New Jersey Personal Injury Claims

The Use of Expert Witness Testimony in a Personal Injury Lawsuit

February 8, 2023 by The Cintron Firm

The Purpose of Expert Witnesses | The Different Kinds of Expert Witnesses

When you have been hurt in an accident caused by the carelessness or negligence of another person, you have a right to file a personal injury lawsuit to recover full and fair compensation for all your losses. As a part of that legal proceeding, you’ll need to prove that the defendant (person from whom you seek damages) caused the accident. You’ll also need to establish the full amount of your current and future losses as a result of your injuries.

The evidence used to prove your claim will typically take the form of eyewitness testimony or physical evidence. You may have statements from others involved in a car accident or from bystanders. You may also have pictures of the damage to your vehicle, your injuries or the road conditions at the time of the crash.

It’s also customary, though, for expert witness testimony to be gathered. This testimony will generally be used to establish:

Liability—Who caused the accident and how they caused it
Damages—The financial impact of the accident, including lost wages, unreimbursed medical expenses, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of companionship or consortium, pain and suffering, and property damages

The Different Types of Expert Witnesses

To establish liability, your attorney will often retain the services of an accident reconstruction specialist, typically an engineer, who can take the physical data of an accident and determine exactly what happened. Such an expert may measure skid marks, look at specific damage to a vehicle or use other physical evidence.

To help a judge and jury calculate all your losses, you’ll typically want the testimony of:

A medical expert, who can identify the specific types of injuries you have suffered, the type of care you’ll need, your prospects for full recovery and any ongoing medical care you’ll need
A financial specialist, who can calculate your actual losses thus far and project the costs you’ll incur in the future. This specialist will commonly determine a present value of your future losses.

Contact the Cintron Firm

At the Cintron Firm, LLC, we offer more than 14 years of experience to people in New Jersey facing a broad array of legal challenges. Attorney Mark Cintron has worked as a prosecutor and has extensive courtroom experience, so he’s always ready, willing and able to protect your interests before a judge or jury. Contact our office online or call us at 201-791-1333 or (201) 535-0323 to set up an appointment.

The Types of Damages Available in a Personal Injury Lawsuit

January 11, 2023 by The Cintron Firm

The Losses You Can Potentially Recover after Someone Else’s Negligence

When the careless or wrongful act of another person causes you injury or loss, you have the right to file a civil lawsuit to recover damages. Whether it’s a motor vehicle accident, a slip and fall, a workplace injury or the malfunction of a dangerous or defective product, you can ask a judge and jury to reimburse you for tangible losses and to compensate you for certain intangible injury. Let’s look at the potential damage you can seek in a personal injury claim.

Lost Wages or Income

You have a right to be reimbursed by the at-fault party for any hourly wage, salary or other form of compensation you could not earn because of your injuries. The jury will typically look at your most recent pay records to determine the full amount of your losses. If your injury prevents you from ever working again, you will typically be entitled to reimbursement of wages until normal retirement.

Unreimbursed Medical Expenses

You cannot recover for any medical bills covered by insurance or otherwise paid, but you can pursue reimbursement of past medical expenses, as well as compensation for anticipated future medical bills.

Pain and Suffering

This includes physical and emotional distress. Because of the difficulty of measuring these damages, many courts simply using a multiplier, taking the amount of tangible losses and multiplying by that factor (Usually between 1 and 10).

Loss of Enjoyment of Life

This compensates you for loss of the ability to engage in activities that were common before your accident. It also allows you to recover damages for your inability to engage in simple acts of daily life, such as dressing yourself, walking or grooming.

Loss of Companionship or Consortium

If your accident has made it difficult or impossible to have close and/or intimate relationships with others, you have a right to compensation for that loss.

Property Damage

You have a right to be reimbursed for the reduction in value of any property or asset as a result of the accident, including the full value of any property destroyed or rendered worthless by the accident.

Contact the Cintron Firm

At the Cintron Firm, LLC, we offer more than 14 years of experience to people in New Jersey facing a broad array of legal challenges. Attorney Mark Cintron has worked as a prosecutor and has extensive courtroom experience, so he’s always ready, willing and able to protect your interests before a judge or jury. Contact our office online or call us at 201-791-1333 or (201) 535-0323 to set up an appointment.

Third-Party Claims in Work-Related Accidents

December 14, 2022 by The Cintron Firm

Are You Limited to Workers’ Compensation Benefits?

>According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than seven million work-related injuries are reported every year. In New Jersey, all employers not covered by federal programs must either carry workers’ compensation insurance or be approved to be self-insured. When you suffer any type of injury on the job, then, one of your first actions will be to notify your employer and initiate the process of filing a work comp claim. Is that your only recourse when you’ve been hurt on the job? Can you ever bring a personal injury lawsuit against another party?

