A distracted driving accident lawyer helps people who were hurt by a driver looking at a phone instead of the road. At Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP, we go after the proof that the other driver was distracted, take on the insurance company, and fight for the money you need to recover. These cases are often won or lost on evidence that disappears fast, which is why moving quickly matters.
Getting hit by a distracted driver comes with a particular kind of anger. Someone chose a text over your safety, and now you're the one paying for it with your body, your time, and your bills. Our Buffalo distracted driving accident attorneys build the case that holds that driver accountable. This is one focus of our broader Buffalo car accident and personal injury practice, so the full resources of the firm are behind your claim from the start.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
Anything that pulls a driver's eyes, hands, or mind off the road. Texting is the worst because it does all three at once, but scrolling a playlist, checking a map, eating, and turning to talk to a passenger all qualify. It doesn't take long. A glance down at highway speed carries a car the length of a football field.
Phones get the headlines, and they earn them, but distraction is broader than a single device. What matters for your case isn't the label, it's whether the other driver's inattention caused the crash. That's the question everything else turns on.
You go get the evidence, because the driver won't admit it. Distraction lives in records and details, and a good case pulls them together into a picture no insurer can wave away. This is the heart of a distracted driving claim, and it's where experience really counts.
The proof usually comes from a mix of sources:
Pulled together, these turn "I don't know what happened" into a clear account of a driver who wasn't watching the road.
They usually do, and it doesn't stop us. Almost no one admits they were texting, so we don't rely on their honesty. We go after the phone records, the vehicle data, and the video, using subpoenas and formal discovery to get what the driver would rather keep buried.
That's exactly why the early days matter so much. Phone carriers and businesses don't keep records forever, and surveillance footage often gets recorded over within days or weeks. The sooner our Buffalo distracted driving accident lawyers send the preservation letters and subpoenas, the more of that proof still exists when we need it.
Yes. New York bans texting and handheld phone use for every driver, and it's a primary offense, which means an officer can pull a driver over for it alone. Violations carry license points and escalating fines, and the penalties are stiffer for young and probationary drivers.
A citation or an admission at the scene can help your injury case, but it isn't required to win. A driver can be legally at fault for a distraction that never resulted in a ticket. Our job is to prove the inattention and connect it to your injuries, whether or not the police wrote anyone up.
Because the proof is perishable. Unlike a dented bumper, a driver's distraction leaves a trail that fades fast, phone logs get purged, surveillance loops overwrite, and memories blur. The case you can prove six months from now depends largely on what gets preserved in the first few weeks.
This is the single biggest reason not to go it alone against the insurance company or wait to call a lawyer. The moment we're retained, we start sending preservation letters and lining up subpoenas so the records that matter are locked down before anyone can claim they no longer exist. An insurer is not going to gather that evidence for you, and the at-fault driver certainly won't.
If you were in a car, your own no-fault coverage pays your initial medical bills and lost wages, regardless of who caused the crash. To recover for your pain, suffering, and longer-term losses, you bring a claim against the distracted driver, and for that you generally have to meet New York's serious injury threshold.
Most people badly hurt by a distracted driver clear that threshold without much difficulty. The larger claim against the at-fault driver is where the real value of the case lives, on top of the no-fault benefits that get you through the first stretch. New York's comparative fault rule can also come into play, and insurers will try to shift blame onto you to shrink what they pay. We answer that with evidence.
Yes. New York follows comparative negligence, so you can recover even if you share some of the blame, with your percentage of fault reducing the amount. And a driver who was looking at a phone is in a weak position to argue you were the careless one.
That weakness is worth understanding, because insurers still try. Shifting even a slice of fault onto you saves them money, so an adjuster may suggest you were speeding or stopped short. Proof that the other driver never looked up tends to end that argument quickly.
You may still have a path to compensation through your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. That coverage is there for exactly this, a driver who caused the crash but has no insurance, or nowhere near enough to cover a serious injury.
We'll review your policy, explain the coverage you actually have, and pursue every available source, including your own carrier. People are often surprised how much coverage turns out to be in play once we look closely.
A distracted driving claim can recover your medical bills, lost income, reduced future earning power, pain and suffering, and the cost of long-term care and property damage. Where a driver's behavior was truly reckless, punitive damages may be possible too.
The right figure isn't the insurer's first offer. It's the full cost of the crash across your whole recovery, the surgery still ahead, the therapy, the work you'll miss. Our attorneys build that number carefully, with input from your doctors and, when a case calls for it, economic and medical experts, so the demand reflects what the crash actually took from you.
