Queens Brain Injury Attorney
A brain injury after a Queens car crash, construction fall, or pedestrian knockdown can disrupt everything within minutes. Medical bills accumulate. The insurance adjuster calls early, pushes a fast settlement, and cites a clean ER scan as proof there’s nothing serious to pay for. Meanwhile, your headaches worsen, your memory slips, and your concentration and ability to work continue to fall apart.
Founding partner Arkady Frekhtman established Frekhtman & Associates as a Queens TBI practice built around medical evidence. Our Queens brain injury attorneys bring neurologists, neuroradiologists, and neuropsychologists to every case to document the injuries that standard hospital scans miss. We take every case on contingency. No fee unless we recover.
Our track record:
- $900M+ recovered for injured clients across documented cases
- 25+ years fighting for New York injury victims
- $69.25M largest single recovery in a motor vehicle accident case
- 300+ five star Google reviews from real clients
- Fluent in English and Russian
- 9.9 Avvo rating and National Top 100 Trial Lawyers
- Featured in NY Post, Daily Mail, and CBS New York
Visit us at 100-09 Metropolitan Ave, Forest Hills, NY 11375. We charge no fee unless we recover. Available 24/7.
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.Â
What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury?
A traumatic brain injury occurs when an external force disrupts the brain’s normal function. That force does not have to be catastrophic to cause lasting damage. Mild TBI involves loss of consciousness for under 30 minutes or no loss of consciousness. Moderate-to-severe TBI involves loss of consciousness exceeding 30 minutes, post-traumatic amnesia lasting more than 24 hours, and coma in the most serious cases. Acquired brain injuries, including anoxic and hypoxic injuries, result from oxygen deprivation rather than direct physical force. They carry the same legal weight as traumatic brain injuries in a personal injury claim.
Types of Brain Injuries That Lead to Legal Claims
The type of brain injury you sustained determines which specialists, which imaging, and which legal theories apply to your case.
- Concussion: The most common and frequently underdiagnosed TBI. CT and standard MRI scans frequently come back normal despite real neurological disruption. When symptoms persist beyond three months, the condition is classified as post-concussion syndrome and may support a stronger long-term damage claim.
- Contusion: A bruise at the direct impact point on brain tissue. It may appear on standard imaging or be missed, requiring advanced MRI to document.
- Diffuse Axonal Injury: Tearing of axon fiber tracts throughout the brain. DTI detects these injuries but is rarely ordered in standard ER settings, leaving them vulnerable to insurer denial.
- Coup-Contrecoup Injury: Damage at both the impact site and the rebound site on the opposite side of the skull, common in Queens Boulevard rear-end crashes and pedestrian knockdowns.
- Brain Bleed (Intracranial Hemorrhage): Three subtypes each carry different urgency levels and surgical risk. An epidural hematoma is bleeding between the skull and the brain. A subdural hematoma involves bleeding between the brain and its protective covering. A subarachnoid hemorrhage is bleeding into the space surrounding the brain. All require immediate evaluation.
- Penetrating Injury: Occurs in construction accidents involving falling objects, rebar, and tool strikes. Even without full skull penetration, the force causes focal brain damage.
- Anoxic and Hypoxic Brain Injury: Anoxic brain injury results from complete oxygen deprivation. Hypoxic brain injury results from partial oxygen deprivation. Common causes include cardiac arrest, near-drowning, and carbon monoxide poisoning.
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What Should I Do Immediately After a Brain Injury in Queens?
The steps you take in the first hours after a head injury affect both your health and your legal claim.
How Brain Injuries Happen in Queens
Brain injuries in Queens result from a range of accidents, each carrying its own liability framework and legal deadlines.
- Falls: Falls account for 49.1 percent of all TBI-related hospitalizations in the United States (CDC). In Queens, falls occur on icy sidewalks, unsafe staircases, uneven pavement, and wet floors in commercial properties. When a property owner knew or should have known about a dangerous condition and failed to correct it, liability may follow.
- Motor Vehicle Accidents: High-incident corridors include Queens Boulevard, Northern Boulevard, Jamaica Avenue, and roads near JFK International Airport and LaGuardia Airport. Even without a visible impact injury, the force of a collision causes diffuse axonal injury, concussion, or intracranial hemorrhage.
