Negligence and Motor Vehicle Accidents in New Jersey

December 22, 2011

New Jersey drivers who operate their motor vehicles in a negligent manner can be held financially responsible for their actions. However, determining when a driver's conduct is negligent, and to what extent he or she should be held liable, can be challenging. If you are involved in a motor vehicle accident, a basic knowledge of how New Jersey law determines fault and liability can help you become better informed of your legal options and lessen the chance of being taken advantage of by your insurance company.

Types of Fault

Negligence is one of the many types of fault. Fault for causing an accident is created either by statute (written laws created by the legislature) or common law (law created by the courts through years of decisions).

New Jersey common law recognizes four degrees of fault:

- negligence
- reckless or wanton conduct
- intentional conduct
- strict liability

Negligence is by far the most common level of fault involved in motor vehicle accidents. It is described most basically as unintentional or careless conduct which results in harm or damage. It can be either active or passive. This means that a person can be negligent if he or she does something (running a stop sign) or fails to do something (failing to yield the right-of-way).

Reckless or wanton conduct involves acting intentionally with disregard of the consequences of one's action, knowing that one's action creates an unreasonably high probability and risk of harm. A common example to reckless or wanton conduct is drunk driving. As this is a more elevated level of fault than negligence, if a person's behavior is considered reckless, the person may be held criminally liable.

Intentional conduct means to act with the desire to cause harm, knowing that one's actions are virtually certain to cause harm (intentionally, not accidentally, running over a pedestrian). This level of fault is commonly a factor in criminal cases.

Strict liability is a type of liability that imposes fault in rare situations, regardless of intent. It applies mainly to harm caused by defective products and abnormally dangerous activities like using explosives or drilling for oil in residential areas. Strict liability rarely applies to motor vehicle accidents, unless the motor vehicle contains a defective part or component.

Negligence in New Jersey

In New Jersey, the common law imposes a duty on drivers of automobiles to exercise "reasonable care." This means that a driver, when driving his or her vehicle, must do what a reasonable person would do under similar circumstances. For example, when there is snow on the roads, there is a greater risk of an accident, so a driver has a duty to slow down and drive more carefully than he or she would under normal road conditions. If a driver does not exercise the care required under the surrounding circumstances, he or she is negligent.

In some states, if a driver violates a traffic statute while driving (i.e. running a red light), he or she is automatically considered negligent, without taking into account whether he or she exercised reasonable care. In New Jersey, however, the mere violation of a traffic statute, in most circumstances, is not proof of negligence by itself.

How Fault Affects Liability in New Jersey

If a jury finds a driver to have behaved negligently, the driver may be held liable to the other driver for injury, property damage and economic loss that he or she caused. However, it is not often that one driver will be considered 100 percent at fault for an accident.

Since more than one party is often responsible for a given motor vehicle accident, in New Jersey, the jury allocates liability among the parties in a lawsuit, depending on the percentage of fault each driver is found to be responsible for. Based on the evidence it has heard, the jury will assign the fault percentage for each party. In other words, the jury determines the percentage based on what extent it believes that each party contributed to the accident.

Once the jury has assigned the percentages, the court will apply them to the judgment. If the negligence of the plaintiff, or person who filed the lawsuit, is equal to or less than the defendant's (person being sued) negligence, the plaintiff's award will be reduced by his or her percentage. For example, if $100,000 was awarded in damages and the jury found the plaintiff 50 percent at fault, the plaintiff's award would be reduced by 50 percent or $50,000. This means that the plaintiff could only recover $50,000 in the lawsuit.

There is an important exception to the rule. If the jury finds that the defendant is 60 percent or more at fault, the defendant may be held liable for the entire amount of the judgment. In other words, the judgment will not be reduced by the percentage that the plaintiff is at fault in these situations.

Limitations on Recovery in New Jersey

Automobile insurance policies in New Jersey will sometimes limit what types of damages, or costs caused by the injury, a person injured in a motor vehicle can recover. Under New Jersey law, the right to sue for certain types of damages is limited by what type of tort option coverage a person chooses to purchase. The two options are a limitation on lawsuit (also called a verbal threshold) option and no limitation on lawsuit option. If a person has the no limitation on lawsuit option, he or she may recover any type of damages.

If a person elects to carry the limitation on lawsuit option, he or she may only recover economic damages, such as medical bills and loss of income, rather than noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering or emotional distress. However, with the limitation on lawsuit option, a person can recover noneconomic damages if a motor vehicle accident caused any of the following:
- death (the driver's estate can recover on behalf of the driver)
- dismemberment
- significant disfigurement or significant scarring
- displaced fractures
- loss of a fetus
- a permanent injury

An Attorney Can Help

If you have been injured in a motor vehicle accident, consider contacting an attorney experienced in personal injury. A lawyer can help you work with your insurance company to ensure that you receive a fair settlement offer. In the event that a fair settlement cannot be reached, an attorney can further advise you of your legal options, in order to obtain the compensation that you are entitled to.

Article provided by Fishman McIntyre P.C.
Visit us at www.jaeleelaw.com