At The Law Offices of Sander Budanitsky, L.L.C., we understand how a sudden injury can upend your life in an instant, whether it’s a collision on Route 28 or a fall in a downtown Westfield shop. Our team is dedicated to helping people throughout Westfield and Union County navigate the challenges that follow an accident.
We know that each personal injury case is unique, shaped by the details of what happened, who was involved, and how your life has been affected. Our team brings years of experience and local insight to every claim, guiding clients through New Jersey’s specific laws and procedures while standing up to insurance companies on their behalf.
We believe in clear communication and straightforward guidance, so you always know where your case stands and what to expect next. Every member of our team is committed to making the legal process as smooth as possible, letting you focus on your recovery.
If you or a loved one has suffered a personal injury, reach out to our team today to discuss your situation and how we can help protect your rights. We’re here to answer your questions and help you take the next step.
Personal injury is the area of law that lets someone hurt by another party's negligence recover compensation for the harm. It spans a wide range of situations: motor-vehicle crashes involving car accidents, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians; falls and other injuries on unsafe property; dog bites; burns; and incidents at short-term rentals.
Buses and trains, including NJ Transit service through Westfield, are common carriers, and New Jersey holds them to a heightened standard: they must exercise a high degree of care to protect passengers from dangers that are known or reasonably foreseeable. What unites these situations is a common legal structure, not the type of accident.
Every one of these claims rests on the same four elements. The injured person must show that the other party owed a duty of care, that the party breached that duty, that the breach caused the injury, and that real damages resulted. A driver owes other road users reasonable care.
A property owner's duty depends on why the visitor was there. Owners of stores and other businesses must use reasonable care to keep the premises safe for customers, including inspecting for hazards. A homeowner must warn a social guest of dangerous conditions the homeowner knows about, and the guest is unlikely to notice.
A dog bite is governed by N.J.S.A. 4:19-16, which makes the owner liable for a bite that occurs in a public place or while the victim is lawfully on private property, including the owner's, regardless of whether the dog had bitten before or the owner knew it was dangerous. Injuries that are not bites, such as being knocked down, are generally decided under ordinary negligence principles instead. Identifying the specific duty that applied to the situation, and proving it was broken, is the foundation of any personal injury claim regardless of how the injury occurred.
New Jersey is a no-fault state for auto injuries, which shapes most personal injury claims arising from crashes. Every standard auto policy includes Personal Injury Protection, or PIP, that pays the insured's medical expenses regardless of who caused the crash, under N.J.S.A. 39:6A-4. PIP covers the bills early, but it does not by itself allow recovery for pain and suffering.
The right to recover for pain and suffering depends on the tort option the injured person chose when buying coverage. Most drivers carry the limitation-on-lawsuit option, the verbal threshold under N.J.S.A. 39:6A-8, which allows non-economic damages only when the injury fits one of six statutory categories, such as a displaced fracture or a permanent injury. Drivers who choose the no-limitation option face no such threshold.
In New Jersey, the verbal threshold applies based on the injured person's own auto insurance policy, not the vehicle that was involved in the accident. For pedestrians or cyclists who have a policy with the limitation-on-lawsuit option, or who live with a family member that does, it’s important to note that they need to meet one of the six specific injury criteria to be eligible for pain and suffering claims. However, if a pedestrian or cyclist does not have any auto policy in their household, they generally aren’t held to this threshold.
What do I need to prove to win a personal injury claim in New Jersey?
That someone else's negligence caused your injury, and what that injury cost you. You must show the other party owed you a duty of care, breached it, and thereby caused harm with real losses, and you must act within the deadline the law sets.
New Jersey follows a modified comparative-negligence rule known as the 51 percent bar, codified at N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1. An injured person can recover as long as their share of fault is not greater than the fault of the party they are suing, or the combined fault of all the parties they are suing. A person found more than 50 percent at fault recovers nothing.
When the injured person bears some fault, the recovery is reduced in proportion to their share. A person found twenty percent at fault recovers eighty percent of their damages, while a person who was found exactly fifty percent at fault still recovers half of what their losses are worth. Because every percentage point matters, and because crossing the fifty-percent line eliminates recovery, the allocation of fault is one of the most contested issues in a personal injury case, and the defense routinely tries to shift blame onto the injured person.
