Rear-ended by a driver looking at their phone. Hit by a driver fumbling with GPS. Side-swiped by a driver scrolling social media at 40 mph. NY's texting-while-driving and handheld-phone laws both apply — both are negligence per se if proven. The hard part is proving it. We subpoena phone records, screen-time data, and app usage logs to lock down what the driver was doing in the seconds before impact.
Madison Law Firm PLLC · 579 5th Ave, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10017
Police report, scene photos, witness statements about driver behavior pre-crash, traffic camera footage. Preservation letters to the carrier and any social-media platform that may have logged activity. We pull EDR (event data recorder) data from the vehicle showing brake/throttle inputs in the final seconds.
Phone-records evidence shifts negotiating leverage substantially. Insurance adjusters who would otherwise lowball a 'rear-end whiplash' claim move fast when the file shows their insured was on TikTok at the moment of impact. We document this evidence early and present it strategically.
Distracted-driving cases play extremely well to juries — everyone hates seeing texts-while-driving evidence. We coordinate with senior trial counsel under NY co-counsel rules joint-responsibility agreements where the case warrants it.
Every case is different. The recoverable damages depend on your injuries, the insurance available, and the facts of your case.
We send a preservation letter to the at-fault driver and a subpoena to the carrier (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) within the first 30 days. Cell tower records, SMS/iMessage timestamps, app foreground activity, and even screen-on data — modern phone forensics can prove the driver was distracted at the exact moment of the crash. Without the preservation letter, this data is purged within months.
Some kinds of injury cases need a doctor to review the file first and confirm it's a real case. We handle that for you during intake.
Claims against NYC Health + Hospitals (HHC) facilities — Bellevue, Elmhurst, Kings County, Lincoln, etc. — require a special notice rules. Same deadline applies to SUNY hospitals. Call us before that deadline runs.
We answer 24/7. Free consultation. No fee unless we win.