Losing a family member to someone else's negligence is a devastating event, and the law provides a way to hold the responsible party accountable and to address the family's losses.
Fatal crashes are not abstract here. In 2026, New Jersey State Police’s preliminary data show eight people were killed in traffic crashes in Union Township. Across Union County, the same year, there were 29 fatal crashes in which 30 people died. Most of those deaths came from the ordinary movements of traffic on the township's main roads rather than from unusual events.
Between funeral costs, lost income, and grief, the deadline for filing a claim is easy to overlook. The Law Offices of Sander Budanitsky, L.L.C. can assist during this difficult time. Our firm represents families across Union Township and Union County after a fatal injury. When you’re ready, call us at (908) 241-3445 or (908) 241-4595 to talk to our attorney.
A wrongful death claim arises when a person dies as a result of another party's negligence or wrongful act, the kind of conduct that would have supported a personal injury claim had the person survived.
New Jersey's Wrongful Death Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:31-1, creates a claim that belongs to the survivors, not to the person who died. It is available whenever the wrongful act, neglect or default would have entitled the injured person to bring a claim had they lived, and it compensates the family for what the death cost them. The deceased person's own claim is not lost either, but it is preserved by a separate statute.
The claim must be brought in the name of the right representative. When there is no will, that is an administrator ad prosequendum, a representative the court appoints specifically to pursue the death claim; when the person died with a will that has been probated, the executor named in the will (or an administrator with the will annexed) brings it instead (N.J.S.A. 2A:31-2(a)).
If a family member who qualifies for that appointment files before being formally appointed, the court may designate them and allow the pleadings to be amended nunc pro tunc, relating back to the first filing (N.J.S.A. 2A:31-2(b)), but the appointment should be handled at the outset rather than relied on afterward.
The claim is brought by a representative of the deceased's estate, but for the benefit of the surviving family members who depended on the deceased. New Jersey law sets out who may recover and what the claim can include, and it imposes a two-year deadline that runs from the date of death.
New Jersey law actually provides for two related but distinct claims after a fatal injury. The wrongful death claim, under the Wrongful Death Act, compensates the surviving family for their losses, the financial support, services, and guidance the deceased would have provided. It looks at what the surviving family members lost as a result of the death.
The survival claim, under N.J.S.A. 2A:15-3, is different: it preserves the claim that the deceased would have had, allowing the estate to recover for losses the person suffered between the injury and death, including pain and suffering and medical expenses during that period.
The two claims are brought together by the estate's representative but compensate distinctly different losses, the family's losses going forward and the deceased's own losses up to the moment of death. Pursuing both claims together is part of a complete accounting of the full harm a fatal injury caused.
New Jersey's Wrongful Death Act directs the recovery to the survivors who depended on the deceased, following an order of priority. A surviving spouse and children are generally first in line, and when there are none, recovery passes to other family members, such as parents or siblings, depending on the dependency involved and the applicable statute. The law focuses the recovery on those who suffered an actual loss from the death.
Because the recovery is for the survivors' losses rather than a fixed sum, the relationships and dependencies involved shape the claim. A spouse who lost a partner's income and companionship, children who lost a parent's support and guidance, or a parent who lost a child each have losses the law recognizes.
Part of building the wrongful death claim is determining who is entitled to recover under the statute and the nature of each survivor's loss, and this is handled throughout with attention to the family's individual circumstances.
New Jersey's Wrongful Death Act focuses on the economic losses the survivors suffered, which is a point families often find surprising. The claim can recover the financial support the deceased would have provided, the value of the services they provided to the family, and the loss of their guidance, advice, and counsel, which is particularly significant in the loss of a parent. The funeral and burial expenses incurred by the family are also recoverable as part of the claim.
New Jersey's wrongful death statute has traditionally not allowed recovery for the survivors' own emotional anguish or grief in the wrongful death claim itself, focusing instead on these pecuniary losses, though the value of a lost parent's guidance and the services a family member provided can be substantial. The deceased's own pain and suffering before death is addressed through the separate survival claim.
A contested claim arising in Union Township is normally heard in the Union Vicinage at the Union County Courthouse, 2 Broad Street in Elizabeth. It is not the only possibility. Under Rule 4:3-2, venue lies in the county where the cause of action arose, in a county where any party resides when suit is filed, or where a nonresident defendant is served.
Union Township borders Irvington, Maplewood and Millburn in Essex County, so a death near that line, or one involving parties who live in Essex, can properly be venued in the Essex Vicinage in Newark instead. Which vicinage hears the case is worth settling early, because the two run differently.
A wrongful death claim can arise from the same kinds of incidents that cause serious injury, when the harm proves fatal. Fatal motor-vehicle crashes are among the most common, including collisions on the corridors around Union Township.
A fatal car accident caused by another driver's negligence supports a wrongful death claim just as a survivable one would support an injury claim. The legal foundation is the same as any injury claim; the consequence is simply the gravest possible.
Other fatal incidents include crashes involving large commercial trucks, where the size disparity makes a fatal outcome more likely, along with pedestrian and bicycle fatalities, fatal falls and premises incidents, fires, and deaths caused by defective products.
