In August 2005, a police officer was laying down flares on the Belt Parkway near a fatal accident scene when a passing car struck her.

Now, Maureen Cerati has filed a lawsuit against an unlikely target: the driver who caused the initial accident that prompted Ms. Cerati to put down the flares. A little-noticed change to the law means that, for the purposes of the lawsuit, it doesn’t matter that the first driver, Oscar Berrios, had no connection whatsoever with the second car that sent Ms. Cerati to the intensive care unit.

In a recent decision, a state Supreme Court judge in Queens, James Dollard, refused to dismiss Ms. Cerati’s suit against Berrios. The decision notes that police officers can sue a wide range of defendants who wouldn’t ordinarily be liable. Under a decade-old law, officers who have suffered a line-of-duty injury can sue plaintiffs who have only “an indirect connection” to the events causing the injury, according to the ruling.

Judge Dollard’s decision was first reported in the Chief-Leader. Ms. Cerati has won $25,000 in a settlement with the driver who struck her, the Chief-Leader reported. Ms. Cerati retired from the police department due to her injuries, Mr. Decolator said.