To Our Friends in the Community: Welcome...You’ve Come to the Right Place

People injured in the US are usually protected by state laws and federal laws. State laws apply to injuries that happen within a particular state, but federal laws apply to all states. Every state, as well as the United States, has its own set of safety regulations designed to protect people by requiring businesses to keep their products and services safe. For example, all construction companies must follow building codes that are regulated by building inspectors. If everything works out well, nobody ever gets injured. Right? But we know better. Contractors take shortcuts. Drivers speed and don’t follow motor vehicle laws, and storekeepers may not train or hire the right people to keep their property safe. The result is someone gets injured. Hopefully, it was not you, but if it was, you came to the right place, and we can help you.

People injured because of another person or business’s carelessness have a right to be paid for the harm and losses they suffered. But the catch is that they must prove their case.

Here is the magic formula. It looks simple but is anything but simple.

Injury law is a specialty. For that reason, we recommend that you DO NOT hire your divorce or real estate lawyer to represent you in an accident case. Believe me… you would not want us to represent you in your divorce or real estate closing.

If you’ve been injured, ONLY get your legal advice from an experienced personal injury lawyer and not from anyone else.

You deserve lawyers who recognize that accident victims do not know or understand the complexities of injury law. Most of our clients never had a reason or desire to learn about injury law. Unfortunately, they had to learn about it by “accident.”

The lawyer you hire should respect and teach you and your family about the law, your options, and how to win cases. We are proud that one of the firm’s partners authored a book about New Jersey personal injury law. Call or click here to request a FREE copy of “The Consumer’s Guide to New Jersey Personal Injury Claims”.

Another partner in the firm changed the law in New York to prevent insurance company lawyers from using a person’s legal or illegal immigration status against them. Because of Marc C. Saperstein, in New York illegal workers are entitled to make a claim for their injuries, just like everybody else.

But here is the key. You need a good injury lawyer. And that lawyer must be licensed to practice law. In the US, people who want to practice law must have a law degree from a law school recognized by the American Bar Association (ABA). After that, they must pass a two- or three-day examination administered by each of the states. In 2019 only 58% of the takers passed the exam. In 2021, the passing rate nationally was 71%. If a law school graduate practices law without passing the bar examination, they risk being criminally prosecuted for the unauthorized practice of law. They may even be sentenced to jail for their offense. People who are licensed by a state to practice law are not only referred to as lawyers and attorneys but also as “Counsellors at Law.” And that’s important because you will need a highly experienced lawyer to give you his or her good counsel and advice in the weeks, months, and years following so that you can prove and win your case.

Having a law degree is required, but what you really need to look for is experience, expertise, and a proven winning track record. And there is a good reason because the “accident,” collision, or slip and fall was only the very beginning of your case. The rest of your story and your claim is about what happened after the tragic event. You may not have been able to avoid the accident, but with a good, experienced injury lawyer on your side, you can avoid making costly mistakes that can and will ruin your case.

Chances are if you are reading this you or a family member was injured because of somebody’s negligence. Yet in this part of the country, we call it an “accident.” How nice. In other parts of the country, they refer to car accidents as car wrecks or car crashes. Just like you would never say that you were involved in a “mistake,” let’s be clear, you were not injured by “accident.” To be clear, your foot was not stepped on by accident, nor did you not see the black ice by accident. You were injured by negligence, plain and simple.

We lawyers should and we do during trials refer to car accidents as motor vehicle collisions. To prove negligence, we need to prove that another acted unreasonably by creating a danger that harmed you. But for purposes of this content, we will use the terms accidents, collisions, and fall downs interchangeably in order to be more conversational. We will also discuss auto cases and slip and fall cases interchangeably because they are all negligence cases and are subject to similar personal injury laws.

