Unfortunately, car accidents happen nearly every minute of every day. If you have been injured because of another driver’s negligent actions, our lawyers can help you get coverage for your losses.
While car accidents are common, knowing what to do after is not. No-fault insurance often complicates matters for victims as it only covers some medical bills and lost income. To recover your full range of losses, you will need to go beyond insurance and file a lawsuit. Our team can gather evidence to show that your injuries are serious if your insurance is a limited policy. If you have a no-limit policy, we can file a lawsuit immediately, but we must do so before the limitations period closes in your case. Most importantly, we can counsel you on how much to settle your case and your case’s chances at trial. If the insurance company is unwilling to pay what you deserve and the evidence is on our side, having a jury decide the lawsuit might provide the best award.
Call Agrapidis & Maroules, P.C. today at (201) 777-1111 to discuss your claim with our car accident lawyers free of charge.
Steps to Filing a Car Accident Lawsuit in Plainfield, NJ
You might be surprised to learn that you cannot always immediately file a lawsuit after someone injures you in a Plainfield car accident. Drivers in New Jersey must carry “personal injury protection,” or “PIP,” coverage under N.J.S.A. § 39:6A-4, which can impact their ability to file a lawsuit. If you are injured driving or as a passenger, you will typically use your or the driver’s PIP insurance to cover your initial medical expenses and lost wages. Suppose your damages exceed your PIP’s limits, including pain and suffering. In that case, you must consider filing a lawsuit to recover them—especially pain and suffering, as PIP provides zero benefits for non-economic damages.
Our car accident lawyers can review your insurance policy to determine if you have an “unlimited right to sue” or “limitation on lawsuit” option. The latter option does not completely bar a victim’s right to file a claim but limits the right to accidents involving “serious” injuries, as per § 39:6A-8(a). Crash victims can pursue non-economic damages despite this option if they show that their injuries are serious. If you selected the no limitation or “tort” option, you can file a lawsuit for all your damages without meeting the above threshold, according to § 39:6A-8(b).
How Long You Have to File a Plainfield, NJ Car Accident Lawsuit
While assessing your right to file a lawsuit, our team can quickly identify how much time you have to file it under § 2A:14-2(a). The state “statute of limitations” provides little time to victims, allowing them just two years from the accident to file. Two years is far less time than it sounds, especially if you need time to gather medical evidence to meet the “serious” injury threshold above. The sooner you start your claim, the more time we will have to use to build successful strategies.
Determining Whether You Should Settle a Car Accident Case in Plainfield, NJ
One of the most challenging decisions car accident victims must make is settling their lawsuit or taking the case to court. There is often a fine line between taking a decent settlement that covers most of your damages or going for full compensation in a trial. Of course, the right decision will depend on numerous factors, such as the quality of the evidence, the defendant’s attorney’s arguments, the damages sought, and how all that might play out if presented to a jury. Fortunately, that is what our experienced attorneys are here to guide you through.
Evidence
Evidence is the foundation of any vehicle accident lawsuit. The more available that supports your case, like photos, witness testimony, and reports, the more likely the insurance company will settle for what we demand. After all, they do not want to spend money, staff, and time on a trial that they will likely lose.
However, suppose the insurance company argues you were negligent when the evidence does not really support it. In that case, it might be best to reject the settlement and let a jury decide on our arguments. Under § 2A:15-5.1, defendants are not liable for the damages plaintiffs are responsible for. Further, victims recover no compensation if they are more at fault than the defendant. In the legal world, this rule is called “comparative negligence.”
The comparative negligence defense will likely be asserted unless clear-cut evidence shows how the other driver caused the crash. Suppose the defense has credible evidence that you partially caused the crash but are still willing to settle. It might be worth taking a good settlement rather than risking everything in a trial. If the defense overlies on its arguments, we can counsel you on your chances in court.
Non-Economic Damages
Your non-economic damages, or “pain and suffering,” will likely be another area where you must decide if it is worth settling. Medical bills, employment records, and repair invoices will show your economic losses, but your non-economic damages are not as easy to prove. Pain and suffering compensate you for the physical pain and emotional turmoil you experienced during the crash and after.
The defense is more likely to make negotiations difficult when the demand for these damages is high. But, with expert testimony and other evidence to demonstrate the emotional and physical impact you have endured, they will usually want to settle rather than let a sympathetic jury decide the amount.
Sometimes, the defense claims these damages are “capped” to a certain amount. While it is true that non-economic damages are limited in some cases, it is only enforced in claims against government defendants and usually only when minor injuries are involved, as per § 59:9-2(d). If the other side is wrongly using this as an excuse to deny compensation, we will have the law on our side in court.
Call Our Plainfield, NJ Car Accident Lawyer Today for Help
For a free case review with our car accident attorneys, call Agrapidis & Maroules, P.C. at (201) 777-1111 today.