A tort lawyer handles civil claims for harm caused by someone else's carelessness or intentional conduct. In New York, that includes car crashes, falls, defective products, and wrongful death.
Different firms use different labels: tort lawyer, personal injury lawyer, trial lawyer. All three describe the same job: proving another party caused your injury and recovering money for it.
Below, you will find what a tort is, what the lawyer actually does, and the New York rules that shape these cases right now.
What is a tort?
A tort is a civil wrong. Not a crime, though the same act can be both. A driver who runs a red light and hits a pedestrian may face a traffic charge from the state. The pedestrian's claim for medical bills, lost wages, and pain is the tort case. The criminal case punishes. The tort case compensates.
Most tort cases rest on negligence. A person or company failed to use reasonable care, and that failure caused injury. Others rest on strict liability, where fault attaches without proof of carelessness, as with certain defective products. A smaller group involves intentional acts, like assault.
Is a personal injury lawyer the same as a tort lawyer?
For practical purposes, yes. Personal injury law is the branch of tort law that deals with bodily harm. A firm that handles car accidents, construction falls, and premises cases is practicing tort law. The label on the door matters less than whether the firm actually tries these cases in New York courts.
Tort law also covers non-physical harm, such as fraud or defamation. Most injured people searching this question need the personal injury side, and that is what this article covers.
What does a tort lawyer actually do?
The work starts with proof. What you can prove matters more than what you remember. A tort lawyer gathers the police report, witness statements, photographs, and camera footage. The lawyer also follows the medical record as your treating physicians develop it.
Next comes finding every source of recovery. In a crash case, that means the at-fault driver's liability policy, the policy on the vehicle you occupied, and your own coverages, including uninsured and underinsured motorist protection. In a bus accident, it can mean a transit authority with a short notice deadline. Finally, the lawyer values the claim, negotiates, and files suit when the offer does not match the injury.
What New York rules shape tort cases now?
Several rules matter in nearly every case.
First is deadlines. Most personal injury claims must be filed within three years under CPLR § 214. Wrongful death claims generally have two years under EPTL § 5-4.1. Claims against a city or public agency usually require a notice of claim within 90 days under General Municipal Law § 50-e. A no-fault application after a crash is generally due within 30 days.
Next, the serious injury threshold. In motor vehicle cases, Insurance Law § 5102(d) limits pain-and-suffering lawsuits to injuries meeting defined categories. These include death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement, fracture, loss of a fetus, permanent loss of use, permanent consequential limitation, and significant limitation of use of a body function or system. The old 90/180-day category was repealed for actions started on or after May 26, 2026. Do not rely on it for a new case.
Comparative fault is another. For motor vehicle claims filed on or after May 26, 2026, CPLR § 1411(b) bars recovery if your share of fault exceeds the combined fault of the parties you are suing. Below that line, your recovery is reduced by your percentage. Outside auto cases, such as a premises or construction claim, pure comparative fault under § 1411(a) still applies. There, partial fault only reduces the award.
And one more auto rule. Insurance Law § 5104 caps non-economic damages at $100,000 for certain at-fault injured drivers. That includes a driver who failed to insure a vehicle they were required to insure. The cap does not apply in death cases.
Does New York cap damages?
Outside the narrow § 5104(d) situation above, New York does not impose a general cap on compensatory damages in injury cases. There is no medical malpractice cap. Juries value the loss based on the evidence.
That makes the proof work more important, not less. An uncapped claim is only worth what the record supports: the imaging, the surgical reports, the wage documentation, the treating physicians' findings over time. Gaps in treatment and thin records lower value in any case, capped or not.
When should you talk to a tort lawyer?
Early - not because of pressure, but because of the clocks. The 30-day no-fault application and the 90-day municipal notice both run from the date of the injury. So does the lifespan of evidence that disappears fast, like camera footage and skid marks.
Where the case happened also matters. A crash on the Grand Concourse raises different proof and coverage questions than one on the LIE in Suffolk County. A lawyer who tries cases in that venue knows how those claims are actually evaluated. Our discussion of hiring a Bronx car accident lawyer walks through what local experience adds.
A consultation commits you to nothing. Be wary of any lawyer who quotes a case value before investigating both liability and damages. That number rests on incomplete information.
How Schwartzapfel Holbrook approaches tort cases
Schwartzapfel Holbrook accepts a limited number of serious injury and wrongful death cases across New York City, Nassau County, and Suffolk County. We prepare each case for the possibility of a jury verdict. That means investigating liability fully, identifying every applicable policy, and following the medical record as treating physicians document it. Insurance carriers evaluate a prepared case differently than an unprepared one. That preparation begins the day you call.
