The best truck accident lawyers in New York are attorneys with at least 15 years of commercial-vehicle trial experience, verifiable seven and eight-figure results, and memberships in invitation-only groups such as the Inner Circle of Advocates or the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Michael S. Porter of the Porter Law Group leads our 2026 ranking, with more than $500 million recovered for seriously injured New Yorkers and Super Lawyers selection every year from 2012 through 2025. All ten attorneys handle cases governed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (49 C.F.R. Parts 350 to 399) and New York VTL § 388, and work on contingency with no fee unless they win. Most truck cases in New York resolve for 4 to 10 times the value of a comparable passenger-car case because commercial policies carry minimum federal coverage of $750,000 per incident.
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Who are the best truck accident lawyers in New York? (Quick comparison)
Below is a side-by-side summary of the 10 best rated truck accident lawyers in New York for 2026, ranked by trial experience, verified case results, peer recognition, and client outcomes in commercial vehicle cases.
| # | Attorney | Law Firm | Based In | Key Credential |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael S. Porter | Porter Law Group | Syracuse, NYC, Buffalo, Albany, Rochester | $500M+ recovered; Super Lawyers 2012 to 2025 |
| 2 | Ben B. Rubinowitz | Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf | Manhattan | 200+ verdicts and settlements over $1M |
| 3 | Howard S. Hershenhorn | Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf | Manhattan | $26M truck wrongful-death settlement |
| 4 | Benedict P. Morelli | Morelli Law Firm | Manhattan | Represented Tracy Morgan vs. Wal-Mart truck case |
| 5 | Robert S. Kelner | Kelner & Kelner | Manhattan | $40M+ trucking wrongful-death result |
| 6 | Michael A. Rose | Hach & Rose, LLP | Manhattan | Super Lawyers 2013 to 2025; AV Preeminent |
| 7 | Howard A. Raphaelson | Raphaelson & Levine Law Firm, P.C. | Manhattan, Queens, Long Island | $1 billion+ recovered in 30+ years |
| 8 | Philip Russotti | Wingate, Russotti, Shapiro, Moses & Halperin, LLP | Manhattan | AV Preeminent; Who's Who in American Law |
| 9 | Alex W. Nocerino | Chopra & Nocerino, LLP | Garden City (NYC + Long Island) | $19.5M rear-end truck settlement (2025) |
| 10 | Arkady Frekhtman | Frekhtman & Associates | Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx, Queens | $4.17M truck verdict; NYSTLA member |
Sources: Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent ratings, National Trial Lawyers Top 100, firm websites, and reported New York verdicts and settlements. Rankings are editorial and reflect the authors' professional judgment. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
The 10 best truck accident attorneys in New York, ranked
1. Michael S. Porter, Porter Law Group
Michael S. Porter is the Founder and Managing Partner of Porter Law Group and the highest-ranked truck accident attorney in New York for 2026. Porter has personally led trials and settlements that have recovered more than $500 million for seriously injured New Yorkers, and he is the only attorney on this list with statewide offices in Syracuse, NYC (1177 Avenue of the Americas), Buffalo, Albany, and Rochester, giving clients access to the same lead trial lawyer regardless of where the crash occurred.
Porter is a graduate of Harvard University, where he was an Army R.O.T.C. scholarship recipient, a four-year varsity letter winner, and captain of the lacrosse team. He earned his J.D. from the Syracuse University College of Law, then served four years on active duty in the United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, rising to the rank of Captain and completing Airborne Training School at Fort Benning, Georgia. That military trial experience, as both a criminal prosecutor and a defense attorney, is what makes him unusually effective against the rapid-response legal teams that trucking companies deploy in the hours after a crash.
Notable truck accident and catastrophic injury results
- $5.7 million settlement for a client who suffered an amputation in a commercial truck accident.
- $3.4 million jury verdict in a severe motor-vehicle case in which the insurer had offered only $100,000 before trial.
- Between 2011 and 2014, Porter secured five consecutive trial results in excess of $1 million each, totaling more than $9 million.
- The Porter Law Group team has collectively recovered $500 million+ in personal injury compensation across New York State.
