Slip and Fall Lawyers in Edison, NJ

Edison's fall cases have a distinct profile: big-box retail and shopping centers along Route 1 and Oak Tree Road, warehouse and distribution facilities, apartment complexes, and long parking lots that ice over. Each of those settings raises the same two questions that decide New Jersey premises cases.

First, your status on the property. New Jersey still classifies entrants. A business invitee — a shopper, a tenant, a delivery driver — is owed reasonable care, including inspection for hidden dangers. A licensee, typically a social guest, is owed a warning of known dangers. A trespasser is owed less, with exceptions for children.

Second, notice. The owner must have created the hazard, known of it, or allowed it to persist long enough that a reasonable inspection would have found it. In retail, the mode-of-operation rule can relieve you of proving notice where the store's self-service format makes the spill foreseeable — a produce section, a self-serve drink station, a garden center.

The procedural framework:

• Two years to sue (N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2).
• Against Edison Township, Middlesex County, a school district or NJ Transit: a Tort Claims Act notice within 90 days (N.J.S.A. 59:8-8), and liability for a dangerous condition of public property must meet the palpably unreasonable standard of N.J.S.A. 59:4-2.
• Sidewalks: commercial property owners are generally responsible for the abutting sidewalk; the rules for residential owners differ and this area of law has continued to develop, so the property's classification should be checked at the outset.
• Modified comparative negligence: no recovery if you are found more than 50% at fault (N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1).
• Suit is filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Middlesex County, New Brunswick, and most injury matters pass through R. 4:21A arbitration before a trial date.

General information, not legal advice.

There is no upfront cost. New Jersey injury attorneys work on contingency, and Rule 1:21-7 caps the percentage:

• 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
• 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 applies to the net recovery after case expenses. In a fall case those typically include a licensed engineer or safety expert, site inspection, and obtaining maintenance, inspection and prior-incident records in discovery. Ask what the expenses are projected to be and who bears them if the case does not succeed.

Reimbursement to health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid or a workers' compensation carrier is resolved before disbursement. Any settlement for a minor requires a friendly hearing and judicial approval of both settlement and fee. Our consultation and referral cost nothing.

Because a national retailer's claims department handles these cases every day, and the injured shopper is handling one for the first time — usually with no photographs and no incident report.

• 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 Middlesex County.
• Continued involvement after the introduction.

Attorneys in Michael Brook's network stress one step above all others in retail falls: ask for a written incident report before you leave the store, and send a preservation letter for the surveillance video within days. Most systems overwrite in one to two weeks, and the footage is usually the entire case.

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.