Hit-and-run in New York and the driver was never found: what your own policy pays, and what it does not

Attorney Answer

In New York the coverage you are describing is called no-fault, or first-party benefits — and it pays whether or not the driver who hit you is ever identified. Whether you also recover for pain and suffering is a separate question, paid from a different source, and it depends on a statutory threshold.

Start with the fifty thousand dollars. Insurance Law § 5102(a) defines "basic economic loss" as up to that amount per person: necessary medical and related expenses; loss of earnings from work, capped at two thousand dollars per month for not more than three years from the accident; and other reasonable and necessary expenses up to twenty-five dollars a day for up to a year. Insurance Law § 5106(a) sets the pace: benefits are paid as the loss is incurred and are overdue if not paid within thirty days after the claimant supplies proof of the fact and amount of the loss. None of that depends on identifying the other driver — but it does depend on prompt notice to your insurer.

Pain and suffering is the other half. Insurance Law § 5104(a) governs it: "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."

Which version of the threshold controls depends on whether a lawsuit has already been filed. For an action commenced on or after May 26, 2026 — anyone starting a case now — Insurance Law § 5102(d) reads: "(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." Eight categories. For an action commenced before that date, the former text of § 5102(d) governs and adds a ninth: "or a medically determined injury or impairment of a non-permanent nature which 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 than ninety days during the one hundred eighty days immediately following the occurrence of the injury or impairment." Fault splits on the same date: an action commenced on or after May 26, 2026 is subject to CPLR 1411(b), which bars a claimant whose culpable conduct is greater than the defendant's or than the combined conduct of all defendants, and to the one-hundred-thousand-dollar non-economic cap in Insurance Law § 5104(d), which reaches only the narrow at-fault classes that subdivision describes; an action commenced before that date ran under CPLR 1411 (former text) and its pure comparative rule.

The hit-and-run adds a layer. With no driver identified there is no one to sue, so recovery beyond first-party benefits ordinarily comes from uninsured-motorist coverage under your own policy, or from the state-created fund for qualified persons injured by an unidentified vehicle. Both carry their own notice deadlines, often measured in days or months rather than years. Reporting to the police matters here: the driver who left had duties under Vehicle and Traffic Law § 600 to stop and give identifying information, or to report to the nearest police station, and a police report is commonly a precondition to those coverages.

What you can do

1. Notify your own insurer of both a no-fault claim and a possible uninsured-motorist claim, in writing.

2. Ask your insurer in writing for the policy's uninsured-motorist notice deadline — it is shorter than the statute of limitations.

3. Get the police report number; if none was made, ask an attorney what that means for coverage.

4. Submit medical bills and proof of lost earnings promptly; § 5106(a)'s thirty days runs from your proof, not the accident.

5. Keep every treatment record — the threshold is decided on medical proof — and have a New York attorney review the policy and the dates before any coverage deadline passes.

⏱ Time limits apply. A personal-injury action runs under CPLR 214(5), "an action to recover damages for a personal injury except as provided in sections 214-b, 214-c, 214-i and 215," three years from the date of the collision. Your no-fault and uninsured-motorist rights run on much shorter contractual deadlines set in the policy rather than in a statute. Which applies to you depends on facts this page does not have. Have a New York attorney check the dates against your policy and your record now.