across the serious injury threshold disputes we handle in Kings County is that adjusters lean hardest on the 90 out of 180 day requirement, arguing that any gap in treatment notes from Maimonides Medical Center or NYU Langone Hospital, Brooklyn means the injury was not as limiting as claimed.
Riders who take a few weeks off from physical therapy while juggling work or childcare often find that gap used against them at the negotiating table.
We close it by pulling the complete treatment chronology and pairing it with a treating physician’s affidavit before the insurer ever gets to raise the argument. Cases that proceed to litigation over this threshold are typically filed in Kings County Supreme Court, where judges are well versed in how the 90/180 rule actually works.
What Compensation Can You Recover After a Brooklyn Bike Crash?
A real recovery accounts for every way this accident has affected your life, not just your first trip to the emergency room. We pursue two categories of damages on your behalf.
| Special (Economic) Damages | General (Non-Economic) Damages |
| Medical bills, past and future | Pain and suffering |
| Lost wages and future earning capacity | Mental anguish and emotional distress |
| Bike and equipment replacement | Permanent scarring or disfigurement |
| Rehabilitation and physical therapy | Loss of enjoyment of life |
When the driver was drunk or acted with reckless disregard, we may also pursue punitive damages, which courts award specifically to punish extreme misconduct, above and beyond your actual losses.
Common Brooklyn Bicycle Accident Types We Handle
Dooring Crashes
New York Vehicle and Traffic Law §1214 makes it illegal to open a car door into the path of moving traffic without first checking that it is safe to do so. Brooklyn’s dense, parked-car-lined streets make dooring one of the most common and most preventable crash types we handle.
Intersection Collisions
Right-hook crashes happen when a driver turns right and cuts off a cyclist going straight through the intersection. Left-turn collisions occur when an oncoming driver crosses a cyclist’s path without yielding. Both are caused by drivers who simply failed to look before turning.
Unsafe Passing and Bike Lane Violations
New York law requires drivers to give cyclists adequate passing room. A driver who drifts into a protected bike lane or squeezes past a rider without sufficient clearance is negligent, and we hold them fully accountable for the consequences.
Truck and Bus Blind-Spot Crashes
Commercial trucks and city buses have large blind spots along their right sides, and a turning vehicle can strike a cyclist the driver never saw. These crashes often cause catastrophic injuries and involve commercial insurance policies with significantly higher coverage limits than a personal auto policy.
Rideshare Drivers Blocking Bike Lanes
Uber and Lyft drivers who stop in bike lanes to pick up or drop off passengers force cyclists to swerve into live traffic. When that maneuver causes a crash, we pursue both the driver and, where applicable, the platform itself.
Hit-and-Run Collisions
A driver who flees the scene doesn’t take your legal rights with them. Our Brooklyn bicycle accident lawyers pursue compensation through uninsured motorist coverage or a MVAIC claim so that a coward’s getaway doesn’t cost you your recovery.
Pothole and Street Defect Crashes
New York City has a legal duty to maintain its streets in a reasonably safe condition. If a pothole, damaged grate, or unmarked construction hazard caused your crash, we can bring a claim against the city, subject to the 90-day Notice of Claim requirement.
E-Bike and Delivery Worker Collisions
App-based delivery e-bike crashes are rising fast across Brooklyn, and they involve layered liability questions between the delivery platform, the individual rider, and any at-fault motorist. We know how to untangle every party’s responsibility.
How Long Do You Have to File in New York?
New York law sets strict deadlines, called statutes of limitations, for bicycle accident claims, and missing any one of them forfeits your right to compensation permanently.
- 30 days to file your No-Fault application with the at-fault driver’s insurer
- 90 days to file a Notice of Claim against the City of New York or MTA
- 3 years from the crash date to file a personal injury lawsuit against a private party
- 2 years from the date of death to file a wrongful death lawsuit
Surveillance footage is overwritten in days. Witnesses become harder to find. Every day without an attorney, critical evidence quietly disappears.
Why Choose Grigor Law for Your Brooklyn Bicycle Accident Case
The at-fault driver’s insurance company had an adjuster on your claim before you were off the accident scene. That adjuster’s job is to protect the insurer’s bottom line. Ours is to fight for yours.
Founding attorney Chrissy Grigoropoulos, Esq., together with our trial attorneys represent injured New Yorkers in claims against insurance companies. We benchmark every client’s damages, pain and suffering, medical costs, lost wages against New York and federal case law to make sure no dollar of compensation goes unclaimed.
We bring a shark attitude to every case because anything less gives the insurer the advantage.
Every case we take is on a contingency fee basis, you pay nothing unless we recover money for you, and we advance all costs of litigation. Our Ridgewood office puts us minutes from Brooklyn, and if your injuries keep you from traveling, we come to you at your home or hospital room.
Insurance companies settle for more when they know your lawyers are trial-ready. They know we are.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Not Wearing a Helmet Prevent You From Filing a Bicycle Accident Claim in New York?
No. New York law does not require adult cyclists to wear helmets, and an insurer cannot use that choice to bar your claim, though they may raise it to try to reduce your damages as a partial fault argument.
Can a Bicycle Accident Claim Succeed If You Were Partly at Fault for the Crash?
Yes, New York follows pure comparative negligence, meaning your compensation is reduced by your share of fault but never completely eliminated. For example, if you were 30% responsible, you can still recover 70% of your proven damages.
How Long Does a Brooklyn Bicycle Accident Case Typically Take to Resolve?
The timeline depends on injury severity and whether liability is contested. Cases with clear fault may settle within months, while those involving serious injuries or disputed facts can take a year or more to reach the right result.
Can You File a Claim If the Driver Never Made Physical Contact with You?
Yes. A no-contact crash claim is valid when a driver’s negligent behavior forced you to swerve or fall to avoid impact, and we use witness accounts and available video to prove the driver’s actions caused your injuries.
What Should You Do If a City Bus or MTA Vehicle Caused Your Crash?
Call us immediately. Claims against the MTA or City of New York require a Notice of Claim filed within 90 days of the accident, and missing that deadline permanently eliminates your right to sue those entities.
What Is MVAIC and When Does It Cover a Bicycle Accident Claim?
MVAIC, the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation, is a state fund that provides No-Fault benefits and injury compensation when no auto insurance is available, such as after a hit-and-run or when the at-fault driver was uninsured, but strict filing deadlines apply.
Can a Delivery Cyclist Collect Workers’ Compensation and Also Sue the Driver Who Hit Them?
Yes, workers’ compensation and a personal injury lawsuit are two separate legal claims, and we handle both simultaneously: workers’ comp covers employer-based benefits while we pursue the negligent driver through a civil lawsuit.
Is It Illegal for a Driver to Open a Car Door into a New York City Bike Lane?
Yes. Vehicle and Traffic Law §1214 makes it unlawful to open any vehicle door into moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe to do so, and any driver or passenger who violates that law is liable for the injuries they cause.