Schedule your meetings now
You pull over as soon as you can, hands still shaking, and look back at the road behind you. The car that hit you is already gone, taillights disappearing past the next light, and you never even saw a plate number. Maybe you were headed home on Route 33 or stopped at a light near Elmwood Avenue, and now you are standing next to a damaged car with no other driver in sight and no idea what will happen next.
New York Auto Law understands your concerns after a hit-and-run. We step in right here, before your insurance company gets a chance to shape the story against you.
What Can a Buffalo Hit-and-Run Accident Lawyer Do?
You still have real options after a hit-and-run, even without the other driver’s name or insurance information. A lawyer at New York Auto Law can pursue compensation through your own uninsured motorist coverage while working separately to identify the driver who left the scene, so the search for that driver and your path to recovery move on two tracks at once instead of one.
Why Do the First Hours After a Hit-and-Run Matter so Much?
What you do in the minutes and hours after a hit-and-run can shape everything that happens over the next several months. If you are able, take these steps before you leave:
- Call 911 before you do anything else. An officer at the scene can see how your car came to rest, photograph the damage firsthand, collect any debris or vehicle parts left behind, and sketch the road, none of which a report filed hours later can capture.
- Write down what you remember about the other vehicle. Anything, including the color, make, damage, direction of travel, and even a partial plate number, will all help.
- Ask anyone who stopped to give their name and contact information. A driver or pedestrian who saw the other car flee may have caught a plate number or had a clearer look at the make or model than you did.
- Take pictures of your car, the road, and the surrounding area. A red light camera, a nearby parking lot, or a doorbell camera may have caught the accident on film, and we may be able to find those by looking through your pictures later.
- Get checked out by a doctor even if you feel fine. Some injuries do not show symptoms for hours or days, so don’t wait to see if that’s true.
Not everyone in an accident gets the chance to do any of these things. If you were in shock, knocked unconscious, or pulled from your car by paramedics and rushed to Buffalo General or Erie County Medical Center, none of that is a mark against your case.
A hit-and-run car accident attorney in Buffalo can piece together what happened after the fact using police reports, traffic and business camera footage, cell tower and event data recorder information, and witnesses we track down ourselves. You do not have to be your own investigator lying in a hospital bed for your case to move forward.
Why Do Reporting Deadlines Make or Break a Hit-and-Run Claim?
Here is what most people do not expect: after a hit-and-run, your own insurance company is not automatically on your side. With no other driver’s insurer to point to and no police-confirmed at-fault party, your insurer will question whether the crash happened the way you described it. That is exactly why there are paperwork deadlines. Missing one can end your ability to pursue compensation for medical bills or lost time at work.
New York requires you to report a qualifying accident, meaning one involving injury, death, or more than $1,000 in property damage, to the state in writing within 10 days. You can file that report, known as the MV-104, online through the DMV’s crash report portal or by mail. Separately, to bring a claim against your own policy for a hit-and-run, you generally need to have reported the accident to the police within 24 hours or as soon as reasonably possible afterward.
An insurance company that receives a late report or one that is missing key details may use that alone as a reason to deny your claim, regardless of how serious your injuries are. Getting a hit-and-run lawyer in Buffalo, NY, involved early means someone is watching for that mistake before it turns into a denial letter.
What Is Uninsured Motorist Coverage and Does It Cover a Hit-and-Run?
Every auto insurance policy sold in New York carries uninsured motorist coverage, which pays out when the driver who caused a crash cannot be identified, at limits of at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for injury. A hit-and-run vehicle falls under this coverage as an unidentified motor vehicle, but New York law adds some important conditions worth understanding upfront:
- Physical contact is required. The hit-and-run vehicle must have actually struck you or the vehicle you were in for this specific coverage to apply, not merely startled you into swerving or braking.
- Coverage limits mirror your policy. Your recovery through this coverage is generally capped at the uninsured motorist limits you carry, so a lawyer reviewing your declarations page can tell you early what is realistically available.
