Injured on the Subway or an MTA Bus? You Have 90 Days to File — and the Clock Is Already Running.

Why MTA Injury Claims Are Different from Every Other Personal Injury Case

Suing the MTA, New York City Transit Authority, or a city-operated bus line is not the same as suing a private driver or a property owner. These are government entities, and New York law gives them procedural protections that can end your case before it ever starts — if you miss the right steps.

The most critical is the Notice of Claim. Before you can sue the MTA or NYCTA, you must file a formal Notice of Claim within 90 days of your injury. Miss that window, and your right to recover is gone. No extension, no exception for most circumstances. That 90-day clock starts on the day you were hurt — not the day you hired a lawyer, not the day you realized the injury was serious.

We file Notices of Claim routinely for subway, bus, and transit injury clients across Queens and every NYC borough. If you were hurt on public transit, the first call you make should be to us.

Subway Platform and Station Accidents

Subway platforms are among the most dangerous spaces in the city — and the MTA knows it. Wet floors with no warning signs, broken platform edges, inadequate lighting in stairwells, malfunctioning turnstiles, and debris left in high-traffic walkways all create conditions that injure riders every day. When the MTA fails to maintain a safe environment and you are hurt as a result, they are liable. We build these cases with station inspection records, maintenance logs, and surveillance footage requests filed before the MTA can overwrite or destroy the evidence.

Train Door and Gap Accidents

Riders are struck by closing doors, dragged when doors close on clothing or bags, or fall into the gap between the train car and the platform edge. These incidents often involve malfunctioning door sensors or operator negligence — both of which create viable claims against the NYCTA. Gap-related falls are particularly serious because the injuries tend to be severe: fractures, crush injuries, and traumatic limb damage. We pursue these cases aggressively, including claims where platform gap conditions were a known, reported hazard the MTA failed to correct.

Subway Train Derailments and Emergency Stops

When a train derails or makes a violent emergency stop, passengers are thrown against seats, poles, doors, and other riders. These incidents can produce serious spinal injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and broken bones — often without any visible external trauma at the scene. The MTA will conduct its own investigation immediately. We conduct ours in parallel, preserving mechanical inspection reports, operator records, and signal maintenance history before the MTA's legal team has a chance to shape the narrative.

MTA Bus and NYC Transit Bus Accidents

Bus accidents involving MTA or NYC Transit vehicles fall under the same Notice of Claim requirements as subway injuries. Passengers injured onboard, pedestrians struck at intersections, and cyclists hit by buses all have viable claims — but all face the same 90-day filing deadline. We handle the full spectrum of MTA bus injury cases, from rear-end collisions to sudden braking injuries to bus stop accidents where the driver failed to yield. If you were hurt by a city bus anywhere in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, or Staten Island, we can help.

Escalator and Elevator Injuries in Transit Stations

The MTA operates hundreds of escalators and elevators across the subway system, and many are chronically out of service or poorly maintained. When a faulty escalator causes a fall or an elevator malfunction traps or injures a rider, the MTA bears responsibility for that negligence. These cases require documentation of prior maintenance complaints and service records — evidence we know how to obtain through the discovery process and Freedom of Information Law requests.

Assaults and Security Failures on MTA Property

The MTA has a duty to provide reasonable security for riders. When violent incidents occur in stations or on trains where the MTA knew or should have known a security risk existed — inadequate staffing, broken emergency intercoms, history of prior incidents at that location — victims may have a claim against the authority in addition to any criminal case against the perpetrator. These are complex cases that require proving the MTA's knowledge of a dangerous condition. We have the experience to build that record.

Wrongful Death in Subway and Transit Accidents

When a family member is killed in a subway or transit accident — whether from a platform fall, a train strike, or a fatal bus collision — the grief is compounded by the pressure to act quickly. Wrongful death claims against the MTA carry the same 90-day Notice of Claim requirement. We work directly with families from the first call, handling every procedural step so the people who need to grieve can do exactly that. Our wrongful death practice extends across all transit-related fatalities in Queens and the surrounding boroughs.

