Guide to Finding New Jersey Car Accident Lawyer

Car accidents are an unavoidable risk that we take every time we get into a car. Three million Americans are involved in motor vehicle accidents every year, but that doesn’t mean that accident victims don’t have rights. Even if you and the other parties involved have insurance, that doesn’t mean all of your medical costs will be provided for. Sometimes, crash victims have no choice but to turn to a New Jersey car accident lawyer for help getting compensated.

Do I Need a NJ Car Accident Lawyer?

No one wants to be exposed to the extra trouble for finding and consulting with a New Jersey car accident lawyer when no suit can be filed. In most cases where a party is injured in a motor vehicle accident and their medical costs have not been properly compensated for, legal action is the right course of action. Litigation is also the answers for other types of cases. Here are some accidents that commonly result in New Jersey car accident lawyer-led lawsuits:

• Accidents in which one party suffers serious and life-threatening injuries

• Accidents which result in a fatality

• Drunk driving-caused accidents

• Hit-and-run accidents

• Accidents resulting from moving violations such as ignoring stop signs or traffic signals, improper turning, and speeding

• Seat belt failure

Statute of Limitations

The State of New Jersey strictly limits the amount of time that private individuals have to file a claim for personal injury related to an auto accident. If you’re injured in an auto accident, you and your NJ car accident lawyer have up to two years from the date of the accident to file a claim. Wrongful death claims also carry a two year statute of limitations. If you’d like to sue for injury to your car or other personal property, then that is covered for a six year period. Contact a NJ car accident lawyer right away to see if you qualify to file a complaint.

Bad Faith Insurance

If you are certain that your insurance company is obligated to pay for your medical expenses and the repairs for your automobile, then you shouldn’t sue the other driver but your own insurance company. This is called “Bad faith insurance,” and it’s difficult to prove in court because of how good insurance companies are at finding loopholes in their coverage. However, an experienced NJ Car Accident lawyer can help you sue the insurance company to get the compensation that you deserve.

Assessing Your Damages

New Jersey car accident lawyers will discuss your accident in terms of compensation and damages, as in getting you a damages award (or instead a settlement). But what do they mean by damages? The term “damages” refers to the compensation awarded to a car accident victim for the injuries suffered to them in the car accident. Much of any New Jersey car accident lawyer’s job is to properly assess the value of the damages a person has sustained. There are two types of damages that you should be aware of, and within each type there are more specific classifications:

• Economic Damages: If the monetary value of damages sustained in a car accident can be discussed and proven in a strictly objective manner, then they are economic damages. For instance, no insurance company or other driver can dispute the cost of medical bills since they are already monetized. Similar economic damages include wages lost because of time during which the victim was unable to work and property damages caused by the car accident.

• Non-Economic Damages: These are the damages whose worth can be endlessly discussed and evaluated by expert witnesses and juries, with no supporting evidence as strong as that of an actual written bill. The most famous non-economic damage is pain and suffering, which is compensation for the physical pain that a car accident has caused. New Jersey car accident lawyers may also try to get compensation for inconvenience, and for mental anguish, which is the mental equivalent of pain and suffering.

There is one other category of non-economic damages important enough to warrant singular discussion with any NJ car accident lawyer: punitive damages. These are bills inflicted upon a defendant not as compensation for a damage done to the victim, as pain and suffering or medical expenses are, but to punish the defendant for particularly negligent and harmful behavior. She state of New Jersey strictly limits the damages that can be awarded for punitive damages to either $350,000 or 5 times the economic damages, whichever is greater.

Contingency Fees

Most New Jersey car accident lawyers get paid only after winning their client money, either in the final court verdict or in a pre-trial settlement. Their money comes out of their client’s damages award, and it can be a large percentage depending on how much money the New Jersey car accident lawyer has helped their client to win. This arrangement is call a contingency fee plan.

The state government has limited the amount of money a NJ car accident lawyer can take in contingency fees. For the first $500,000, the limit is 33.3%, for the next $500,000 the limit is 30%, for the next $500,000 it is 25%, and for the next $500,000 it is 20%. Any compensation in contingency fees for awards over that $2,000,000 amount is decided by the court.

NJ car accident lawyers may also charge their clients in various other manners during the course of filing a complaint and taking it to trial. Some will charge a “retainer fee” at the beginning of services to obligate the NJ car accident lawyer to continue work on the case. Other lawyers charge incidental fees such as paralegal fees, legal research fees, and fees for the drafting or filing of court documents. All such fees should be discussed with clients at the beginning of services, before clients are charged.