Did someone act carelessly and negligently, and did you get hurt in the process? Did you have to visit the hospital or discover the injury within the last two years? Under New Jersey personal injury law, you may be eligible to file a personal injury lawsuit to seek compensation for medical bills, among other things.
You can file a personal injury lawsuit for different incidents, including dog bites, medical malpractice, and transportation accidents. This article explains how you can determine how much your personal injury case is worth in New Jersey.
New Jersey Personal Injury Law: What Does it Cover?
Personal injury law in the state covers legal disputes arising from a person suffering harm from an accident and seeking compensation. The injured party typically seeks to recover compensation from the person legally responsible for the harm.
The case may not get to court as insurance companies try to avoid lawsuits as much as possible. Therefore, settlement negotiations may resolve your case before you can file a lawsuit.
Personal injury cases are generally based on the legal concept of negligence, which is the failure to act reasonably under the circumstances. However, the law recognizes that some accidents are unavoidable; the plaintiff must establish liability to win the case. To do that, the plaintiff must prove that a reasonably careful person would have acted differently in the same situation.
Negligence Examples
A plaintiff can establish negligence if:
- A driver was distracted or drunk, and this caused a car accident
- There is an unsafe crosswalk, causing the pedestrian to be hit and paralyzed by a car
- A store owner who has been warned repeatedly about a faulty for fails to fix it, causing a slip and fall
- A vicious dog allowed to roam free ends up biting someone
- A doctor was negligent, and their negligence led to medical complications
Knowing Your Claim’s Worth
To calculate the value of your claim, you have to consider several factors, including future expenses. Furthermore, two types of personal injury compensation awards are given: compensatory damages and punitive damages. Where compensatory damages are designed to compensate the victim for their loss, punitive damages are designed to punish the offender.
If an individual is determined liable for an accident, the court may order them to pay compensatory damages for:
- Pain and physical suffering
- Lost wages from missed work
- Medical bills and other related expenditures
- Loss of companionship – that is, damage to your relationship with your loved ones
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Property damage
- Emotional distress arising from any of these events
- Permanent disability
- Wrongful death
The Different Classifications of Personal Injury Cases
Personal injury cases fall into different categories, each encompassing many accidents. The categories include:
- Vehicle accidents – examples include car accidents, motorcycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, truck accidents, bus accidents, boat accidents, commercial vehicle accidents, and more.
- Slip and fall accidents – examples include wet and slippery floors, damaged sidewalks, insufficient lighting, cluttered floors, damaged floors, and ditches and potholes.
- Medical malpractice – examples include birth injury, anesthesia errors, unnecessary surgery, surgical error, misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, hospital negligence, and botched procedures.
- Others include dog bites, workplace accidents, swimming pool accidents, battery explosions, food poisoning, and premises liability.
Conclusion
“Getting compensation for a personal injury claim can be difficult for someone unfamiliar with the process, leaving them at the risk of being exploited,” says attorney Andrew Statmore of Fredson Statmore Bitterman. Considering the complexity of the law, a lawyer can help make things easy, explaining your rights to you at no charge.
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