The airbag has deployed, your arm will not move, and someone is telling you to stay still until the ambulance arrives. By the next morning, the car is at a tow yard and an adjuster has already called. After a serious car accident in New Jersey, get medical care, make sure police document the crash, open a PIP claim with your auto insurer, and find out which right to sue your policy carries. A New Jersey car accident attorney at Bendit Weinstock can handle the insurers while you recover.
Your Legal Duties in the First Minutes at the Scene
Call 911 for police and an ambulance if you can do so safely. New Jersey’s law on what drivers must do after a crash also sets duties for every driver in a crash that injures someone. A driver who knows he or she was involved must:
- Stop at or near the scene and stay until the two duties below are done
- Give a name and address, and show a license and registration, to the injured person, the other drivers, police, and witnesses
- Give an injured person reasonable help, including a ride to a hospital or doctor when treatment is clearly needed or requested
A companion section of that law requires the driver to notify police by the quickest means available after a crash that injures or kills anyone or causes more than $500 in damage to one person’s property. If the driver is too hurt to make that call, another occupant of the vehicle who is able must make it.
Photograph the Scene and Find Witnesses
If you are able, photograph the vehicles, the road, skid marks, and your injuries, and get the names of witnesses. If an ambulance takes you away, ask a family member to photograph the scene and ask nearby businesses to save security video. Stick to facts, because an apology or a guess about speed can end up in the police report.
Get the Police Crash Report
New Jersey’s crash report law requires an officer who investigates a reportable crash to send a report to the state electronically within five days. A police department must mail or fax you a copy on request once you complete any required form and pay the fee. If no officer files a report, the driver must send the state a written report within 10 days.
Get Medical Care Now, Even If You Feel Steady
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says some concussion symptoms may not appear for hours or days after the injury. See a doctor right away, tell every provider you were hurt in a car crash, and follow the treatment plan. Under the limited right to sue, explained below, a pain and suffering lawsuit needs a physician’s certification based on objective clinical evidence. Your doctors build that evidence through exams and tests.
Open a PIP Claim With Your Auto Insurer
New Jersey’s no-fault law requires every standard auto policy to include personal injury protection (PIP), medical coverage that pays without regard to who caused the crash. It covers the policyholder and family members in the household, including as pedestrians, and other people riding in or using the insured car with permission. Open a PIP claim even if the other driver was plainly at fault. Medical bills start with PIP unless the policyholder chose to have health insurance pay first for the policyholder’s household.
Standard PIP medical benefits run up to $250,000 per person, but a policyholder can choose a limit as low as $15,000. Even then, the policy must still pay up to $250,000 for medically necessary treatment of:
- Permanent or significant brain injury, spinal cord injury, or disfigurement
- Other permanent or significant injuries, for treatment at a trauma center or acute care hospital right after the crash until the attending physician finds the patient stable, out of critical care, and safe to discharge or transfer
Check your policy’s declarations page, the coverage summary, for your medical limit and deductible.
Find Out Which Right to Sue Your Policy Carries
Every standard New Jersey auto policy carries one of two lawsuit options. The unlimited right to sue lets you sue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering for any injury. The limited right to sue costs less, and the state’s buyer’s guide lists it as the option most drivers choose. A policyholder who never picked an option in writing has the limited right to sue, and so does everyone covered by a basic policy. The choice also covers a spouse and children in the household who are not listed as policyholders on another auto policy.
Under the limited right to sue, you generally can bring a claim for pain, suffering, and inconvenience (what the law calls noneconomic loss) only if the crash caused one of these injuries:
- Death
- Dismemberment
- Significant disfigurement or significant scarring
- A displaced fracture, which is a break in which the pieces of bone have moved out of line
- Loss of a fetus
- A permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, meaning a body part or organ that has not healed to function normally and will not heal to function normally with further medical treatment
Check the Other Driver’s Coverage and Your Underinsured Coverage
New Jersey’s minimum liability limits for a standard policy issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2026, are $35,000 for injury to one person and $70,000 for everyone hurt in one accident. A policy last renewed in 2025 can still carry $25,000 and $50,000. A basic policy carries no bodily injury liability coverage unless the driver added the $10,000 coverage option.
Your standard policy also carries uninsured motorist coverage, which applies to hit-and-run crashes, and underinsured motorist coverage. New Jersey’s uninsured and underinsured motorist law treats the other vehicle as underinsured when its liability limits are lower than your underinsured limits.
Be Careful With Insurance Adjusters
Before you give a recorded statement, sign a medical authorization, or accept a settlement offer, talk with a lawyer about what you are agreeing to. The same motorist coverage law lets your policy set terms for settlements your insurer did not approve, so check your underinsured coverage before you settle with the other driver’s insurer.
Deadlines and Shared Fault Rules That Shape Your Claim
New Jersey’s general deadline for an injury lawsuit is two years after the claim accrues, the legal term for the date the deadline starts to run.
If a New Jersey government vehicle or employee on duty caused the crash, you face a shorter deadline. Under the state’s Tort Claims Act, a notice of claim must be filed with the public entity within 90 days after the claim accrues. You can file suit six months after the entity receives the notice, and no later than two years after the claim accrues. A judge can allow late notice up to one year after accrual, but only for extraordinary circumstances and only if the delay did not substantially prejudice the public entity. The same act bars pain and suffering damages against a public entity or public employee unless the injury is a substantial permanent loss of a bodily function, a permanent disfigurement, or a dismemberment and the medical treatment expenses exceed $3,600.
Federal, Port Authority, and other states’ government vehicles follow different rules, including a one-year deadline to sue the Port Authority.
New Jersey’s comparative negligence statute lets you recover if your share of fault is not greater than the combined fault of the people you sue, and your award is reduced by your percentage. In a crash between two drivers, a driver found 20% at fault recovers 80% of the damages, and a driver found more than 50% at fault recovers nothing.
Talk With a New Jersey Car Accident Attorney
Founded in 1957, Bendit Weinstock represents drivers and passengers hurt in serious crashes throughout northern New Jersey. Our trial-ready personal injury attorneys investigate fault, review every available insurance policy, and handle insurer communications. Contact us to schedule a free case evaluation.