The most unforgiving rule in personal injury law is the deadline. In New Jersey, the general statute of limitations for a personal injury claim is two years from the date of injury under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2, and a court will normally dismiss a claim filed after it, no matter how strong. Missing the deadline is among the few mistakes that cannot be undone.
Some situations carry different or shorter deadlines. A claim against a New Jersey public entity, such as a transit agency or municipality, requires a written notice of claim within 90 days of the injury under N.J.S.A. 59:8-8. Missing it generally bars the claim.
A Superior Court judge may allow late notice within one year under N.J.S.A. 59:8-9, but only on a showing of extraordinary circumstances and no substantial prejudice to the public entity. The lawsuit itself must still be filed within two years. When the injured person is a minor, the two-year clock is generally tolled until the child turns eighteen. Because the correct deadline depends on who is responsible and who was hurt, identifying it early, rather than assuming the usual two years applies, is essential to protecting the claim.
New Jersey allows two broad categories of damages in a personal injury claim, with no general cap in ordinary negligence cases. However, claims against public entities follow different damages rules.
Under the Tort Claims Act, a person injured by a public entity or public employee can recover for pain and suffering only if the injury involves a permanent loss of a bodily function, permanent disfigurement, or dismemberment and medical treatment expenses exceed $3,600, under N.J.S.A. 59:9-2(d). Punitive damages are not available against a public entity under N.J.S.A. 59:9-2(c).
In rare cases, New Jersey also allows punitive damages, which require clear and convincing proof that the defendant acted with actual malice or wanton and willful disregard for others, never ordinary or even gross negligence, under N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.12. Punitive damages are generally capped at five times compensatory damages or $350,000, whichever is greater, under N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.14(b). The cap does not apply when the defendant was convicted of drunk driving or refusal, among other offenses, under N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.14(c).
Economic damages cover the measurable financial losses: medical bills, the cost of future treatment, lost wages, and any reduction in earning capacity where an injury keeps a person from returning to their work. These economic losses are documented through bills and records and, where future costs are involved, through professional economic and medical analysis.
Noneconomic damages compensate for the harms that have no invoice: pain, suffering, disability, disfigurement, and the loss of life's enjoyment. For an auto-injury claim subject to the verbal threshold, the right to these noneconomic damages depends on meeting one of the statutory injury categories. The verbal threshold follows the injured person's own auto policy, not the vehicle that caused the crash.
A pedestrian or cyclist who carries a New Jersey auto policy with the limitation-on-lawsuit option, or who lives with a family member who does, must still meet one of the six statutory injury categories to recover for pain and suffering. A pedestrian or cyclist with no auto policy in the household is generally not subject to the threshold. Valuing a claim accurately means accounting for the full arc of an injury, including its permanent and lasting effects, rather than only the bills received so far.
Although every personal injury claim shares the same four elements, the specific cause determines the law that applies and the party who answers for the harm. A crash with a passenger vehicle turns on the no-fault system and the at-fault driver's negligence. A Westfield truck accident can bring in federal motor-carrier safety rules on driver hours, inspections, and maintenance, and often a trucking company behind the driver. A fall in a store is governed by premises liability principles and the question of what the owner knew about the hazard.
Other causes follow their own rules. A dog bite is governed by N.J.S.A. 4:19-16, which makes the owner liable for a bite occurring in a public place or while the victim is lawfully on private property, including the owner's, regardless of prior viciousness or knowledge. Injuries that are not bites, such as being knocked down, are generally governed by ordinary negligence instead. A burn injury depends entirely on its cause, pointing variously to a landlord, a product manufacturer, or a negligent driver.
An injury at a short-term rental layers a tangle of insurance over an ordinary premises claim. Identifying the precise cause is the first step in any claim, because it points directly to the legal theory, the responsible party, and the evidence the claim will require to succeed.
A personal injury claim is built from evidence, and the work begins with establishing how the injury happened and who was responsible. That depends on the physical evidence at the scene, the official reports, any video, and the accounts of witnesses, much of which is perishable. The scene is cleared, vehicles are repaired, and video is overwritten, so gathering this proof promptly is often what allows a fair reconstruction of events.
