Personal Injury Attorneys in West Springfield, MA

An injury claim runs on deadlines that start the day you are hurt, and several of them are far shorter than people expect. Attorney Tanya K. Moriarty and Attorney Gabriella Caminito-Meeker handle personal injury claims for clients across Hampden County. Sclafani & Moriarty has served Western Massachusetts for over 25 years, from our office at 776 Westfield Street in West Springfield.

The initial consultation is free, injury claims are handled on a contingency fee, and we can meet you at the hospital if you are not able to come to us. Call 413-732-8356.

Injury Cases Do We Handle

We represent people injured in car and truck collisions, falls on unsafe property, snow and ice accidents, dog bites, and similar incidents caused by someone else’s carelessness. We also handle claims against cities and towns, which follow a separate and shorter set of deadlines.

• Car, truck, and motorcycle collisions
• Pedestrian and bicycle accidents
• Slip, trip, and fall injuries on unsafe property
• Snow and ice falls
• Dog bites and animal attacks
• Injuries on municipal or state property

We are a general practice firm rather than a high-volume injury operation, and we say so deliberately. Some claims are better served by a firm built around catastrophic injury work with the resources that requires. If yours is one of them, we will tell you at the consultation and help you find the right place rather than take the case and learn that later.

How Long Do I Have to File a Claim in Massachusetts?

Three years from the date of injury is the general deadline for personal injury lawsuits in Massachusetts. Several situations carry much shorter deadlines that override it, including claims against a city or town and claims involving snow and ice on a public way.

The general rule sits in Chapter 260, Section 2A: an action for personal injury must be brought within three years of the date the cause of action accrues. Miss it, and the case is over regardless of how strong it was.

Three years sounds like a long time. The problem is that several other deadlines run much faster and are easy to miss while you are still recovering:

• Claims against a city, town, or the Commonwealth — written presentment within two years
• Snow and ice or defect claims involving a public way — written notice within 30 days
• Insurance policy requirements — many policies require prompt notice of a claim as a condition of coverage

Evidence also has a shorter life than the statute of limitations. Surveillance video is often overwritten within weeks, a damaged vehicle may be repaired or scrapped, and a hazardous condition gets fixed. Preserving proof is a separate task from meeting the filing deadline, and it starts sooner.

What Happens After a Car Accident in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts is a no-fault state. Your own insurance pays medical bills and lost wages through Personal Injury Protection regardless of who caused the crash. You can pursue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering only if your case clears a statutory threshold.

Personal Injury Protection, or PIP, is the starting point. It pays reasonable medical expenses and a portion of lost wages up to the policy limit, no matter who was at fault, and it applies whether you were a driver, a passenger, or a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. Massachusetts requires drivers to carry it, along with bodily injury liability coverage and uninsured motorist coverage.

PIP is where a claim begins, not where it ends.

To recover pain and suffering from the driver who caused the crash, Massachusetts requires that reasonable and necessary medical expenses exceed $2,000, or that the injury falls into one of the categories the statute recognizes regardless of cost — death, loss of a body member, permanent and serious disfigurement, or a qualifying loss of sight or hearing. Massachusetts courts have also treated bone fractures as qualifying in practice, though fractures are not listed in the statute itself. The provision appears in Chapter 231.

A driver who treats the PIP payment as the end of the matter can close out a claim worth considerably more.

What If the Accident Was Partly My Fault?

You can still recover, as long as your share of the fault is not greater than the other side’s. Massachusetts reduces your award in proportion to your own negligence, and bars recovery entirely once your share of the fault exceeds fifty percent.

Chapter 231, Section 85 sets the rule. Contributory negligence does not bar recovery where your negligence was not greater than the total negligence of the parties you are suing. Damages are then reduced in proportion to your share.

In practice, the dividing line is fifty percent. At fifty percent or less, you recover, reduced by your share. Above fifty percent you recover nothing.

If a jury values a claim at $100,000 and finds the injured person twenty percent responsible, the award is $80,000. If it finds that person sixty percent responsible, the award is nothing.

The statute also places the burden of proving your negligence on the party asserting it, and presumes that you were exercising due care. Insurance adjusters routinely assign fault informally and early, and that assessment is not binding on anyone.

Who Is Responsible If I Fall on Snow or Ice?

Property owners in Massachusetts owe a duty of reasonable care to keep their premises safe, and that duty now applies to natural accumulations of snow and ice as well as to hazards the owner created. Claims involving a public way carry a 30-day written notice requirement.

Massachusetts law used to distinguish between natural and unnatural accumulations of snow, and an owner who simply let snow fall and freeze often escaped liability. That changed with the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in Papadopoulos v. Target Corp., 457 Mass. 368 (2010). Property owners now owe the same duty of reasonable care for snow and ice that they owe for any other hazardous condition.

Whether a particular owner met that duty depends on how much snow fell, how long it sat, what the owner knew, and what a reasonable owner would have done.

The first question in these cases is often who owns the ground you fell on, because the answer changes the deadline. A fall on the sidewalk outside a restaurant may be the restaurant’s responsibility, or the city’s. Spending six weeks negotiating with the wrong party is how people discover the 30-day notice requirement after it has already expired.

