How Much Money Can You Get if You Were Hit by a Car in New Jersey?

By Greg Kohn
Partner

If you are hit by a car in New Jersey, you may recover compensation for several types of damages. Property damage claims compensate you for the damage to your vehicle. However, a personal injury claim compensates you for your physical injuries, financial losses, and pain and suffering because of the accident.

How much you can get if a car hits you in New Jersey depends on your case’s facts. Before you accept a settlement offer from an insurance company, check with a New Jersey pedestrian accident attorney. An attorney can tell you if you are receiving a fair settlement offer for your injury claim.

Types of Damages Available for Your Car Accident Claim

Economic Damages for a Car Accident Claim

In most cases, accident victims can recover economic damages and noneconomic damages for a car accident claim. Economic damages are the financial losses you incurred because of the traffic accident. Medical bills and loss of income are the two most common types of financial expenses victims incur because of a car accident.

However, you may also be entitled to reimbursement for other economic losses. For example, you can include the mileage and travel expenses to and from medical appointments in your claim. If you required personal care or assistance with household chores, those costs might be included in a claim. In cases involving permanent disabilities or impairments, the cost of medical equipment or necessary modifications to your home may be included in damages.

Documenting financial losses with copies of bills, receipts, and invoices is essential. You must be able to prove you incurred the expenses to include the losses in your injury claim.

Noneconomic Damages for a Car Accident Claim

Car accident victims experience physical pain, mental anguish, and emotional distress because of their injuries and the accident. You are entitled to compensation for these noneconomic damages. 

Noneconomic damages also include the physical impairments, disabilities, scarring, and disfigurements caused by injuries. The decrease in a person’s quality of life and loss of enjoyment of life are also damages included in this damage category. 

It can be challenging to prove noneconomic damages. Pain and suffering are subjective. Every person experiences an accident an injury differently. Your lawyer provides guidance and suggestions for increasing the chance you receive maximum value for your noneconomic damages, such as keeping a pain and suffering journal throughout your recovery.

Valuing Damages for a Car Accident Claim

Many factors impact the value of your personal injury claim. For example, factors that can increase the value of your injury claim include:

  • Traumatic injuries and permanent impairments or disabilities
  • Significant scarring and disfigurement
  • Being unable to work or experiencing a decrease in earning potential
  • The need for ongoing medical and/or personal care
  • A lengthy recovery period

Some factors could negatively impact the value of your injury claim. Disputes regarding fault, lack of sufficient insurance coverage, and allegations of comparative negligence. If you could be at fault for causing the crash, your fault could lower the amount you might receive for your damages.

Contact a New Jersey Personal Injury Attorney for Help

You have the right to consult with a lawyer about your car accident case. Before you make any decisions regarding your claim or a settlement offer, contact our New Jersey personal injury attorney to discuss your case. Let’s work together to recover the maximum value available for your personal injury claim.

About the Author
Greg Kohn is a partner at Nagel Rice and specializes in complex civil litigation cases, including professional malpractice, personal injury, class actions, wrongful death, products liability, and commercial litigation.  He has extensive experience representing clients in both state and federal court. Greg has tried many jury trials to verdict and has recovered over $50 million in settlements and verdicts in all types of personal injury matters including automobile accidents, wrongful death cases, slip and falls, and other catastrophic injury cases. Greg also handles medical malpractice cases, involving misdiagnoses, wrongful birth, and delayed cancer diagnosis. If you have questions regarding this article, you can contact Greg here.