- Construction Accidents: Construction workers face TBI risk from scaffold falls, falling objects, and tool strikes on active sites. New York Labor Law 240 imposes strict liability on property owners and general contractors for gravity-related head injuries. Comparative negligence is not a defense for the defendant under that statute.
- Medical Malpractice: Brain injuries result from surgical errors, anesthesia mistakes, delayed stroke diagnosis, and oxygen deprivation during medical procedures. Expert testimony is required to prove a departure from the accepted standard of care.
- MTA and Transit Accidents: Subway platform falls, and bus crashes involving the MTA or NYCTA are governed by the 90-day Notice of Claim requirement in NY General Municipal Law Section 50-e. A missed deadline permanently bars the claim against the city or transit authority.
- Assaults and Violent Crime: Assaults account for 10 percent of all TBI causes in the United States (CDC). Head trauma suffered in bars, parking lots, or apartment buildings may support a premises liability claim against property owners who failed to provide adequate security.
- Nursing Home Neglect: Nursing home residents sustain brain injuries from preventable falls caused by understaffing, inadequate supervision, and failure to implement fall prevention measures.
Recognizing the Signs, Including Symptoms That Appear Days Later
Brain injuries do not always announce themselves at the scene. Secondary damage, including swelling and changes to the blood-brain barrier, develops over hours to days after impact. Symptoms are frequently overlooked by the injured person, their family, and even their treating physician.
- Immediate: Loss of consciousness, confusion, slurred speech, unequal pupils, vomiting, and seizure.
- Hours to days later: Worsening headache, light and sound sensitivity, sleep disruption, balance problems, and blurred vision.
- Weeks later: Memory gaps, slowed processing, depression, anxiety, and personality changes that family members notice before the injured person does.
Every day between the accident and the first TBI evaluation is a day an insurer will cite to dispute causation. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms after a Queens accident, contact us at (718) 331 3330.
Why Standard Hospital Scans Miss Brain Injuries
CT scans are the first-response imaging tool in emergency settings. They rule out life-threatening bleeds and skull fractures. They are not designed to detect axonal damage, microbleeds, or white matter disruption, which are the injuries that produce lasting cognitive impairment after a mild-to-moderate TBI.
Only about 10 percent of CT scans and 30 percent of standard MRI scans reveal abnormalities in mild TBI cases. Conventional imaging has proven insensitive to diffuse axonal injury, the most common injury in mild TBI. The imaging progression we use for Queens TBI clients starts where ER imaging stops:
- 3T MRI: Greater field strength detects smaller lesions missed on standard 1.5T scanners.
Susceptibility Weighted Imaging (SWI): Detects microbleeds and diffuse axonal injury patterns invisible on conventional sequences. - Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI): Maps white matter fiber tracts and quantifies axonal disruption. Not ordered in acute ER settings, it is used in follow-up clinical evaluation and paired with neuropsychological testing to build the damage narrative for cognitive impairment claims.
- Videonystagmography (VNG): Tests the vestibular system and documents dizziness and balance deficits that insurers often attribute to pre-existing conditions.
- PET Scan: Three-dimensional metabolic imaging sensitive to mild TBI patterns invisible on conventional MRI.
SPECT Scan: Confirms areas of reduced brain activity. Most useful when structural imaging is normal but cognitive impairment is documented. - Neuropsychological Testing: Quantifies cognitive, memory, and functional impairment in terms that translate directly into economic damages, lost earnings, and life care plan costs.
Arterial spin labeling measures cerebral blood flow as a follow-up when DTI shows disruption. The Glasgow Coma Scale and Rancho Los Amigos Scale provide clinical staging that forms the contemporaneous injury severity record. Our neuroradiologists and neuropsychologists conduct this testing to counter insurer denials. A clean ER CT is not the end of the TBI story. It is often the beginning of the documentation battle.
How the Glasgow Coma Scale Affects Your Traumatic Brain Injury Case
Who Is Legally Responsible After a Brain Injury?
In Queens TBI cases, more than one party is often liable. Identifying every defendant and applying the correct legal theory to each determines the full value of your case.
- Negligent Drivers: Negligent drivers face direct liability for crash-related TBIs. When the at-fault driver is underinsured, New York’s Supplemental Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage allows recovery against your own policy up to your SUM limits.
- Property Owners and Landlords: Property owners face liability when a dangerous condition persists on commercial or residential property despite actual or constructive notice of the hazard.
