Hit and Run Accident Lawyer in New Jersey

Who pays when the driver is never found, and who pays when the driver is found?

Medical bills come first, and in New Jersey they are paid without waiting for anyone to be found. Under N.J.S.A. 39:6A-4, the personal injury protection coverage on your own auto policy pays for the emergency room, the imaging, the therapy and the surgery regardless of fault and regardless of whether the other driver ever has a name. If you do not own a car, PIP on the vehicle you were riding in or on a household relative's policy usually applies.

When the driver is never found, the rest of the claim is paid by uninsured motorist coverage. New Jersey policies treat a hit and run driver who cannot be identified as an uninsured driver, so the coverage pays what that driver would have owed: lost wages above the PIP benefit, future medical care, out of pocket costs and, if your injury clears the threshold on your policy, pain and suffering, up to the uninsured motorist limit. The coverage can come from your own policy, from a policy belonging to a relative in your household, or from the policy on the car you were in.

The threshold applies here just as it does against a known driver. Under N.J.S.A. 39:6A-8, if your own policy carries the limitation on lawsuit option, pain and suffering is available only if the injury is a displaced fracture, significant scarring, loss of a body part, a permanent injury confirmed by objective medical evidence, loss of a fetus or death. A policy with the no limitation option has no threshold. Because the uninsured motorist claim runs through your own policy, the option you chose years ago governs your own claim, and we find it on your declarations page in the first week.

A New Jersey resident with no auto policy in the household at all is not without options. The Unsatisfied Claim and Judgment Fund is the state's backstop for people hurt by uninsured and unidentified drivers who have no coverage of their own. The fund has its own notice requirements and its own eligibility rules, including proof that the police were told and that no other coverage exists, and it pays less than a private policy would. We check eligibility early and file its notice when the fund is the only path.

When the driver is found, the picture improves. The driver's liability insurer becomes the primary source of payment, and if the driver was in someone else's car, the owner's policy joins it. If the driver was working, the employer's policy may apply. Leaving the scene of an injury crash is a crime under N.J.S.A. 39:4-129, and a guilty plea or conviction is powerful evidence that the driver knew they were at fault. Your own uninsured motorist coverage does not vanish when the driver is found; it converts into underinsured coverage if the driver's limits turn out to be too low for your injuries.

How much is a New Jersey hit and run claim worth?

A hit and run claim is valued the same way as any injury claim, by adding up what the crash took from you. Economic damages cover medical bills beyond what PIP paid, the treatment your doctors expect in the future, lost wages and overtime above the PIP income benefit, reduced earning capacity if you cannot return to your job, and out of pocket costs like rides to therapy. Non economic damages cover pain, scarring, the activities you have lost and the strain on your family, and they are available when the injury clears the threshold on your own policy.

In a hit and run, insurance is the ceiling in a way it is not when a driver is identified. If the driver is never found, the most the claim can produce is the uninsured motorist limit on the policies available to you, and a household with a single minimum policy has a low ceiling no matter how severe the injuries. We look for every policy in the household, because more than one can sometimes apply, and we check whether the car you were in carried higher limits than your own. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Finding the driver raises the ceiling. A found driver adds a liability policy, possibly an owner's policy and an employer's policy, and the flight itself becomes part of the story. Jurors do not think well of a driver who left an injured person in the road, and adjusters know it. That is why we treat the investigation as part of the valuation rather than a separate task.

What if your own insurer denies or lowballs the uninsured motorist claim?

In an uninsured motorist claim your own insurer is the other side, and its adjuster looks for reasons to pay less. The first is the phantom vehicle argument. Many policies require either physical contact with the fleeing car or independent corroboration of its existence, and an adjuster who finds neither in the file will deny the claim as an unwitnessed single car crash. We answer with the paint transfer on your bumper, the debris collected from the road, the damage pattern a reconstruction engineer can read, the 911 recording, the camera footage and the witness who watched it happen.

The threshold argument comes next. The insurer sends you to a doctor it chooses, who reports that your MRI shows wear and tear and that your limitations are not permanent. We answer with your treating physicians, objective imaging read by a radiologist, and a certification of permanency from a specialist where the facts support one. Under N.J.S.A. 39:6A-8 permanency is a medical question with a medical answer, and we make sure your records answer it before the insurer's doctor gets the chance.

