10 Best Car Accident Lawyers in New York City

best car accident lawyers in new york city

This guide covers 10 law firms that handle car accident cases for injured clients across New York City’s five boroughs. Each firm was evaluated on three things: the background and courtroom credentials of its lead attorneys, how much of its actual casework involves motor vehicle collisions rather than car accidents being a minor line item, and whether the firm has a track record of taking cases to verdict rather than settling everything as quickly as possible. Several firms below handle car accident cases as part of a broader personal injury practice; others take auto cases almost exclusively.

This list is not ranked and is not sponsored. Before choosing between options, it helps to ask a few practical questions: does the attorney regularly appear in New York City’s civil courts, or do they mostly refer cases out to trial counsel? Do they have firsthand experience with how insurers evaluate no-fault and serious-injury threshold claims under New York law? And does the firm handle related issues that often come up alongside a car accident case, such as underinsured motorist claims or disputes over no-fault medical benefits? The details below come from each firm’s own website, cross-checked against attorney directories including Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, and Martindale-Hubbell, and business listings such as Yelp, where a specific rating or figure is cited.

1. Sakkas Cahn & Weiss, LLP

Sakkas Cahn & Weiss, LLP
  • Attorney/Key Figure: Mitchel E. Weiss, Founding Partner
  • Headquarters: 110 E 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 (with additional offices in Elizabeth, NJ; Stamford, CT; and Garden City, NY)
  • Phone: (212) 571-7171
  • Website: sakkascahn.com
  • Practice Areas: Motor Vehicle Accidents, Construction Accidents, Medical Malpractice, Premises Liability, Products Liability
  • Firm Size: Boutique; more than 95 years of combined attorney experience among its partners, with three attorneys recognized on Super Lawyers lists
  • Practice Area Page: NYC Car Accident Lawyer

About the Firm: Mitchel Weiss and his partners, Adam Cahn and W. Matthew Sakkas, built the firm around serious personal injury litigation, with motor vehicle accidents forming a core part of the docket alongside construction and premises cases. All three named partners carry individual Super Lawyers recognition in personal injury categories, and the firm has represented clients connected to some of the city’s highest-profile mass casualty incidents.

The firm’s multi-office footprint across the tri-state area, paired with staff who speak five languages, lets it serve NYC clients who commute or have family across state lines without needing to hand a case off to referral counsel. Partners stay directly involved in case strategy rather than delegating negotiation to junior associates.

2. Law Office of Brett J. Nomberg, PLLC

Law Office of Brett J. Nomberg, PLLC
  • Attorney/Key Figure: Brett J. Nomberg, Founder
  • Headquarters: 600 3rd Avenue, New York, NY 10016 (Murray Hill, Manhattan)
  • Phone: (212) 808-8092
  • Website: brettnomberglaw.com
  • Practice Areas: Car Accidents, Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice, Wrongful Death, Product Liability, School Accidents, Construction Accidents
  • Firm Size: Solo practice; Nomberg has practiced personal injury law in New York for more than 30 years and personally handles every case he takes on, from intake through trial and any appeal

About the Firm: Brett Nomberg has spent more than three decades representing injured clients across Manhattan and all five boroughs, building a practice centered on motor vehicle collisions alongside other personal injury and wrongful death matters. Before opening his own firm, he built a courtroom record that today includes multi-million-dollar settlements for car accident victims, and he has continued to try cases himself rather than staffing them out to associates.

What sets the firm apart on car accident cases is its single-attorney model: every client works directly with Nomberg and one paralegal from the first call through resolution, with no case handed off partway through. Clients can reach him directly, including on weekends, which matters in the early days after a crash when insurers move quickly to take recorded statements.

3. Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf

Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf
  • Attorney/Key Figure: Ben B. Rubinowitz, Managing Partner
  • Headquarters: 80 Pine Street, 34th Floor, New York, NY 10005 (Manhattan)
  • Phone: (212) 943-1090
  • Website: gairgair.com
  • Practice Areas: Automobile Accidents, Medical Malpractice, Construction Accidents, General Negligence, Product Liability
  • Firm Size: Mid-size litigation boutique; more than $5 billion recovered since the firm’s founding in 1919, including 60-plus jury verdicts exceeding $1 million

About the Firm: Founded in 1919 by trial lawyer Harry A. Gair, the firm has been managed for decades by Ben Rubinowitz, who joined in 1989 and has personally obtained more than 32 jury verdicts and over 200 settlements exceeding $1 million, many arising from car, truck, and bus accident litigation. The firm has more attorneys recognized by Best Lawyers in America than any other plaintiff’s personal injury firm in New York.

