After a car crash in New Jersey, you may expect payment for your injuries if another driver caused the crash. However, your auto insurance policy may limit what you can recover for pain and suffering.
Known as the verbal threshold, this rule limits when you can sue for physical pain and emotional distress. If you have No Limitation on Lawsuit coverage, these injury requirements generally do not apply.
What are the six qualifying injury categories?
Under state law, this rule restricts when you can seek payment for noneconomic harm, such as physical pain and emotional distress. If it applies to you, your injury must fall into one of these six categories:
- Death: The accident results in death.
- Dismemberment: You lose a limb or body part.
- Significant disfigurement or scarring: A scar or physical change that a reasonable person would consider a substantial impairment to your appearance.
- Displaced fractures: A broken bone shifts out of its normal alignment.
- Loss of a fetus: The accident results in pregnancy loss.
- Permanent injury: The injured area of your body cannot work as it did before the crash, and more treatment will not restore its normal function.
For permanent injuries, ongoing pain alone is not enough. Objective medical evidence must establish that your condition meets the legal standard.
The threshold does not bar you from seeking other recoverable losses, including treatment costs and income lost while you cannot work.
How do you prove your injury qualifies?
Your treating doctor or a board-certified doctor they referred you to must confirm that your injury meets the threshold. The doctor must sign a statement under penalty of perjury, meaning they swear it is true. Their findings must rely on medical proof, such as scans or test results.
You generally must provide this certification within 60 days after the defendant answers your lawsuit. A court may allow one extension of up to 60 days for good cause.
Even with medical treatment, your claim for pain and suffering may be dismissed if you cannot establish that your injury meets one of the six categories.
Understanding your options after a serious injury
Not meeting the threshold does not necessarily eliminate your right to compensation. Your coverage, medical evidence and losses affect what you may recover. If the insurer disputes your injuries, a New Jersey personal injury attorney can review your circumstances and explain your options.