The fault argument is different in a hit and run, because the driver who could have told a competing story is gone. That leaves your recorded statement as the only account in the file, and adjusters read it looking for a sentence that shifts blame under N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1. You are required to cooperate with your own carrier, and we sit with you when you do, so the statement is accurate and complete and nothing in it is a guess dressed up as a fact.

Most New Jersey uninsured motorist policies send the dispute to arbitration rather than a jury, before a panel that hears evidence much as a court would. We prepare it as a trial, with medical experts, the reconstruction and the witnesses. Where the policy allows suit, or where the driver has been identified, we file in the Superior Court and use discovery to put the insurer's own investigation on the record. Denied claims tend to find a better number once a hearing date is set.

How long do you have, including the short insurer and fund deadlines?

The lawsuit deadline is the longest clock and the least likely to catch you. New Jersey gives two years from the crash to file a personal injury action under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2, and a wrongful death action has its own two years running from the death under N.J.S.A. 2A:31-3. In a hit and run, the suit is often filed against a fictitiously named driver so the deadline is protected while the search continues, and the real name is substituted when it is found.

The deadlines that actually end New Jersey hit and run claims are written into the policy. Your uninsured motorist coverage requires a police report, usually within a day or as soon as it was possible to make one, and prompt written notice to the carrier that a hit and run occurred and that you intend to claim. PIP requires its own written notice and has its own rules for submitting bills. These deadlines come from the policy rather than the statute book, and a carrier that receives late notice will argue it was prejudiced and deny the claim.

The Unsatisfied Claim and Judgment Fund runs on a shorter and stricter timetable than the lawsuit statute. The fund requires written notice of the crash and of your intention to claim on its own schedule, proof that the police were told promptly, and a showing that no household policy exists. A person who waits to see how the injuries develop before contacting the fund can lose eligibility entirely. If the fund is the only source in your case, the notice goes out the week we are retained.

Public entities add another clock. If the vehicle that fled is later identified as an NJ Transit bus, a municipal truck or a county car, or if a broken signal or an unlit crosswalk contributed to the crash, the New Jersey Tort Claims Act requires a written notice of claim within 90 days under N.J.S.A. 59:8-8, and suit cannot be filed until six months after it is served. Because a fleeing vehicle's owner is unknown at first, we serve the notice whenever a public vehicle is even a possibility.

What to do in the first 72 hours after a New Jersey hit and run

Call 911 from the scene, or as soon as you are able, and make sure a police report is written. On the Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway the State Police respond; on Route 4, Route 17, Route 46 and every local street the town's own police department does. Give the officer everything you remember: color, make, body style, any letters or numbers from the plate, the damage you saw, the direction the car went and anything about the driver. Leaving an injury crash is a crime under N.J.S.A. 39:4-129, so the police open an investigation.

Cameras are how hit and run drivers are found, and their footage disappears fast. Gas stations, storefronts, apartment lobbies, school buses, NJ Transit buses, traffic signal cameras and the license plate readers at toll plazas and interchanges on the Turnpike and the Parkway all record the road, and most of it is overwritten within days. Get the name and number of anyone who saw it happen; a witness who caught part of the plate is worth more than any camera. Tell us the exact location so our preservation letters go out before the weekend.

Do not wash or repair your car, and do not throw away anything that came off the other one. Paint transfer on your bumper carries a color that can be matched to a make and model. A broken mirror housing or a headlight fragment left in the road often carries a part number that identifies the vehicle. Photograph the transfer and the debris where they lie, bag the pieces, and keep the car out of the body shop until we have documented it.

See a doctor the same day, at University Hospital in Newark, Hackensack University Medical Center, Jersey City Medical Center or an urgent care, and tell every provider that a car that fled hit you. Then notify your own insurance company in writing that a hit and run occurred, that you were injured, and that you are making a PIP claim and an uninsured motorist claim. Do not give a recorded statement without us, do not accept a quick settlement, and do not post about the crash online.

What Your Claim Can Cover

• Uninsured motorist claims on your own policy
• Claims through a household member's policy
• State backstop funds where they exist
• Camera, plate reader and witness investigation
• Medical benefits while the driver is unknown