Fast settlements usually result in lousy results. Some lawyers like big injury cases with small insurance coverage because they can turn a quick buck by writing a demand letter. They often don’t even bother to look beyond the first insurance policy or investigate the true cause of a collision. For example, take a client who lost their leg in a motor vehicle accident caused by a careless driver with only $100,000 in liability insurance coverage. A lazy or inexperienced lawyer would write a quick demand letter and make a phone call to an insurance adjuster to settle the case, instead of digging deep to find the “deep pocket” defendant with big insurance coverage. A quick settlement ends the case forever. But if a good lawyer bothered to investigate the case carefully, he or she would have learned that the careless driver was delivering food for a company that had $1,000,000 in extra insurance covering their drivers on top of the driver’s lower coverage. Good lawyers win good settlements. Lousy lawyers generally win lousy settlements. If you have serious injuries our legal advice to you is to find the right lawyer, trust them, and be patient. Insurance companies only settle fast if they smell a bargain.

Don’t be surprised to learn that in New Jersey and New York, there is corruption in the system. Corruption is usually found at the introducing clients to the lawyers’ stage of the case. People who introduce clients to lawyers for money are called “runners”, and what they are doing is illegal and against the law. More importantly, the lawyer benefiting from runners is unethical, is breaking the law, and potentially committing a crime. You really don’t want to hire a lawyer who is corrupt and who met you only through a cash kickback.

The good news is that the process of settling claims with insurance companies and judges is clean and not corrupt. This may not be the case in other countries, but with very few exceptions there is no corruption in the claim settlement process. If someone tells you otherwise, they are lying to you. Run for the hills and hire a respected lawyer who will win your case on its facts to get you the money you deserve.

Ethnic communities are often plagued by runners. These runners may have even been lawyers in their native countries and not allowed to practice here; or they may run a small convenience store helping people with insurance and tax advice, signing documents as notaries, shipping packages to customers’ home countries, and even selling phone cards. Although in other countries the title “Notary” may be important, in America it only means that they can swear to your identity. That’s it. Do not be fooled otherwise.

NJSA 2C:21-22.1. A person is guilty of a crime of the third degree if that person knowingly acts as a runner or uses, solicits, directs, hires, or employs another to act as a runner.

Likewise, if someone knocks on your door with a police report, they are likely doing that for money which is a crime. Only a lawyer licensed by the State of New Jersey who has been Certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Civil Trial Attorney can share a legal fee with another person, and that other person must also be a lawyer licensed to practice law. We suggest that you do your own legal research and hire your own lawyer.

For reasons unknown, some people like to hold off hiring their injury lawyer. They may not want to appear too aggressive or to seem to only be in it for the money. But by wasting valuable time, they instead lose credibility by creating a gap in medical treatment and allowing critical evidence to disappear. In our experience as lawyers, we have never seen anyone hurt by hiring the right injury lawyer immediately. The hiring process and date you hire a lawyer are subject to attorney-client confidentiality and cannot be used by the insurance company against you. In fact, if you wait too long, you may completely ruin your case. For example, if you were negligently injured by a city, county, or state employee working for one of its departments or bureaus such as the Board of Education; or even their police department or their rail operators such as the NY MTA or New Jersey Transit, or even a city’s garbage truck, you may have only 90 days to file a tort claim by completing a specific form and sending a special “Torts Claim Notice” to a specific address. If you do that on the 91st day, you will likely be completely out of luck.

Our legal advice is to hire an experienced injury lawyer now! If you wait too long, valuable evidence may be lost or destroyed. That evidence may help prove how a crash or slip and fall occurred. Investigators working for lawyers often find valuable video recordings from Ring doorbell cameras or intersection cameras. Don’t count on your insurance company to gather evidence to help you win a personal injury case. The evidence they gather is to either justify payments they make or evidence to blame the accident on someone else, including you.

There is also an English language expression that says, “Anybody who represents themselves in court has a fool for a client.” Insurance adjusters love talking to people skeptical of lawyers and convincing them to sign away their valuable cases for pennies.

You should never negotiate your own injury claim with insurance company adjusters because they are looking to pay you money in exchange for you signing a Release promising that you will never sue them.

Insurance companies are in business to pay dividends to their company shareholders—not to pay losses to injured people like you. Talk with an experienced injury lawyer now. Their advice and initial consultation are always free.