The second half of the work is documenting the injury and its consequences. A consistent, well-documented course of medical care ties the injury to the incident and establishes its severity and likely future course. Because an insurer's goal is to limit what it pays, it may dispute fault, minimize the injury, or extend an early settlement offer before the full harm is known.
A claim built on solid evidence and complete documentation holds its value. Preparing every claim thoroughly from the outset, as if it may ultimately be tried before a jury, gives a settlement position its strength.
Injuries happen across Westfield in settings that mirror the town itself: a crash at the Westfield Circle on Route 28 near West Broad Street, at the edge of downtown, a fall in a Quimby Street shop, a collision along East Broad Street, or an injury on the Garden State Parkway reached at Exits 135 and 137.
A seriously injured person in Westfield may first be taken to a nearby hospital such as Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway, about five miles away, which does not hold a trauma designation. The most severe injuries go to University Hospital in Newark, the state-designated Level I trauma center for northern New Jersey and the nearest designated trauma center to Westfield, about 13 miles away. Union County has no designated trauma center of its own.
When a personal injury claim cannot be resolved and must be filed, it is brought in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Union Vicinage, at the Union County Courthouse in Elizabeth. Knowing the venue, the realistic receiving hospitals, and the specific roads where Westfield crashes occur is part of handling a claim on its actual facts rather than as a generic matter. The local detail is not decoration; it is how a claim is grounded in what really happened on a specific Westfield road or property.
An injury claim is hard enough without a language barrier, and the firm's staff speak Spanish, Russian, Creole, Italian, and French in addition to English. For an injured person more comfortable in a language other than English, being able to explain what happened and understand the process in their own language removes an obstacle that can otherwise discourage people from pursuing a valid claim.
When a personal injury claim cannot be resolved and must be filed, it is brought in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Union Vicinage, at the Union County Courthouse in Elizabeth. In 2025, Westfield recorded 104 injury crashes and one traffic death, part of 4,912 injury crashes and 29 traffic deaths across Union County that year, according to NJDOT crash data.
Knowing the venue, the realistic receiving hospitals, and the specific roads where Westfield crashes occur is part of handling a claim on its actual facts rather than as a generic matter. The local detail is not decoration; it is how a claim is grounded in what really happened on a specific Westfield road or property.
In nearly every personal injury claim, the party who actually pays is an insurance company, and understanding its incentives helps an injured person navigate the process. The insurer's business is to resolve claims for as little as possible, and it pursues that goal through a familiar set of approaches: questioning who was at fault, disputing the severity or cause of the injury, requesting recorded statements, and offering an early settlement before the full extent of the harm is known.
None of these tactics is improper on its face; they are the other side advancing its interest. The defense against them is preparation. Objective evidence of how the injury happened answers the attempt to shift fault, and a complete medical record answers the effort to minimize the injury.
An early settlement offer is best evaluated only after the injury has stabilized and its full long-term cost is understood, because accepting one prematurely can foreclose recovery for serious harm that becomes clear only later. Recognizing the insurer's goal is the first step in protecting a claim's value.
Many injuries involve more than one party at fault, and identifying every responsible party can be decisive when the harm is serious. A truck crash may implicate the driver, the trucking company, and a maintenance contractor. A premises injury may involve a property owner and a separate management company.
A crash may involve more than one negligent driver. Each additional responsible party can bring an additional source of insurance to a claim.
New Jersey's allocation rule, N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.3, governs how responsibility is divided among parties found at fault. A defendant found sixty percent or more at fault can be required to pay the full award, while a defendant below that threshold pays only its proportional share.
Because a catastrophic injury can easily exceed the coverage available from any single source, finding every responsible party and every applicable insurance policy is one of the most consequential parts of building a serious personal injury claim. When the at-fault driver has no insurance, cannot be identified, or carries too little coverage, the injured person's own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage may provide an additional source of recovery.
The two-year deadline usually runs from the date of the injury, but New Jersey recognizes a discovery rule that can change when the clock starts. Under this rule, the limitations period may not begin until the injured person knew, or through reasonable diligence should have known, both that they were injured and that the injury was caused by another's fault. The rule is applied narrowly, and most often arises in cases of latent injury or where the cause was not initially apparent.
