New Jersey Car Accident Lawyers

Reinartz Law represents people injured in car accidents throughout New Jersey, from crashes on Route 4, Route 17, and the Turnpike to local streets in Hackensack and beyond. We handle insurance claims, PIP disputes, lawsuits if necessary, and every negotiation in between.

You pay nothing unless we recover for you, and consultations are free by phone, video, or in person.

If another driver hurt you, start with a free case review. The sections below explain how New Jersey's unusual insurance system actually works, because your claim runs on rules most drivers have never read.

Why Choose Reinartz Law After a New Jersey Car Accident?

Car accident cases are the core of our practice, and the record behind that focus is verifiable. Before founding Reinartz Law, Richard Reinartz built his trial practice inside two of the nation's largest firms, where the client list included the same insurance industry he now litigates against.

Defending carriers taught him their claim-valuation playbook line by line. Representing injured people afterward means knowing which pressure points actually move a reserve number.

His peers and past results back that up with a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent rating, a Super Lawyers selection that has run uninterrupted since 2010, and the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, whose membership requires a recovery above one million dollars.

Firm results span crash, workplace, and product cases, with six-figure recoveries for spinal injuries and amputations among them. Results may vary. Prior case outcomes do not guarantee similar results.

Just as important, Richard stays personally involved in the firm's cases. When a NJ car accident lawyer signs your file here, that same lawyer negotiates it and, if needed, tries it. Speak with our attorneys about the most common types of car accidents we see across New Jersey; there is no obligation.

How Does New Jersey's No-Fault System Affect Your Claim?

New Jersey is a no-fault state, which means your own auto policy pays your medical bills after a car crash, regardless of who caused it. Fault still decides who pays for everything else. Here is how the two systems fit together.

Who Pays Your Medical Bills After a Crash?

Your own Personal Injury Protection coverage pays your crash-related medical bills, even when the other driver was entirely at fault. Standard policies carry PIP limits ranging from $15,000 to $250,000, and the limit you choose controls what gets paid.

Two wrinkles matter. First, even drivers who selected a lower PIP limit remain covered up to $250,000 for certain catastrophic injuries, including brain, spinal cord, and significant disfiguring injuries. Second, some drivers elected the health-insurer-primary option to save premiums, which routes crash bills through their health plan first.

Specifically, open your PIP claim promptly and give providers the claim number. Billing chaos in month one becomes collections letters in month six, and it is preventable.

What If You Were a Passenger, Pedestrian, or Cyclist?

New Jersey's PIP system covers more than drivers. Passengers, pedestrians, and cyclists struck by cars are entitled to no-fault medical benefits too, typically through their own auto policy or a household member's policy first, and through the involved vehicle's coverage when no household policy exists.

The primary reason this matters: injured pedestrians often assume the driver's insurance handles their treatment and delay care while waiting. Open the correct PIP claim immediately and treat; the fault fight over pain and suffering happens separately and later.

Can You Still Sue the At-Fault Driver for Pain and Suffering?

That depends on a checkbox on your own policy. New Jersey drivers choose between two lawsuit options, and most pick the cheaper one without realizing what it trades away.

Drivers with the no limitation on lawsuit option can pursue pain and suffering damages for any injury.

Drivers who chose the limitation on lawsuit option, the verbal threshold, must prove the crash caused an injury in one of six statutory categories under N.J.S.A. 39:6A-8: death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement or scarring, a displaced fracture, loss of a fetus, or a permanent injury shown by objective medical evidence.

One point competitors bury: since the New Jersey Supreme Court's DiProspero decision, there is no added "serious life impact" test. The question is whether objective medical proof, typically imaging and a physician's permanency certification, places your injury inside a category. A herniated disc confirmed by MRI can qualify. Soreness alone does not.

What About Bills PIP Does Not Cover?

Unreimbursed medical expenses can be claimed in the injury lawsuit itself. Following a 2019 amendment to N.J.S.A. 39:6A-12, co-pays, deductibles, and bills exceeding your elected PIP limit are recoverable from the at-fault driver, subject to the state fee schedule.

This is where low-PIP policies create hidden case value. A driver with $15,000 in PIP and $60,000 in treatment has a large economic claim that most adjusters will not volunteer to pay. Find out what your case may be worth.

How Much Insurance Money Is Actually Available?

Every claim has a ceiling built from insurance layers, and finding all of them is half the job. New Jersey raised its minimum bodily injury limits to $35,000 per person and $70,000 per accident for policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2026, under DOBI Bulletin 25-06.

That change completed a two-phase increase that began in 2023, when the floor rose from the $15,000 figure that had stood for decades.

As a result, the issuance date of the at-fault driver's policy can change your recovery by thousands of dollars. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage tracks the new minimums as well, which quietly raised the safety net on millions of renewing policies.