How Workers’ Compensation Works

The New Jersey workers compensation laws were enacted with the intent of providing benefit to all parties involved in a workplace accident claim:

If a work comp claim is approved, the injured worker will typically have access to benefits within a few weeks (unlike a civil lawsuit, where it may be years before any damages are actually paid). In addition, because workers’ compensation is essentially a “no-fault” system, an injured worker does not need to prove negligence. All that is required to qualify for workers’ compensation benefits is proof that you have been hurt and that your injury was work-related.
The employer benefits because workers’ compensation pays a fixed amount, based on the employee’s income. There’s no risk that a sympathetic jury will award millions.

The workers’ compensation laws are intended, however, to cover only situations where the employer or a co-worker caused the accident. If a worker’s injuries are caused to any extent by the wrongful actions of an unrelated third party, the injured worker may still file a civil lawsuit to seek damages from that party. In fact, an injured worker may file a civil lawsuit and a workers’ compensation claim simultaneously. The worker may not, however, recover damages for the same losses in both proceedings.

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What Can You Recover in a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

November 15, 2022 by The Cintron Firm

What Types of Compensation Are Available?

You’ve been hurt in an accident caused by someone else’s wrongful act. You have a right to file a lawsuit to recover compensation for all your losses. What does that include? What compensation can you expect to recover?

The Types of Damages Available in a Personal Injury Lawsuit

At the highest level, personal injury damages typically take the form of either compensatory damages or punitive damages. As a practical matter, punitive damages are extremely rare, granted only when a defendant’s actions are egregious or with reckless disregard for the value of human life.

Compensatory damages generally fall into two categories:

Economic damages—These losses are generally tangible and easy to determine, and include:

Loss of income or wages, as evidenced by prior earnings
Any unpaid or unreimbursed medical expenses
Any property damage or loss not covered by insurance

Non-economic damages—These types of losses are less tangible and, therefore, more difficult to calculate. Common forms of non-economic damages that are typically awarded in personal injury cases include:

Pain and suffering—Juries may award damages for physical and/or mental pain and suffering. A common approach is to determine the amount of economic damages and use a multiplier. For example, the jury may calculate $500,000 in economic damages and use a multiplier of two to assess $1,000,000 in damages for pain and suffering.
Loss of companionship or consortium—These damages cover the loss of close or intimate relationships with family members due to an injury, including loss of guidance, affection and nurturing
Loss of enjoyment of life—This covers the loss of the ability to engage in the ordinary acts of daily life, as well as any activities that brought joy, satisfaction or contentment before the accident

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Who Qualifies to File a Personal Injury Claim after an Accident?

October 13, 2022 by The Cintron Firm

What Are the Legal Requirements to Be Eligible to File a Lawsuit?

The impact of a personal injury can be widespread. You may be the primary or exclusive breadwinner in your family and be unable to work because of your injuries. You may be the spouse or child of an injured person, and lose the ability to have a close or intimate relationship, because of the injuries. You may be a friend or business associate and experience loss of companionship or contribution to the business.

After an accident, qualified persons can file a personal injury claim to recover for certain losses. But what are the criteria that make you eligible to file a personal injury lawsuit to recover damages?

Standing to Sue

The general legal principle that governs eligibility to recover compensation in a lawsuit is knows as “standing to sue.” A person may only be a plaintiff in personal injury litigation if he or she has standing. What does that mean?

Standing is unrelated to the facts of a case, the cause of an accident or the disputed issues, except as they relate to the relationship between the injured person and the person seeking to recover damages (financial compensation after a loss). Standing simply means that you have a right to sue. To establish standing, you must show three things:

That you suffered an actual injury—You cannot file a lawsuit for damages for what “might have happened.” You cannot bring a lawsuit for injuries suffered by another person, unless those injuries caused you to suffer injury or loss. Furthermore, you cannot bring a personal injury lawsuit for injuries that may arise in the future.
You must show that the defendant (party from whom you seek damages) caused the accident and injury
You must show that the court will be able to do something to either undo the harm done to you or to compensate you for the harm you have suffered

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Evidence that Can Be Excluded at a Personal Injury Trial

September 15, 2022 by The Cintron Firm

Evidence that Can Be Ruled Inadmissible

In New Jersey and across the United States, when parties are preparing a personal injury case, the principle of open discovery applies, ensuring that all parties have equal access to information and evidence related to the lawsuit. It’s important to understand, though, that not all evidence uncovered by the parties may be admissible at trial, as it may be unreliable or may have little relationship to the material issues involved. In fact, it’s customary for the court to hold hearings in advance of trial to determine the admissibility of some types of evidence, so that the jury may not be unfairly prejudiced by hearing inadmissible evidence during the course of the trial.

