Grounds for a Personal Injury Claim in New Jersey

Suffering an injury can be a life-altering experience, leaving you with physical pain, emotional stress, and financial burdens. Whether you’ve been injured in a car crash, slip-and-fall, or another incident, it’s important to understand what qualifies as a valid personal injury claim. Learning the legal grounds that make a claim possible is critical to pursuing compensation for your injuries. 

Negligence As a Common Foundation of Personal Injury Claims

Many New Jersey personal injury claims stem from allegations of negligence. Negligence happens when a person or business fails to exercise reasonable care, resulting in harm to someone else. There are four elements required to prove negligence, including:

• Duty of Care – Individuals and entities legally must act in a reasonably safe manner to protect others from harm. Everyone has a responsibility to avoid creating unnecessary risks. 

• Breach of Duty – A breach happens when someone fails to meet their duty of care through careless actions or inaction. The failure shows they didn’t act as a reasonable person would. 

• Causation – Causation links the defendant's actions or inaction to the plaintiff’s injury, proving that the injury was a direct and foreseeable result. The harm must clearly result from the individual’s conduct. 

• Damages – The injured party must show they suffered real harm, in the form of damages, whether physical, emotional, or financial. A negligence claim may not proceed without actual losses. 

Additional Foundations for Personal Injury Claims

Other foundations for personal injury claims in New Jersey include:

• Strict Liability – These claims apply when a person or company is responsible for an injury, even when they didn’t act negligently or with intent to harm. If a defective product injures someone, the injured party must show that the defect existed and directly caused harm. Similarly, under New Jersey law, if someone’s animal attacks a person when that person is legally in that location, the animal’s owner must pay for the resulting injuries and losses.

• Intentional Torts – These involve deliberate actions intended to cause harm, like battery, false imprisonment, or assault. Intentional torts focus on purposeful conduct, not reckless behavior or accidents.  

Common Circumstances That Lead to Claims

Several types of accidents often give rise to personal injury claims in New Jersey, including: 

• Car Accidents – Car accidents, often caused by distracted driving, speeding, or reckless driving, can lead to injuries ranging from minor to severe.

• Truck Accidents – Truck accidents can result in catastrophic injuries due to the size and weight of commercial vehicles, and are often caused by fatigue, poor maintenance, or unsafe driving.

• Motorcycle Accidents – Motorcyclists who are injured in crashes with other motor vehicles may suffer severe injuries. These accidents are often caused by other drivers’ failure to yield or distractions, and liability disputes often arise from unfair blame placed on the motorcyclist.

• Medical Malpractice – Medical malpractice happens when a healthcare provider’s failure to meet applicable care standards leads to patient harm, such as misdiagnosis or surgical errors.

• Product Liability – Product liability arises when a defective product causes injury, whether due to design flaws, manufacturing errors, or misleading marketing.

Statute of Limitations for New Jersey Personal Injury Claims

New Jersey’s statute of limitations allows an injured person two years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit against the at-fault party. If a lawsuit is filed after the deadline expires, the court can dismiss the case without a hearing, no matter how strong the evidence may be.

Available Compensation in a New Jersey Personal Injury Claim

You can pursue various types of compensation in an injury claim, including money for:

• Medical Expenses – You can seek compensation to cover the costs of treating your injuries, including surgeries, doctor visits, medications, rehab, and future injury-related care. 

• Lost Income and Earning Potential – You can pursue compensation for income lost due to the injury if you can’t go back to work right away and if your injury prevents you from working or requires that you change careers to a field that is less lucrative, you can pursue compensation for future income you may no longer earn. 

• Pain and Suffering – Pain, discomfort, and emotional distress caused by the injury are personal losses for which you can seek compensation. 

Contact a New Jersey Personal Injury Attorney Today

Don’t let someone else’s negligence disrupt your life without holding them accountable. The legal team at The Cassidy Law Firm, LLC, can help. We’re here to listen, explain your options, and build a strategy to pursue the compensation you need. Call us today for a free consultation and let us help you rebuild your life.