The other driver told the insurer a false story about a lane change — how New York sorts out a disputed liability call

Attorney Answer

A false account given to an insurance company does not decide who was at fault. Liability in a lane-change collision is decided on evidence — the physical damage, the scene, the roadway, the statements taken under oath — and a witness whose account does not survive questioning is a problem for the side that produced them, not for you.

Start with the clock, because it is the one thing on this page that can be lost by waiting. Under CPLR 214, three years is the period for both an action to recover damages for an injury to property (subdivision 4) and, in the words of subdivision 5, "an action to recover damages for a personal injury except as provided in sections 214-b, 214-c, 214-i and 215." That period runs from the date of the collision, not from the date an insurer denies a claim, and an insurer's investigation does not pause it.

Your message does not say whether anyone was hurt. That matters, because New York applies an additional set of rules to a personal-injury claim arising from the use or operation of a motor vehicle — rules about what an injured person must show before pain and suffering can be sued for at all, and about how a shared-fault finding is treated. Those rules turn on facts this page does not have, and on when a lawsuit is filed rather than when the crash happened, so a New York attorney should apply them to your situation rather than a page applying them to a stranger's.

What you can realistically do about the false account is treat it as a proof problem. Adjusters compare a driver's story to the physical evidence, and a lane-change impact leaves a distinctive signature: contact along the sides of both vehicles rather than the front and rear, paint transfer at a particular height, the angle of the scrape, the resting position of the cars, the lane markings and any traffic camera or business camera pointed at that stretch of road. A story that contradicts that signature does not hold up, and a witness who cannot say where they were standing, what they were doing, or how they came to be located afterward is tested the same way.

What you can do

1. Photograph both vehicles again before any repair, including close-ups of the paint transfer and a wide shot showing where the damage sits along each vehicle's length.

2. Obtain the police accident report and read it against your own account; if it records something you know to be wrong, put the correction in writing to the reporting agency and keep a copy of what you sent.

3. Write to your own insurer and to the other driver's insurer setting out your version in dates and distances, and say plainly that you dispute the other driver's account and the witness.

4. Ask both carriers, in writing, what evidence they relied on and whether a recorded statement or an examination under oath has been taken from the other driver or the witness — a sworn account is far harder to change later than a phone call.

5. Canvass for cameras along the route promptly; most business and traffic systems overwrite within days or weeks.

6. If you were treated by a doctor, keep every record and bill together in one place, even if you think the injury is minor.

7. Ask a New York attorney to review the file before you accept any liability decision as final — a carrier's determination is a business decision, not a judgment.

⏱ Time limits apply. CPLR 214 sets three years for damage to your vehicle and for a personal injury, measured from the date of the collision, and shorter statutes apply if a government vehicle or a public corporation is involved. Which period governs depends on your facts, and this page cannot compute your date. Have a New York attorney confirm the deadline that applies to you well before it approaches.