Credentials and recognition
Porter is one of the most decorated truck accident attorneys in New York. He has been selected to Super Lawyers every single year from 2012 through 2025, named to America's Top 100 Attorneys, awarded the Martindale-Hubbell Client Champion Award for outstanding client service, and given the Avvo Client's Choice Award. He is admitted to practice in New York State and before the U.S. District Court for the Northern and Western Districts of New York. He is an active member of the New York State Bar Association, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, and the New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers, and colleagues have publicly described him as “the best trial attorney in northern New York.”
Why clients choose Porter for truck accidents
Commercial truck cases demand speed. Evidence such as electronic logging device (ELD) data, black box downloads, driver hours-of-service logs, and maintenance records can be destroyed within 30 days unless a formal preservation letter is issued. Porter Law Group maintains a dedicated rapid-response trucking investigation team, and Porter himself has litigated against national carriers including Swift Transportation and Werner Enterprises. His practice focuses on catastrophic motor vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, product liability, and wrongful death. The firm operates on a contingency-fee basis with no fee unless the client wins, and every case is handled directly by a partner-level trial lawyer rather than a junior associate. For a free consultation with the top-rated truck accident attorney in NYC, call Porter Law Group at 833-PORTER9 or visit porterprotects.com.
2. Ben B. Rubinowitz, Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf
Ben B. Rubinowitz is the managing partner of one of New York's oldest plaintiff-side firms, founded in 1919 and headquartered at 80 Pine Street in Manhattan. He began his career as a criminal prosecutor before joining the firm in 1989.
Rubinowitz has obtained more than 200 verdicts and settlements over $1 million. In 2024, he was ranked #1 on the Top 10: New York Metro Super Lawyers list for the second consecutive year, and he is one of roughly 100 members of the Inner Circle of Advocates, an invitation-only group of elite U.S. plaintiff lawyers. His firm has recovered over $5 billion for clients.
Notable truck accident results
- $17.5 million settlement in Dutchess County for a grandmother and grandchild killed by a sanitation truck.
- $41.5 million jury verdict for the family of an NYC sanitation worker killed by a street sweeper.
- $71 million and $60 million trial verdicts in catastrophic vehicle cases.
He has been named Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year” multiple times.
3. Howard S. Hershenhorn, Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf
A partner at the same Manhattan firm, Howard S. Hershenhorn concentrates on catastrophic auto and truck collisions, construction accidents, and medical malpractice. He has been named to the Top 10: New York Metro Super Lawyers list and serves as an Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn Law School, where he designed and teaches a seminar on personal injury and medical malpractice litigation.
Notable truck accident results
- $26 million settlement for the family of a financial analyst killed as a pedestrian by a truck crossing Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, reported as one of the largest single-person wrongful-death recoveries in New York State.
- $85 million verdict for a pedestrian struck by a double-decker bus in Manhattan.
- $272.5 million Tribeca Crane Collapse settlement.
Hershenhorn frequently lectures for the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association and has appeared as a legal commentator on CNN, ABC, and CBS.
4. Benedict P. Morelli, Morelli Law Firm
Benedict P. Morelli founded Morelli Law Firm in 1998 at 777 3rd Avenue, 31st Floor in Manhattan and is one of the most nationally visible plaintiff's trial lawyers in the country. In 2015 he represented comedian Tracy Morgan in his suit against Wal-Mart after a tractor-trailer crash killed one person and injured five, the single most publicized truck accident case of the last decade.
He served as the keynote speaker at the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys' annual conference.
Notable verdicts
- $102 million verdict against Live Nation (Jones Beach Theater).
- $95 million single-plaintiff sexual harassment verdict.
- $62 million construction TBI verdict (Zeng Guang Lin), believed to be the largest single-plaintiff personal injury verdict in Queens County history.
- $41 million verdict against the City of New York.
Morelli has been listed continuously in Best Lawyers in America since 1997 and has taken on Wal-Mart, FedEx, MGM, and PepsiCo on behalf of injured plaintiffs.
5. Robert S. Kelner, Kelner & Kelner
Robert S. Kelner is a 1971 Columbia Law School graduate and founding partner of Kelner & Kelner together with his late father Joseph Kelner, a former president of the American Trial Lawyers Association (now ATLA/AAJ). He is among the most experienced trucking trial lawyers practicing in New York today.
Notable results
- Verdict of over $29 million, totaling more than $40 million with interest, in a commercial trucking wrongful-death case.
- Approximately 300 verdicts and settlements at or above $1 million over his career.
