Our civil suit lawyers offer a free consultation to anyone hurt by another person's or company's wrongdoing in Buffalo or Western New York. At Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP, our civil suit attorneys handle injury and wrongful death cases on a contingency fee, which means you pay nothing up front and nothing at all unless we win. The free consultation is your first step, with no cost and no obligation to hire us.
Most people have never filed a lawsuit and don't know where to begin, or whether they even have a case. That's exactly what the free consultation is for. You tell us what happened, our civil suit lawyers tell you honestly whether you have a claim and what it may be worth, and you decide where to go from there. This is part of our broader Buffalo personal injury practice, so the full weight of the firm is behind your case.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
A civil suit is a lawsuit one person or business brings against another to recover money for a harm they caused, rather than to punish a crime. When someone is injured by another party's negligence or wrongdoing, a civil suit is how they hold that party accountable and recover compensation for their losses. Nearly every personal injury case is a civil suit.
The point of a civil suit isn't to send anyone to jail. It's to make the injured person whole, to shift the financial burden of an injury onto the party who caused it, where it belongs. Our civil suit attorneys bring these cases for people harmed by careless drivers, unsafe property, defective products, dangerous conditions, and other forms of negligence.
A criminal case is brought by the government to punish someone for breaking the law, and a civil suit is brought by a private person to recover money for a harm. They have different goals, different burdens of proof, and different outcomes. A criminal case can send someone to jail; a civil suit results in a money judgment.
The two can arise from the same event. A drunk driver who injures someone may face criminal charges from the state and a civil suit from the person they hurt, and the two proceed separately. A criminal conviction isn't required for a civil suit to succeed, because a civil case has a lower burden of proof. Our civil suit lawyers pursue the civil claim regardless of what happens on the criminal side.
Our civil suit lawyers focus on injury and wrongful death cases, the civil claims that arise when someone is harmed by another party's negligence. If you were hurt in an accident, on unsafe property, by a defective product, or by careless or reckless conduct, that's the kind of civil suit our attorneys handle.
The civil suits our team brings include:
If your situation involves a business dispute, a contract, or another non-injury matter, that's a different area of civil law, and our civil suit attorneys are glad to point you toward the right kind of lawyer.
Because it lets you find out where you stand at no cost and no risk. A free consultation means you can sit down with a civil suit lawyer, explain what happened, and get an honest read on whether you have a case and what it may be worth, all without paying anything or committing to hire the firm. There's no reason not to find out.
People often talk themselves out of a strong claim because they assume a lawyer is expensive or the case isn't worth much. The free consultation removes that guesswork. Our civil suit lawyers will tell you straight whether you have a viable claim, and if you don't, we'll tell you that too. Either way, you leave knowing more than when you came in.
For an injury civil suit, usually nothing up front. Our civil suit attorneys work on a contingency fee, which means our fee is a percentage of what we recover for you, and we only collect if we win. There's no hourly bill, no retainer, and no out-of-pocket cost to start your case. If we don't recover for you, you owe us no attorney fee.
This is one of the most important things to understand about bringing a civil suit for an injury. You don't need money to hire a good lawyer. The contingency fee exists precisely so that anyone who's been hurt, regardless of their finances, can afford strong representation and stand on equal footing with the insurance company and its lawyers.
A contingency fee is an arrangement where your lawyer's fee comes out of your recovery, as a percentage, rather than from money you pay up front. If there's no recovery, there's no fee. It ties your lawyer's payment directly to your result, so the firm only gets paid when you do.
It also aligns everyone's interests. Because our civil suit lawyers are paid a share of what we recover, our attorneys have every reason to pursue the fullest recovery possible and to take the case as far as it needs to go. Our attorneys will explain the fee clearly before you sign anything, so you know exactly how it works from the start.
It moves through a series of stages, most of which happen before any trial. A civil suit begins with an investigation and a demand, moves into the filing of a lawsuit and the exchange of evidence if it doesn't settle, and can proceed to negotiation, mediation, or trial. Most civil suits resolve through a settlement along the way.
The process can look intimidating from the outside, but you don't walk it alone. Our civil suit attorneys handle each stage, the investigation, the paperwork, the negotiation with the insurance company, and the courtroom if it comes to that, while keeping you informed and letting you make the decisions that are yours to make. Our team does the legal work so you can focus on your recovery.
