Robin Herman | 02:40

New York has a serious injury threshold. What clears the bar and what falls short?

Glenn Herman | 02:47

Glenn Herman explains that New York’s serious injury threshold separates a claim for pain and suffering from one limited to bills and that a broken bone clears it almost immediately. First, understand the serious injury threshold only applies when there’s a vehicle involved. Under insurance law section 5102D, which is current as of September 2026, there’s different categories of serious injury, death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement, fracture, permanent use, and a significant limitation of a body function. Now I win these soft tissue and spinal cases with objective proof, imaging and measured deficits, which is documented from day one because, unfortunately, now pain alone does not clear that serious injury threshold. If no vehicle was involved, and you went down because of a Queens pothole or a street defect up in the Bronx, the threshold doesn’t apply to you at all, and a claim could be brought no matter the level of the injury.