What is common among them is that the death resulted from conduct that the law treats as negligent or wrongful. Liability must be established in the same way as an ordinary injury claim would.
A wrongful death claim requires proving that another party's negligence or wrongful conduct caused the death, and that proof rests on evidence. The challenge in a fatal case is that the person best positioned to describe what happened is gone, which places even greater weight on the physical evidence, witness accounts, any video, and the reconstruction of the event.
This is why a prompt and thorough investigation matters so much in a fatal case. The scene evidence, the vehicles or premises, the records, and the witness recollections are all perishable, and gathering them early preserves evidence of how the death occurred.
Because the family is grieving and in no position to conduct an investigation themselves, this work is undertaken entirely on their behalf. Objective evidence is the foundation on which the family's recovery rests, and it is pursued with care for what the family is enduring.
New Jersey is a modified comparative negligence state. Under N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1, a claim is not barred so long as the claimant's own negligence was not greater than the negligence of the party, or the combined negligence of the parties, from whom recovery is sought; the award is then reduced by that percentage.
In practical terms, recovery is available where the fault attributed to the person who died is 50 percent or less, and is barred entirely if it is greater than that of the defendants sued. The same threshold applies to claims against public entities under N.J.S.A. 59:9-4.
Because a fatal case is often the one in which the other side has the strongest incentive to blame the person who cannot answer, how fault is apportioned determines what a family recovers.
New Jersey's allocation rules set the terms. Under N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.3, the family may recover the full amount of the damages from any party the jury finds 60 percent or more responsible; from a party found less than 60 percent responsible, only that party's own percentage of the damages is recoverable. So the goal is not simply to add defendants, but to accurately establish where the responsibility actually lies and to locate every policy that answers for it.
Determining the damages in a wrongful death claim involves projecting the economic value of what the survivors lost, which often requires careful analysis. The financial support the deceased would have provided over their expected working life, adjusted for personal consumption, is a central element, and establishing it can involve evidence of the person's earnings, career trajectory, and life expectancy.
The loss of a person's guidance, advice, and counsel is recoverable, but New Jersey measures it in a particular way. Under Green v. Bittner, 85 N.J. 1 (1980), these are compensated as services, valued at what the marketplace would pay someone to provide them; the emotional satisfaction a family derived from the person's companionship is not itself compensable.
That is why this element is proven with concrete evidence of what the person did for the family and what those services are worth, rather than left to impression.
Funeral and burial expenses are recoverable as well. These determinations are developed thoroughly, often with economic analysis, to capture the full measure of the family's economic loss. The aim is a complete and accurate accounting of what the death actually cost those who depended on the person.
Punitive damages are also possible in some fatal cases, but only through the survival claim. The Wrongful Death Act is limited to the survivors' pecuniary losses and does not support punitive damages; the Survivor's Act does, because the deceased person could have sought them had they lived.
They require clear and convincing proof of actual malice or a wanton and willful disregard for foreseeable victims, never ordinary negligence, and not even gross negligence on its own (N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.12).
Punitive damages are generally capped at five times the compensatory award or $350,000, whichever is greater (N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.14(b)), but that cap does not apply at all where the defendant has been convicted of drunk driving or refusal, or of murder or manslaughter (N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.14(c)). No punitive damages may be awarded against a public entity (N.J.S.A. 59:9-2(c)).
Two deadlines run, not one. The wrongful death claim must be filed within two years of the date of death (N.J.S.A. 2A:31-3). The survival claim is governed by the deadline that applied to the deceased person's own injury claim, which is generally two years from the date of the injury (N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2).
Where a person survived their injuries for a period of time before dying, the survival claim can expire before the wrongful death claim does. Both dates should be calculated at the very start of a case so neither claim is lost.
One point often misunderstood: the two-year wrongful death deadline is not extended because a surviving child is a minor. The tolling statute that pauses the clock for minors, N.J.S.A. 2A:14-21, applies to the limitation periods in N.J.S.A. 2A:14-1 through 2A:14-8, not to the wrongful death limitation in N.J.S.A. 2A:31-3.
The claim is brought by the estate's representative, and the two-year period runs from the date of death, regardless of the ages of the children who will benefit.
There is one exception, and it is narrow. If the death resulted from murder, aggravated manslaughter, or manslaughter, and the defendant has been convicted of that offense, found not guilty by reason of insanity, or adjudicated delinquent, the wrongful death action may be brought at any time, with no deadline at all (N.J.S.A. 2A:31-3).
The same exception applies to the survival claim (N.J.S.A. 2A:15-3). No other offense qualifies. In particular, a conviction for death by auto (N.J.S.A. 2C:11-5), which is the charge most fatal crash cases produce, is not on that list and does not extend the deadline, so the ordinary two-year period still applies even though criminal charges were brought.
As with other claims, a shorter deadline can apply when a public entity is responsible. If a public entity contributed to the death, the New Jersey Tort Claims Act may require written notice of claim within 90 days, far sooner than the two-year deadline.
