Frequently Asked Questions
Straight answers about New Hampshire personal injury and employment law, from Attorney Keith F. Diaz. Serving Manchester, Goffstown, Bedford, Concord, Nashua, Hooksett, and communities across southern New Hampshire.
Working With Apis Law
How much does it cost to hire Apis Law for an injury case?
Nothing up front. Apis Law handles personal injury cases on a contingency fee, which means you pay no attorney fee unless we recover money for you. The fee is a percentage of the recovery, agreed in writing before we start, and the initial case review is free. This lets injured people in Manchester, Concord, Bedford, Goffstown, and across New Hampshire get experienced representation without paying out of pocket while they are out of work and facing medical bills.
Will I work directly with Attorney Diaz, or get passed to a case manager?
You work directly with Keith F. Diaz. Apis Law is a solo firm by design, so the attorney who evaluates your case is the same person who negotiates with the insurer and prepares it for trial. At many high-volume firms, a client's day-to-day file is handled mostly by case managers. Here, the attorney with 22 years of experience and admission to the New Hampshire Bar (Bar No. 15831) stays on your file from intake through resolution.
How do I know if I actually have a case?
The fastest way to find out is a free case review. A valid New Hampshire injury claim generally requires three things: another party owed you a duty of care, they breached it, and that breach caused you real harm. Whether you were rear-ended on I-293 in Manchester, hurt in a fall at a Nashua store, or fired for an unlawful reason in Concord, the review costs nothing and tells you where you stand before any deadline runs.
What kinds of cases does Apis Law take?
Apis Law focuses on two areas: personal injury and employee rights. On the injury side, that means car, truck, and motorcycle crashes, slip-and-fall and other premises injuries, dog bites, and wrongful death for people across southern New Hampshire. On the employment side, it means wrongful termination, discrimination, sexual harassment, and whistleblower retaliation. The firm represents injured people and employees, not insurance companies or large employers. If your situation falls outside these areas, Keith will tell you directly and, where he can, point you toward the right place to go.
Why hire a solo firm instead of a large injury firm?
Because you get a senior attorney on your case, not a file in a queue. Apis Law keeps a deliberately smaller caseload so that Keith F. Diaz, who has 22 years of experience, personally handles your case from the first call through settlement or trial. Many high-volume firms move cases through teams of intake staff and case managers, which works for some people. The trade-off Apis Law offers is direct access to the attorney and senior attention on every file. To see how that approach has worked for past clients, review the firm's case results and client reviews.
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New Hampshire Personal Injury Questions
How long do I have to file a car accident lawsuit in New Hampshire?
Three years from the date of the accident, in most cases. New Hampshire's statute of limitations, RSA 508:4, gives you three years from the act or omission to file most personal injury lawsuits. Miss that window and the right to compensation is usually lost for good. There are important exceptions: when an injury could not reasonably have been discovered right away, the three-year clock can run from the date of discovery, and claims against a city, town, or state entity often carry their own, much shorter notice deadlines. Because evidence fades and insurers begin building a defense immediately, it is wise to talk to a lawyer well before the deadline approaches.
Can I still get compensation if the accident was partly my fault?
Yes, as long as you were not more than 50% at fault. New Hampshire follows modified comparative fault under RSA 507:7-d. If you were 50% or less responsible, you can recover, but your award is reduced by your share of fault, so 20% fault on a $100,000 case yields $80,000. At 51% or more, you recover nothing. New Hampshire juries are instructed on this rule directly; in Broughton v. Proulx, 152 N.H. 549 (2005), the New Hampshire Supreme Court approved an instruction confirming that an injured person may place some reasonable reliance on others to use due care. Insurers often try to inflate your percentage of fault to shrink what they owe, which is why the apportionment of fault is frequently the real battleground in a case.
Apis Law often addresses issues of comparative fault. In a recent case involving a client who stepped into an open hole in the floor created by the defendant, a contractor, the insurance liability carrier argued that the client should have seen the hole. This case will now go to the jury to decide. Apis Law fights for their clients.
What happens if I am hit by an uninsured or hit-and-run driver in New Hampshire?
You typically recover through the uninsured motorist coverage on your own auto policy. Under RSA 264:15, every auto policy issued in New Hampshire must include uninsured motorist (UM) coverage, protecting you when the at-fault driver has no insurance or flees the scene, unless you rejected that coverage in writing. Your UM limits automatically match the liability limits you bought. The catch is that your own insurer now stands in the shoes of the at-fault driver, so its financial interest is suddenly opposed to yours. Whether the crash happened on Route 101 in Bedford or the Everett Turnpike in Nashua, a UM claim is still a fight over fault and damages, just against your own carrier.
How is “pain and suffering” calculated in a New Hampshire injury case?
There is no fixed formula and no statutory cap in New Hampshire; the value depends on how much the injury disrupted your life. New Hampshire law sets no mathematical standard for pain and suffering damages, and the Supreme Court has rejected rigid per-diem formulas, as in Duguay v. Gelinas, 104 N.H. 182 (1962). Juries are told to award full and fair compensation for physical pain, anxiety, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life. New Hampshire recognizes those losses broadly: Bennett v. Lembo, 145 N.H. 276 (2000), allowed loss-of-enjoyment-of-life damages, and Stachulski v. Apple New England, 171 N.H. 158 (2018), extended such hedonic damages even to temporary impairment. Insurers lean on multiplier methods and software; real value is built by documenting concrete impact, such as activities you can no longer do, chronic pain, and the effect on work and family life.
Can I sue my employer if I get hurt on the job in New Hampshire?
