The Court of Appeals has not revisited the area of the determination of what constitutes a “serious injury” as defined in Insurance Law §5102(d) since 2011. Then, in Perl v. Meher, 18 N.Y.3d 208, the court explicitly held that there is no requirement to prove quantitative measurements of range of motion contemporaneous to the accident although a contemporaneous medical report as to injuries is important proof of causation.
‘Significant Disfigurement’
Since Perl, some noteworthy cases have been handed down by the Appellate Divisions clarifying the definition of “serious injury”. Regarding the proof of a “significant disfigurement” it seems clear that a photograph of the alleged scar is de rigueur in order to win a summary judgment motion. Forster v. Novic, 127 A.D.3d 605.
