Personal Injury & School Injury Lawyer in Glendale, Queens
Glendale is a family neighborhood: quiet residential streets between Myrtle and Cooper Avenues, several schools, and the school-bus routes and morning drop-off traffic that come with them. A large share of the injury claims we see from this part of Queens involve children — on a bus, at a bus stop, in a schoolyard, or crossing near a school — and claims involving a school carry a notice deadline that is shorter than the already short municipal one. Families routinely discover it after it has passed.
Three months, not three years
Under Education Law § 3813, a claim against a school district or school must be presented in writing to the governing body within three months of the claim accruing, and for tort claims a notice of claim must also be served in compliance with General Municipal Law § 50-e. The district then has 30 days to adjust or pay the claim before suit can proceed, and the action itself generally must be brought within one year of accrual.
Read that timetable against the reality of a child’s injury: a broken arm that turns out to need surgery, a head injury whose effects on schoolwork only become obvious a term later. The medical picture is rarely complete inside three months, and the notice has to be served anyway. This is the deadline that quietly ends more school-injury claims than any argument about liability does.
Note also who the defendant actually is. Many school buses are operated by private contractors under contract to the district, not by the district itself — and a private bus company is an ordinary negligence defendant with a three-year deadline and no notice requirement. Which one applies depends on whose bus it was, which is worth establishing immediately rather than assuming.
Children, streets and the age question
Where a child is struck by a vehicle, no-fault covers treatment and part of lost earnings through the policy of the vehicle involved, with the NF-2 generally due within 30 days. Compensation for the injury itself requires the serious injury threshold in Insurance Law § 5102(d), and the deadline against a private driver is the three years under CPLR 214.
Age helps in two ways. CPLR 208 tolls the limitations period while a claimant is under 18, generally extending it to three years after the disability ends, subject to an outer limit — though it does not automatically excuse a municipal or school notice of claim. And in New York a child under four is generally considered incapable of negligence, while an older child is judged against what a reasonably prudent child of the same age, intelligence and experience would do — not against an adult standard. Under CPLR 1411, any share of fault reduces recovery proportionally and never bars it.
Frequently Asked Questions
My child was hurt at school. I have three years, don’t I?
No — this is the most dangerous assumption in this area of law. A claim against a school district requires written notice within three months and suit generally within one year. The infancy toll extends the underlying limitations period but does not by itself excuse the notice. If your child was injured at or through a school, treat the clock as running now.
Does my child have to give sworn testimony?
Often a child will be examined at a hearing or deposition, but it is handled very differently from an adult’s. A parent or guardian is present, the questioning is limited in scope and duration, and courts are protective of children in this setting. We prepare families for it thoroughly and it is rarely the ordeal people fear.
Who receives the money if a child’s case settles?
Not the parents, and not directly the child. A settlement for someone under 18 requires court approval through an infant compromise procedure, and the funds are typically held in a protected account or structured arrangement until the child turns 18. It is a safeguard, and it is one of the reasons these cases take a little longer to close.
The school says it was “just an accident” and no one was at fault.
Schools owe a duty of reasonable supervision, measured against what a prudent parent would provide in comparable circumstances. Whether supervision was adequate is a question of fact answered by staffing ratios, incident reports, prior similar incidents and the school’s own policies — not by the school’s own conclusion about itself.
Courts that hear Glendale injury cases
- Queens County Supreme Court, Civil Term — 88-11 Sutphin Boulevard, Jamaica, and 25-10 Court Square, Long Island City. Infant compromise applications are heard here.
- NYC Civil Court, Queens County — 89-17 Sutphin Boulevard, Jamaica.
Our Office & Directions from Glendale
Yakov Mushiyev & Associates, PC
1 Cross Island Plaza, Suite 325
Rosedale, NY 11422
Phone: 718.775.3110
Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Home and hospital visits available.
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This page is general information about New York law, not legal advice about your situation. Deadlines involving schools and public bodies are short and unforgiving. Speak with an attorney before relying on anything here.