Injuries usually result in pain. Everybody understands pain. Nobody ever prays for pain. The fact that you may not speak, read, or understand English does not affect how you feel pain or what medical care you will need. You deserve doctors and nurses who understand your pain and injuries and are serious about treating and healing you. You deserve doctors who go out of their way to learn your medical history and respect that you suffered serious injuries and need their care. Good doctors do this through interpreters and medical tests such as MRIs and nerve tests.

Too often insensitive people look down on others who do not speak English. Some highly intelligent people may not be good with their other languages and struggle to communicate in English. The same holds true with the ability to read and write sheet music. Many of the Beatles and other musicians, such as Prince, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, and even Elvis Presley could not read music. Did that make their music any worse? Hardly. Does the inability to fully communicate in English make your pain any better? I doubt it. Does that make the value of your pain any less? The answer is and should be NO. You deserve the right amount of money for your injuries no matter what language you speak. The amount of your settlement should not depend upon your fluency in the English language. A personal injury case is not an English grammar examination. In fact, your inability to speak English may make your claim worth even more money. Let me explain further.

As lawyers, we often meet foreign-born clients who work as waiters, cooks, Uber or Lyft drivers, mechanics, or clerks. Often, we learn that back in their country, the waiter may have been a judge, the cook may have owned a hotel, the taxicab driver may have worked for their government, the mechanic may have been an engineer, and the clerk may have been a respected accountant or banker. Jewelers were often dentists in their home country. Just because they had to start over in the USA does not mean they are any less intelligent. Your lawyer needs to understand this and more importantly, understand your personal journey and story, because your own story is what makes your personal injury case personal to you. Never let a lawyer disrespect or talk down to you because you struggle with English.

Making matters even worse, some lazy lawyers seem to think that because you are foreign-born, or not US-educated, or work as a laborer your injuries are worth less. They are wrong and you should find a new lawyer. Your neck or back injuries should be worth more money because your neck, back and knees are used to support yourself and your family. These body parts are the tools of your trade. So, in our opinion, your foreign-born neck, back, or knees should be worth more money to you than the same injuries to a lawyer or banker’s neck, back, or knees.

We often hear people say that they need to hire a lawyer to “defend” them in an injury case. We immediately correct them. Only people that did something wrong need to be “defended.”

We, as your lawyers are hired to hold the business or people who injured you responsible for their careless acts. They are the ones that need to be defended. The lawyers that defend those people are usually insurance company lawyers who are paid to protect insurance companies such as Allstate, Geico, New Jersey Manufacturers, USAA Insurance State Farm, Hanover, Travelers, Liberty, Progressive, Plymouth Rock, Chubb, Esurance, Farmers, NJ Cure, Warsaw, and others. You deserve lawyers who have a history of winning cases against some of the biggest and most powerful American Insurance companies. You deserve lawyers who stand in front of you to protect your rights, next to you to win your case in Court, and behind you to have your back and protect you from the aggressive insurance company lawyers.

Foreign-born people have the same rights and access to the US courts as US citizens. There are no laws permitting a business, a driver, or a property owner to be irresponsible, negligent, or careless to non-citizens, whether here legally or not. Non-citizens injured by dangerous conditions or careless drivers have the same rights to recover the same amount of money as people with Green Cards or US citizenship. If your lawyer knows what they are doing, your immigration status should never be an issue.

Foreign-born people often fear that if they file a lawsuit, they may be taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported. But in all our years of experience representing foreign-born people, that has not happened in New Jersey. People, including non-citizens, are protected by the Constitution of the United States of America which reads:

“Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

As far back as 1980, few New Jersey law firms were larger than six lawyers. Many of those lawyers were “general practitioners” who did a little bit of everything. Few lawyers advertised and none were allowed to advertise their specialty or expertise. That all changed in 1977 when lawyers were once again allowed to advertise. Since then, advertising for legal services has boomed—in fact, it is estimated that between 2017 and 2021, the total amount spent by lawyers on advertising exceeded $6.8 billion.

