Do I Need a Lawyer to Handle a Motorcycle Accident Case in NJ?

While physically and emotionally recovering from a motorcycle crash, you will undoubtedly incur damages that deserve compensation. Having a lawyer handle your case could optimize your financial recovery in New Jersey.

Without a skilled lawyer in your corner, you could struggle with various aspects of your case, starting with collecting evidence. We can help victims preserve physical evidence from crash sites and uncover additional evidence, like eyewitness statements and surveillance footage. We will also bring your case before the deadline in New Jersey, calculating damages as we go to ensure your full recovery. After filing your lawsuit, Jerry can negotiate a fair settlement by leveraging evidence collected in the early stages of your case. If the defendant refuses to settle for a fair amount, we can take your case to court and prove their liability for the accident, injuries, and damages.

For a free case review from New Jersey motorcycle accident lawyer Jerry Friedman, call 1-800-529-4464.

What Jerry Can Handle During Your Motorcycle Accident Case in NJ

Having an experienced lawyer like Jerry Friedman handle your motorcycle accident case means you can get crucial assistance regarding evidence collection, sourcing expert witnesses, filing on time, calculating damages, negotiating settlements, and proving fault if your case goes to court.

Evidence Collection

From the onset of your case, Jerry can start collecting and preserving evidence related to your recent motorcycle accident. For example, our team can quickly help you get and review the police report for the accident, which might point us to additional information, like eyewitnesses’ identities. We will aim to promptly interview eyewitnesses to record their statements, as their testimony may be crucial evidence in your case.

As we gather evidence, you can provide any photos or videos you may have taken at the accident location in New Jersey. These images can assist experts when reconstructing accidents, so do your best to photograph the scene.

Part of evidence collection is obtaining and organizing a victim’s medical records. These records will show your injuries, diagnoses, and treatments in detail. On top of your medical records, we can also acquire any surveillance footage from nearby security systems to obtain video evidence of the crash.

Sourcing Expert Witnesses

Witnesses are not exclusively eyewitnesses and may include qualified experts. For example, accident reconstruction can prove liability motorcycle injury claims, showing exactly how a crash occurred and what the first harmful event was. Atlantic City motorcycle accident lawyer Jerry Friedman has the resources and experience necessary to enlist experts to lend their knowledge and specific skills to your case. Accident reconstruction experts can carefully review photos, videos, debris, and marks on the road to calculate how fast each vehicle was traveling, their directions of travel, and which driver initiated the accident.

Medical experts can testify to a victim’s injuries, explaining their physical limitations or the intensity of their treatment. This can assist in victims’ recoveries of future medical damages and non-economic damages in New Jersey.

Filing Your Case

The complaint you submit to the court sets the foundation for your motorcycle injury lawsuit in New Jersey. When preparing the complaint, we will include details about the defendant, the accident, and your requested damages. After we submit the complaint, the defendant gets served, and your lawsuit starts. The complaint itself needs to contain the right information to initiate the lawsuit, and leaving out the necessary details could undermine your case before it even begins.

Another aspect of this is filing the complaint on time. N.J.S.A. § 2A:14-2 sets the filing deadline at two years from an accident’s date. This is the only period during which you can file a lawsuit; try to file any later, and the court can throw out your case. Having experienced counsel by your side means you can focus on physically recovering from your injuries while Jerry focuses on preparing and filing your case by the deadline in New Jersey.

Calculating Damages

Identifying and tracking all losses from an accident might be overwhelming for victims, which is why we can handle these aspects of your case. As you incur losses, report them to our team, and we will include them in our total assessment of your damages. Common compensable financial losses include missed wages and medical damages due to injury, among others. If you are unsure whether a cost is compensable, ask Jerry for clarification.

Estimating non-economic damages is challenging, as it requires using complex calculation methods, like the per diem and multiplier methods. We can assess which calculation best applies to your case and optimizes your recovery of intangible damages in New Jersey.

Negotiating Settlements

Without Jerry by your side during settlement negotiations, you could accept a lowball offer too quickly. Seemingly large lump sum settlement offers might appear beneficial to victims initially, only to reveal themselves as unfair when victims cannot cover all of their losses.

During settlement negotiations, we will keep our calculation of your total damages in mind, leveraging evidence as necessary to convince the opposing side to settle fairly. Even after aggressive negotiations, the defendant might refuse to give you what you deserve. In that case, we can help you change directions and move forward with a trial in New Jersey.

Proving Liability

While not all motorcycle injury cases go to court, preparing your case for a trial is important. Then, if settlement negotiations are unsuccessful, we will have a strong claim to present to a jury.

To prove liability for your injuries, we must first show that the defendant owed you a duty of care. Drivers owe one another a duty to follow traffic laws and act responsibly while driving. We must then show that the driver breached their duty of care, causing the accident. A breach of duty could be any negligent act, like speeding or drunk driving. Showing the link between the defendant’s negligence and your injuries is crucial, which is where witness statements become particularly useful. Finally, we will submit proof of your losses to show the defendant also caused you real damages in New Jersey.

Call Jerry for Help with Your Motorcycle Injury Case in NJ

Call Vineland, NJ motorcycle accident lawyer Jerry Friedman at 1-800-529-4464 to discuss your case for free.