In contrast, drivers carrying New Jersey's basic policy present a problem: it includes no bodily injury liability coverage by default. When the at-fault driver is underinsured, we turn to your own UM/UIM coverage, household policies, umbrella coverage, and any commercial policy on the vehicle.

Serious cases are funded by finding layers, not by wishing the first one were bigger. Specifically, a delivery driver's crash may implicate a personal policy, an employer's commercial policy, and a platform's excess coverage all at once, and each carrier hopes you never ask about the others. We map every available layer before valuing a claim; ask us to do that for yours.

What Damages Can You Recover After a New Jersey Car Accident?

Recoverable damages fall into two categories, and complete claims present both. The economic side counts what the crash costs in dollars: unreimbursed treatment, future care, missed paychecks, and reduced ability to earn. The non-economic side compensates what it cost in living: pain, disability, and the activities you lost.

Pain and suffering damages pass through the lawsuit threshold discussed above when the limitation option applies, which is why the medical proof and the damages theory are built together. An injured person's spouse may also hold a claim for lost services and companionship.

Vehicle damage runs on a separate track through property damage liability or your own collision coverage, and it usually resolves quickly. Do not let a fast property settlement lull the injury claim; signing the wrong release can end both.

What Deadlines and Fault Rules Apply in New Jersey?

New Jersey allows two years from the crash date to file a car accident lawsuit under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2. Miss it, and the claim is over, regardless of how clear the fault was.

Three related rules shape the timeline:

• Government defendants compress everything. A crash involving a public vehicle or a dangerous public roadway triggers the Tort Claims Act, which requires a Notice of Claim within 90 days.
• Property damage runs longer. Vehicle damage claims carry a six-year limitations period, which is why the repair fight and the injury fight move on different clocks.
• Minors get tolling. A child's two-year clock is paused until the 18th birthday.

Fault sharing follows New Jersey's modified comparative negligence rule. Each percentage point of blame assigned to you subtracts from the recovery, and crossing 50 percent eliminates it, which explains the energy carriers pour into blaming injured drivers.

The primary defense to that tactic is evidence preserved early: photographs, camera footage, and witness statements from week one. One procedural note most sites skip: threshold cases also require a physician's certification of permanency served early in the lawsuit, so the medical file has to be trial-ready long before trial.

How Does the Settlement Process Work, and How Long Does It Take?

A New Jersey car accident claim settles in stages, and honest timelines depend on your medical treatment more than on any lawyer's speed. Here is the realistic sequence.

• Step 1 is treatment and documentation. Settling before your medical picture is complete means guessing at future costs, and the guess always favors the carrier.
• Step 2 is the demand: a documented package covering treatment, wage loss, threshold proofs, and non-economic damages. A demand built on complete records reads differently to an adjuster than a phone call asking what they will offer, and it produces different numbers.
• Step 3 is negotiation, where most claims resolve. When the carrier will not pay fair value, Step 4 is filing suit in the Superior Court's Civil Division, followed by discovery and New Jersey's court-ordered, non-binding arbitration.

Either side can reject the arbitration award and demand a trial, and real offers tend to appear once a trial date exists. Carriers price claims against the firm's willingness to pick a jury.

Straightforward claims often resolve within months after treatment ends. Litigated cases commonly run a year or more. Hiring a lawyer that insurers take seriously shortens the fight at every stage, because carriers price claims differently when a trial is a credible outcome. Ask us anything about your crash; the consultation costs nothing.

Which Early Habits Protect a New Jersey Crash Claim?

The strongest claims are built from habits that start immediately. A few protect nearly every case:

• Consider seeing a doctor promptly and reporting every symptom, even ones that seem minor. Threshold proof is built from medical records, not memory.
• Open your PIP claim with your own insurer right away, and route bills through the correct coverage.
• Politely deferring the other insurer's recorded statement request until you have counsel is standard practice, and adjusters expect it.
• Photograph vehicle damage, the scene, and visible injuries before repairs and healing erase them.
• Keep your policy's declarations page handy. Your threshold election and UM/UIM limits shape the whole claim.
• Consider starting a simple file: bills, receipts, missed shifts, and mileage to appointments. The paper builds the economic side of the claim.

None of this requires confrontation with anyone. It preserves options while you decide on representation.

Car Accident Lawyer NJ Questions Answered by Our Hackensack Attorneys

The Clock Is the Carrier's Favorite Teammate

Every week that passes favors the insurance company as footage gets overwritten, witnesses scatter, and deadlines creep closer. The good news is that one conversation puts the timeline back on your side.

Reinartz Law offers free consultations by phone, video, or in person in Hackensack, and there is no fee unless we recover for you.

Bring your declarations page and any crash report, and we will map your coverage, your deadlines, and a realistic range in one sitting. Contact our New Jersey attorneys today.

The Reinartz Law Firm - Hackensack Office

Court Plaza South - West Wing
21 Main St Suite 205,
Hackensack, NJ 07601

+12012898614