If handled properly, suing a municipal government can yield very lucrative verdicts and settlements whether it’s a city, county or state! However, lawsuits against municipal defendants must be handled with special care because of various obstacles that exist in order to make the task of suing a municipality especially tricky and sometimes difficult.

One major difference between a municipal personal injury lawsuit and most other personal injury cases is the need to file a “Notice of Claim” in municipal lawsuits. A New York notice of claim is a legal document that informs the city, county or state of your intention to bring legal proceedings against them.

The Notice of Claim must contain at least the following information:

• Name and address of the party filing the claim and of the attorney representing the party of the claim
• The nature of the claim (what happened) including time, place and location of the accident
• The nature and extent of the injuries
• The document must be verified (sworn to)

Once a Notice has been filed informing the municipality of your intentions to pursue compensation for your injuries caused by their negligence, the statute of limitations to actually file the official legal complaint for municipal suits is also different from most other personal injury suits. For example, in New York, when the following cases do not involve a municipal defendant, the statute of limitations for most personal injury lawsuits (car accidents, slip and falls, hit and runs, etc.) are 3 years from the date of accident. However, when you plan on suing a New York municipality in such cases, the statute of limitations can range from 1 year and 30 days to 1 year and 90 days from the date of the accident.

As you can see, personal injury lawsuits against municipalities have various distinctions that make can make them more difficult to handle than many others. At the Law Office of Richard Kenny our staff has decades of experience handling municipal lawsuits and have tremendous expertise in the area. Our founding partner, Richard Kenny achieved a record setting municipal verdict of over $13 million against the County of Nassau and countless other large settlements and verdicts against municipalities. If you or a loved one is injured due to the negligence of a city, county or state, call our office today at 212-421-0300 for a free consultation.