If you were hurt in an accident that was due to someone else’s negligence, you may have the right to file a personal injury claim to get compensation for your losses. The New Jersey personal injury lawyers at Morris, Downing & Sherred have been representing clients across our state for the past 125 years and know what it takes to help you get justice. We stand ready to protect your rights, negotiate with insurance, and aggressively advocate for the maximum financial compensation you need and deserve.
The Foundation of Personal Injury Claims
Personal injury law is designed to protect individuals who have been harmed by the negligent and wrongful acts of others. Personal injury claims arise when people suffer physical, psychological, or emotional harm due to other individuals’ or entities’ failure to act with reasonable care. In legal terms, this failure is known as negligence.
The person does not have to have malicious intent to be considered negligent. Rather, it hinges on whether their behavior fell below the standard of care expected of a reasonable person in the same circumstances. Whether a person caused your accident through a direct, reckless action, like running a red light, or through a lack of action, such as failing to repair a broken handrail, personal injury law allows injury victims to hold them accountable for the resulting damages.
The way that they are held accountable is through injury compensation, in attempts to restore the person to the position they were in prior to the accident. While financial compensation cannot undo physical trauma or emotional scars of a catastrophic accident, it can provide financial support during recovery.
Our Personal Injury Lawyers Help With a Wide Range of New Jersey Injury Claims
At Morris, Downing & Sherred, LLP, we have significant experience in representing a broad range of New Jersey personal injury cases. Every type of accident must be pursued differently, with a unique and individualized strategy based on the elements involved. We tailor our approach to meet the specific needs of your case, including injury claims such as:
- Car and Motorcycle Accidents: We work with those injured in car and motorcycle accidents involving distracted drivers, speeding, and drunk drivers.
- Commercial Truck Accidents: We hold large trucking companies and their commercial drivers accountable for crashes involving massive tractor-trailers, box trucks, and delivery vehicles.
- Slip-and-Fall Accidents: We represent people severely injured due to unsafe conditions, such as wet floors, uneven sidewalks, or poor lighting, holding business and property owners accountable.
- Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect: We work to protect vulnerable seniors and their families from nursing home and long-term facility failures and abuse.
- Dog Bites & Animal Attacks: We pursue damages for physical harm and emotional trauma due to dangerous animals and unrestrained dogs.
- Medical Malpractice: We hold healthcare providers and facilities accountable for medical errors that cause a patient’s worsening injuries, including surgical mistakes, misdiagnosis, medication errors, and birth injuries.
Our personal injury lawyers also help families who have lost loved ones due to negligence seek justice. We will work with surviving family members to pursue comprehensive wrongful death actions and navigate civil lawsuits to secure your family’s financial future.
Possible Personal Injury Compensation
After being injured due to someone else’s negligence, you have the right to seek financial compensation to make up for your losses. The two types of compensatory damages are economic and non-economic. Be sure to work with an experienced and dedicated personal injury lawyer who will comprehensively calculate what you are owed, representing past, present, and future losses.
Insurance companies often try to offer settlements early on while injury victims are still recovering, forcing them with act-now language to get them to sign away their legal rights. Do not sign anything without getting an injury lawyer to help you calculate your potential financial losses first. If you have not met the maximum medical improvement (MMI), your medical team might not even know the full extent of your required treatments and the true costs of recovery.
Types of Economic Damages
Compensation for concrete, objective, out-of-pocket financial losses and future expected expenses resulting from your injury is called economic damages. This type of compensation is backed by bills, estimates, invoices, and expert financial projections. They include:
- Immediate Medical Expenses: All costs related to emergency medical transport, emergency room stabilization, surgical interventions, hospital stays, diagnostic imaging (MRIs, CT scans), prescription medications, and medical equipment such as braces or wheelchairs.
- Future Healthcare and Rehabilitation Needs: We consult with medical experts and life-care planners to calculate the anticipated costs of ongoing physical therapy, future corrective surgeries, home modifications such as wheelchair ramps, and long-term home health aides.
- Lost Pay and Benefits: If your injury forced you to miss work, you are entitled to compensation for every dollar of lost income, including missed bonuses and commissions.
- Diminished Earning Capacity: If your injury results in a permanent disability or restriction that prevents you from returning to your previous profession, or limits the number of hours you can work, you can recover the lifetime difference between what you were on track to earn versus what you are now capable of earning.
- Property Damage: This covers the repair or replacement value of assets damaged in the accident, such as your motor vehicle, electronic devices, or personal items.
Maintain a secure, centralized folder for every single medical bill, insurance explanation of benefits, and pharmacy receipt you receive. This paper trail serves as foundational evidence that our legal team will use to build your economic damages claim.
Types of Non-Economic Losses
Compensation for the subjective, non-monetary losses associated with your injury is called non-economic damages. Because these losses do not come with an invoice, proving their value requires a nuanced approach and compelling narrative advocacy. Non-economic damages include factors such as physical pain, emotional distress, permanent disfigurement, scarring, and loss of enjoyment of life.
To calculate compensation for these intangible losses, insurance companies and courts generally utilize two primary methodologies:
- The Multiplier Method: Adds up the total economic damages and multiplies that baseline number by a factor between 1 and 5, depending on the severity, permanence, and overall impact of the injury.
