Some lawsuits filed in North Jersey make headlines, while others do not.
The ones you see in the news represent only a fraction of the lawsuits filed in local courts. From personal injury to claims of toxic workplace behavior the litigation takes on many different topics.
USA TODAY Network New Jersey tallied the amount and types of lawsuits filed in state Superior Courts in Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Sussex and Essex to examine the state of local courts. Statistics were compiled for the month of September in each of the past three years.
The data is clear: Personal injury lawsuits in the nation's most densely populated state are bountiful with car collisions and slip or trip and fall claims often at the top, year after year, according to data from the New Jersey Judiciary compiled by the USA TODAY Network New Jersey.
In Essex County, the state's third most populous according to U.S. census data last reported in 2021, the number of total pleadings given a docket number each year — anywhere from medical malpractice claims to employee retaliation — likely reaches a staggering 3,000, said personal injury attorney David Wikstrom, a partner with the firm Javerbaum, Wurgaft, Hicks, Kahn, Wikstrom & Sinins which has offices throughout the state.
Over half of those filings, data shows, are by persons seeking redress from personal injury: In September 2022 alone, the state Superior Court in Essex County filed 143 cases related to car accidents and an additional 45 for persons involved in slip or trip and fall accidents. That equates to roughly six such suits filed each day of the month. And data from prior years shows similar, if not slightly higher numbers.
While the sheer volume of suits can be chalked up to the densely populated roadways and excessive number of businesses in Essex, which is also home to Newark, the state's largest city, personal injury also tops the list in Bergen, Passaic and Morris counties. Sussex County, with a population nearly six times smaller than Essex and with a more rural landscape, saw far fewer filings, but car collision suits still made their way toward the top in 2020 and 2021.
There has been a decline overall in the filing of personal injury lawsuits in the state over the last several years, which is likely attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Ariel Alvarez, an associate professor of political science and law at Montclair State University.
But even with the slight decline, a 9.3 million-strong population helps New Jersey stand as one of the most litigious states. And while the population contributes to it, Alvarez believes it is a combination of the litigious culture we live in and the abundance of attorneys in the area.
“Where we see attorneys and we see the law as something that we want to use to win and to make a point,” he said.
What is the driving force behind car collision lawsuits?
The ads are spread across highway billboards and TVs, with personal injury attorneys petitioning New Jersey residents to give them a call: "Have you been injured in an accident?"
It's a valid question that unfortunately appeals to many drivers since the data shows between 2004 and 2020 the New Jersey Department of Transportation logged 190,000 to over 283,000 car crashes statewide each year. The number of those injured in crashes range between about 43,000 and 78,000 each year, with the most in Essex and Bergen counties.
But not every person injured in a motor vehicle crash can sue. In fact, it's likely the majority of drivers in the Garden State will have to prove their injuries were permanent under a strict New Jersey Supreme Court rule and with a certification by a doctor before they can even consider a lawsuit against another driver, said Wikstrom, who handles cases statewide but primarily practices in Essex, Union, Middlesex, Passaic and Bergen counties.
Unlike many other states, drivers in New Jersey have the option to save a little money on their car insurance by telling an insurance agent you are OK with the option "limitations on lawsuit," also known as a verbal threshold — a move that nearly 95% of drivers in the Garden State do, Wikstrom said, pointing to prior statistics he discovered. Many clients don't even realize they are giving up those rights, they just automatically know they are choosing the "cheapest" insurance to save money, he added.
Christine O’Brien, president of the Insurance Council of New Jersey, said the reason for collision suits in more populated areas is that there may be more drivers who are, as Wikstrom noted, underinsured.
“When two people or multiple parties are in an accident, one of those drivers will have the very basic amount of insurance coverage to drive legally in New Jersey,” O’Brien said. “Therefore, depending on who is at fault will depend on whether or not one party or another will pursue one of the other parties’ insurance companies for damages because their insurance doesn’t cover those losses or the limits are exceeded quickly."
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The Insurance Council of New Jersey is a nonprofit trade association that represents property and casualty insurance companies including auto insurers.
To prove an injury is permanent, it must be described as the following: a death; displaced fracture; loss of a body organ or body part; loss of a fetus; an unsightly scar that must be noticeable to the naked eye; or an injury that will not heal despite continued treatment, such as soft tissue damage, but it must be proven that it was not a preexisting condition before the crash.
If jurors hear the case, the loss of a limb or a facial scar could be held in a different regard to shoulder or back pain, even if the pain is significant, according to Alvarez.
“I think where the injury is, the type of injury, how appealing it is to a jury, I think those are all pretty significant factors,” he said.
