Our college campus accident lawyers help students, visitors, and staff who are injured on a university or college campus in Buffalo or Western New York. At Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP, our campus injury attorneys prove that the school, a landlord, a contractor, or another party failed to keep the campus safe, and we hold them accountable. A campus is supposed to be a safe place to learn and live, and when it isn't, the people responsible can be made to answer for it.
Buffalo is a college town, from the University at Buffalo and Buffalo State to Canisius, D'Youville, Niagara, and Erie Community College. Thousands of students live, study, and spend their days on these campuses, and injuries happen, in a stairwell, a lab, a dorm, a parking lot, or at an event. Our Buffalo college campus accident lawyers handle those cases. This is one focus 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.
Any injury that happens on campus because someone failed to keep it reasonably safe. That covers slip and falls, unsafe conditions in dorms and buildings, lab and athletic injuries, assaults tied to poor security, hazing, and more. If a dangerous condition or another party's negligence caused the injury, our campus accident lawyers can pursue a claim for it.
A campus is really a small city, with housing, classrooms, labs, gyms, dining halls, walkways, and parking. Each of those spaces has to be maintained safely, and when a school or another party cuts corners, people get hurt. The legal question our campus injury attorneys ask is the same one that governs any injury on someone else's property: did the party in control keep it reasonably safe?
The full range of injuries that happen on and around a campus. Some come from unsafe conditions, others from unsafe activities or inadequate security, but each traces back to a failure by someone responsible for keeping students safe.
Our Buffalo campus accident lawyers handle cases involving:
Whatever the setting, our campus injury attorneys look at who was responsible for the space or the activity, and whether they did what safety required.
It depends on where and how the injury happened, and often more than one party shares the blame. Responsibility can reach the college or university itself, a private landlord who owns student housing, a maintenance or construction contractor, a security company, a fraternity or sorority, or another party whose negligence caused the harm.
Sorting this out is one of the first things our college campus accident lawyers do, because the right defendant isn't always obvious. A fall in a dorm might point to the school or to a private housing company that runs the building. A lab injury might involve the university and an equipment maker. Our campus injury attorneys investigate who controlled the space and the activity, so every responsible party is identified.
Yes, when the school's negligence caused your injury, though the rules depend on whether it's a public or private school. A college has a duty to keep its campus reasonably safe, and when it fails and someone is hurt, it can be held responsible. How you bring that claim, and how quickly you have to act, turns on whether the school is public or private.
This public-versus-private distinction is the single most important thing to understand about a campus injury in New York, and it catches many people off guard. It changes the deadline, the procedure, and even which court hears the case. Our Buffalo campus accident lawyers sort out which set of rules applies at the very start, because getting it wrong can cost you the claim.
A public college is a government entity, and a private college is not, which changes everything about the claim. A claim against a public school like the University at Buffalo or Buffalo State, both part of the state university system, comes with special notice requirements and short deadlines. A claim against a private college like Canisius, D'Youville, or Niagara follows the ordinary rules for an injury on private property.
The practical difference is time. A claim against a public, state-run campus usually requires a formal notice of claim within roughly 90 days of the injury, long before any lawsuit, and these cases often proceed in a special court that handles claims against the state. Miss that early notice window and the claim can be barred entirely. Our campus injury attorneys identify which kind of school you're dealing with immediately, so no deadline slips by.
Most of them, yes. When an injury comes from an unsafe condition on campus, a wet floor, an icy path, a broken stair, bad lighting, it's a premises liability claim, the same legal theory that governs any injury on someone else's property. The property owner or the party in control has to keep the premises reasonably safe and warn of hazards they know about.
That means a campus slip and fall is proven much like a slip and fall in a store or an apartment building. Our campus accident lawyers show that a dangerous condition existed, that the school or another party knew or should have known about it, and that they failed to fix it or warn about it in time. The campus setting adds the public-versus-private wrinkle, but the core of the premises case is familiar ground.
A school can be responsible when a foreseeable assault happens because campus security was inadequate. Colleges have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect students from foreseeable harm, which can include working locks, adequate lighting, functioning security systems, and a reasonable security presence. When a school ignores a known danger and a student is attacked, that's a claim.
These negligent security cases turn on foreseeability. If a campus had a history of break-ins or assaults in a building and did nothing, and someone was then hurt there, the school's inaction may make it responsible, even though the attacker is the one who caused the direct harm. Our Buffalo campus injury lawyers investigate the security history and the warning signs the school had, and whether it acted on them.
Yes. When a student is injured or killed by hazing, a civil claim can be brought against those responsible, which may include the individuals involved, the fraternity or sorority and its national organization, and sometimes the school. Hazing that causes serious harm is both a crime and grounds for a civil suit for damages.
Hazing cases can reach beyond the students who carried it out. National fraternity and sorority organizations, local chapters, and the individuals who organized or allowed the hazing can all be responsible, and a school may share the blame if it knew of a dangerous pattern and failed to act. Our campus accident lawyers pursue every party that contributed, because a family devastated by hazing deserves a full accounting.
Not always, and often not at all. Students sign waivers all the time, for club sports, gym use, field trips, and activities, but a waiver doesn't give a school a free pass to be careless. Under New York law, these waivers have real limits, and they generally can't shield a party from liability for gross negligence or reckless conduct.
A waiver is often the first thing a school points to, hoping it ends the conversation. It usually doesn't. The enforceability of a waiver depends on how it's written, what it covers, and how serious the conduct was, and certain waivers are unenforceable as a matter of public policy. Our campus injury attorneys look past the signed form to what actually happened, because a waiver rarely excuses a genuine failure of safety.
As a parent, you can seek answers and help your child pursue a claim. Most college students are legal adults, so the claim is generally theirs to bring, but parents are often the ones who step in after a serious injury, dealing with the school, the medical care, and the insurance. Our campus accident lawyers work with families to protect an injured student's rights.
When a student is seriously hurt far from home, parents understandably want to act. We can guide your family on how the claim works, who can bring it, and how to preserve the evidence while your child focuses on recovering. If the injury involved a younger student or a minor, different rules can apply, and our campus injury attorneys will explain exactly how they affect the case.
You can usually still recover. New York follows a comparative fault rule, which means an injured student's own share of the blame reduces their compensation but doesn't erase the claim. Even a student who was partly responsible for what happened can recover for the portion of the fault that belongs to the school or another party.
Schools and their insurers often lean on this, arguing the student wasn't careful, wasn't supposed to be there, or ignored a rule. That argument affects the size of a recovery, not the right to one. Our Buffalo campus accident lawyers push back on inflated blame-shifting and make sure a student's own conduct isn't used to wipe out a claim that a school's negligence created.
By the full extent of the student's losses, weighed against every responsible party. The value includes medical bills, future medical care, lost income and lost earning power, the cost of interrupted or delayed education, and compensation for pain, suffering, and the effect on the student's life. A serious campus injury can derail a young person's entire trajectory.
That last point matters here more than in many cases. An injury that forces a student to withdraw, repeat a year, or abandon a career path carries costs that reach far into the future. Our campus injury attorneys build the value to reflect not just the immediate bills but the long-term impact on a young person's education and earning potential, so the recovery accounts for what the injury really cost.
A campus accident claim can recover your medical expenses, future care, lost income and reduced earning power, out-of-pocket costs, and compensation for pain, suffering, and the disruption to your education and life. In a case of especially reckless conduct, such as severe hazing, punitive damages may also be possible, and a fatal injury can support a wrongful death claim.
The goal is a recovery that reflects everything the injury took, the treatment, the setback to a degree or career, and the human cost. Our college campus accident lawyers pursue every category that applies, against every responsible party and every available policy, whether that's the school's coverage, a landlord's, a contractor's, or a fraternity's.
It depends entirely on whether the school is public or private, which is why acting fast matters so much. A claim against a public, state-run university generally requires a formal notice of claim within about 90 days of the injury and a shorter overall filing deadline. A claim against a private college follows the ordinary injury deadline, generally three years, but waiting is still a mistake.
That 90-day window on a public campus is unforgiving, and it runs long before most people would think to call a lawyer. Because so many Buffalo students attend state schools like the University at Buffalo and Buffalo State, this is not a deadline to guess about. Our campus injury attorneys pin down which rules apply immediately, so the notice and filing requirements are met and the claim is protected.
Get medical care first, then report the accident and document everything. Report the injury to campus security or the appropriate office and make sure a written report is created, photograph the hazard or scene, get the names of any witnesses, and keep your medical records. Then talk to a lawyer quickly, especially if it's a public school with a short deadline.
The campus incident report matters, because it creates an official record of what happened and when. Photos of the icy step or the broken railing are powerful, since a school may fix a hazard fast once someone is hurt. Getting our campus accident lawyers involved early helps preserve that evidence and protect the short public-school deadline before it passes.
Our Buffalo college campus accident lawyers move quickly to identify the right rules and the right defendants. From the start, our attorneys determine whether the school is public or private, protect any short notice deadline, preserve the evidence, and investigate who was responsible for the condition or activity that caused the injury.
Our campus injury attorneys gather the incident reports, the maintenance and security records, and the housing and contractor information, and identify every responsible party, the school, a landlord, a contractor, a security company, or a fraternity. Our team documents the full impact on the student's health and education, files the required notices on time, and prepares each case as if it's going to trial. Most cases resolve through negotiation or mediation, but our college campus accident lawyers build every one for trial, and our firm keeps these matters in house from start to finish.
Our college campus accident lawyers represent injured students and their families across Western New York, and our firm handles campus cases the same way it handles every case, in house, start to finish, through settlement, trial, and appeal. Our attorneys know the public-versus-private rules that make these claims unique and how to hold a school or any other responsible party accountable.
These cases reward a firm that knows the special deadlines for public campuses, isn't intimidated by a university's legal team, and understands what a serious injury does to a young person's future. That's what our campus injury attorneys bring, along with straight answers in plain language, so you always know where your case stands. You focus on healing and getting back to school. Our team will handle the investigation and the fight.
If you or your child was injured on a college campus 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 college campus accident lawyer will review what happened, explain whether the school is public or private and what that means for your deadline, and lay out your options, with no fee unless we recover for you.
Don't wait, especially if the injury happened at a state school, where the deadline to give notice can be as short as 90 days. The sooner our campus accident 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. If the injury was severe, our catastrophic injury lawyer page covers that overlap, and for a fatal campus tragedy, our wrongful death lawyer page explains how those claims work.
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, deadlines, and notice requirements can change and differ for public and private schools; 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 injury, please consult a licensed New York attorney.
Our results are driven by personalized strategies that are hand-crafted to fit your needs.
You’re not just a client to us. You are our partner, and we would be honored to make you our next success story.
As former prosecutors and experienced attorneys, we can anticipate how your case will be handled by the other side and tactics insurance companies will use.