A firm this size means depth on complex litigation, but it also means clients may work with a team rather than a single point of contact, and a firm with this level of national reputation is more selective about which cases it accepts than a solo or small practice would be.

4. Block O’Toole & Murphy

Block O’Toole & Murphy Law
  • Attorney/Key Figure: Jeffrey A. Block, Founding Partner
  • Headquarters: 1 Penn Plaza, Suite 4850, New York, NY 10119 (Manhattan)
  • Phone: (212) 736-5300
  • Website: blockotoole.com
  • Practice Areas: Car & Auto Accidents, Construction Site Injuries, Truck & Commercial Vehicle Accidents, Motorcycle Accidents, Premises Liability, Wrongful Death, Pedestrian & Bicycle Accidents
  • Firm Size: Mid-size; more than $2 billion recovered since founding in 1989, with more million-dollar case results in New York State than any other personal injury firm every year since 2012

About the Firm: Jeffrey Block founded the firm in 1989 after graduating from Brooklyn Law School, and has since obtained more than 200 case resolutions exceeding $1 million, many involving motor vehicle collisions. Fellow partner Stephen Murphy joined after a career as a homicide prosecutor for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office before shifting to plaintiff-side trial work, giving the firm prosecutorial-caliber trial experience turned toward representing injured clients.

The firm deliberately limits the number of cases it accepts to maintain quality of representation, a trade-off that means faster individual attention but a more selective intake process than firms that take on higher case volumes.

5. Kelner & Kelner

Kelner & Kelner
  • Attorney/Key Figure: Robert S. Kelner, Founding Partner
  • Headquarters: 7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich Street, Suite 2700, New York, NY 10007 (Manhattan)
  • Phone: (212) 235-1027
  • Website: kelnerlaw.com
  • Practice Areas: Motor Vehicle Accidents, Commercial Vehicle Accidents, Construction Site Accidents, Medical Malpractice, Wrongful Death
  • Firm Size: Boutique; founded in 1953, with roughly 300 verdicts and settlements of $1 million or more secured by its founding partner alone

About the Firm: Robert Kelner co-founded the firm with his father, Joseph Kelner, a former president of the American Association for Justice, and has gone on to obtain verdicts including more than $29 million in a wrongful death case arising from a trucking accident and $36 million against the city’s Transit Authority. The firm has focused exclusively on personal injury and medical malpractice litigation for more than 70 years.

Because the firm is smaller and centered on its two named partners, clients get direct access to attorneys with decades of individual trial experience, though the firm’s caseload and staffing are naturally more limited than at larger litigation shops.

6. Gersowitz Libo & Korek, P.C.

Gersowitz Libo & Korek, P.C.
  • Attorney/Key Figure: Edward H. Gersowitz, Founding Partner
  • Headquarters: 111 Broadway, Suite 1204, New York, NY 10006 (Manhattan, with an additional office in Englewood, NJ)
  • Phone: (212) 385-4410
  • Website: lawyertime.com
  • Practice Areas: Motor Vehicle Accidents, Medical Malpractice, Personal Injury Litigation, Premises Liability, Labor Law
  • Firm Size: Boutique; founded in 1984, with more than $1 billion recovered for clients and more than 40 years of combined litigation history

About the Firm: Edward Gersowitz and Andrew Libo founded the firm in 1984 after working with well-known trial lawyers F. Lee Bailey and Aaron J. Broder, and Jeff Korek joined as a named partner in 1992 after leaving a defense-side Wall Street firm, giving the practice insight into how insurance carriers build their defenses. Korek has twice been named “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers.

The firm’s staff speaks English, Spanish, Italian, and Albanian, which serves the range of NYC neighborhoods where car accident clients live, and its named partners remain directly involved in case strategy decades after founding the practice.

