How Much Is My Car Accident Case Worth in New Jersey?

There is no fixed formula or online calculator that can accurately tell you what your car accident case is worth. Instead, New Jersey car accident claims are valued based on a combination of factors that include the severity and permanency of your injuries, medical expenses, lost wages, liability issues and how the injuries impact you and your family personally.  

What Factors Affect a Car Accident Case's Value?

• Severity and permanency of the injury: How significant is the injury and what type of treatment was necessary.  Sometime injuries only require conservative care, others can require invasive procedures, including surgeries. 
• Total medical expenses, both incurred and reasonably expected in the future. Often times medical expenses are covered by New Jersey’s no-fault system and do not need to be repaid.  Other times some or all of the medical bills might have to be repaid to a  health insurer
• Lost wages and diminished future earning capacity.  If you lose time from work and lose wages that would increase the value of a case.  Same goes if you are not able to earn as you did before you were injured. 
• If there is an issue as to who was at fault for causing an accident, this could impact value.  If you are partially at fault for causing an accident, this could reduce the full value of a claim by a percentage of your comparative fault. 
• Available insurance policy limits (yours and the other driver's).  Sometimes a case is worth more than the insurance coverage available.  Since you cannot control the amount of insurance another driver who causes an accident has, you need to make sure you have sufficient Underinsured and Uninsured coverages on your own auto policy. 
• Pain and suffering and impact on daily life.  How an injury affects you not just now, but on into the future is a factor in determining the value of a case. 

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How Does New Jersey's Comparative Negligence Law Affect Compensation?

Under New Jersey's Comparative Negligence Act (N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1), you can recover compensation as long as your share of fault for the accident is 50% or less. If you're found more than 50% at fault, you're barred from recovering anything. If you are partially at fault,  your total award is reduced by your percentage of fault. For example, if you are determined to be 20% at fault, your compensation will be reduced by 20%.

What Is the Verbal Threshold / Limitation on Lawsuit Option?

New Jersey's auto insurance system allows drivers to choose between a "limited right to sue" (also called the verbal threshold) and an "unlimited right to sue" when purchasing a Standard Policy. If your policy (or the policy of a household member) selected the limited right to sue, you generally can only recover pain-and-suffering damages if your injury meets certain statutory categories, such as a permanent injury. This is a policy-specific, fact-specific issue worth reviewing with an attorney.

Why Case Value Calculators Are Misleading

Online "settlement calculators" typically apply a simple multiplier to medical bills and ignore factors that materially affect real outcomes, such as comparative fault, policy limits, the strength of liability evidence, and the specific nature and permanency of an injury. Two people with identical medical bills can have very different case values depending on these factors. 

A calculator cannot: 

• Know whether the other driver ran a red light with three witnesses watching, or whether fault is genuinely disputed
• Know whether an injury will fully resolve in a few months or affect someone for the rest of their life
• Know how much insurance is actually available to pay a claim, which in practice caps what can be recovered regardless of how serious the injury is.

These are some of the variables that influence real settlement negotiations and jury verdicts. None of them can be reduced to a formula applied to a medical bill total. Treat online calculators as, at best, a rough starting point rather than a reliable estimate.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I was partially at fault?

You can still recover compensation as long as your fault is 50% or less under New Jersey's comparative negligence rule, though your award will be reduced by your percentage of fault.

Do I need to go to trial to get compensation?

No. The large majority of personal injury claims resolve through negotiated settlement without a trial. Litigation and trial remain options if a fair settlement can't be reached.

Can a case be worth more than the insurance policy limit?

Often times, a case can have a value that exceeds the policy limits of the person who caused the accident.  To get a recovery in excess of the limits carried by the at fault driver  typically requires pursuing other sources of recovery such as an underinsured motorist claim or the at-fault party's personal assets, which can be difficult to do.  This is why it is important to check your own auto policy to see that you have high Underinsured and Uninsured limits so you can protect yourself and your family.

How long does it typically take to resolve a car accident claim?

Timelines vary significantly based on the complexity of injuries, whether liability is disputed and whether treatment is ongoing.  For this reason, there's no fixed timeframe that applies to every case.

Will my case value be published anywhere I can compare it to others?

No, every case is fact-specific. Published averages or 'typical settlement' figures for a broad category of a case type are not a reliable predictor of any individual case's outcome.  Each case has its own unique characteristics. 

If you've been hurt and have questions about your rights, contact Levinson Axelrod, P.A. for a free, no-obligation case review.

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