Fact-Checked
A Manhattan truck accident lawyer at MooreJustice Accident & Injury Lawyers can pursue a claim against every party responsible for your crash. Manhattan runs on freight. The rules governing where trucks may drive, how fault gets divided, and when you may pursue a lawsuit for pain and suffering work differently here than in most of the state. Those rules shape a claim's value.
Our office sits at 171 Madison Avenue, blocks from the corridors where these collisions happen, and we investigate them from the ground up. Call (917) 809-7014 to talk through your legal options with our team.
Injured by someone else’s negligence?
Our firm, The Law Offices of Darren T. Moore, P.C., handles serious motor vehicle cases in the borough where our office is located. Our managing partner has more than 17 years of experience as a New York personal injury attorney. The firm has been recognized by the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, Super Lawyers, and the American Association for Justice.
Past results include a $5,025,000 recovery in a motor vehicle case involving a traumatic brain injury on a Manhattan corridor. Every case turns on its own facts, so no prior result predicts what another case will bring.
We work on a contingency fee basis under the terms of a signed agreement. We answer phones 24 hours a day, and hablamos español. If your crash happened elsewhere in the five boroughs, our New York City truck accident lawyer page covers citywide claims, while our Manhattan personal injury lawyer page covers other injury cases in the borough.
Commercial trucks in New York City may not drive wherever they choose. The city Department of Transportation maintains a Truck Route Network that every vehicle meeting the definition of a truck must follow, and that network is defined in section 4-13 of the city traffic rules.
The restriction matters after a crash. When a truck uses a street it has no right to use, the route violation becomes evidence of negligence that we can present to an insurer or a jury.
Local Truck Routes serve trucks whose origin and destination sit inside the same borough, including trucks making a delivery or servicing a building. Through Truck Routes are built from major arterials and highways, and a truck with neither an origin nor a destination in the borough must stay on them.
A driver may leave a designated route only at the start or end of a trip, in order to reach the delivery point by the most direct path. Curbside delivery across Midtown and Lower Manhattan produces constant deviations, and many go well beyond what the rules permit. Our team pulls dispatch records, GPS histories, and delivery manifests to reconstruct where the truck actually traveled.
Those same records can show whether the carrier itself dispatched the vehicle along a path it had no lawful right to take.
New York is a no-fault state for motor vehicle claims. Your own insurer pays basic economic loss under Insurance Law § 5102, which covers medical treatment and a portion of lost earnings up to $50,000 per person, regardless of who caused the crash.
Those benefits do not cover pain and suffering. To pursue that category of damages against the trucking company, your injuries must meet the serious injury threshold.
Insurance Law § 5102 currently defines a serious injury as one resulting in any of the following:
A traumatic brain injury commonly qualifies as a permanent consequential limitation, though the carrier will contest that finding with its own medical experts.
New York changed this rule recently, and many sources still describe the older version. Under CPLR 1411, the general rule remains that an injured person's own culpable conduct reduces damages in proportion to that person's share of the fault rather than barring the case outright.
Motor vehicle cases now follow a stricter rule. Article 51 of the Insurance Law governs no-fault motor vehicle claims. In an action subject to it, culpable conduct bars recovery entirely once the injured person's share is greater than the defendant's share, or greater than the combined share of the parties being sued.
That single threshold is why trucking insurers press fault onto injured drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians so hard, and why we document the sequence of a collision early.
The driver is rarely the only party at fault, and rarely the only source of insurance. We examine the motor carrier, the shipper, the maintenance contractor, and the company that owns the tractor or the trailer. Each additional party can bring another insurance policy into the case, which matters once medical costs and lost earnings exceed a single policy limit.
Ownership also carries liability in New York. Under Vehicle and Traffic Law § 388, the owner of a vehicle is responsible for injuries resulting from negligence in the use or operation of that vehicle by anyone driving with the owner's permission.
One exception is significant. The federal Graves Amendment preempts owner liability for companies that rent or lease vehicles, and the New York Court of Appeals addressed that preemption in 2026. Many Manhattan delivery trucks are leased rather than owned, so the issue surfaces often.
The exception is not absolute. A leasing company that put a truck on the road with defective brakes or worn tires may still answer for its own negligence, which is why we request maintenance and inspection records in every case. When a crash proves fatal, the family may bring a wrongful death claim alongside the injury claim.
CPLR 214 allows three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit in New York. That period runs from the date of injury, not from the date treatment ends.
A city truck changes the timeline. When a sanitation truck or another vehicle owned by a public corporation caused the crash, General Municipal Law § 50-e requires a sworn notice of claim within 90 days after the claim arises. Missing that step usually ends the case before it begins.
Evidence has a shorter shelf life than either deadline. Electronic logging data and camera footage can be overwritten within weeks, so we send preservation letters as soon as we are retained. Call (917) 809-7014 if your crash was recent.
No. No-fault covers basic economic loss, but you may pursue a lawsuit for pain and suffering once your injuries meet the serious injury threshold in Insurance Law § 5102(d). Most truck crash injuries clear it.
Operating off the Truck Route Network without a nearby delivery origin or destination violates city traffic rules. That violation is evidence of negligence and can also show the carrier failed to train or supervise the driver.
Yes, as long as your share of the fault is not greater than that of the other party, or the combined share of fault of all parties involved. CPLR 1411 bars recovery in truck accidents once the injured person's culpable conduct exceeds that of the party or parties being sued.
The motor carrier and the driver remain responsible for their own negligence. The leasing company is generally shielded from vicarious liability by the Graves Amendment, unless its own conduct, such as deferred maintenance, contributed to the crash.
You must serve a sworn notice of claim within 90 days under General Municipal Law § 50-e before you can sue the city. These claims move quickly, so speak with a lawyer right away.
We handle truck accident cases on a contingency fee basis under a signed agreement, so attorney fees come out of a recovery rather than out of pocket. Ask us how those terms would apply to your case.
You deserve answers, accountability,
and full compensation
If a commercial truck injured you or a family member, the trucking company's insurer is already building its file. You deserve someone building yours.
MooreJustice Accident & Injury Lawyers represents injured people throughout Manhattan from our office at 171 Madison Avenue, Suite 305. Call The Law Offices of Darren T. Moore, P.C. at (917) 809-7014, or contact our team online for a free case evaluation with a Manhattan truck accident lawyer. Founding attorney Darren Moore and managing attorney Nicholas Blatti handle these cases personally.
Darren Moore is the founder of The Law Offices of Darren T. Moore, P.C. and a dedicated New York personal injury attorney. Known for his relentless advocacy and client-focused approach, he has spent his career helping injury victims pursue justice and recover the compensation they deserve. Darren handles a wide range of personal injury matters and is committed to delivering personalized representation for every client.
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