But not all lawyers are the same, and not all law firms are the same. Just because you see a name on a billboard or a lawyer’s fancy TV commercial, does not guarantee anything. In fact, some lawyers only advertise to sign up cases to transfer to other law firms for a commission. Some of the names on billboards do not go to court or ever try cases and would likely need WAZE to find their way to the courthouse.

If you are escorted to a lawyer on “top of a drug store” run for the hills. Also, don’t use the “doctor’s” recommended lawyer because that lawyer will feel obligated to protect the doctor as much as he or she feels obligated to protect you. Do your own research and don’t be afraid to hire a lawyer that does not necessarily speak your language. Here are some useful hints about hiring the right lawyer for your case.

How to Hire the Right Lawyer for Your Case

Not all lawyers have the necessary knowledge or experience to handle a personal injury claim. For years, New Jersey did not permit lawyers to advertise themselves as “specialists.” However, they may now promote themselves as experts in a field of law if they have that special expertise.

One important exception to that rule dates to 1980 when the Supreme Court of New Jersey began the practice of certifying trial attorneys. The reason you need to know about this is that you want to hire a lawyer who is certified or has the same trial experience as a Certified Civil Trial Attorney.

Surprisingly, in New Jersey, less than 2 percent of all licensed lawyers are Certified Civil Trial Attorneys. Not all states certify lawyers as civil trial attorneys. New York, for example, does not certify their attorneys. You need to know if your attorney is certified because the insurance company adjusters certainly know who they are. It should never cost you more to hire the best lawyer for your case. The contingency fee percentage always remains the same. Unless you know about your attorney’s trial experience firsthand, hire only Certified Civil Trial Attorneys, or lawyers working in a firm with Certified Civil Trial Attorneys mentoring them.

In New Jersey, to become Certified as a Civil Trial Attorney, he or she must have practiced law for a minimum of 5 years, was the trial attorney in 10 or more trials, and must have over 30 days of courtroom trial experience. 

All judges who presided over those trials, as well as the other attorneys, are called upon to evaluate the applicant. The applicant’s attorney must have an unblemished reputation, undergo a new background check, and be free of ethics violations. The applicant’s attorney must also supply the names of individuals for recommendations and must further prove that he or she participated in a minimum of thirty credit hours of continuing legal education programs during the three-year period prior to applying for certification.

After the application is approved, the candidate must travel to Trenton to take a full-day written examination, parts of which require the candidate to analyze video courtroom scenarios. Only after passing the examination can a lawyer proudly designate him or herself as a Certified Civil Trial Attorney. There are many lawyers qualified to try cases who never qualified for the exam or never took the test, but the consumer has no way of knowing that other than taking the attorney’s word that he or she is qualified to try a case. The lawyer who handled your divorce or real estate closing may not be the right lawyer for your case. Most qualified personal injury lawyers practice in groups as law firms that devote their entire resources to representing injured people.

Injury lawyers who are certified understand the complexities of the body of law commonly known as “tort law.” They have experience with experts in the field and have developed a good level of respect from insurance adjusters and their defense attorneys. Although 95 percent of all cases settle at or before trial, you still need to hire a lawyer who has built his or her reputation in the courtroom. Insurance companies know which lawyers are certified and which lawyers will go the distance and try a case. They also know which lawyers will always take the easy way out and settle with minimum effort and expense. If an insurance company believes that your lawyer represents a threat to them in the courtroom, they will more than likely try to enter into a settlement that will be more favorable to you.

Here are some questions you need to ask your lawyers:

In America, most injury lawyers get paid a percentage of the settlement at the end of a case. The higher the settlement, the more money a lawyer gets paid. If a case is lost, the lawyer does not get paid. This is called a contingency fee arrangement. Payment is contingent upon the outcome.

When a lawyer is hired under a contingency fee arrangement, no money is paid upfront to the lawyer. The lawyer advances all costs and at the end of the case, gets paid back those payments together with their percentage. People always have the right to hire a lawyer by the hour, but that arrangement can be quite expensive and can require an upfront retainer payment to the lawyer which he or she keeps win, lose, or draw. For that reason, 99.9 % of people hire their lawyer on a contingency fee arrangement. The risk is on the lawyer and not on the client.