Wikstrom said that 80% of the cases that fall under the verbal threshold that are tried before a jury result in a verdict for the defendants, a percentage he said isn't that comforting compared to the over 90% of personal injury lawsuits settled before trial.
So why do the majority of cases settle before a jury hears the case?
Wikstrom, who is a trustee of the New Jersey State Bar Association and past president of the Union County Bar Association, said he has studied it and believes it's twofold: New Jersey attorneys are a "kinder, gentler" group and are willing to meet in the middle, he said, and those that handle personal injury in the state are specialists in their field and know what the evidence could prove and what the outcome in a jury trial may look like.
Seton Hall University law professor Brian Sheppard, however, says that you can't assume that all cases that are filed always settle with some form of compensation for the persons allegedly injured.
“You can’t assume that cases that don’t make it to trial have all settled,” Sheppard said. “A lot of them have, in fact, most of them have but a lot of them have not and there are all sorts of reasons why.”
Sometimes suits are withdrawn by attorneys for a variety of reasons or a plaintiff can die.
For some, the high cost of paying an attorney through litigation, even if the case is legitimate, is enough to call it quits, Alvarez said.
If a lawsuit does make it before a judge and jury — which could take a year or more from the date of filing — it can be challenging for a lawyer to argue. Alvarez said an attorney could do something called a time unit analysis, specifically in regard to personal injury lawsuits. He said it is one of the simplest forms of an argument that can be presented to a jury. Alvarez said a lawyer could try to show a jury how a plaintiff suffers pain in their lives because of their injuries.
“Sometimes it’s effective but you’re right to think that it could be a challenge and an undertaking to have to convince a group of people to award you a large sum of money,” Alvarez said.
It also proves tricky in the courtroom because attorneys cannot tell a jury how much money they are seeking for pain and suffering. Wikstrom said a doctor can testify as to how much a medical procedure will cost or the attorney can give an estimate of their client's loss of income, but putting a dollar amount on the cost of pain and suffering is in the jury's hands.
"The jury will give our clients a total amount of damages that would reasonably and fairly compensate the plaintiff for his or her injuries," Wikstrom said.
Some jurors, Alvarez added, may be more sympathetic than others and the awarding of money could vary significantly.
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Slips, trips and tumbles
The same is true for slip or trip and fall cases, which rank second among the most common lawsuits in North Jersey during the months of September in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Wikstrom has handled hundreds of such lawsuits and believes they have remained steady because not only is the state inundated with businesses, but the high cost of materials and inability to obtain them quick enough has led to a lack of repair work in business parking lots and sidewalks, where many accidents take place, he said.
Persons who invite patrons onto their property for business purposes — think a grocery or department store, hair salon or restaurant — are required to inspect the property and find any hidden or obvious dangers and remediate them or warn patrons against them, Wikstrom said.
The same is true on personal property: If a delivery person slips and falls on icy stairs at a residence and those stairs were not treated with salt or sand, the homeowner is at fault. Wikstrom said that the homeowner knew the delivery person was expected to come to their house, so preparing for obvious dangers is key.
But if a social guest comes over for dinner and falls into a hole in the backyard, for example, Wikstrom said it has to be proven that the homeowners knew about the hole ahead of time and should have warned the guest. Maybe phone records show a contractor was called and hadn't yet come to fix the hole or if a conversation took place prior that proved the homeowner knew about the crater in the ground.
So what if you fall in the grocery store when the person in front of you drops his ice cream cone? Chances are, there was not enough time for a store employee to discover the spill and clean it up, so a lawsuit would be tough to prove.
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Insurance companies hold the power
It's a myth that personal injury cases are between individuals and property or business owners: When there's a lawsuit involving these parties, "you can be sure that there's an insurance company in the shadows calling the shots," according to Tim Fonseca, a personal injury attorney and partner with the Clifton-based law firm Corradino & Papa.
Nearly all personal injury cases settle without trial, but it's the insurance companies that hold the power to settle a claim at whatever time they want, he said. And that comes after considerable expenses and judicial resources are spent in litigation.
Fonseca said business and commercial property owners have "very little" control over when and whether a case should be settled and for how much — that is in the hands of the insurance company's own lawyers. And that could take time and money for seriously injured persons waiting for any compensation for past or future medical expenses.
And when it comes to the verbal threshold in New Jersey motor vehicle cases, or the requirement that the plaintiff shows permanent injury, Fonseca again calls out insurance companies for the way they handle claims.
"They hire doctors who often are retired from regular clinical practice to say that injured folks aren't hurt, or that there is no objective permanent injury relating to the accident," said Fonseca.
The commonness of driving and the dangers of driving is why there is such an abundance of auto-related lawsuits, said Sheppard. Cars are one of the most expensive possessions people own, but also one of the most dangerous.