- Construction Contractors: Property owners and general contractors face strict liability for gravity-related TBIs, including scaffold falls, object strikes, and crane collapses. Comparative negligence is not a defense on a Labor Law 240 claim. Labor Law 241 covers Industrial Code violations and requires proof that the violation was a proximate cause of the injury.
- Employers: In Queens construction and warehouse accidents, an injured worker can pursue both a workers’ compensation claim and a separate third-party personal injury lawsuit against the general contractor or site owner.
- City Agencies, MTA, NYCTA, and NYCHA: These entities require a Notice of Claim filed within 90 days of the accident. The lawsuit must be filed within one year and 90 days. That deadline is a hard cutoff.
- Product Manufacturers: Manufacturers of defective vehicle components, helmets, or safety equipment face parallel liability when their product contributed to the TBI.
- Comparative Negligence: New York follows comparative negligence under CPLR Article 14-A. Your recovery is reduced proportionally by your assigned fault percentage, but is not barred even if you are found partially at fault.
What Compensation Can a Brain Injury Victim Recover?
Brain injury victims can seek compensation across three damage categories, and understanding the full scope before accepting any settlement offer is critical.
Economic Damages
- Past and future medical costs: emergency care, hospitalization, surgery, specialist treatment, and rehabilitation
- Future care is projected in a life care plan
- Cognitive, occupational, and speech therapy
- Lost wages from the accident date through recovery
- Reduced earning capacity when cognitive impairment limits your ability to work
- Home modifications
- Transportation costs for ongoing treatment
- Caregiver costs when daily assistance is required
Non-Economic Damages
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress, including depression, anxiety, and PTSD
- Loss of memory and cognitive function
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of consortium for spouses and family members
Note: New York does not cap non-economic damages in personal injury cases. Queens County juries have historically returned substantial TBI verdicts, which is one reason venue matters in complex cases.
Wrongful Death
When a Queens TBI causes death, surviving family members can bring a wrongful death claim under EPTL Section 5-4.1 within two years of the date of death for funeral expenses and lost financial support. A separate survival action under EPTL Section 11-3.2 covers conscious pain and suffering the deceased experienced between the injury and death.
Punitive Damages
New York allows punitive damages when a defendant’s conduct was intentional or showed reckless disregard for others’ safety. These apply in cases involving intentional assault or extreme recklessness, not in every TBI claim.
Filing Deadlines for Brain Injury Claims in New York
Missing a New York TBI deadline permanently bars the claim. Three tracks apply depending on who caused the injury:
- Private party (driver, property owner, contractor): Three years from the accident date under CPLR Section 214.
- City agency, MTA, NYCTA, NYCHA: Notice of Claim within 90 days of the accident under NY General Municipal Law Section 50-e. Lawsuit filed within one year and 90 days.
- Workers’ compensation: Report the injury to your employer within 30 days. File with the Workers’ Compensation Board within two years.
Two evidence windows close regardless of legal deadlines. Camera footage at Queens intersections, transit stations, and commercial properties is typically overwritten within 30 to 90 days. DTI imaging at six weeks documents axonal changes that may no longer be detectable at six months. Acting early protects your legal claim and the medical evidence you need to win it.
How We Build Your Brain Injury Case
Every TBI case we take follows the same four-phase process, built from day one to withstand insurer challenges and hold up at trial.
- Liability Identification: We identify every responsible party from day one. Each defendant requires a separate liability theory and a separate preservation strategy.
- Specialist Referral and Advanced Imaging: Post-injury brain changes captured by DTI and 3T MRI diminish over time. We connect clients with specialists immediately on retention, preserving the imaging window.
- Evidence Preservation: Surveillance footage from Queens intersections, MTA stations, and commercial properties overwrites on a 30-to-90-day cycle. We send preservation demands for EDR data from vehicles, footage from NYC DOT cameras along Queens Boulevard and the Van Wyck Expressway, DOB inspection logs for construction sites, MTA incident records, and NYPD reports obtained through FOIL. Witness statements go stale. We get them early.
- Damages Documentation: We build the full damages picture before any settlement discussion begins, coordinating life care planners, vocational experts, and economic analysts so insurers cannot undervalue the claim.
