Richmond Hill Personal Injury Lawyer

We handle injury claims for people in this neighbourhood: car accidents, slip and falls, construction injuries, and everything in between. We work on contingency, which means you pay nothing unless we win.

If your injuries make travel difficult, we will come to you.
Get directions to our office

Our office is here in Richmond Hill, at 109-12 Jamaica Avenue. The J train stops at 111th Street, about two blocks away, and the Q56 bus runs along Jamaica Avenue.

Call 718-659-5333, or walk in. Open 7am to 9pm, Monday to Friday and Sunday.

Our office is on Jamaica Avenue, in Richmond Hill

109-12 Jamaica Avenue, Richmond Hill, NY 11418.

We are on Jamaica Avenue itself, between the 104th Street and 111th Street stations on the J. Most firms taking Richmond Hill cases are in Manhattan or downtown Jamaica. We are here.

That matters for the ordinary parts of a claim — dropping off medical records, signing paperwork, sitting down before a deposition — none of which should cost you a day off work. If your injuries make travel difficult, we will come to you.

Where your Richmond Hill case will be heard

Most Queens personal injury cases are filed and heard at the Queens County Supreme Court, Civil Term, at 88-11 Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica. If your case goes to litigation rather than settling, that is the building you will be walking into.

It is a few minutes east of our office along the same road. Motion appearances, depositions, compliance conferences and filings all happen locally, so nobody is travelling in from Manhattan for every date on the calendar — and neither are you.

Where Richmond Hill accidents happen

Jamaica Avenue runs the length of the neighbourhood under the elevated J and Z tracks. Between the support columns, the double parking outside the shops and the crowds at the station stairs, it produces more pedestrian and vehicle claims than any other road here.

Liberty Avenue and Atlantic Avenue carry the through traffic further south. Atlantic in particular is wide and fast, and drivers treat it that way.

Woodhaven Boulevard and Lefferts Boulevard bring the crosstown volume, and both carry heavy bus traffic.

The Van Wyck Expressway runs along the eastern edge. The merges on and off it account for a steady share of the rear-end and sideswipe collisions we see.

The Long Island Rail Road’s Montauk Branch cuts diagonally across the neighbourhood, so several streets end at bridges and crossings with restricted sight lines.

Forest Park sits along the northern edge, which puts cyclists and pedestrians onto roads built for cars.

We take cases from 11418 and 11419, and from the parts of 11416 and 11421 that fall inside Richmond Hill.

The claims we handle in Richmond Hill

Most of what comes through the door here falls into a handful of categories, and nearly all of them trace back to the same few roads.

Car accidents on Jamaica Avenue, Atlantic Avenue and the Van Wyck, which between them account for the majority of the collision work we take from this neighbourhood.

Slip and fall claims in the shops, restaurants and apartment buildings along Jamaica Avenue, and on the sidewalks outside them — a category with its own rules about who is answerable, and one where the deadline can be 90 days rather than three years depending on the building.

Hit and run cases, where the driver leaves and you are told there is nothing to be done. There usually is: your own policy may cover it, and there is a state fund for the cases where the driver is never identified.

Construction accidents, which in New York carry protections most workers do not know they have — including ones that apply regardless of immigration status or whether you were paid off the books.

Premises liability, where an owner knew something was dangerous and left it that way.

E-bike and e-scooter collisions, which have risen sharply along Liberty and Atlantic as delivery traffic has grown.

Truck and commercial vehicle crashes, particularly around the Van Wyck merges.

Dog bites, where New York applies its own rule about an owner’s knowledge of the animal rather than a simple one-bite test.

If you are not sure which of these your situation is, that is not a problem — it is usually the first thing we work out on the call.

Sidewalk falls in Richmond Hill are a special case

Since 2003, New York City has placed responsibility for most sidewalks on the owner of the building beside them — but not for owner-occupied one-, two- and three-family homes used purely as residences. For those the City remains responsible, and a claim against the City has to begin with a notice of claim within 90 days rather than three years.