- The clock runs longer than you might guess. Because a claim against your own insurer is a contract claim rather than a personal injury lawsuit against the other driver, New York generally allows six years from the date of the crash to pursue it, but check with a Buffalo hit-and-run accident lawyer to confirm the deadline that applies to your specific situation.
None of that means a no-contact hit-and-run leaves you with nothing. It means the path to compensation may run through your health insurance, your own collision coverage, or other angles a lawyer can map out once we know the facts of your crash.
Can a Hit and Run Lawyer in Buffalo, NY, Find the Other Driver?
Identifying the driver who fled changes your case, sometimes for the better, because your uninsured motorist limits do not cap a claim against that driver’s own liability policy, the way a claim against your own insurer can be. Our team works to uncover what a stranger to the case never would.
We request footage from red-light and traffic cameras along corridors such as Main Street and the I-190, as well as from any nearby business or doorbell cameras that may have captured the moment of impact. We canvass the area for witnesses who saw the vehicle, and follow up on paint transfer, broken parts left at the scene, or body shop repair records that can tie a damaged vehicle back to your crash.
In the most serious crashes, Buffalo police or the New York State Police may bring in their own collision reconstruction specialists; when they do not, we can retain one on your behalf to analyze speed, direction, and point of impact. If this work identifies a driver, we shift the claim from your own uninsured motorist coverage to a direct claim against that driver’s insurer.
What If the Insurance Company Disputes Your Hit-and-Run Claim?
Even with a clean police report and a fast filing, an insurer can still push back on a hit-and-run claim. It might ask you to sit for a recorded statement or an examination under oath, or argue that your account of the crash does not match the physical evidence. None of that means your claim is falling apart. With no other driver’s carrier to compare notes with, your own insurer is simply testing your story on its own.
Having a lawyer in your corner from the start changes how that goes. We handle correspondence, prepare you for any statement you are asked to give, and push back when a request exceeds what the claim requires. Your case gets the same scrutiny an insurer would give one with a fully identified driver on the other side, nothing more.
New York Auto Law Focuses on Drivers Like You
New York Auto Law is a new Western New York initiative that brings decades of experienced lawyers to Buffalo and Erie County to represent injured New Yorkers. Unlike at a high-volume firm, where a case is passed among rotating staff, our approach keeps you talking directly with the lawyers handling your case.
We work motor vehicle crashes and nothing else, including the hit-and-run cases that general personal injury firms often treat as an afterthought. That is where our team spends its time: The insurance rules and investigative steps a case like yours actually demands.
Let Us Help You Move Forward Today
You did not choose to get hit by a driver who ran. But you can choose not to face the insurance company alone while you figure out what comes next. Reach out to a Buffalo hit-and-run accident lawyer at New York Auto Law for a free consultation, and let our team take on the parts of this process you should not have to carry by yourself.
Legal References Used to Inform This Page
To ensure the accuracy and clarity of this page, we referenced official legal and other resources during the content development process:
- Report required upon accident, N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 605 (2025).
- New York Department of Motor Vehicles, File a Motorist Crash (Accident) Report.
- Requirements for SUM endorsements, 11 N.Y.C.R.R. § 60-2.3 (2021).
- Requirement for minimum benefit insurance policies for personal injuries, 11 N.Y.C.R.R. § 65-1.1 (2021).
- Actions to be commenced within six years, N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 213 (2013).
- Haggerty v. Allstate Ins. Co., 2021 NY Slip Op. 03784 (App. Div. 4th Dept.).
Michael Greenspan has been deeply involved in the affairs of his community for his entire professional career. Mike has been a certified high school track and field official since 1992 and has officiated at prestigious invitational meets as well as the New York State Championships. Additionally, Mike has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Glenn D. Loucks Games at his alma mater, White Plains High School since 1991 and as a member of the Board of Directors of the JCC-Rockland.