PERSONAL INJURY

Has another’s actions caused you or a loved one injuries?

You may may be entitled to compensation for your pain and suffering, medical bills, and more.

WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I HAVE BEEN INJURED?

There are several things you should do immediately following a personal injury to preserve and gather the evidence you will need for a successful claim. In any personal injury case, you must prove the damages you have suffered and show that they were caused by another’s negligence.

SEEK IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION

Your health and safety should always be your number one priority. After any injury, you should always seek immediate medical care.

Visiting an emergency room, hospital or doctor is vital for ensuring you receive the care you need and establishing a record of your injuries. It will detail all of your symptoms, test results, what caused your injuries and what treatment you have undergone.

DOCUMENT YOUR INJURIES AND THE ACCIDENT SCENE

You will need evidence to support your claim that your accident and injuries were caused by another’s actions. As soon as possible, you should document your injuries and the accident scene by:

• Taking photos
• Requesting any video footage of the accident
• Writing down everything you can remember about the incident
• Obtaining the contact information for witnesses to ask for statements about what they saw
• Requesting a copy of your accident report from the Local Police or New Jersey State Police, depending on where your accident happened

CONTACT A REPUTABLE PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEY

You should then immediately contact a relentless and aggressive  personal injury lawyer. An attorney can review the details of your accident and injuries, help you file a claim with the insurance company, and help you determine if you have a legal case that may be entitled to compensation.

We will also help you gather all of the evidence and documentation you need to support your case.

DO I HAVE A CASE?

Personal injury law is a specific type of civil law that allows individuals to file lawsuits against other individuals or entities that have caused them harm. This is an important resource for injury victims to obtain compensation for the damages they have suffered because of another’s actions, such as medical bills, lost wages and more.

However, the key to filing this type of lawsuit is proving that someone else was responsible for your injuries. With enough evidence showing that another’s negligence caused your injuries, you may have a personal injury claim.

NEGLIGENCE

To prove negligence, you must be able to show that the at-fault party had a lack of care for your safety.

The four elements required for proving negligence include:

THE AT-FAULT PARTY HAD A DUTY OF CARE

The first step in determining if you have a personal injury case is to determine if the at-fault party owed you a duty of care.

In some circumstances, the relationship between the injury victim and at-fault party creates a legal duty of care. This includes a doctor who owes a patient a duty to provide reasonable care or a landlord who has a duty to ensure the safety of his or her property.

In other situations, the at-fault party simply had a duty to act with reasonable care and not cause harm to anyone. For example, all motorists have a duty of care to drive safely and follow the rules of the road.

THE AT-FAULT PARTY BREACHED HIS OR HER DUTY OF CARE

Once it has been established that the at-fault party owed you a duty of care, we must show that he or she broke that duty by acting recklessly, carelessly or intentionally.

This can include failing to act, or not acting at all, as a reasonably prudent person would have given the circumstances.

For example, most motorists know that they should not run red lights, speed or drive while under the influence. Engaging in these types of actions can be considered breaching the duty of care the person owes to those around him or her.

Similarly, all doctors are legally obligated to act within the standards of the medical community. Any failure to act as another doctor would have, could be considered a breach of duty of care.

THE AT-FAULT PARTY’S ACTIONS DIRECTLY CAUSED YOUR INJURIES

Next, you will have to prove that the at-fault party’s actions directly caused your injuries.

The insurance company and lawyers for the at-fault party will do everything possible to attempt to shift blame away from their client and claim that your injuries were caused by something other than their client’s actions.

For this reason, it is vital that we collect strong evidence showing that your injuries could not have been caused by anything other than the at-fault party’s actions.

YOUR INJURIES CAUSED YOU TO SUFFER DAMAGES

Finally, you must be able to show that you suffered damages because of your injuries. This can include economic damages, such as medical bills and lost wages, or noneconomic damages, such as physical and/or mental pain and suffering.

We will walk through each element with you to determine if you have grounds to file a lawsuit. If you do, we will get to work immediately gathering the necessary evidence to build a strong claim on your behalf.

HOW LONG DO I HAVE FOR FILING A PERSONAL INJURY CLAIM IN NEW JERSEY?

If you think you may have a case, you should contact us as possible because there are strict time limits for filing a claim. These time limits are called statutes of limitations, which place a deadline on when a claim must be filed. If you miss this deadline, you will lose your opportunity to file a personal injury lawsuit.

As outlined in New Jersey Statutes Annotated § 2A:14-2, most personal injury claims, including those for car accidents, medical malpractice and product liability, have a two-year statute of limitations.

Wrongful death lawsuits also have a two-year statute of limitations, as outlined in N.J.S.A § 2A:31-3.