This makes perfect sense, but what will your decision be? Since your lawyer will work on a percentage basis, you can and should hire the best lawyer for your case. If you had to choose between two realtors to sell your home, who took the same percentage of the sale but one ended up costing you more money, which one would you hire? The obvious answer is the one who cost you more because they got you the best price and put more money in your pocket.

And by the way, if you ask a lawyer to cut their percentage to get your case and they agree, you should pack up and go home. If a lawyer cannot defend the percentage they charge as their legal fee, don’t count on them to stand up for you to get the full amount of money you deserve from an insurance company. Weak lawyers earn weak results.

When a person is injured and rushed by ambulance to a hospital, they rarely ask how much this ride is costing and who is paying for it. Those may be good questions, but the need for medical care is more important than their answer. The same should hold true when it comes to getting the medical care you deserve and need. The truth of the matter is that after a motor vehicle accident, medical bills are often paid by your own household family member’s car insurance, the car you were in, and in some states the car that caused the crash. If car insurance does not pay, a good lawyer’s signature guaranteeing payment from the settlement should give you the quality medical treatment and care you deserve. Hopefully, by that time, your experienced injury lawyer will have found out how much insurance coverage is available and will try to make sure that there will be enough money at the end of the case to both pay your medical bills and put money in your pocket for your pain and suffering.

In general, Injury Lawyers should only get paid their percentage on the injury part of your case and not the property damage money you may need to buy a new car or fix your damaged car. The injury part includes your economic losses, medical bills, and your past, present, and future pain and suffering. Also, in New Jersey and New York people injured in car accidents have Personal Injury Benefits (PIP) paying some or all their medical bills. Money received from PIP payments are not subject to a legal fee. Those benefits are available to you regardless of fault.

People bringing personal injury claims should expect to be referred to a qualified physician for medical treatment. There are many reasons why injury lawyers make medical referrals. The main goal is establishing a physician/patient relationship with a qualified treating doctor who will also be available to testify as the required expert witness. The doctor will write a report discussing the patient’s diagnosis and medical treatment, as well as his or her opinions regarding the cause of the injuries, the prognosis for future treatment, and the likelihood of permanent disability. These physicians are familiar with Court deadlines, the correct medical and legal terminology required by law to prove a case, and certain Court rules that apply exclusively to expert witnesses.

Another reason why you should consider treating with your attorney’s recommendation is that certain physicians do not like participating in the legal system and make themselves unavailable and uncooperative. Some even cause harm by billing the wrong insurance, ignoring subpoenas, and not showing up for Court hearings. The law recognizes the importance of the expert/attorney relationship and the attorney/client relationship by protecting a client from disclosing private conversations with their attorney as a referral source. If ever asked about who referred you to a particular physician, you can say, “I discussed this confidentially with my attorney” and the Judge will protect that conversation.

In America, a person can earn up to $12,550 per year without being legally obligated to report their income or file a tax return with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). And, if you are self-employed, a gig worker, or an independent contractor, you can report your full off-the-books income, subtract your expenses, and still pay no federal taxes. Another alternative is to waive your economic loss and put in a claim only for the pain and suffering from your injuries.

Don’t be fooled by lawyers with hundreds of reviews. Some or many may have been paid for or from cases they referred out to other lawyers. Make sure their reviews are backed up by true content. Also, understand that many large settlements are subject to confidentiality agreements so the names and amounts cannot be disclosed. We are proud of our testimonials and results and need to promote our services to compete against those lawyers who are less than genuine.

Recently, it has become popular for Florida and other out-of-state lawyers to advertise in New Jersey and New York for clients. Out-of-state accident victims often hire lawyers in the state where they live for convenience purposes. Since many of these lawyers are not licensed to practice law in NY or NJ, they will often try to settle a case out of court. Insurance companies know this and understand that they can save money by negotiating with this lawyer because he or she does not want to give the case and the legal fee to an in-state licensed lawyer. Unfortunately, the delay often causes out-of-state lawyers unfamiliar with New Jersey or New York laws to make costly mistakes, miss deadlines, and hire expert witnesses who do not understand the New York and New Jersey legal systems. You deserve the right lawyer, in the right state, that knows the county Judges and understands the mindset of local jurors to win your case.