- $36 million against the NYC Transit Authority.
- $23 million in a motorcycle case.
- $9 million settlement for a sanitation worker's wrongful death, reportedly the highest for a uniformed worker in New York State.
Kelner co-authors the long-running “Trial Practice” column in the New York Law Journal with Gail Kelner. His high-profile clients have included the Kent State shooting victims, the estate of Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, and Mariane Pearl.
6. Michael A. Rose, Hach & Rose, LLP
Michael A. Rose co-founded Hach & Rose in Manhattan and was admitted to the New York bar in 1997. He has been selected to the New York Super Lawyers list every year from 2013 through 2025 and holds Martindale-Hubbell's AV Preeminent rating, the directory's highest peer-review rating.
Rose is a life member of both the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum and has been ranked among the top 100 New York trial lawyers by the National Trial Lawyers. Hach & Rose concentrates on construction, car, and truck accident work, with a particular strength in labor union-related injuries; his partner Gregory Hach is a former Air Force member from a labor-movement family.
The firm has been recognized by Attorney and Practice Magazine as a Top 10 personal injury firm in New York.
7. Howard A. Raphaelson, Raphaelson & Levine Law Firm, P.C.
Howard A. Raphaelson founded his firm in 1992, only months after graduating from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. The firm at 14 Penn Plaza, Suite 1718 is a boutique partner-led personal injury practice with additional offices in Queens and Long Island.
Raphaelson has been recognized among New York's Best Lawyers by New York Magazine and as a Super Lawyers top-5% attorney in the state. The firm reports over $1 billion recovered for clients over three decades.
Notable results
- $2 million settlement for a Pepsi Cola truck driver injured by another driver on the Long Island Expressway.
- $8.5 million recovery for a child injured in a building collapse.
- $8 million for a construction worker in a roof-demolition fall.
8. Philip Russotti, Wingate, Russotti, Shapiro, Moses & Halperin, LLP
Philip Russotti earned his B.A. from Columbia University and his J.D. from St. John's School of Law in 1973. Before entering private practice in 1980, he served as an Assistant District Attorney in New York County under Frank Hogan and Robert Morgenthau, eventually becoming Chief of a Supreme Court Trial Bureau where he supervised thirty assistant district attorneys.
He currently sits on the Board of Directors of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association.
Notable results
- $1.3 million settlement from an FDNY truck collision, plus multiple multi-million-dollar tractor-trailer rear-end recoveries.
- Reportedly obtained the largest verdict in the country for emotional damages for a mother who lost a child at childbirth, at $4.5 million.
Russotti holds an AV Preeminent Martindale-Hubbell rating and has been featured in Who's Who in American Law.
9. Alex W. Nocerino, Chopra & Nocerino, LLP
Alex W. Nocerino co-founded Chopra & Nocerino with Sameer Chopra in 2010. The firm is based in Garden City at 100 Quentin Roosevelt Boulevard and serves the five boroughs of NYC and Long Island. A 2005 J.D. graduate of Quinnipiac University School of Law, Nocerino has been recognized by Super Lawyers since 2019 and named to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100.
The firm is notable for being the exclusive personal injury law firm of the New York Mets, the New York Islanders, the Brooklyn Nets, Barclays Center, and UBS Arena.
Notable truck accident results
- $19.5 million settlement for a commercial truck accident, advertised as the #1 rear-end collision result in the United States for 2025.
- $10 million recovery for a 77-year-old struck in a Brooklyn bus collision.
He is a member of the New York State Bar Association, the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, and the American Association for Justice.
10. Arkady Frekhtman, Frekhtman & Associates
Arkady Frekhtman graduated from law school in 1997 and founded his Brooklyn-based solo practice in 2000, growing it to approximately 25 staff with offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. The firm concentrates heavily on truck, auto, construction, and catastrophic injury litigation.
Notable truck accident results
- $4.17 million jury verdict for a 59-year-old Manhattan driver struck by a truck making an improper left turn.
- $2.4 million mediated settlement in a tractor-trailer case in Bronx Supreme Court.
- $2.8 million construction-accident verdict.
- $1.2 million pre-trial settlement in a Long Island Expressway box-truck rear-end.