In an injury civil suit, generally that the other party was negligent and that their negligence caused your harm. You have to show the party owed you a duty of care, failed to meet it, and caused your injuries and losses as a result. The burden of proof is lower than in a criminal case, a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not.
That lower standard is a meaningful advantage. A criminal case has to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but a civil suit only has to show that your version is more likely true than not. Our civil suit lawyers build the proof, the records, the witnesses, the expert testimony, to meet that standard and establish both fault and the full extent of your losses.
Compensation for the harm you suffered. A civil suit for an injury can recover your medical bills, lost income and future earning power, the cost of ongoing care, and compensation for pain, suffering, and the effect on your life. In a wrongful death civil suit, a family can recover for the losses caused by a loved one's death.
Where the conduct was especially reckless, additional punitive damages may be possible. The goal of the civil suit is to account for everything the injury took from you, the bills already paid, the costs still to come, and the harder-to-measure losses that don't show up on a receipt. Our civil suit attorneys build the full value of the claim and pursue every category that applies.
It depends on the type of case, but there's always a deadline. Most injury civil suits in New York must be filed within three years of the injury, while a wrongful death claim generally allows two years and a case against a government entity requires a formal notice of claim within about 90 days. Miss the deadline, and the claim can be lost for good.
Because the deadline varies with the kind of claim and who's responsible, it's not something to guess at. The safest course is to talk to a civil suit lawyer early, well before any deadline is close, both to protect your right to sue and because evidence is easier to preserve while it's fresh. A free consultation is the simplest way to find out how much time you have.
Probably not, though it should always be prepared as if it will. The large majority of civil suits settle before trial, through negotiation or mediation, once the other side sees that the claim is strong and well-documented. But the cases that settle for full value are usually the ones that were built and ready for trial from the start.
That's the paradox of these cases. An insurance company pays fairly when it believes the lawyer is willing and able to try the case, and lowballs when it senses the lawyer wants to avoid court. Our civil suit lawyers prepare every case for trial precisely so it doesn't have to go there, and when a fair settlement isn't offered, our attorneys are ready to take it before a jury.
Whatever you have, though you don't need much to start. Any accident or police report, photos, medical records or bills, insurance information, and the names of any witnesses are all helpful, but if you don't have them, come anyway. The consultation is about understanding what happened, and our civil suit attorneys can help you gather the rest.
Don't let missing paperwork keep you from finding out whether you have a case. Many people come to the first meeting with nothing but their account of what happened, and that's enough to get started. What matters most is that you reach out before a deadline passes or evidence disappears. Our team will handle the work of building the file from there.
For anything beyond a minor matter, yes. The other side, especially an insurance company, will have experienced lawyers whose job is to pay you as little as possible, and going up against them alone puts you at a serious disadvantage. A civil suit lawyer levels the field and, studies consistently show, tends to result in larger recoveries even after fees.
An insurer's first offer is rarely its best, and the fine print of a release can sign away rights you didn't know you had. Our civil suit attorneys know what a claim is actually worth, how to prove it, and how to counter the tactics insurers use to minimize payouts. With a free consultation and no fee unless we win, there's little risk in finding out how our lawyers can help.
Our civil suit lawyers represent injured people and grieving families across Western New York, and our firm handles every case the same way, in house, start to finish, through settlement, trial, and appeal. Our attorneys offer a free consultation, work on contingency so there's no cost unless we win, and treat each client like the person behind the case, not a file number.
These cases reward a firm that knows how to build and try them, and that isn't afraid to take an insurance company or a large defendant to court. That's what our civil suit attorneys bring, along with straight answers in plain language, so you always know where your case stands. You focus on your life and your recovery. Our team will handle the civil suit.
If you were hurt by someone else's negligence 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 civil suit lawyer will review what happened, explain whether you have a case, and lay out your options, with no cost to talk and no fee unless we recover for you.
There's no risk in reaching out and a lot to gain. The sooner our civil suit lawyers start, the more our team can do to preserve the evidence, meet the deadlines, and protect the full recovery you and your family deserve. The free consultation costs you nothing, so find out today whether you have a claim.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
Disclaimer: This page is for general information only and isn't legal advice. Reading it doesn't create an attorney client relationship. Laws and deadlines can change, and the rules described reflect New York law as of 2026. Every case is different, and prior results don't guarantee a similar outcome. For advice about a specific situation, please consult a licensed New York attorney.
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