A good injury lawyer needs to be a bit of a physician who understands trauma medicine. Good injury lawyers know and understand not only human anatomy, but also what happens when each bone, cartilage, ligament, and tendon are damaged and injured. They need to understand that injuries to soft tissue can be far worse than broken bones and other orthopedic injuries. After all, isn’t a person’s heart, lungs, and brain, “soft tissue”?

A good injury lawyer understands the body’s “electrical system,” or what doctors call the nervous system, which includes the brain, spine, and all nerves. That is the pathway your body uses for your brain to recognize pain. A qualified injury lawyer needs to understand all diagnostic and imaging tools, treatments, therapies, and surgeries, and even the cost of future medical care. Your injury lawyer needs to read and understand medical charts and records written by and for the benefit of other doctors and nurses. Good injury lawyers take this information and simplify it to make it understandable to insurance adjusters, judges, and jurors who may ultimately decide the amount of money you get paid.

This is probably the first time and hopefully the last time you’ll need to hire a lawyer for an injury case. It is your lawyer’s obligation to make you feel comfortable with what is going to happen as your case progresses. Your lawyers should educate you about being a compliant client and injury patient. Legal and medical terminology should be explained to you and how it applies to your case. You should never think that a lawyer’s recognition of bad facts in your case means that he or she favors the other side. A good lawyer is skilled and trained in identifying all the good facts, and yes, all the bad facts. That way they can figure out how to handle any bad facts before an insurance company uses them against you. As your case progresses, the law firm will ask you to sign documents and appear for depositions and proceedings. Never be afraid to ask your lawyer or their staff to define any term or explain it to you.

Good law firms invest a lot of money in technology. We use technology to communicate with our clients and the Courts. We use technology to conduct online investigations and legal research. We can now even bring live witnesses to court remotely through technology. But most importantly, smart lawyers and law firms invest in technology to tell and “sell” your story to an insurance adjuster, judge, or jury. You deserve lawyers that have the software, talent, and resources to tell your story visually. This means they own their own equipment and make it available without additional cost for your case should it go to trial. In today’s world, injury lawyers earn a jury’s interest by showing your story visually with photos, animations, virtual reality accident reconstruction, as well as medical illustrations that come alive. If you suffered major injuries and there is sufficient insurance coverage, then smart lawyers will make certain your story is preserved digitally and is repurposed to help a jury understand the impact of your loss. This may even include capturing video of hospital or surgical procedures. Our legal advice is to take and save plenty of video footage. There is an English expression that says, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” We say a video can be worth more than a million words. That is why you deserve a lawyer and law firm that embraces technology.

We get it. We understand that you did not ask to be involved in an “accident” so you can get to experience a jury trial. But the truth of the matter is that insurance companies do not voluntarily hand out good settlements. To win a good settlement, your injury lawyer and law firm must be “locked and loaded” and ready, willing, and able to go to trial. Insurance companies know which lawyers will take your case all the way to court.

If our work was proper, your best and final offer usually comes on the eve of trial. We know and understand that our clients have waited patiently for justice and expect a fair settlement offer. This offer will usually be brokered by a judge in chambers and communicated before jury selection. If not, then your case will proceed to jury selection and trial. If your case gets that far, you will have been fully prepared by us in advance in our “in-house” courtroom to testify at your trial. We built that courtroom to help prepare and comfort you for the actual trial.

But be aware, if your case goes to trial, anything can happen and anything can go wrong for either side. Insurance companies recognize and understand this and that is why they settle cases. You also should recognize the same thing can happen to you. A settled case is a certainty. There are no appeals, and your case is over. The only thing to follow is a check made payable to you and your injury law firm hopefully for a lot of money. Trying jury cases should not be confused with gambling. If you like gambling, I suggest that you take some of your settlement to Atlantic City and gamble there. You may have better odds.

For that reason, all fair, just, and reasonable offers need to be seriously considered.

But let’s not worry about that now….