Why Injury Victims Choose Frekhtman & Associates for TBI Claims
Choosing the right Queens brain injury lawyer is the main decision that determines what your case is worth. At Frekhtman & Associates, founding attorney Arkady Frekhtman has spent over 25 years building TBI cases that hold up in court and at the negotiating table. When insurance companies move fast to deny your claim, our team moves faster.
- Proven Experience: Our attorneys have secured record-setting brain injury verdicts across New York, going to trial when insurers refuse fair compensation. We do not settle cases short; we build them to win.
- Advanced Diagnostic Testing: We coordinate DTI, SWI, 3T MRI, vestibular testing, and neuropsychological evaluation, the testing that documents injuries insurance companies try to call invisible.
- Multi-Expert Trial Team: Our team assembles neurologists, neuropsychologists, neuroradiologists, life care planners, vocational experts, and accident reconstructionists who quantify your full lifetime damages.
- Queens Court Experience: Our attorneys know the judges, defense strategies, and local procedures in Queens County courts, giving your case a structural advantage from the start.
- No Upfront Costs: You pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you. We advance all litigation costs regardless of how long your case takes.
- Multilingual: Our lawyers serve Queens clients in English and Russian, covering one of the borough’s largest language communities.
When Should You Get an SWI Test After a Brain Injury?
Watch: Attorney Arkady Frekhtman explains when susceptibility weighted imaging should be ordered after a traumatic brain injury, why timing matters, and how this advanced test documents brain damage that standard scans miss entirely.
Areas We Serve Across Queens and New York
Frekhtman & Associates represents brain injury victims across every borough in New York City and throughout the metropolitan area. Our attorneys understand the specific requirements of filing claims in each jurisdiction.
Queens Neighborhoods We Serve:
Astoria, Bayside, Bellerose, Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst, Far Rockaway, Flushing, Forest Hills, Fresh Meadows, Howard Beach, Jackson Heights, Jamaica, Kew Gardens, Long Island City, Maspeth, Middle Village, Ozone Park, Queens Village, Rego Park, Richmond Hill, Ridgewood, Rockaway Beach, South Ozone Park, Springfield Gardens, Sunnyside, Whitestone, Woodhaven, Woodside
We also represent clients in Manhattan (New York County), Brooklyn (Kings County), The Bronx (Bronx County), Staten Island (Richmond County), Nassau and Suffolk Counties, and across Long Island.
FAQs About Brain Injury Claims
Is a Concussion Considered a Traumatic Brain Injury Under New York Law?
Yes. A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury under New York law. A negative CT or MRI scan does not disqualify the claim; advanced imaging can document axonal disruption that standard scans miss.
Can I File a Claim If I Did Not Lose Consciousness?
What Happens If the Insurer Claims My Brain Injury Is Pre-Existing?
A pre-existing condition does not bar recovery under New York’s eggshell plaintiff doctrine. If the accident aggravated, accelerated, or exacerbated a prior condition, the defendant is liable for that aggravation. Baseline testing establishes what changed after the accident.
What Is the Serious Injury Threshold and Does a TBI Qualify?
Can I Still File a Claim If I Delayed Medical Treatment?
Yes, but delay weakens the claim. Insurers argue that delayed treatment means the injury was not serious or was caused by something unrelated to the accident. The stronger your documentation connecting symptoms to the accident, the better your position despite the gap.
How Long Does a Queens Brain Injury Case Take?
Most Queens TBI cases take two to four years to resolve. The timeline depends on when you reach maximum medical improvement, the complexity of your injuries, and whether the case settles or goes to trial. Cases involving disputed liability or severe injury typically take longer.
Get a Free Case Review Before Evidence Is Gone
Every day after a Queens brain injury, the evidentiary record shrinks. Cameras overwrite. Witnesses’ memories fade. The imaging window for axonal documentation narrows. At Frekhtman & Associates, we move on retention: we send preservation demands, secure records, and schedule specialist imaging before those windows close.
We are available 24/7 and visit clients at home or in the hospital when travel is not possible. Our Forest Hills office is located at 100-09 Metropolitan Ave, Forest Hills, NY 11375.
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.Â
Contact For A Free Case Review
While it’s possible to handle a personal injury case on your own, having an experienced attorney by your side significantly increases the likelihood of a favorable outcome. According to studies, victims represented by a personal injury lawyer receive higher settlement amounts compared to those who handle their cases independently. For a free case evaluation: