A truck hit my car and I had minor injuries — can I still bring a claim in New York?

Attorney Answer

"Minor injuries" is the phrase New York's no-fault law exists to test. Insurance Law § 5104(a) allows no recovery for pain and suffering between covered persons unless the injury is a "serious injury" as the Insurance Law defines it, so what decides your claim is the medical record measured against that definition — not the words used at the scene. Which version of the definition applies to you depends on when a lawsuit is commenced, not on when the collision happened, so the first question is whether suit has already been filed.

Start with the bar itself. Insurance Law § 5104(a) provides: "Notwithstanding any other law, in any action by or on behalf of a covered person against another covered person for personal injuries arising out of negligence in the use or operation of a motor vehicle in this state, there shall be no right of recovery for non-economic loss, except in the case of a serious injury, or for basic economic loss." Basic economic loss — medical expense and lost earnings within the limits the statute sets — is paid instead as first-party no-fault benefits, and Insurance Law § 5106(a) makes those benefits overdue if they are not paid within thirty days after the claimant supplies proof of the fact and amount of the loss. Those benefits are claimed from an insurer on short deadlines set by regulation rather than by the sections here, so they should be asked about immediately rather than later.

On liability, the impact to the back of your car engages Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1129(a): "The driver of a motor vehicle shall not follow another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and prudent, having due regard for the speed of such vehicles and the traffic upon and the condition of the highway." New York courts also draw a judge-made inference of negligence against the driver of the rear vehicle, answerable with a non-negligent explanation; that doctrine comes from court decisions rather than statute, so it is described here generally and not cited.

Now the definition. For an action commenced on or after May 26, 2026 — which is what filing now means — Insurance Law § 5102(d) provides: "(d) "Serious injury" means a personal injury which results in death; dismemberment; significant disfigurement; a fracture; loss of a fetus; permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function or system; permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member; or significant limitation of use of a body function or system." That regime also carries the CPLR 1411(b) bar where the claimant's culpable conduct is greater than the defendant's, and the $100,000 non-economic cap in Insurance Law § 5104(d) for certain at-fault classes of injured driver. An action already commenced before May 26, 2026 runs under the former text instead, which contained a ninth category — a medically determined injury of a non-permanent nature preventing the person from performing substantially all of their usual and customary daily activities for at least ninety of the one hundred eighty days after the occurrence — with fault apportioned under CPLR 1411 (former text) and no percentage bar. Injuries that sound modest can still meet a category such as a fracture, which is why the record matters more than the adjective.

What you can do

1. Get examined and keep going to appointments if treatment is recommended; gaps in a record are read as gaps in the injury.

2. Make sure every provider records how the injury happened and what you cannot do now that you could do before.

3. Ask your insurer or a New York attorney straight away what has to be submitted to open the no-fault claim and by when, since those deadlines come from regulations rather than the statutes described here.

4. Preserve what exists: photographs of both vehicles, the police report number, the truck's markings or plate, repair estimates, and any camera footage before it is overwritten.

5. Ask a New York attorney whether your injuries meet a category of the definition above, and whether an action has been commenced — that answer decides which version applies to you.

⏱ Time limits apply. A personal injury action in New York must generally be commenced within three years under CPLR 214(5), measured from the date of the collision, and the section names its own exceptions. Much shorter periods apply if a defendant is a public corporation. No-fault benefit claims run on their own, far shorter, regulatory deadlines. This page will not calculate any of them for you, and because the serious-injury definition itself turns on when an action is commenced, the timing is a legal decision rather than arithmetic. A brief consultation with a local New York attorney is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.