What If a City, Town, or State Agency Caused My Injury?

Claims against public employers run under the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act. Written presentment must be made within two years, suit must be filed within three, and damages are capped at $100,000 per claim. Punitive damages and interest are not available.

Chapter 258 allows an injured person to hold a public employer liable for the negligence of its employees acting within the scope of their duties, in the same manner as a private party would be liable. The procedure is different in ways that decide cases.

• Presentment. A written claim must be delivered to the proper executive officer within two years of the injury. Every theory of liability has to appear in that letter, and a theory left out can be lost.
• The cap. Recovery against a public employer is limited to $100,000 on a single claim, inclusive of attorney’s fees and medical expenses.
• What is excluded. No punitive damages, no prejudgment or post-judgment interest, and no recovery of costs.
• Immunities. Discretionary policy decisions, certain intentional torts, and the acts of independent contractors generally fall outside the statute.

Identifying the correct public entity and the correct officer to receive the presentment is not always obvious, particularly where a school district, a housing authority, or a regional agency is involved.

What Is My Claim Worth?

No one can value a claim honestly at the first meeting. What can be identified early are the categories of loss that count: medical expenses, lost wages, future treatment and diminished earning capacity, and pain and suffering where the case clears the statutory threshold.

Anyone who quotes you a number before your treatment is complete is guessing.

Economic damages cover what the injury has cost and will cost: medical bills, prescriptions, therapy, lost income, and where an injury is lasting, future treatment and reduced earning capacity.

Non-economic damages cover pain, suffering, and the loss of things you used to be able to do. In a motor vehicle case, these are available only where the claim clears the statutory threshold.

Two things reduce the final figure regardless of how the claim is valued. Your own share of fault comes off the top. And health insurers, MassHealth, and workers’ compensation carriers who paid for your treatment often have a right to be repaid out of the recovery, which is a negotiation in itself and one that a settlement should account for before it is signed.

Settling before you have reached the end of treatment is the most common avoidable mistake in an injury claim. A release is final, and a condition that turns out to need surgery a year later is not reopened.

What Does It Cost to Hire Us?

Injury claims are handled on a contingency fee, which means our fee is a percentage of what we recover and there is no attorney’s fee if there is no recovery. Case costs are separate from attorney’s fees, and the fee agreement is put in writing before we begin.

The initial consultation is free and carries no obligation.

If we take the case, our fee comes out of the recovery rather than out of your pocket, and it is set as a percentage agreed in writing at the outset. Massachusetts requires contingency fee agreements to be in writing, and you receive a copy.

Case costs (e.g., filing fees, medical records, expert reports, deposition transcripts) are separate from attorney’s fees. We will explain how those are handled and who advances them before you sign anything.

Injured people are often out of work and behind on bills at exactly the moment they need a lawyer. That is the reason contingency fees exist.

Contact a West Springfield Personal Injury Lawyer

If you are still treating, still out of work, or still waiting to hear from an adjuster, the consultation costs nothing and will at least tell you which deadlines apply to you.

Sclafani & Moriarty
776 Westfield Street
West Springfield, MA 01089
413-732-8356

Attorneys Tanya K. Moriarty and Gabriella Caminito-Meeker represent injured clients throughout Hampden County, including Springfield, Chicopee, Holyoke, Agawam, Westfield, Longmeadow, and Ludlow. Consultations are free, and we can meet you at the hospital. Call 413-732-8356 or use the contact form.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer?

Not before you have spoken with a lawyer. You are generally required to cooperate with your own insurer, but you have no obligation to give a recorded statement to the other side’s. Those interviews are conducted by people trained to elicit answers that limit what the claim is worth, often while you are still in pain and on medication.

What if the driver who hit me had no insurance?

Massachusetts requires uninsured motorist coverage on every auto policy, which is designed for exactly this situation and pays from your own policy. Underinsured coverage applies where the at-fault driver carried a policy too small to cover your losses. Both are worth reviewing early, because notice requirements apply.

Will my health insurer have to be repaid out of my settlement?

Often, yes. Health insurers, MassHealth, and workers’ compensation carriers may have a right of reimbursement from a recovery for treatment they paid for. These amounts can sometimes be negotiated down, and a settlement figure that ignores them is not the figure you actually keep.

How long does an injury claim take?

It depends mainly on your treatment. A claim is generally not ready to value until you have reached the point where your condition has stabilized, because until then nobody knows the full extent of the injury. Straightforward claims often resolve within several months of that point, while claims that go into litigation take considerably longer.

What if my injury did not appear until days after the accident?

This is common with soft tissue and back injuries, and it does not defeat a claim. It does make prompt medical documentation more important, because a gap between the accident and the first treatment is the first thing an adjuster will point to. See a doctor and describe every symptom, including ones that seem minor.

This content is provided for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Laws and statutes are revised and updated periodically, and the information here may not reflect the most current version of the law. You are strongly advised to speak with an attorney about the specifics of your situation.