What Types of Evidence Can the Court Exclude from a Trial?

The admissibility of evidence is governed by the relevant rules of evidence—the Federal Rules of Evidence apply in personal injury claims in federal courts and state evidentiary rules govern all state court proceedings. Though the rules may be slightly different from state to state, there are some general limitations:

Evidence may be excluded if it is deemed irrelevant—The evidence must have some bearing on the issues that need to be resolved. For example, an injured party typically cannot introduce evidence of a defendant’s poor credit rating, if that has nothing to do with the cause of the accident or the damages suffered.
Evidence may be excluded if it provides opinion, rather than fact—A qualified expert witness may give an opinion in court, but all other witnesses must limit their testimony to the facts
Evidence may be excluded if it is considered to be hearsay—A witness may not testify as to what another person said outside of court, if the testimony is introduced to prove the truth of the out-of-court statement. For example, a witness may not testify that he heard a third party say that he knew that there was ice on his sidewalk, if introduced to prove that there was ice on the sidewalk.

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Ways that Your Personal Injury Claim Can Be Resolved without a Trial

July 31, 2022 by The Cintron Firm

Voluntary and Involuntary Termination of Litigation

When you have suffered an injury because of the carelessness or negligence of another person, you have a right to file a lawsuit seeking full and fair compensation for all your losses. Though your lawyer may take all the necessary steps to be fully prepared, should your case go to trial, the reality is that most personal injury claims don’t make it that far. There are a number of ways that your personal injury claim can be resolved or terminated without taking your case to a judge and jury.

Your Claim May Be Settled

Any party to a personal injury lawsuit can seek to settle the claim outside of court. In fact, the first time you meet with a judge, you can expect pressure to find a way to settle your dispute—that’s because most court dockets are full. If your case goes to trial, you may not get a court date for months or years. Of course, that means you won’t see any compensation, either. If liability is clear, the defendant may initiate settlement discussions. However, if you have some potential weaknesses in your case, you may encourage your attorney to negotiate a settlement.

Your Claim May Be Granted without Trial

Though it rarely happens, a court may grant what is known as “summary judgment” in your favor. If, after all the completion of discovery (the gathering of all evidence), the defendant has produced little or no evidence to support any defense, the court may rule in your favor. Your attorney must, however, file a motion for summary judgment to get that result.

Alternatively, if the court determines that you have not provided sufficient evidence to support your claims, the court may grant a motion to dismiss by the defendant.

Contact the Cintron Firm

At the Cintron Firm, LLC, we offer more than 14 years of experience to people in New Jersey facing a broad array of legal challenges. Attorney Mark Cintron has worked as a prosecutor and has extensive courtroom experience, so he’s always ready, willing and able to protect your interests before a judge or jury.Contact our office online or call us at 201-791-1333 or (201) 535-0323 to set up an appointment.

The Statute of Limitations and Your Personal Injury Claim

June 1, 2022 by The Cintron Firm

How the Statute of Limitations Affects a New Jersey Case

When you’ve been injured in New Jersey because of the wrongful or careless act of another person, you have the right to bring a lawsuit to recover compensation for all your losses. You must, however, bring your claim within a certain amount of time or it will be barred. In New Jersey, as in all other states, the rule of law requiring the timely filling of your claim is known as the “statute of limitations.”

What Is the Statute of Limitations on Personal Injury in New Jersey?

The statute of limitations is a written law, enacted by the New Jersey state legislature, that establishes time limits for filing a claim in court. There are specific statutes of limitations that apply to all legal procedures, from breach of contract to personal injury to criminal acts. In New Jersey, the statute of limitations for personal injury claims requires that any civil complaint be filed within two years of the date of the accident or injury.

What Is the Purpose of the Statute of Limitations?

The statute of limitations serves the combined interests of fairness and the effective and efficient administration of justice. Among the concerns are the potential loss, deterioration or destruction of physical evidence, as well as the fading memories of witnesses or parties to an accident. Furthermore, there’s a sense that it’s inherently unfair to allow a claim to hang over the defendant’s head for an indeterminate period of time. The interests of fairness support either bringing the claim within a reasonable period of time or permanently prohibiting it.

What Happens If an Injury Only Becomes Apparent Months or Years after an Accident?

In some cases, there are no physical manifestations of an injury for months or even years. In those situations, the statute of limitations may be suspended or “tolled,” such that the period in which the claim must be filed will be two years from the date when the injured party knew or should have know of the injury.

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Comparative Negligence in New Jersey

May 4, 2022 by The Cintron Firm

How Will It Affect Your Right to Recovery after an Accident?

