Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer in New Jersey

Who pays after a drunk driving crash in New Jersey?

Your medical bills are paid first by the personal injury protection on your own auto policy under N.J.S.A. 39:6A-4, no matter who caused the crash. If you do not own a car, the PIP on the vehicle you were riding in, or a household relative's policy, is next in line. PIP does not care that the other driver was drunk. It pays the emergency room, the imaging and the therapy up to the medical limit on your declarations page.

The drunk driver's liability insurance is the first source for everything PIP does not cover: lost wages beyond the small PIP income benefit, future care, and pain and suffering. Whether pain and suffering is available depends on the tort option on your own policy under N.J.S.A. 39:6A-8. If you chose the limitation on lawsuit option, you need a displaced fracture, significant scarring, a permanent injury confirmed by objective medical evidence, or another listed category. High speed impaired crashes clear that threshold more often than fender benders, but it remains a medical question.

The vehicle's owner can be a second source. When the drunk driver borrowed a parent's car, a roommate's car or a company vehicle, the owner's policy is the primary coverage on that car, and an owner who handed keys to someone they knew had been drinking can face a negligent entrustment claim. An employer whose worker was driving home from a client dinner can answer for the worker too.

The bar, restaurant or liquor store that served the driver can be a third source. New Jersey's Licensed Alcoholic Beverage Server Fair Liability Act allows a claim against a licensed server that served a visibly intoxicated person, or someone under 21, who then caused a crash. That claim depends on evidence that vanishes quickly: the tab, the card records and the surveillance video from a Morristown bar, a Red Bank restaurant or a Seaside Heights club. Social hosts face more limited liability, generally for serving a visibly intoxicated adult guest who then drove, or for serving minors.

Your own coverage is the last and often the most important source. Impaired drivers often carry minimum policies or none, and a basic New Jersey policy provides very little for an injured person. Your uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, and a household relative's, fills the gap, and both require notice to your own carrier before any settlement. We map every policy in your home before we value the claim.

How much is a New Jersey drunk driving accident claim worth?

The value starts with the same categories as any crash: medical costs above what PIP paid, future treatment, lost wages and lost earning capacity, out of pocket costs, and, if your injury clears the threshold on your own policy, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and scarring. Drunk driving crashes tend to sit higher in every category because impaired drivers rarely brake, so the impact speeds and the injuries are worse.

New Jersey also allows punitive damages where the defendant's conduct showed actual malice or a wanton and willful disregard for the safety of others, proven by clear and convincing evidence. Driving with a high blood alcohol level, driving with a prior DWI on the record, or getting behind the wheel after a bartender refused further service can meet that standard. Punitive damages are capped by statute in most cases and exist to punish rather than to compensate.

There is a practical limit that surprises families. Standard New Jersey auto policies do not cover punitive damages, and the state's public policy does not allow a driver to insure against them. A punitive award is collected from the driver personally, so before we build one we investigate whether the driver has assets worth pursuing. A judgment against a driver with nothing is a piece of paper. The threat still moves insurers, because a carrier that refuses a fair settlement leaves its own insured exposed.

The county and the criminal file set the rest. A Hudson County jury values a serious injury case differently from an Ocean County jury, and a case with body camera footage of the driver stumbling through field sobriety tests is valued differently from one where the driver refused every test. We do not quote a number on the first call. When the medical picture and the criminal evidence are in hand, we put a demand on paper. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is decided on its own facts.

What if the insurer denies or lowballs your New Jersey drunk driving claim?

It happens even when the driver was arrested at the scene. The insurer's adjusters are trained to separate the DWI from the crash: the driver was intoxicated, they concede, but you stopped short or you had been drinking too. Under N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1 a person found more than 50 percent at fault recovers nothing, and any lesser share reduces the recovery, so the adjuster's fault argument is worth money to the carrier.

The passenger version of that argument is the most common. When the injured person was a passenger in the drunk driver's car, the insurer argues that the passenger knew the driver had been drinking and chose to ride anyway. New Jersey treats that as a comparative fault question, not an automatic bar, and the answer is evidence: who saw what, and whether the driver seemed impaired when the group left the bar in New Brunswick or the tailgate at MetLife Stadium.

The threshold argument comes next. The insurer sends you to its own doctor, argues that your MRI shows degeneration rather than trauma, and offers a number that reflects economic loss only. We answer with treating physicians, objective imaging and, where needed, a certification of permanency from a specialist. The driver's intoxication does not waive the verbal threshold, but juries in impaired driving cases tend to credit the injured person's account of pain and permanence.

When PIP cuts off treatment through precertification or a utilization review, we file the dispute in PIP arbitration so your care continues. When the liability carrier will not pay fairly after treatment is complete, we file suit in the Superior Court, Law Division, of the county where the crash happened or the driver lives. Discovery gives us the driver under oath, the Alcotest records, the body camera video and the bar's footage. Most cases settle before trial, and a case built on a DWI record settles from strength.

How long do you have to file a drunk driving accident claim in New Jersey?

A New Jersey personal injury lawsuit must be filed within two years of the crash under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2. A wrongful death action runs two years from the date of death under N.J.S.A. 2A:31-3, and when a person survives a crash for weeks before dying the two dates differ. Miss either deadline and the claim is gone regardless of what the driver pleaded to in criminal court.

The criminal case moves on its own timeline and the civil clock does not wait for it. A DWI charge under N.J.S.A. 39:4-50 is a motor vehicle offense heard in the municipal court of the town where the stop happened, and it often resolves within months. When the crash caused serious injury, the county prosecutor usually adds an indictable charge such as assault by auto, which moves to the Superior Court and can take a year or more to resolve. We watch both dockets and file the civil case on our own schedule.

There are good reasons to let part of the criminal case play out. A guilty plea to DWI is admissible in the civil case and can end the fault argument, so we sometimes hold the demand until the plea is entered. We also make sure any plea agreement does not include a release of your civil claims, and we submit a victim impact statement through the county prosecutor's victim witness unit and request restitution for out of pocket losses.

Public entities carry a much shorter fuse. If the drunk driver was operating a municipal, county or state vehicle, the New Jersey Tort Claims Act requires a written notice of claim within 90 days under N.J.S.A. 59:8-8. Insurance deadlines arrive sooner still: PIP requires prompt written notice, and underinsured coverage requires notice to your own carrier before any settlement with the driver.

What should you do in the first 72 hours after a drunk driving crash in New Jersey?

Be seen by a doctor before the night is over. Impaired driving crashes on the Parkway, the Turnpike and the shore highways happen at speed and late, and adrenaline hides injury for hours. University Hospital in Newark, Hackensack University Medical Center, Jersey City Medical Center and Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune receive most of these crashes. Tell every provider the crash involved a drunk driver so the record reflects it.

Get the police report number and the name of the arresting agency. In a drunk driving crash the officer's report is only the first document. The Alcotest breath result taken at the station, the blood draw taken at the hospital under a warrant when the driver was hurt, the field sobriety notes and the dashboard and body camera video all sit in the department's file and in the municipal or Superior Court discovery. We request them by public records request and, once suit is filed, by subpoena.

Save the receipts and find the video. If you know where the driver was drinking, tell us. A licensed server claim lives or dies on the tab, the card records, the bartender's memory and the surveillance video from the bar and its parking lot, and most systems overwrite within days. Photograph the cars, the debris and the road, and note the businesses and traffic signals that could have recorded the crash. We send preservation letters the day you retain us.

Open your PIP claim with your own carrier and say you were injured. Do not give a recorded statement to the drunk driver's insurer, do not sign a release, and do not accept an early check. Stay off social media. A photograph from the same bar earlier that night becomes the insurer's comparative fault exhibit. Keep a simple file of bills, appointments, missed work and a short daily note about pain.

What Your Claim Can Cover

• Full injury claims against the impaired driver
• Dram shop claims against bars and liquor stores where the law allows
• Punitive damages where the law allows
• Use of the criminal conviction in the civil case
• Uninsured motorist claims when the driver has no coverage