- The Per Diem Method: Assigns a specific, reasonable dollar amount to a single day of suffering. That daily rate is then multiplied by the exact number of days the victim is required to reach Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI) or is projected to suffer from their injuries.
Our experienced personal injury attorneys know how to leverage evidence, such as personal journals, testimony from mental health professionals, and interviews with friends and family members, to ensure these non-economic calculations reflect the true depth of your experience.
Punitive Damages for Exceptional Misconduct
In some rare cases where the at-fault party was exceptionally negligent, malicious, or showed wanton disregard for the safety of others, New Jersey courts may award punitive damages. These are not intended to compensate the victim, but rather to punish the wrongdoer and deter similar behavior in the future. Under New Jersey’s Punitive Damages Act, these awards are statutorily capped at either $350,000 or five times the total amount of compensatory damages, whichever is greater.
How Our Personal Injury Law Firm Builds Your Case
Navigating a personal injury claim independently can easily become overwhelming. When you partner with Morris, Downing & Sherred, LLP, our legal team takes over the logistical and legal burdens so you can focus entirely on physical recovery. We take the following structured approach to build your case and handle your claim:
- Free Initial Case Evaluation: Before we take you on as a client, we offer a free, confidential consultation with no obligation to get your questions answered. We listen attentively to your personal account of the accident, examine your collected documents, evaluate the viability of your claim, and outline your available legal options.
- Comprehensive Investigation: Once retained, our personal injury lawyers will begin an immediate investigation into the root causes of your accident and preserve all available evidence before it fades or disappears. We may also retain industry experts, such as accident reconstructionists, biomechanical engineers, or workplace safety inspectors, to establish clear liability.
- Formal Claim Filing: We then formally notify the at-fault party and their insurance carriers, handling all ongoing communications for you. While you continue your medical treatment, we track your progress, ensuring a comprehensive compilation of medical records and diagnostic imaging.
- Beginning Negotiations: Upon your reaching Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI), we compile a comprehensive demand letter outlining the legal basis for liability, detailing the full extent of your physical injuries, and providing an itemized accounting of your economic and non-economic damages. Our aggressive, strategic negotiations with the insurance carrier will then begin, with our goal to secure a settlement that covers your past, present, and future needs.
- Litigation and Trial Advocacy: If the insurance company denies liability or refuses to negotiate a fair settlement, we will not hesitate to file a lawsuit on your behalf in the New Jersey Superior Court. Our trial-ready injury attorneys will present a compelling case to a judge and jury to secure the justice you deserve.
When you partner with our New Jersey personal injury lawyers, you get a team with years of experience in local courts and with all the nuances of personal injury law. Over 125 years, our personal injury firm has established a reputation that helps us negotiate aggressively, with local insurance providers knowing we will not back down from a fight.
Time Limit on New Jersey Personal Injury Cases
Generally, under New Jersey law, you have a deadline of two years after the accident occurs to file a formal lawsuit in the civil court system. There are some exceptions to this, but these only apply to rare circumstances, so it is best to retain a personal injury attorney as soon as possible. While two years can seem like a long time, building a robust, evidence-backed claim requires considerable time and resources.
If you miss out on the two-year deadline, you may completely miss out on your chance to receive compensation for your injuries and losses, no matter how severe and financially devastating they are. Your leverage against an at-fault party and their insurance company is the threat that you could take the case to court. Once the time to file is up, your ability to negotiate is practically zero.
Understanding Shared Blame Under New Jersey’s Modified Comparative Negligence Law
If you share in part of the blame for your accident and resulting injuries, you may still be able to recover compensation. New Jersey works under a modified comparative negligence system, which limits the amount of fault you can have to 50% or less. As long as your responsibility for the accident is less than 51%, you can recover compensation for your losses, just reduced by your percentage of fault.
Insurance adjusters frequently use this rule to shift blame onto victims during early settlement talks, hoping to minimize their final payout or deny your claim altogether. Our New Jersey personal injury attorneys at Morris, Downing & Sherred, LLP understand these tactics and focus on building a clear, evidence-based argument that keeps the blame where it belongs.
We Work on a Contingency Fee
The weeks and months following a severe injury can feel overwhelming. As medical expenses stack up and you miss more paychecks, taking on a legal battle on your own can feel like an impossible task. At Morris, Downing & Sherred, LLP, we understand what you are going through, and that is why we represent personal injury clients on a contingency fee basis.
This fee structure means you do not pay any upfront costs, hourly rates, or retainer fees. Our legal fees are structured as a percentage of the final financial settlement or court verdict we secure for you. If we do not win your case, you owe us absolutely nothing for our services. This ensures you can receive high-quality legal representation, regardless of your financial situation.
Partner With an Experienced New Jersey Personal Injury Law Firm
With a legacy of over 125 years, our New Jersey personal injury law firm offers a powerful combination of legal knowledge, extensive resources, and a strong courtroom reputation. We handle the complexities of the legal system so you can focus on healing and rebuilding your life.
Contact our office today to arrange a free, confidential case evaluation. Let a New Jersey personal injury attorney help you protect your rights, stand up to the insurance companies, and secure the full compensation you deserve.
