Are you looking for a hit and run accident lawyer in Brooklyn?
Trusted hit and run counsel for individuals and families throughout Brooklyn.
If a driver hit your car in Brooklyn and drove off, your own insurance policy probably holds more protection than you realize. Every New York auto policy carries no-fault benefits and uninsured motorist coverage, both of which exist for exactly this moment. A Brooklyn, NY hit and run accident lawyer at Rosenberg & Rodriguez Personal Injury Lawyers files the right claims in the right order and pushes each one to full value, whether or not the police ever find the driver. Consultations are free, and we work on contingency.
Hit and Run Accident Lawyer Brooklyn, NY
A hit and run is a crash in which a driver leaves the scene without stopping, exchanging information, and reporting as the law requires. The problem is national and growing. More than 900,000 police-reported crashes in 2023 involved a driver who fled, causing over 240,000 injuries, according to AAA Foundation research.
New York City takes the problem seriously enough to require its own accounting. The City Council mandates an annual hit-and-run report tracking every leaving-the-scene complaint and how many close with an arrest, and the complaint totals run to the tens of thousands each year. A hit and run accident attorney in Brooklyn, NY builds your recovery so it does not depend on an arrest that may never come.
Types of Hit and Run Accident Cases We Handle in Brooklyn
The setting of a hit and run shapes both the evidence and the insurance path. A sideswipe in moving traffic, a stopped car struck at a light, and a fleeing commercial vehicle each call for a different approach, and our firm has handled all of them, along with the related collision types below.
- Moving-traffic sideswipes. A driver clips your car changing lanes or passing, then accelerates away. Damage transfer, paint evidence, and dashcam footage from surrounding vehicles frequently identify the make and color even when no one catches the plate.
- Struck while stopped or parked. Drivers hit occupied vehicles at lights, in standstill traffic, and along parked curbs, then leave. Injuries in these crashes are real even at modest speeds, and nearby storefront cameras usually saw what the victim could not.
- Pedestrians and cyclists struck by fleeing drivers. People on foot and on bikes suffer the worst outcomes in these crashes, and drivers who hit them flee at far higher rates, especially at night. These claims move through many of the same coverage channels, including policies within the victim's own household.
- Taxi accidents. Livery and yellow cabs carry TLC plates and trip records that make fleeing vehicles traceable. We use those records to identify drivers and reach the commercial coverage behind them.
- Uber accidents. A rideshare driver who causes a crash between fares and leaves is still connected to the trip through app data. We know how to obtain that data and which policies respond to the claim.
- Rear-end collisions. A trailing driver strikes your car and flees before you can exchange information, leaving the impact damage to tell the story.
- Intersection accidents. A red-light runner causes a crash and escapes through the cross street, where traffic cameras often catch what witnesses missed.
- Head-on collisions. A wrong-way driver strikes oncoming vehicles and keeps going, compounding a severe crash with a disappearing defendant.
Why Choose Rosenberg & Rodriguez Personal Injury Lawyers as my Hit and Run Accident Lawyer in Brooklyn, NY?
When Your Own Insurer Becomes the Opponent
An uninsured motorist claim puts you across the table from your own carrier, and loyalty ends the moment you file it. Premium payments buy coverage, not cooperation. The company that mails you a renewal notice every year will evaluate your injuries with the same skepticism it applies to strangers, sometimes with insurer surveillance to match. Our attorneys treat a UM claim like the adversarial proceeding it is. Founding attorneys Laura Rosenberg and Ivan Rodriguez lead a firm with a century of combined experience representing injured New Yorkers, in English and in Spanish. Knowing which claim to file first, and how to litigate against a client's own carrier, is the kind of judgment a car accident lawyer in Brooklyn, NY should bring from the first phone call.
Arbitration and Trial Results
Uninsured motorist disputes are frequently resolved through arbitration rather than a courtroom, and we have won in both settings. Carriers track which firms prepare and which fold, and they price their offers accordingly. Our results include:
- $100,000 arbitration award for an injured client
- $125,000 for a passenger injured in a highway crash
- $120,000 jury verdict in a two-car accident case
Those outcomes sit among the millions recovered by our attorneys, every dollar of it on contingency. No recovery means no fee.
Understanding Hit and Run Accident Cases
What Are Important Aspects of a Hit and Run Accident Case?
Your position after a hit and run is stronger than it feels, and the strength comes from coverage you already paid for:
- No-fault benefits on your own policy pay medical bills and partial lost wages promptly, regardless of who fled, and understanding your no-fault benefits keeps treatment moving
- Uninsured motorist coverage, mandatory on every New York auto policy, stands in for the missing driver's liability insurance
- Supplementary UM coverage raises that protection if you purchased higher limits, an option the Department of Financial Services describes for consumers
- If the driver is later identified, a direct claim against their policy reopens, and you can sue for a hit-and-run like any other crash
Evidence still matters. At the scene, you may be wondering: if someone hit my car, what do I do? The answer to that question starts with photographs, witness names, and anything you noticed about the fleeing vehicle.
What Is The Hit and Run Accident Case Timeline?
- A police report filed promptly, within 24 hours, keeps every unidentified-driver option open
- Written notice to your own insurer follows immediately, because UM coverage enforces strict notice conditions
- No-fault applications go in within 30 days so benefits start flowing
- Treatment and investigation proceed together while we canvass cameras near your Brooklyn police precinct and the crash site
- Demand, then negotiation, then arbitration or suit if the carrier undervalues the claim
A lawsuit against an identified driver must be filed within the three years New York's statute of limitations provides. The contractual UM deadlines arrive far sooner, which is why the first week matters more in these cases than in almost any other.
Damages, Liability, and Compensation for Hit and Run Accident Cases
Compensation covers medical expenses beyond no-fault limits, lost earnings, vehicle damage, and pain and suffering for injuries meeting the serious injury threshold that governs New York car accident claims. The threshold analysis works the same in a UM claim as it would against a defendant sitting in the courtroom. The fleeing itself can strengthen the case. A driver who abandons an injured person makes a poor witness and a worse defendant, and juries know it. New York's uninsured motorist framework, grounded in the state's insurance law, applies your policy's bodily injury protection to the phantom driver's negligence, and comparative fault rules operate the same way they would if the driver had stayed.
What Should You Bring to Your Hit and Run Accident Consultation?
Partial files are normal in these cases. Bring what you have, and we will build the rest.
- The police report or complaint number
- Your full auto policy, including the declarations page showing UM and SUM limits
- Photos of the damage and the scene
- Any detail about the fleeing vehicle, however small
- Medical records and bills to date
If the driver is found, we pursue them directly. If not, we will tell you exactly what your own coverage can do and what it cannot. Either way, you leave the first meeting with a plan.
Where Hit and Run Crashes Concentrate in Brooklyn
Fleeing is easiest where traffic moves and witnesses scatter, and certain Brooklyn corridors offer both. Remsen Avenue and Empire Boulevard carry fast crosstown traffic past long residential stretches, and Third Avenue through Gowanus mixes trucks, commuters, and highway ramps that give a fleeing driver a quick exit. Overnight hours produce a disproportionate share of these crashes borough-wide. Wherever yours happened, nearby cameras recorded more than you think, and reaching them before footage cycles out is our first move.
Reach Out to Rosenberg & Rodriguez Personal Injury Lawyers to Schedule a Consultation
If you have been involved in a hit-and-run accident, you have legal options available to you. Contact us today for a free consultation with a Brooklyn hit and run accident attorney. We charge no fee unless we recover for you, we respond promptly to every inquiry, and we serve clients in English and Spanish. One conversation maps out every source of recovery available to you.