Although these deadlines are strict, there are several exceptions that could lengthen or shorten the deadline for filing a claim. However, only an experienced injury attorney can advise you of which statutes apply to your case.

NEW JERSEY’S DISCOVERY RULE

In some situations, the statutes of limitations can be extended if the injury victim did not immediately know that he or she was injured or that the injury was caused by another’s negligence, which would mean he or she has a claim.

If this is the case, the two-year statute of limitations begins to run on the date the individual discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, his or her injury rather than on the date of the injury.

This includes cases of chemical or toxic exposure, such as mesothelioma, which can take years to develop after exposure to asbestos.

CLAIMS INVOLVING MINORS OR THE DISABLED

If a claim involves an individual who is a minor (under the age of 18) or legally incapacitated, the statutes of limitations will be tolled, or paused, until the minor reaches the age of 18 or the disability has been resolved.

This means, that if an individual was under the age of 18 at the time of the injury, the two-year statute of limitations will not begin to run until his or her 18th birthday. This will give him or her until his or her 20th birthday to file a claim.

However, this rule does not apply to medical malpractice claims involving birth injuries. In these cases, the claim must be filed before the child’s 13th birthday.

INJURY CLAIMS AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT

Unlike personal injury claims against private individual’s or entities, claims involving government entities or employees have additional, shorter requirements that must be met.

N.J.S.A. 59:1-1 et seq requires that a notice be filed with the responsible government department or agency within 90 days of the accident.

A failure to meet any of these deadlines will prevent you from filing a personal injury claim seeking compensation. Because of this, you should not hesitate to contact us as soon as possible after you have suffered an injury because of another’s negligence.

Our accident lawyers will review the details of your claim to identify the statutes of limitations that apply to your case. We will then work quickly and efficiently to meet all deadlines and requirements.

COMPENSATION FROM A NEW JERSEY PERSONAL INJURY LAWSUIT

Personal injury lawsuits are intended to provide an injury victim with monetary compensation for the damages he or she has suffered because of injuries caused by another’s actions.

ECONOMIC DAMAGES

These damages are intended to reimburse you for the money you have spent or lost in relation to your injury. This can include:

MEDICAL BILLS

Medical expenses are typically the largest portion of compensation an injury victim will recover. This can include compensation for:

LOST WAGES

If your injury prevents you from working for any period of time, it may be possible to obtain compensation for the wages you lost while you were unable to work.

If your injury prevents you from returning to work in the future, or requires that you take a significant pay reduction, it may also be possible to obtain compensation for lost future earning capacity.

OUT-OF-POCKET EXPENSES

Some injuries and accidents will also require out-of-pocket expenses that do not meet the categories above. If they are reasonable costs that are required for your injury, it may be possible to recover compensation for them. This can include:

NONECONOMIC DAMAGES

Noneconomic damages are not as easily calculated because there is no direct monetary value. These damages attempt to compensate you for the effects of your injury on your personal life and can include:

The types and amount of compensation you can recover from a personal injury claim will depend on a variety of circumstances, including the severity of your injuries and how they affect your life.

WHY WOULD MY COMPENSATION BE REDUCED?

It is important to note, however, that although our injury attorneys will do everything we can to obtain the maximum compensation you deserve, there are some circumstances in which your compensation could be reduced or limited.

NEW JERSEY COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE

One of the most common reasons your personal injury lawsuit compensation could be reduced is because of the rule of comparative negligence.

According to N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1, fault for a personal injury can be spread between multiple individuals. If the injury victim is found to be partially at fault for his or her injuries, his or her compensation will be reduced by his or her percentage of fault, so long as he or she is not more than 50 percent at fault.

This means that if you were awarded $20,000 in your personal injury case, but were found to be 30 percent responsible for causing your injuries, your award would be reduced by 30 percent to $14,000.

DAMAGE CAPS

Some states also place caps on the amount of compensation injury victims can recover from personal injury lawsuits. In New Jersey, the only damage cap is for punitive damages.

According to N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.14, punitive damages in personal injury cases are capped at $350,000 or five times the compensatory award, whichever is greater.

However, punitive damages are only awarded in cases in which the at-fault party acted out of actual malice or with wanton and willful disregard for the foreseeable harm that could come to the victim. For this reason, punitive damages are rarely awarded.

HOW MUCH DOES A PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEY COST?

At Pagliara Law Group, our personal injury lawyers will handle your case on a contingency fee basis. This means we will not charge you unless we recover compensation.

There is no upfront cost or out-of-pocket expenses to hire our firm, and we do not charge any legal fees or other charges unless we obtain compensation on your behalf.

If we recover compensation for your claim, we charge a small percentage of your recovery. If we do not obtain compensation for you, you owe us nothing.

We also offer free consultations with our team of accident attorneys to discuss the details of your claim and help you determine if you have a case.