Richmond Hill is built largely from exactly that kind of housing, so the exemption comes up constantly. Two questions decide it: whether an owner actually lives in the building, and whether any part of it is commercial. A two-family house with a shop underneath is not exempt, because the law requires the property be used exclusively as a residence.

Along the Jamaica Avenue shopping strip, where the frontage is commercial, the owner is liable and you have the full three years. Two doors on the same block can fall on opposite sides of that line, which is why these are worth a phone call early.

Where you were treated matters

Jamaica Hospital Medical Center is the nearest emergency department and the area’s Level I trauma centre. It is a private not-for-profit, not a city hospital, so a claim against it follows ordinary rules — this is the most common misconception we hear.

NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens on 164th Street is the city-run one, still widely called Queens Hospital Center. A claim arising from care there carries the 90-day notice requirement.

If you were treated anywhere after your accident, bring the paperwork to your first appointment. Those records usually decide what a claim is worth.

What to do after an accident in Richmond Hill

Get medical attention the same day, even if you feel fine. Insurers treat a gap between the accident and the first treatment as evidence you were not really hurt.

Call 911 and get a police report. Richmond Hill is covered by the 102nd Precinct on 118th Street. If the police do not attend, file a report yourself.

Photograph everything — the vehicles, the road, the hazard, your injuries, the light and the weather. Do it before anything is moved or cleaned up, and put something in the frame for scale.

Take names and numbers from witnesses. They disappear quickly.

Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer. You are not obliged to, and it is rarely used to help you.

Watch the deadlines. In New York you generally have three years from the date of the accident to bring a personal injury claim. If the City, the MTA or a public hospital is involved, a notice of claim has to be filed within 90 days. That one catches people out constantly.

Richmond Hill injury claims — common questions

Where will my case be heard?

Queens County Supreme Court, Civil Term, at 88-11 Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica, for most personal injury matters. Our office is a few minutes west along Jamaica Avenue.

What does it cost to start?

Nothing. We work on contingency, so we take a percentage only if we recover money for you. If we recover nothing, you owe us nothing.

How long do I have to bring a claim?

Generally three years from the date of the accident in New York, and two and a half years for medical malpractice. But if a city agency, the MTA or a public hospital is involved, a notice of claim has to be filed within 90 days. Call early rather than waiting to see how you heal.

The other driver had no insurance. Do I still have a case?

Often, yes. Your own policy may carry uninsured motorist coverage, and where the driver was never identified there is a state fund that exists for exactly that situation. It has its own deadlines, so do not sit on it.

I was partly at fault. Is it worth calling?

Yes, and it is worth calling sooner rather than later, because the rule changed in 2026 and it now depends on what kind of accident it was.

In a car accident case, you can still recover if you were up to half at fault, and what you recover is reduced by your share. If you were more than half at fault, you recover nothing for pain and suffering.

In other injury cases – a fall, a construction accident, a dog bite – your share simply reduces what you recover and does not bar the claim.

Either way, the percentage is argued rather than obvious, and it is usually lower than the other side’s insurer first suggests.

Do I have to come to the office?

No, though you are welcome to — we are on Jamaica Avenue. We can take the details by phone or on WhatsApp, and if your injuries make travel difficult we will come to you.

It’s Time To Win Your Case, Big.

Michael D. Ribowsky and his accident lawyers handle claims for physical and psychological injuries caused by someone else’s negligence. A great deal turns on timing and on detail — what was photographed, when treatment started, who was spoken to and when. Those are the things that decide what a case is worth, and they are decided in the first days rather than at the end.

We take every case seriously and we do what it takes to recover the most the facts will support, which depends on where and how you were injured and what it has cost you. Richmond Hill is where our office is, but it is one of many neighbourhoods we cover. See injury lawyers across Queens and how we work across the whole borough.