7. Sacks & Sacks, LLP

Sacks & Sacks, LLP
  • Attorney/Key Figure: Stanley Sacks, Founding Partner
  • Headquarters: New York, NY (Manhattan)
  • Phone: (212) 964-5570
  • Website: sacks-sacks.com
  • Practice Areas: Motor Vehicle Accidents, Construction Accidents, Toxic Torts, Worker’s Compensation, Trip and Fall Premises Liability, Product Liability
  • Firm Size: Boutique; founded shortly after World War II, with more than a dozen verdicts and settlements exceeding $10 million and 12 attorneys at its New York office

About the Firm: Sacks & Sacks was founded by brothers Ira and Melvin Sacks, both World War II veterans, with a younger brother, Stanley, later joining as a named partner. The firm built its reputation representing union construction workers, and its founders personally wrote the 1969 amendments to New York’s Labor Law that expanded protections for injured workers, a legislative history that also informs how the firm approaches motor vehicle cases involving commercial and work-related driving.

The firm’s roots in construction-worker representation mean it brings unusually deep knowledge of New York Labor Law to car accident cases involving delivery drivers, commercial fleets, or work-related travel, though clients whose case involves a purely private passenger vehicle accident may find a firm more singularly focused on auto litigation a closer fit.

8. Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Firm

Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Firm
  • Attorney/Key Figure: Alan L. Fuchsberg, Managing Partner
  • Headquarters: 3 Park Avenue, 37th Floor, New York, NY 10016 (Manhattan)
  • Phone: (212) 869-3500
  • Website: fuchsberg.com
  • Practice Areas: Automobile Accidents, Medical Malpractice, Personal Injury, Civil Rights, Product Liability, Wrongful Death
  • Firm Size: Mid-size; three generations of family leadership since 1920, with 15 attorneys at its Manhattan office

About the Firm: The firm traces back to the 1920s, when Henry Cohen was among the first American lawyers to represent people injured in accidents; his son-in-law, Judge Jacob D. Fuchsberg, went on to obtain the first million-dollar personal injury verdict in U.S. history before later serving on New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. Alan Fuchsberg now leads the firm his grandfather-in-law founded, continuing its focus on catastrophic personal injury litigation including car accidents.

The firm’s unusual arc, from pioneering trial advocacy to the state’s highest court and back to private practice, gives it institutional knowledge of how New York’s appellate courts view personal injury claims, though its broader civil rights and mass tort docket means car accident cases are one part of a wider practice rather than its exclusive focus.

9. The Perecman Firm, P.L.L.C.

The Perecman Firm, P.L.L.C.
  • Attorney/Key Figure: David H. Perecman, Founder
  • Headquarters: 250 West 57th Street, Suite 401, New York, NY 10107 (Manhattan, with additional offices in Jericho and Queens, NY)
  • Phone: (212) 977-7033
  • Website: perecman.com
  • Practice Areas: Vehicle Accidents, Construction Accidents, Premises Liability, Medical Malpractice, Wrongful Death, Workers’ Compensation, Civil Rights
  • Firm Size: Mid-size; founded in 1983, with more than $750 million recovered and three New York City office locations

About the Firm: David Perecman founded the firm in 1983 after earning his law degree from Brooklyn Law School, building a practice initially centered on protecting injured construction workers before expanding into vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, and civil rights litigation. The firm has been named to U.S. News “Best Law Firms” and secured eleven of New York’s top verdicts and settlements in a single recent year.

With three physical offices across Manhattan, Queens, and Long Island, the firm can meet clients closer to home across the boroughs, though its construction-accident roots mean car accident clients are working with a firm whose signature expertise sits in a related but distinct area of New York injury law.

10. Dansker & Aspromonte Associates LLP

Dansker & Aspromonte Associates LLP
  • Attorney/Key Figure: Salvatore Aspromonte, Founding Partner
  • Headquarters: 30 Vesey Street, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10007 (Financial District, Manhattan)
  • Phone: (212) 732-2929
  • Website: dandalaw.com
  • Practice Areas: Traffic Accidents, Construction Accidents, Medical Malpractice, Nursing Home Abuse, Train and Subway Accidents, Slip and Fall
  • Firm Size: Boutique; founded in 1986, with more than $750 million in verdicts and settlements and individual client recoveries as high as $50 million

About the Firm: Paul Dansker and Salvatore Aspromonte founded the firm in 1986 near the World Trade Center site, and it has operated from the same Financial District block ever since. The firm calls itself a boutique practice by design, assigning every client both a managing partner and a trial partner personally, rather than routing cases primarily through junior associates.

