The law that applies to your claim
Motorcyclists are excluded from no-fault
New York’s no-fault system does not extend to motorcycle operators or passengers. There is no automatic payment of medical bills and lost earnings from a no-fault carrier the way there is after a car crash. Your treatment is billed to health insurance, or to you.
Which cuts the other way on the threshold
Because no-fault does not apply, a motorcyclist generally does not have to clear the “serious injury” threshold of Insurance Law §5102(d) before suing for pain and suffering. The gate that stops many car-accident claims is not in your path.
Helmets — VTL §381
New York requires an approved helmet. Riding without one does not bar a claim, but a defense will argue it contributed to head injuries, and damages can be reduced accordingly under pure comparative negligence (CPLR §1411).
Paying for treatment without no-fault
This is the practical crisis after a serious motorcycle crash. With no no-fault carrier, bills land on health insurance — which will later assert a lien against any recovery — or go unpaid while you are unable to work.
Managing that is part of the case, not an afterthought: identifying every available source of coverage, including your own supplementary underinsured motorist coverage, and negotiating liens so the recovery is not consumed before it reaches you.
The bias you are up against
Riders are routinely assumed to have been speeding, weaving or riding recklessly, whether or not anything supports it. Adjusters and juries carry that assumption into the file.
It is answered with evidence rather than argument: scene reconstruction, vehicle damage patterns, sight-line analysis, and the other driver’s own account. The most common serious motorcycle collision in New York is a left-turning car crossing a rider’s path — a failure to yield, not a rider’s recklessness.
How these collisions happen
- Left-turning vehicles crossing an oncoming rider’s path
- Drivers changing lanes into a motorcycle in a blind spot
- Vehicles pulling out from side streets and driveways without looking
- Doors opened into the path of a rider
- Road defects, gravel, and poorly marked construction zones
- Rear-end impacts at lights and stop signs
How long you have to act
- Three years from the date of the accident for most negligence claims (CPLR §214).
- Two years for wrongful death (EPTL §5-4.1).
- 90 days to serve a notice of claim where a city, county, school district, transit authority or other public body is involved (General Municipal Law §50-e), with suit generally within one year and 90 days.
The 90-day rule is the one that quietly ends otherwise strong cases. If a public entity may be involved, that is the first thing to check — not the last.
What it costs
Nothing up front. These cases are handled on contingency: there is no fee unless we win, and the consultation is free. You will be told the percentage and how expenses are handled, in writing, before you sign anything.
Common questions
I was not wearing a helmet. Do I still have a claim?
Yes. It does not bar the claim. It may reduce damages attributable to head injury under comparative negligence, and it has no bearing at all on injuries to the rest of your body.
Who pays my medical bills in the meantime?
Usually your health insurer, which will assert a lien on any recovery. Part of our job is identifying every coverage source and negotiating those liens down at the end.
The driver says they never saw me.
That is an admission of a failure to keep a proper lookout, not a defense. Drivers are required to see what is there to be seen.