Frekhtman is fluent in Russian, is a member of NYSTLA, NYSBA, the ABA, and ATLA, and runs a well-known YouTube channel where he breaks down New York trial strategy, giving him an unusually public profile among NYC plaintiff's lawyers.
How do you choose the best truck accident attorney in NYC?
Choosing the best attorney for a truck accident in New York comes down to five verifiable criteria, in this order of importance.
- Trial experience in commercial vehicle cases. Look for at least 10 years of courtroom experience and a documented history of taking trucking cases to verdict, not just settlement. Insurance carriers for Swift, Werner, FedEx, and UPS track which lawyers will actually try a case and offer more to those who will.
- Verified seven-figure results. Ask the lawyer for the actual case caption, venue, and docket number of at least three truck or commercial-vehicle recoveries over $1 million within the past five years. Reputable attorneys share this information freely.
- Federal trucking regulation knowledge. Truck cases are governed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (49 C.F.R. Parts 350 to 399), which cover hours of service, CDL requirements, drug and alcohol testing, and vehicle maintenance. A lawyer who cannot explain these regulations in plain English will not win your case.
- Rapid-response investigation capacity. ELD data, dashcam video, and driver logs can be overwritten or destroyed in 30 days or less. The best rated truck accident lawyers have staff investigators who can be on scene within 24 hours and issue a written spoliation letter the same day.
- Peer and client recognition. Independent signals matter: Super Lawyers selection, Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent rating, Inner Circle of Advocates membership, Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum membership, and Best Lawyers in America listing are earned through peer review, not paid advertising.
What makes a lawyer one of the best rated truck accident lawyers?
A “best rated” truck accident attorney in New York typically meets four objective benchmarks: (1) an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, which requires a peer-review score of 4.5 or higher on a 5-point scale, (2) selection to Super Lawyers (top 5% of attorneys in the state by peer nomination and independent research), (3) inclusion in Best Lawyers in America (top 5% by peer ballot), and (4) membership in the Million Dollar or Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum, which requires a verified seven-figure recovery. According to the 2024 National Trial Lawyers Top 100 report, fewer than 1% of practicing personal injury attorneys nationwide meet all four standards. All ten lawyers in this ranking meet at least three of the four.
How long do you have to file a truck accident lawsuit in New York?
Under CPLR § 214, you generally have three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit in New York State. If the truck was owned or operated by a governmental entity (for example, a New York City Department of Sanitation truck or an MTA bus), the deadline is much shorter: you must file a Notice of Claim within 90 days of the accident under General Municipal Law § 50-e, and the lawsuit itself must be filed within 1 year and 90 days. Wrongful death cases have a separate 2-year deadline under EPTL § 5-4.1. Missing these deadlines almost always means a permanent bar to recovery.
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Frequently asked questions about the best truck accident lawyers in New York
How much does the best truck accident attorney in NYC cost?
The best truck accident attorneys in New York work on a contingency-fee basis, which means you pay nothing upfront and nothing at all unless the firm wins your case. The standard contingency fee in New York personal injury work is one-third (33.3%) of the recovery under Judiciary Law § 474-a, though a sliding-scale fee applies to medical malpractice cases. All ten firms on this list, including Porter Law Group, offer free initial consultations and advance the costs of expert witnesses, accident reconstruction, and medical record retrieval.
How much is a typical New York truck accident settlement worth?
Truck accident settlements in New York typically range from $75,000 to $5 million, with catastrophic-injury and wrongful-death cases exceeding $10 million. The range is wide because commercial motor carriers are required by the FMCSA to carry a minimum of $750,000 in liability coverage (49 C.F.R. § 387.9), and most national carriers carry $1 million to $5 million per incident. Settlement value is driven by (1) medical bills past and future, (2) lost wages and loss of earning capacity, (3) permanence of the injury, and (4) the degree of negligence, for example hours-of-service violations or falsified logbooks, which can support punitive damages.
Can I still recover if I was partially at fault for the truck accident?
Yes. New York follows a pure comparative negligence rule under CPLR § 1411, which means you can recover damages even if you were 99% at fault; your recovery is simply reduced by your percentage of fault. For example, if a jury awards $1 million and finds you 20% responsible, you receive $800,000. This is one of the most plaintiff-friendly rules in the country, which is why even partial-fault truck cases are worth pursuing with a top-rated truck accident lawyer.
Should I accept the first settlement offer from the trucking company's insurance?