Sometimes a death that gives rise to a wrongful death claim is also the subject of a criminal case, as when a fatal crash leads to charges or a death results from a violent act. In that situation, the civil wrongful death claim and the criminal prosecution proceed separately, on different tracks and under different standards of proof, much as they do in a non-fatal case.
The family's civil claim is their own and does not depend on the outcome of the criminal matter. A criminal conviction can support the civil claim by helping to establish the wrongful conduct, but the civil claim can proceed regardless of whether criminal charges are brought or how they are resolved, because the civil standard of proof is lower than the criminal one. The family controls the civil claim and its timing, subject to the filing deadline.
A wrongful death claim arrives at the worst possible time for a family, in the midst of grief, and the way it is handled should reflect that. The legal process does not require a family to relive the loss at every turn or to take on burdens they are not ready for; much of the work, the investigation, the gathering of records, and the analysis of damages, is done on the family's behalf so they can focus on one another.
The claim can move forward without requiring the grieving family to carry its weight themselves. At our firm, these cases are handled on a contingency basis, meaning there is no fee unless there is a recovery, so a grieving family is not asked to fund the pursuit of accountability out of pocket.
The estate's representative is guided through each step required to properly bring the claim, and the survivors' losses are documented with sensitivity to what each has been through. The aim is to pursue the full, lawful recovery while sparing the family as much additional burden as possible during an already painful time.
As in any injury case, a fatal incident can involve more than one responsible party, and identifying each is part of a complete wrongful death claim. A fatal crash might involve not only an at-fault driver but also, in the case of a commercial vehicle, a vehicle or part manufacturer where a defect contributed. A fatal premises incident might implicate a property owner and a maintenance contractor, and a death from a defective product points to its manufacturer.
One limit matters here. If the death happened in the course of the person's employment, the New Jersey Workers' Compensation Act is the exclusive remedy against the employer. N.J.S.A. 34:15-8 makes the compensation remedy a surrender of all other remedies, binding on the employee, their survivors, and the employer, and it bars claims against co-workers for a compensable death except where an intentional wrong can be shown.
The family's dependency benefits come through the compensation system, while a civil wrongful death claim is directed at third parties who are not the employer (another driver, a property owner, a contractor, or a manufacturer). Sorting the two out early matters because they run on different tracks and different deadlines.
New Jersey's allocation rules divide responsibility among the parties found at fault, and finding every party and every applicable policy allows the family's full loss to be addressed rather than capped by a single limited source of coverage. This thorough approach to liability and coverage is especially important given the magnitude of what a wrongful death claim must account for.
Some fatal incidents involve a public entity, a transit vehicle, a government-owned vehicle, or a dangerous condition on public property, and such claims are subject to the additional requirements of the New Jersey Tort Claims Act.
If a public entity may be responsible, a written notice of claim must be presented within 90 days of the claim's accrual (N.J.S.A. 59:8-8). Missing that date is serious, but it is not automatically the end. A judge of the Superior Court may allow a late notice to be filed at any time within one year after the claim accrued, on a motion supported by affidavits showing extraordinary circumstances for the delay and no substantial prejudice to the public entity (N.J.S.A. 59:8-9).
After one year, no relief is available, and in no event may a suit be filed more than two years after accrual. A family that has passed the 90 days should still have the deadline reviewed rather than assume the claim is lost.
The Tort Claims Act also limits what can be recovered from a public entity. No punitive damages may be awarded against a public entity, and no judgment may rest on strict liability, implied warranty or products liability (N.J.S.A. 59:9-2(b), (c)).
Pain and suffering is not recoverable at all unless there is a permanent loss of a bodily function, permanent disfigurement or dismemberment, and medical treatment expenses exceeding $3,600 (N.J.S.A. 59:9-2(d)), a threshold that can matter a great deal to the survival claim. Benefits from insurance or other sources that duplicate an award are deducted from it, and no interest accrues before judgment (N.J.S.A. 59:9-2(a), (e)).
This is another reason to confirm the responsible parties and the applicable deadlines early, with legal help, to protect a family's ability to seek accountability.
The administrator or executor of the deceased person's estate files the claim, but it is brought for the benefit of the surviving family members who suffered a loss from the death.
The wrongful death claim compensates the family for their losses going forward. The survival claim recovers for the deceased's own losses, including pain and suffering, between the injury and death.
The financial support, services, and guidance the deceased would have provided, plus funeral and burial costs. The deceased's own pain and suffering is recovered through the survival claim.
Two years from the date of death under N.J.S.A. 2A:31-3. A claim involving a public entity may require written notice within ninety days.
No. A first conversation about what happened costs nothing, and these claims are typically handled on a contingency basis.
We understand that a legal claim is the last thing on a grieving family's mind. A first conversation about what happened costs nothing and carries no obligation. You can contact our firm when you are ready to talk through what happened and how the rules above apply to your family's situation.
The Law Offices of Sander Budanitsky, L.L.C. represents families after a fatal injury throughout Union Township 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 and their families since 1996 and is admitted in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Last reviewed: September 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.