Because the discovery rule is fact-specific and decided case by case, no one should assume it extends a deadline. The safe course is always to treat the two-year period as running from the date of the incident and to act well within it. The rule exists to prevent injustice in genuinely hidden-injury cases, not to excuse ordinary delay, and a claim brought promptly never has to rely on it at all. When there is any question about timing, confirming the applicable deadline early is what protects the claim.
The law of personal injury is statewide, but an injury happens in a specific place and a contested claim is heard in a specific court, and familiarity with both adds value. Knowing how injuries occur in Westfield, at the Westfield Circle on Route 28 near West Broad Street, at the edge of downtown, along the downtown corridors of East Broad Street and Quimby Street, and on the Parkway and Route 22 approaches, helps in understanding how a particular injury happened and in anticipating how the defense will frame it.
Local knowledge also extends to the institutions a serious case runs through, from the Summit Health hub on Springfield Avenue and Overlook Medical Center in Summit to University Hospital in Newark for severe trauma, and to the Union County Courthouse in Elizabeth, where a contested claim is heard in the Union Vicinage. Pairing command of New Jersey's injury law with attention to the specific facts of a Westfield case is what allows a claim to be handled on its real circumstances.
A common worry after an injury is whether a person can afford to pursue a claim, particularly when medical bills are mounting, and income may have stopped. Personal injury claims are typically handled on a contingency-fee basis, which means there is no fee for the representation unless and until there is a recovery. The fee is a percentage of what is ultimately recovered, agreed in writing in advance, rather than an hourly charge paid out of pocket as the case proceeds.
This arrangement exists so that the ability to pursue a valid claim does not depend on a person's financial position at the worst moment of their life. It also aligns the representation with the injured person's interest, since the recovery is what both are working toward. A first conversation to evaluate a potential claim costs nothing, which means understanding whether a claim is worth pursuing carries no financial risk.
The steps taken in the hours and days after an injury protect both health and any future claim. The first priority is medical care, which treats the injury and creates the record that ties it to what happened. Reporting the incident to the police after a crash, or to the owner or manager after an injury on property, creates an official account that can matter later.
Where it is possible, photographing the scene, the hazard, or the vehicles, and collecting the names of any witnesses, preserves evidence that fades quickly. Being cautious about giving a recorded statement to the other side's insurer, and about accepting an early settlement offer before the full injury is known, protects the claim. Above all, keeping the applicable deadline in mind, whether the two-year period or the shorter ninety days for a public entity, ensures the right to bring the claim is not lost to the calendar.
That the other party owed you a duty of care, breached it, and caused your injury, and that you suffered real damages. The deadline to file must also be met.
Yes, as long as your share of fault is not more than fifty percent. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault.
Generally yes. New Jersey is a no-fault state, so your PIP coverage pays medical expenses regardless of who caused the crash.
Generally, two years from the injury under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2. A claim against a public entity requires written notice within ninety days.
Not always. Many claims resolve through settlement, but preparing a claim thoroughly, as if it may be tried, protects its value.
A first conversation about what happened costs nothing, and because deadlines can be short, especially the ninety days that apply when a public entity is involved, there is little reason to wait. You can contact the firm to talk through your situation and how the rules above apply to it.
The Law Offices of Sander Budanitsky, L.L.C. represents injured people throughout Westfield and Union County, with staff who speak Spanish, Russian, and other languages spoken across the community. Attorney Sander Budanitsky has represented injured New Jersey clients since 1996 and is admitted in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Call us today at 908-241-3445 today and start your legal journey towards recovery.
Last reviewed: June 2026. This page was reviewed by Sander Budanitsky, licensed in New Jersey since 1996. It is provided for general information and is not legal advice. Consult a licensed New Jersey attorney for guidance specific to your situation.
The Law Offices of Sander Budanitsky, L.L.C. welcomes calls from potential clients and from attorneys looking to refer or co-counsel a matter. Whether it is an injury claim, a civil dispute, a criminal charge, or an immigration question, the first conversation is free and there is no obligation to hire the firm afterward.
Call the Roselle, New Jersey office at (908) 241-3445 or the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania office at (215) 545-2300. You can also send the details through the contact form and someone from the office will get back to you. Calls are answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