Usually no, because workers' compensation is the exclusive remedy against your employer, but you can often sue a responsible third party. Under RSA 281-A:8, an employee who accepts workers' compensation generally gives up the right to sue the employer directly for a workplace injury. RSA 281-A:13 preserves a separate path: if someone other than your employer caused the injury, you can pursue that third party while still collecting workers' comp. Common examples for New Hampshire workers include a negligent driver who hits you while you are working, or a manufacturer of defective equipment on a Manchester or Hooksett job site. These third-party claims often recover damages, like full pain and suffering, that workers' comp alone does not pay.
What should I do in the first days after a car accident in New Hampshire?
Get medical care promptly, document everything, and avoid giving a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer before you understand your rights. Prompt treatment protects both your health and your claim, because gaps in care are the first thing an adjuster uses to argue you were not really hurt. Photograph the vehicles and the scene, obtain the police report number, and record the names of witnesses. Whether the crash was at the I-93 and I-89 interchange in Concord or on Loudon Road, report it to your own insurer, but remember that the at-fault carrier's adjuster is not on your side. An early, short, free consultation can help you avoid the mistakes insurers count on.
Attorney Diaz recommends early involvement with a competent personal injury attorney. When a client contacts us soon after an injury, we can assess the circumstances and provide guidance on what to do and how to make a better medical record of an injury. Sometimes, this can make a difference between a $20,000 outcome and an $80,000 outcome.
New Hampshire Employment Law Questions
Can I be fired in New Hampshire without a warning or any reason?
Yes, because New Hampshire is an at-will state, but you cannot be fired for an illegal reason. Under the at-will rule, either you or your employer can end the relationship at any time, with or without cause. The major limits are that you cannot be fired for an unlawful reason, such as discrimination against a protected class or retaliation for protected activity. New Hampshire courts also recognize an implied covenant of good faith in the employment relationship; see Cloutier v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., 121 N.H. 915 (1981). If your firing in Manchester or Nashua looks like a cover for something illegal, it is worth having a lawyer look at the facts.
What actually counts as “wrongful termination” under New Hampshire law?
A firing is wrongful when it is unlawful discrimination or retaliation, or when it violates public policy. New Hampshire's public-policy wrongful discharge claim, established in Monge v. Beebe Rubber Co., 114 N.H. 130 (1974), has two elements: the employer was motivated by bad faith, malice, or retaliation, and you were fired for doing something public policy encourages or refusing to do something public policy condemns. The Supreme Court confirmed that framework in Short v. School Administrative Unit No. 16, 136 N.H. 76 (1992). Separately, firing someone because of race, sex, age, religion, disability, or another protected trait violates the New Hampshire Law Against Discrimination, RSA 354-A. If you suspect the real reason for your termination was illegal, the timeline and documents around the firing matter a great deal.
What is a “hostile work environment,” and when does it cross the legal line in NH?
It is unwelcome conduct based on a protected trait that is severe or pervasive enough to alter the conditions of your job; a rude or demanding boss alone is not enough. New Hampshire's harassment standard appears in RSA 354-A:7, V, which reaches conduct that has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment. The New Hampshire Supreme Court applied a comparable standard in Madeja v. MPB Corp., 149 N.H. 371 (2003), requiring harassment severe and pervasive enough to change the terms and conditions of employment. The conduct must be tied to protected status, be offensive to a reasonable person, and ordinarily the employer must have known about it and failed to act. Workers in Concord, Manchester, Bedford, and across New Hampshire can bring these claims through the New Hampshire Commission for Human Rights or in court.
Can my boss legally fire me for reporting safety violations or illegal activity?
No. New Hampshire's Whistleblowers' Protection Act forbids retaliation against employees who, in good faith, report a suspected legal violation. Under RSA 275-E:2, an employer cannot discharge, threaten, or discriminate against you for reporting, in good faith, conduct you have reasonable cause to believe is illegal. There is usually a procedural condition: you generally must first bring the violation to a supervisor and give the employer a reasonable chance to correct it, unless you reasonably believe doing so would not lead to a prompt fix or would expose you to harm. New Hampshire courts enforce these protections, as reflected in cases such as Appeal of Hardy, 154 N.H. 805 (2007). If you were pushed out after raising a safety or legal concern at a New Hampshire workplace, document the report and the timeline.
Am I owed overtime if my employer calls me “salaried”?
Not automatically; your job duties, not your title or salary, decide whether you are owed overtime. Being paid a salary does not by itself make you exempt. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets the overtime floor, New Hampshire follows through RSA 279:21, an employer must generally pay time-and-a-half over 40 hours a week unless you meet both a salary-basis test and a duties test for a genuine executive, administrative, or professional role. Routine clerical, manual, or inside-sales work labeled “salaried” is a common misclassification. When wages or overtime are willfully withheld, New Hampshire law adds a remedy under RSA 275:44, and the Supreme Court upheld liquidated damages for unpaid wages in Chisholm v. Ultima Nashua Industrial Corp., 150 N.H. 141 (2003). If your duties do not match your “exempt” label, you may be owed back pay for every week over 40 hours.
About the Author
Keith F. Diaz, Esq. | New Hampshire Bar No. 15831
Attorney Keith F. Diaz has practiced law in New Hampshire since 2003. He began his career as a criminal prosecutor in Rockingham County before transitioning to civil litigation in 2005. Today he represents individuals in personal injury and employment law matters throughout Southern New Hampshire. He is admitted to practice before the New Hampshire Supreme Court, the New Hampshire Superior and Circuit Courts, and the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire. He founded Apis Law in 2022.