The 90-Day Notice of Claim: What It Is and Why It Can End Your Case

Filing a lawsuit against the MTA or NYCTA is a two-step process, and most injured riders don't know about the first step until it's too late. Before any lawsuit can be filed, New York General Municipal Law requires that a Notice of Claim be served on the relevant public authority within 90 days of the accident. This is not a lawsuit — it is a formal notice that you intend to pursue a claim, and it must be filed correctly, served on the right entity, and include specific information about the nature of the injury, the location, and the circumstances.

Filing on the wrong entity, omitting required details, or missing the deadline by even one day can result in your claim being dismissed entirely. Courts have very limited discretion to grant late-filing relief in transit cases. We file Notices of Claim for every MTA and NYCTA client from day one, and we do it right.

How We Build and Win MTA Injury Cases

MTA cases are won or lost on evidence gathered in the first weeks after an accident. The MTA has a legal team, an investigations unit, and a decades-long institutional interest in minimizing payouts. We counter that with a structured approach to evidence preservation and case development that begins the moment you hire us.

Preserving Surveillance Footage Before It's Overwritten

The MTA's surveillance systems retain footage for a limited time — often as few as 30 days. We send preservation demands immediately upon being retained, and we follow up with formal legal holds to prevent deletion. Station cameras, train car cameras, and platform cameras can all capture the conditions that caused your injury. That footage is often the difference between a strong case and a case that becomes a credibility contest.

Obtaining Maintenance and Inspection Records

The MTA is required to maintain inspection logs, maintenance schedules, and repair records for every station, train, escalator, and elevator in the system. These records frequently show that the condition that hurt you was a known problem — one that was reported, documented, and left unaddressed. We obtain these records through the discovery process and through Freedom of Information Law requests filed in parallel. Prior notice of a defect is often the most powerful element in an MTA negligence case.

Medical Documentation and Specialist Referrals

Injuries from transit accidents — spinal trauma, traumatic brain injuries, orthopedic fractures — require thorough medical documentation to establish both the extent of harm and its connection to the accident. We work with a network of medical specialists across Queens and the city who understand how to document injuries for litigation purposes. Getting the right medical record from the right specialist early in the case protects the full value of your claim.

Expert Witnesses and Accident Reconstruction

For serious transit injury cases, we retain engineering experts, accident reconstruction specialists, and safety consultants who can testify to the MTA's deviation from applicable standards. The MTA will bring its own experts. We bring ours. After 30 years of trial work, we know which experts hold up under cross-examination and which ones the MTA's attorneys will try to discredit — and we prepare accordingly.

Negotiating with the MTA's Legal Team — and Going to Trial When Necessary

The MTA settles many cases, but it does not settle cases it believes it can win at trial. Our reputation as a firm that actually tries cases changes the negotiation dynamic. When the MTA's attorneys know they are dealing with a trial team that has 30 years of courtroom experience, they calculate their exposure differently. We do not push clients toward settlement when trial would produce a better result, and we do not accept offers that undervalue the real harm our clients have suffered.

What Compensation Can You Recover in an MTA Injury Claim?

Injured transit riders and their families can pursue compensation for the full range of economic and non-economic losses caused by the accident. The specific recoverable damages depend on the nature and severity of the injury, but a comprehensive MTA claim typically includes:

• Medical expenses, including emergency care, surgery, hospitalization, physical therapy, and future treatment costs
• Lost wages and reduced earning capacity if the injury affects your ability to work
• Pain and suffering, including physical pain, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of daily activities
• Permanent disability or disfigurement where applicable
• Wrongful death damages, including loss of financial support and loss of companionship, for families of fatal transit accident victims

We give every client an honest assessment of case value — not an inflated number designed to get you to sign a retainer. What we tell you in the first consultation reflects what we actually believe the case is worth, based on the facts and our experience with similar MTA claims.

Frequently Asked Questions About MTA and Subway Injury Claims