Should I fire my lawyer in the middle of my New York injury case?

Attorney Answer

You can change lawyers in the middle of a New York injury case — that decision is yours — but the outgoing attorney's fee claim follows the case, and switching pauses no deadline in it. And because your action was commenced before New York changed its motor-vehicle rules on May 26, 2026, the older, broader version of those rules still governs.

The mechanics come from court rules and decisions rather than the statutes governing the accident claim. A client may discharge an attorney; the outgoing attorney is ordinarily entitled to be paid for work already done, as a share of the eventual contingency fee or the value of the services, and can assert a lien against a recovery; and you can ask for your file.

Insurance Law § 5104(a) frames a passenger's claim: "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." "Serious injury" decides whether pain and suffering is recoverable at all. No-fault first-party benefits — medical expenses and part of lost earnings, the basic economic loss in Insurance Law § 5102(a) — are payable regardless of fault, and Insurance Law § 5106(a) makes them overdue thirty days after proof is supplied.

Your case is measured by the law as it stood when the action was commenced. Part EE of chapter 58 of the Laws of 2026 reaches only actions commenced on or after May 26, 2026, and a case still pending from a 2019 accident was filed long before then. Your definition is the former Insurance Law § 5102(d), nine categories: "(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; significant limitation of use of a body function or system; 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 runs on the former CPLR 1411: "In any action to recover damages for personal injury, injury to property, or wrongful death, the culpable conduct attributable to the claimant or to the decedent, including contributory negligence or assumption of risk, shall not bar recovery, but the amount of damages otherwise recoverable shall be diminished in the proportion which the culpable conduct attributable to the claimant or decedent bears to the culpable conduct which caused the damages." Pure comparative fault: your share reduces the award rather than barring it.

For actions commenced on or after that date — not yours — Insurance Law § 5102(d) lists eight: "(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." Those filings also face the CPLR 1411(b) bar and the $100,000 cap in Insurance Law § 5104(d). Neither reaches a case already on file.

What you can do

1. Ask your attorney in writing for a status report: what has been filed, what the last appearance decided, what is next, and what discovery is outstanding.

2. Ask for a complete copy of your file, and keep it whether or not you change counsel.

3. Get a second opinion from another New York attorney: bring the pleadings, the bill of particulars, your medical records and the last court order.

4. If you do change counsel, get the fee arrangement between the outgoing and incoming attorneys in writing first.

5. Do not let a court date or discovery deadline pass while you decide; they run regardless of who represents you.

⏱ Time limits apply. CPLR 214(5)'s three-year period to commence a personal injury action runs from the accident date — July 2019 here — but you say suit is already on file, so what governs now are the deadlines inside the case: court orders, scheduling directives and the CPLR's practice deadlines. They do not pause while you look for another lawyer. Do not compute anything from this page; have a New York attorney review the docket and say what is due next.