The biggest money mistake in New York is missing the 30-day No-Fault application deadline or, if a city agency is involved, the 90-day Notice of Claim deadline. After a Queens crash, the insurer is usually not "just taking its time" by accident. It is waiting for gaps: missing records, inconsistent symptoms, a lowball early statement, or a deadline slip. If your child was hurt in a car crash, No-Fault should start paying medical bills and lost wages up to $50,000 regardless of fault, while the bodily injury claim against the at-fault driver usually sits until doctors can say how serious and permanent the injury is. If an MTA bus, school bus, sanitation truck, or other city vehicle was involved, the process changes fast because public entities trigger shorter notice rules.

Here is what is happening behind the scenes.

In the five boroughs, the crash report usually starts with the NYPD, not the New York State Police. The insurer orders that report, checks vehicle ownership, confirms coverage, and looks for any reason to limit payment. If your child went by ambulance, had ER care, imaging, or follow-up specialists, the carrier wants every record before it values the case.

For a vehicle crash, there are really two tracks. No-Fault handles bills first. The liability claim is where pain and suffering money comes from, but in New York that usually requires a serious injury under Insurance Law § 5102(d). Head trauma can qualify. So can permanent organ injury.

If the insurer keeps asking for "one more record," that usually means it does not want to value the claim until treatment stabilizes. Around tax season, families also discover Medicaid, health insurance, or hospital liens that can cut into a settlement, so those have to be identified early.

If the child is under 18, the case can still move now even though some deadlines for filing suit are different for minors. The claim does not wait just because your child is a minor.