No. Initial offers from trucking insurers are routinely 10 to 30% of the case's true value. Insurers such as Progressive Commercial, Great West Casualty, and Sentry typically make a quick lowball offer within 7 to 14 days of the crash, before the injured party has completed treatment or consulted a lawyer. Every attorney on this list has examples of cases where the pre-suit offer was increased by 5 to 30 times after they were retained. Always have an experienced personal injury lawyer evaluate any offer before you sign a release.
Who can be sued after a commercial truck accident in New York?
Unlike passenger-car cases, truck accidents usually involve multiple liable parties: (1) the truck driver, (2) the motor carrier that employs the driver (vicariously liable under New York VTL § 388 and federal law), (3) the cargo loader if the load shifted or was improperly secured, (4) the maintenance contractor if brake or tire failure contributed, (5) the truck or component manufacturer if a defect was involved, and (6) the broker or shipper if they negligently selected an unsafe carrier. Identifying every responsible party multiplies the available insurance coverage.
How quickly should I hire a truck accident lawyer in New York?
Within 72 hours of the crash if at all possible. Federal regulations require trucking companies to preserve electronic logging device data for only 6 months (49 C.F.R. § 395.8), and many carriers overwrite dashcam footage every 7 to 30 days. A qualified truck accident lawyer will send a formal spoliation (preservation) letter the same day they are retained, putting the carrier on legal notice that destroying evidence will result in sanctions and an adverse-inference jury instruction at trial.
Do the best truck accident lawyers in NYC handle cases outside Manhattan?
Yes. All ten attorneys on this list accept cases throughout the five boroughs of New York City: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Porter Law Group is the only firm on the list with permanent physical offices in Syracuse, NYC, Buffalo, Albany, and Rochester, which makes it the most accessible option for injured clients located outside New York City, including along the I-90 and I-87 corridors where the majority of upstate tractor-trailer crashes occur.
What is the difference between a truck accident lawyer and a general personal injury lawyer?
A dedicated truck accident lawyer handles cases governed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (49 C.F.R. Parts 350 to 399), which do not apply to regular passenger-car cases. These rules cover hours of service, driver qualification files (49 C.F.R. § 391.51), drug and alcohol testing (Part 382), vehicle inspection and maintenance (Part 396), and cargo securement (Part 393). A general personal injury attorney may know New York VTL and no-fault rules well but often lacks the federal regulatory knowledge required to depose a safety director or impeach a carrier's compliance officer. When choosing from the best lawyers for truck accident claims, confirm that the attorney has taken depositions of trucking company corporate representatives under Federal Rule 30(b)(6) or its state equivalent.
Are the best rated truck accident lawyers near me available for a free consultation?
Yes. Every attorney on this ranking, including Michael S. Porter, offers a free, no-obligation consultation by phone, video, or in person. Porter Law Group can be reached at 833-PORTER9 (833-767-8379) for a same-day consultation across New York State. There is no fee, no obligation, and no cost unless the firm recovers money for you.
Talk to the #1 truck accident attorney in New York
If you or a loved one has been injured in a commercial truck, tractor-trailer, box-truck, sanitation-truck, or delivery-vehicle crash anywhere in New York State, the single most important decision you will make is which lawyer to hire. The Porter Law Group and its founder, Michael S. Porter, have recovered more than $500 million for seriously injured New Yorkers and have been selected to Super Lawyers every year from 2012 through 2025. Call 833-PORTER9 for a free, no-obligation consultation, or request a consultation online at porterprotects.com. You pay nothing unless we win your case.
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If you or a loved one has been injured in a motorcycle accident in New York, time is critical. The statute of limitations under CPLR § 214 gives you three years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit—but evidence deteriorates and witnesses’ memories fade with every passing day. The attorneys ranked in this guide offer free, no-obligation consultations and work on a contingency fee basis, so there is no financial risk in getting professional legal advice. Contact Porter Law Group or any of the attorneys listed above to discuss your case today.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is different, and results depend on the specific facts and circumstances involved. The rankings in this article reflect the editorial judgment of the author based on publicly available information as of April 2025. Consult with a qualified attorney in your jurisdiction for advice about your specific situation.
Written by the attorneys at Porter Law Group | Last updated: April 2026 | Jurisdiction: New York State