When you’ve been injured in a motor vehicle accident or a slip and fall, you have a right to bring a personal injury claim against any other party who acted carelessly or negligently, causing the accident and your injuries. But what if you were partially at fault? What if you were injured when another motorist failed to stop at a red light or stop sign, but you were speeding at the time of the crash? What if you slipped and fell on a slippery floor after disregarding a sign warning you of the potential danger?

The Legal Principle of Comparative Negligence

It’s fairly common, in accidents that lead to personal injury, for both parties to have been careless. For many years, the principle of “contributory negligence” applied to such situations. Under that legal theory, if the injured party “contributed” in any way, regardless how insignificant, to causing the accident, there could be no recovery for any losses. In response to the perception that such a rule often unjustly punished a relatively innocent victim at the hands of an egregiously careless or negligent person, the state of New Jersey, like most other states, replaced the concept of contributory negligence with the legal theory of “comparative negligence.”

With the comparative negligence approach, the court first identifies the total amount of loss sustained by the injured party. Once that has been calculated, the court determines the extent to which the injured party caused the accident, stated as a percentage of liability. The court then reduces the total amount of the loss by the percentage of liability. For example, if an injured party sustains $1 million in losses, but is deemed to be 30% responsible for the accident, the damage award will be reduced by $300,000 (30% of $1 million).

There’s another wrinkle, though, to the New Jersey comparative negligence law. New Jersey adheres to a “modified comparative negligence” approach, which means that an injured party may only recover damages if his or her liability was less than that of the other parties (essentially less than 50%).

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The Types of Damages Available in a New Jersey Personal Injury Claim

April 1, 2022 by The Cintron Firm

What Can You Recover in a Lawsuit?

When you’ve been hurt in any type of an accident caused by the carelessness or negligence of another person, you have the right to file a lawsuit to recover for your injuries and loss. You may be unable to work or may need extensive rehab or physical therapy, which may not be covered by insurance. You may experience pain and suffering on a daily basis, or have to give up things you love because of your injuries. What can you reasonably expect to recover in a lawsuit for personal injury?

The Different Types of Damages in a Personal Injury Action

In New Jersey, you can ask a jury to award damages (monetary compensation) for six different types of losses:

Wages and income—You can seek reimbursement of past and future income you didn’t earn because of your injuries. If the accident makes it impossible for you to work again, you can get prospective damages based on a reasonable date of retirement.
Physical and emotional pain and suffering—A jury can award you compensation for traumatic or chronic physical or emotional discomfort or distress
Unreimbursed medical expenses—You cannot recover compensation for any medical bills that were covered by insurance or otherwise paid
Loss of enjoyment of life—This includes your inability to engage in normal activities of daily life, or to do things that you could do before the accident
Loss of companionship or consortium—You can be compensated for the loss of intimate relations with a spouse, or the loss of love, affection or relationship with other family members
Property damage or loss—A court can award you damages for the loss in value to property or for the total loss of property

The Cintron Firm, LLC

The Purpose of Expert Witnesses | The Different Kinds of Expert Witnesses

The Different Types of Expert Witnesses

Contact the Cintron Firm

The Losses You Can Potentially Recover after Someone Else’s Negligence

Lost Wages or Income

Unreimbursed Medical Expenses

Pain and Suffering

Loss of Enjoyment of Life

Loss of Companionship or Consortium

Property Damage

Contact the Cintron Firm

Are You Limited to Workers’ Compensation Benefits?

How Workers’ Compensation Works

Contact the Cintron Firm

What Types of Compensation Are Available?

The Types of Damages Available in a Personal Injury Lawsuit

Contact the Cintron Firm

What Are the Legal Requirements to Be Eligible to File a Lawsuit?

Standing to Sue

Contact the Cintron Firm

Evidence that Can Be Ruled Inadmissible

What Types of Evidence Can the Court Exclude from a Trial?

Contact the Cintron Firm

Voluntary and Involuntary Termination of Litigation

Your Claim May Be Settled

Your Claim May Be Granted without Trial

Contact the Cintron Firm

How the Statute of Limitations Affects a New Jersey Case

What Is the Statute of Limitations on Personal Injury in New Jersey?

What Is the Purpose of the Statute of Limitations?

What Happens If an Injury Only Becomes Apparent Months or Years after an Accident?

Contact the Cintron Firm

How Will It Affect Your Right to Recovery after an Accident?

The Legal Principle of Comparative Negligence

Contact the Cintron Firm

What Can You Recover in a Lawsuit?

The Different Types of Damages in a Personal Injury Action

Contact the Cintron Firm

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Our main office is located in Bergen County.
the address is:

Our additional locations are available
for all clients by appointment: