Personal Injury Attorney in Pennsauken and Cherry Hill

If you’ve been injured, let us help you seek justice
Daños Corporales

Personal injuries happen when an accident, like a car accident, workplace accident or a motorcycle accident is caused by a negligent individual or public or government entity. The at-fault individual(s) failed to exercise a reasonable amount of care and harmed or injured another person to whom a duty of care is owed. Proving negligence in personal injury cases is necessary for plaintiffs in order to hold a person or company legally responsible.

Negligence claims must prove four elements: duty of care, breach of duty, causation and damages. The four elements are defined as:

Duty: The defendant owned a legal duty to the plaintiff
Breach: The defendant breached their duty by failing to act
Causation: It was the defendant’s action or inaction that caused injury
Damages: The plaintiff was injured by the defendant

To file a personal injury claim, plaintiffs need to adhere to the statute of limitations in New Jersey. In New Jersey the statute of limitations is two years from the date of the injury. Cases involving a public or government entity must file within in 90 days of the injury.

Personal Injury Statistics

Car accidents

Nationwide over 37,000 Americans died in car accidents every year
2.35 million are injured and/or disabled in car accidents
In New Jersey there were 256,482 collisions in 2016
Of the 256,482 crashes, 59,096 ended with injuries
571 of those crashes were fatal and killed 602 people
Of the 571 fatal wrecks in New Jersey, 17 involved bicyclists and 70 involved motorcycles
Speeding was a contributing factor in all fatal car collisions in 2016

Motorcycle accidents

Motorcyclists are 28 times more likely to die in a crash than a car passenger
Motorcyclists are five times more likely to be injured
The highest number of motorcycle fatalities was 93 in 2011
26 percent of fatal crashes were the result of speeding
24 percent of fatal crashes resulted from driver inattention
In 2016 there were roughly 2,200 motorcycle crashes, resulting in 69 deaths
From 2012 to 2016 the crash statistics have jumped to 12,000 New Jersey motorcycles being involved in an accident
In 2017 32.5 percent of biker fatalities involved alcohol

Slip and fall accidents

Approximately one-third of adults over 65 fall each year
Falls are the most common cause of hip fractures
Only two percent of cases go to a jury trial
More than one million people go to the emergency room each year for a slip and fall accident
The average cost of a slip and fall is $30,000 to $40,000
Nationwide there are more than 800,000 slip and fall accidents where injuries are serious enough for the victim to be hospitalized.
Twenty percent of those injuries are broken hips and head trauma
Deaths from slip and fall accidents have risen at least 30 percent over the past few years
Approximately five percent of slip and falls involve broken bones
Slip and falls are a leading cause of injury for all age groups
Falls are the most common cause of brain injury
Medical expenses for slip and fall injuries can run $34 billion a year
Slip and fall victims are often off the job for at least 11 days

Worksite injuries

In New Jersey in 2016 contact with objects and equipment was the third-most frequent fatal resulting in 21 work-related deaths
Males made up 94 percent of the work related deaths in New Jersey
Worksite employees between 25-54 years of age represented 62 percent of New Jerseys worksite death in 2016
Nationwide the on the job deaths came in at 57 percent
In New Jersey, 84 percent of the 101 worksite deaths tabulated for 2016 involved workers who were paid salaries/wages. The remainder of the accident involved self-employed individuals.
There were 101 deaths at a worksite in 2016 in New Jersey
Nationwide, a total of 5,190 fatal work injuries were recorded in 2016
New Jersey transportation incidents resulted in 36 fatal work injuries
Falls, slips, or trips at a worksite accounted for 26 fatalities
The private construction industry sector had 20 deaths in New Jersey – the highest number of deaths in the state
The highest number of workplace fatalities were logged for workers in transportation and material moving (27) and construction and extraction (19)
The largest number of fatalities involved workers driving vehicles at the time of an accident (20)
Construction trades workers accounted for 11 of the 19 fatalities among construction and extraction workers

Personal Injury Laws

Personal injury law is also referred to as “tort” law typically meaning a wrongful act leading to civil legal liability. Personal injury laws actually arose out of old common law rules, or laws that were made by judges, not legislatures, bills or statutes.

When a judge presides over a personal injury trial, their decision on the law involved in a particular case is binding as a precedent on all other lower state courts. This means that the lower courts must then apply the law as declared by the first judge. Over time, the various precedents create a body of common law. Common law differs from state to state, this is why it is important to discuss any personal injury accident with an experienced attorney in New Jersey.

In its simplest definition, personal injury law protects individuals injured as the result of an accident caused by someone else’s negligence. An injured party may file a civil lawsuit, or a personal injury lawsuit, to seek compensation for their injuries and damages. Personal injury law’s main raison d’etre is that the injured person is compensated or “made whole” after sustaining harm or injury caused by someone’s recklessness or intentional misconduct.

Personal injury law covers a very wide gamut of situations where the rules that apply when someone have been involved in an accident that harmed them apply. For instance: personal injury rules are in play in cases where an individual or entity acts negligently and harms another person. Car accidents are a good example.

The laws pertaining to personal injury cases also apply in instances where another person or entity’s intentional conduct harms another. Medical malpractice could be a good example. There is also a category of personal injury law that relates to defective products that does not necessarily involve intentional wrongdoing if the product manufacturer did not know of the defect in question.

Contact an Attorney

If you have been injured, let Petrillo & Goldberg help you seek justice. We are here to help personal injury victims obtain the compensation they deserve. We are available for a free consultation at our Pennsauken, New Jersey office. We can also be reached by phone at (856) 249-9295. Call or visit our office for a free consultation.