By adding up everything the crash cost you, not just the bills already in hand. That means your past and future medical care, the income you've lost and the earning power you may never get back, and a fair figure for the pain and the changes to your daily life. The more serious and lasting the injury, the higher the value.
Two crashes that look identical on paper can be worth very different amounts, depending on how the injuries play out. A back injury that ends a physical career is worth far more than the same injury to someone who can return to a desk. We build the number with your treating doctors and, where it matters, economists and life-care planners who can put a real value on a lifetime of consequences. Distracted driving cases can also carry extra weight, because a jury tends to react strongly to a driver who chose a screen over the people around them.
The claim is just as strong, and often the injuries are worse. A person on foot or a bike has nothing between them and a distracted driver, so these crashes tend to be severe. As a pedestrian or cyclist struck by a car, you're generally covered by that vehicle's no-fault insurance, much like a passenger would be.
Distraction is often the whole story in these cases, a driver who never saw the person in the crosswalk or the rider in the bike lane because they were looking down. If a driver hit you while you were riding, our Buffalo bicycle accident lawyer page covers how no-fault and your injury claim fit together. Either way, the proof of distraction is what ties the driver to what they did.
The stakes, and the available coverage, go up. A distracted delivery driver, trucker, or rideshare driver can put their employer or the company they drive for on the hook alongside them, which often means more insurance to cover serious injuries. It also means a bigger opponent, and more evidence to chase.
Commercial vehicles frequently carry their own data and logs that can help prove distraction, and company phone-use policies can matter too, since a business that looked the other way while its drivers texted may share responsibility. If your crash involved a big rig, see our trucking accident lawyer page, and if an Uber or Lyft driver hit you, our rideshare accident lawyer page explains how that layered coverage works. Either way, our Buffalo distracted driving accident lawyers know where to look.
Because the distracted driver never hits the brakes. A driver looking at a phone doesn't see the stopped traffic, the red light, or the crossing pedestrian, so the car strikes at full speed with no slowing at all. That's the difference between a fender-bender and a life-altering injury.
It's the reason distracted driving crashes so often bring broken bones, spinal damage, and traumatic brain injuries rather than sore necks. A driver who's paying attention usually gets a foot on the brake and sheds some speed before impact. A distracted one delivers the whole force of the collision, and the people they hit absorb every bit of it.
Usually three years from the date of the crash to sue the at-fault driver. If a government vehicle was involved, a formal notice can be due within 90 days, far sooner. And the evidence that proves distraction disappears well before any legal deadline.
That last point is the one that actually drives the timing. You may have three years to file, but the phone records and video that make your case can be gone in weeks. Early is always better here.
Get medical care first, then focus on the evidence. Call 911 and get a police report, and if you saw the other driver on a phone, tell the officer. Photograph the scene, get witness names, and be careful what you say to any insurance company before you talk to a lawyer.
Little things at the scene can matter later, a witness who noticed the driver looking down, a nearby camera, the driver's own words before they think better of them. Hold onto everything and let your lawyer deal with the insurers. What feels like a harmless call to an adjuster can quietly work against you.
We move fast on evidence and we prepare every case as if it's going to trial. That means securing the phone and vehicle data early, building the full picture of your injuries, and dealing with the insurance company so you don't have to, while you focus on getting better.
Early on, our attorneys preserve the scene evidence, track down witnesses and video, and start the process of subpoenaing the records that prove distraction. From there we document your treatment and its long-term impact, present the claim to the insurer, and file suit in New York State Supreme Court when they won't deal fairly. Most cases settle through negotiation or mediation, but insurers offer real money when they see a firm that's ready to try the case. We keep these matters in house from start to finish, and nothing gets handed off.
We represent injured people across Western New York, and we handle distracted driving cases the same way we handle every case, in house, start to finish, through settlement, trial, and appeal. We know how to dig out the proof of distraction, and we know the insurance tactics that come with these claims.
These cases reward a firm that acts quickly and prepares thoroughly, and that's what we bring, along with straight answers in plain language so you always know where things stand. You focus on your recovery. We'll go get the evidence and make the case.
If a distracted driver hurt you or someone you love in Buffalo or Western New York, the attorneys at Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP are ready to help. Contact us for a free consultation, and a Buffalo distracted driving accident lawyer will review your crash, explain what it takes to prove distraction, and lay out your options, with no fee unless we recover for you.
Don't wait. The phone records and video that can prove your case may not survive the delay. The sooner we start, the more we can do to protect the evidence and your right to full compensation.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
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