If you have experienced a personal injury in New Jersey you may be eligible for compensation by filing a personal injury claim. There are several kinds of personal injuries covered by personal injury claims in New Jersey, including the following:
- truck accidents;
- slip and falls;
- motor cycle accidents;
- car accidents and much more.
Before filing a personal injury claim it is important to seek personal injury help in New Jersey first. This may help you to get the best settlement for injuries caused by an accident that was not your fault.
How Do I File a Claim in New Jersey?
As soon as the accident and injury has occurred and you are sure that the accident was not your fault, you should start collecting as much evidence as possible which provides the proof that the accident and the injury were not your fault.
This could include a police accident report, if the accident involved calling the police such as in any motor vehicle accident, reports written by eye witnesses of the accident, medical reports provided by your doctor showing the diagnosis for the injuries with an estimated recovery time, photos taken by you and witnesses at the accident scene which prove who caused it, surveillance camera footage which recorded the accident such as a slip and fall in a store or a parking lot.
When you have the right amount of evidence you should start to seek New Jersey personal injury help from a New Jersey personal injury attorney. A personal injury settlement may have higher chance of being reached when a New Jersey personal injury attorney works on your behalf.
The attorney can negotiate a fair claim with the insurer of the person found to be at-fault and was negligent which caused the accident and your injury. Most personal injury accident settlements are reached through negotiations and an out of court settlement so they only rarely end up in court.
As soon as your lawyer has filed your personal injury claim on your behalf the insurer of the person who caused the accident will carry out its own investigation into your claim and once completed will either offer you a settlement or reject your claim. If you think the insurer has not offered you enough compensation to cover all the financial loss and emotional hardship caused by your injury you may file an appeal to the insurer’s claims supervisor. However, before starting the process of filing a personal injury claim you should check the statute of limitations for New Jersey.
What Is the Statute of Limitations in New Jersey?
The statute of limitations is a New Jersey state law that sets a strict time limit on a personal injury victim’s right to file a claim. When a claimant misses the date, the defendant may use the statute of limitations as a defense against any civil lawsuit that has been filed.
If the defendant is able to establish that the statute of limitations is applicable the case is normally dismissed which disallows the plaintiff from filing any personal injury claim at all. Currently, the statute of limitations for personal injury claims in New Jersey is set at 2 years from the time and date of the injury.
How Do I Prove Negligence in New Jersey?
In order to prove negligence for an injury in an accident in the state of New Jersey it is important to offer the best evidence you have available to the at-fault person’s insurance company. Most personal injury lawsuits in New Jersey involve some sort of negligence when a person is held liable for doing, or in a few cases for not doing, something that the average person in the same situation would not, or would do. A negligence claim may only be filed if some kind of injury has occurred from the negligence, but the claim may also include compensation for both financial and emotional injuries.
New Jersey is a contributory negligence state, which means that the person seeking damages in a lawsuit has to be less responsible for the accident than the person who actually caused the accident. For example, in an auto accident, if the other driver is asking you to pay for his damages, he has to be less responsible for the accident than you. However, if it is found that the accident would have been avoided if you were driving slower, you may have to pay damages.
What Kind of Compensation Can I Receive in New Jersey?
Most personal injury claims in New Jersey cover the calculations for the following:
- a loss of life’s enjoyment;
- lost income;
- medical treatment costs up to recovery time;
- pain and suffering caused by the injury;
- punitive damages, if it can be proved that the negligent act was deliberate.
How Do I Get Personal Injury Help in New Jersey?
As soon as adequate evidence is available which proves who the cause of your accident was, you should start the personal injury claims process in New Jersey by choosing a personal injury lawyer. Most New Jersey personal injury attorneys provide a free case evaluation before the personal injury claim process begins.