That boutique structure means smaller overall staff and caseload capacity than some of the larger firms on this list, but it also means car accident clients get direct, ongoing contact with a partner-level attorney throughout the life of their case rather than being handed off after intake.

New York City Car Accident Resources

  • New York City Police Department (NYPD): Obtain official motor vehicle collision reports for crashes investigated by the NYPD. Reports can be requested online, by mail, or in person; reports are generally available through the precinct for the first 30 days before requests are handled by the New York State DMV. Home4 NYC
  • NYC Health + Hospitals Trauma Centers: Provides emergency and specialized trauma care for serious injuries caused by motor vehicle crashes. NYC Health + Hospitals operates six regional trauma centers across the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. NYC Health + Hospitals
  • New York County Supreme Court, Civil Term: Handles higher-value civil matters in Manhattan and provides court resources for people involved in civil litigation, including personal injury cases. New York Courts
  • New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV): Provides the official MV-104 Report of Motor Vehicle Crash form and resources for reporting crashes that occur in New York State. NY DMV
  • New York State DMV Driver Records: Provides access to driving-record information, which can include convictions, suspensions, revocations, and recorded accidents, subject to applicable record-retention rules and request requirements. NY DMV
  • New York Courts – Motor Vehicle Accident Settlement Resources: New York courts provide alternative dispute resolution and early settlement conferencing options for motor vehicle accident and personal injury cases.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do I have to file a car accident lawsuit in New York City?

New York’s statute of limitations for a personal injury claim arising from a car accident is generally three years from the date of the crash. Claims against a municipal defendant, such as the City of New York or the MTA, carry much shorter deadlines, often requiring a formal notice of claim within 90 days, so it matters to identify early whether a city vehicle or agency was involved.

What does New York’s “serious injury” threshold mean for a car accident claim?

New York is a no-fault insurance state, which means your own auto policy generally covers initial medical bills and lost wages regardless of fault. To step outside no-fault and sue the other driver for pain and suffering, state law requires that your injuries meet one of several statutory “serious injury” categories, such as a fracture, permanent loss of use of a body organ or system, or a disability lasting 90 of the first 180 days after the accident. Firms like Kelner & Kelner and Block O’Toole & Murphy regularly litigate whether a client’s injuries clear this threshold.

How does comparative negligence affect my payout in a New York car accident case?

New York follows a pure comparative negligence rule, meaning your compensation is reduced by your own percentage of fault rather than barred outright if you were partly responsible. A driver found 20 percent at fault, for example, would still recover 80 percent of their damages. This makes early evidence gathering, such as traffic camera footage, black box data, and witness statements, especially important, which is why firms like Sakkas Cahn & Weiss emphasize investigation before filing.

Should I hire a large firm or a smaller, boutique firm for a New York City car accident case?

Larger firms such as Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf or Block O’Toole & Murphy bring deep bench strength and resources for complex, high-value litigation, but clients may interact with a team rather than one attorney throughout. Boutique firms such as Dansker & Aspromonte or Kelner & Kelner tend to offer more direct, ongoing access to a named partner, though with a smaller overall staff. The right fit often depends on case complexity and how much direct contact a client wants with the attorney handling their file.

What should I bring to a free consultation with a car accident attorney?

Useful documents include the police accident report (MV-104 or the NYPD complaint report number), photos of the vehicles and scene, insurance information for all parties involved, any medical records or bills from treatment so far, and contact information for witnesses. Having this ready lets a firm like the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Firm or The Perecman Firm evaluate the strength of a claim more quickly during the initial call.

Do New York car accident attorneys work on contingency?

Nearly all of the firms covered here, including every firm on this list, work on a contingency-fee basis, meaning there is no upfront cost and the firm is paid a percentage of any settlement or verdict recovered. If a case does not result in a recovery, the client typically owes no attorney’s fee, though case costs and disbursements are handled differently from firm to firm and are worth asking about directly.

Disclaimer: This guide is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or an attorney referral. It is not a ranked or sponsored list, and inclusion does not imply an endorsement by, or affiliation with, any named firm beyond what is stated. Attorney credentials, case results, and contact details change over time; confirm current information directly with each firm before making a hiring decision. Past results described here do not guarantee similar outcomes in any other case.

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