Pedestrian Accident Attorney in Jersey City, NJ

New Jersey handles pedestrian claims differently from New York, and the difference is worth understanding before you hire anyone.

If you were struck as a pedestrian and you own a car, your own auto policy's PIP pays your medical bills first — that is N.J.S.A. 39:6A-4.2. If you do not own a car and are not a named insured on a household policy, PIP comes from the striking vehicle's insurer under N.J.S.A. 39:6A-7. Which of those applies also affects the limitation on lawsuit (verbal) threshold: it binds people who elected it on their own policy, and a pedestrian with no auto policy of their own generally is not subject to it at all. Ask the attorney to identify, at the first meeting, which category you fall into. It changes what the case is worth.

Jersey City's own conditions matter too. Kennedy Boulevard, Communipaw Avenue, Route 440 and the streets feeding Journal Square and the Holland Tunnel approaches produce a steady volume of pedestrian collisions, and NJ Transit buses appear in a significant share of them. That last point carries a deadline: NJ Transit and the City are public entities, so the New Jersey Tort Claims Act requires a notice of claim within 90 days (N.J.S.A. 59:8-8) before any suit can proceed.

Other essentials:

• N.J.S.A. 39:4-36 — a driver must stop and stay stopped for a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk. A summons under it is powerful evidence.
• Two-year statute of limitations for personal injury (N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2) and for wrongful death.
• Modified comparative negligence (N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1) — recovery is barred only if you are found more than 50% at fault, and is otherwise reduced by your percentage.
• Cases are filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Hudson County, 583 Newark Avenue.

General information, not legal advice.

Nothing upfront. New Jersey injury attorneys work on contingency, and the percentage is not left to negotiation — Rule 1:21-7 caps it on a sliding scale:

• 33⅓% of the first $1,000,000 recovered
• 30% of the next $1,000,000
• 25% of the next $1,000,000
• 20% of the next $1,000,000
• On any amount above $4,000,000, a reasonable fee approved by the court on application
• 25% where the client is a minor or an incapacitated person and the matter settles without trial

The fee is calculated on the net sum after deducting case expenses. Those expenses — reconstruction, treating physician reports, deposition transcripts, filing fees — are the number to ask about, along with what happens to them if the case does not recover. Add lien repayment to PIP, health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid at the end.

Our consultation and referral cost you nothing.

Because a pedestrian case in Hudson County can turn on a 90-day notice nobody told you about, and on correctly identifying which PIP policy is responsible in the first week.

• Free consultation; the referral costs you nothing.
• Available 24/7 at (800) 669-0060.
• English, Spanish, and Russian.
• Over 30 years matching injured people with attorneys across New Jersey and New York.
• Local case experience in Hudson County.
• Continued involvement after the introduction.

Attorneys in Michael Brook's network make the same recommendation in Jersey City cases involving a bus or a City vehicle: treat the 90-day Tort Claims Act notice as the real deadline, not the two-year statute, because the shorter one is the one that quietly ends cases.

Disclaimer: Michael Brook Attorney Referral is not a law firm and provides no legal representation or legal advice. This is general information and does not replace advice from a licensed attorney about your specific situation. No result is guaranteed.