The accident has just happened. A slip on a wet floor at a supermarket in Forest Hills. A fall down poorly maintained stairs at a building in Astoria. A trip on a broken sidewalk in Jamaica. The ambulance has come and gone, the emergency room visit is over, and the injured person is at home trying to figure out what to do next.
Within forty-eight hours, the phone rings. It is a representative from the property owner’s insurance company, friendly, sympathetic, asking how the injured person is doing and whether they would mind giving a brief recorded statement about what happened.
This is the moment when personal injury cases are most often won or lost. Not in court, not in negotiations months later, but in the first conversation with the insurance adjuster — the one most people think is just routine paperwork.
If you have been injured in Queens, here is what to do, what to avoid, and why the early decisions matter so much.
Do not give a recorded statement without counsel.
The first call from the insurance company is not casual. The adjuster’s job is to collect statements that limit the carrier’s exposure. Any inconsistency, any qualifier, any moment of uncertainty in the statement can be used later to attack credibility or contest the claim. “I think I was looking at my phone for a second” becomes a comparative fault argument. “My back was kind of hurting before” becomes a pre-existing condition defense. “I’m doing okay” becomes evidence that the injuries are not serious.
The right answer to a recorded statement request is to politely decline and to direct further communication to your attorney. This is true even if you do not have an attorney yet. Especially if you do not have an attorney yet.
Document everything, immediately.
Photographs of the scene, the hazard, the conditions, and the injuries — taken as soon as possible after the accident — are often the most valuable evidence in a premises liability or personal injury case. The wet floor gets mopped up. The broken step gets repaired. The torn carpeting gets replaced. The icy condition melts. Whatever caused the accident often disappears within hours or days.
If you can return to the scene safely, do so. Photograph from multiple angles. Photograph the surrounding area for context. Get the names and contact information of witnesses while their memories are fresh. Save any clothing or shoes involved in the accident. Preserve everything. The stronger the documentation at the start, the stronger the case at every later stage.
Get medical attention, and keep getting it.
Two patterns hurt personal injury cases more than any others. The first is the gap in treatment — an injured person who gets initial emergency care, then waits weeks or months before following up because they are hoping the injury will resolve on its own. The medical record reads as if the injury was minor; the defense argues exactly that. The second pattern is the inconsistent treatment — visits scattered across different providers without coordination, complaints that vary from visit to visit, no clear narrative of what is wrong and how it is progressing.
Consistent, ongoing medical treatment with a primary treating provider who can speak to the injury, the cause, and the prognosis is what builds a credible case. This is not advice to over-treat. It is advice to follow through on whatever treatment is actually medically indicated, document it carefully, and treat the medical record as the foundation of the case it eventually becomes.
Notice of Claim deadlines move fast.
If your accident involved property owned, operated, or maintained by the City of New York — sidewalks, parks, public schools, NYCHA buildings, public hospitals — you have only 90 days from the accident to file a Notice of Claim. The lawsuit itself must be filed within one year and 90 days. Miss the Notice of Claim, and the case is generally lost regardless of how strong the underlying facts are.
This catches people off guard regularly. A trip on a broken sidewalk in Queens may seem like a simple slip-and-fall, but if the sidewalk abuts city property or was maintained by the city, the 90-day clock is running from the moment of the accident. The same applies to school injuries, bus accidents, and incidents on city-owned premises.
Statutes of limitations vary.
For most personal injury claims against private parties in New York, the statute of limitations under CPLR 214 is three years from the date of the injury. Medical malpractice has a shorter period — generally two years and six months from the act or last treatment. Wrongful death has its own two-year statute. Claims against state and city entities have notice requirements as discussed above. The timeline that applies depends entirely on who the defendant is and what kind of claim it is.
Be careful what you post.
Insurance adjusters and defense attorneys check social media. A Facebook post showing the injured person at a barbecue, a vacation photo on Instagram, a check-in at a gym — any of it can be used to argue that the injuries are not as serious as claimed. The right approach during the pendency of a claim is to assume that everything posted publicly is going to be reviewed by the other side, and to act accordingly. Privacy settings help but are not a guarantee.
Settlement is not pressure-driven.
Insurance carriers make early offers. Sometimes the offers are reasonable; often they are not. The pressure to settle quickly — before treatment is complete, before the full extent of the injury is known, before the case is properly evaluated — is one of the biggest traps in personal injury work. A claim that is settled too early often leaves money on the table that the injured person will need months later when the medical picture becomes clearer.
The right time to settle is when the case can be fully valued — when treatment is complete or the long-term prognosis is clear, when liability has been thoroughly investigated, and when the negotiation can happen on actual facts rather than insurance company estimates of what the case might be worth.
If you have been injured in Queens, the early choices shape everything that follows. The right time to talk to a personal injury attorney is before the first call from the insurance adjuster, not after.