Sexual abuse is a heinous act for which abusers face both criminal and civil liability. Through a civil claim, you can get financial compensation for the physical and mental injuries you suffered.

Importantly, you may have more than one claim. Depending on where the abuse happened, you might have a claim for intentional harm against the abuse as well as one for negligence against any entity that put the abuser in a position to harm you. Some potential grounds for negligence might involve failures in:

• Hiring
• Training
• Supervising
• Following up on complaints

For example, in a clergy sexual abuse claim, you might have a negligence claim against the church if leaders knew of the abuser’s record or reputation and did nothing to protect parishioners.

Nursing home abuse and neglect represent a betrayal of trust. When you pay a residential facility to care for a loved one, you expect it to protect them from harm. That’s why you may have a claim for intentional harm against the perpetrator when a loved one suffers physical, emotional, or sexual abuse while under the care of a nursing home or other residential facility.

Neglect might occur intentionally or unintentionally. Regardless of the cause, we will analyze the case and explain the options for you and your loved one.

Collisions involving motor vehicles, pedestrians, and bicycles can cause injuries ranging from superficial to fatal. New Jersey uses a no-fault auto insurance system that might limit your tort rights in certain situations.

In cases involving severe injuries, you can pursue compensation for both economic and non-economic losses from the at-fault driver. Most of these will fall under negligence. You can show negligence by proving the other driver violated traffic laws or did something else that posed an unreasonable danger to other road users.

You might encounter two exceptions to New Jersey’s no-fault system, and they involve motorcycles and commercial trucks. Motorcycle owners don’t buy no-fault insurance. As a result, they have the right to pursue negligent drivers for injury compensation.

Trucking companies usually fall under federal rather than New Jersey law. When a trucking company negligently loads, operates, or maintains its fleet, you can pursue injury compensation for any resulting crashes.

Property owners, landlords, property managers, and tenants must keep their premises reasonably free from hazardous conditions. When invitees, such as customers and guests, suffer an injury on the premises, they can pursue a negligence claim against the person or business responsible for the property. To win their cases, they must demonstrate that the responsible party failed to reasonably:

• Inspect the premises
• Warn invitees of hazardous conditions
• Fix hazards

Slip or trip and fall accidents fall under this type of claim. Invitees might also have a claim for negligent security if the responsible party knew of security issues and failed to take reasonable measures to fix them.

Product liability falls under strict liability, which means that we do not need to present evidence of the manufacturer’s knowledge or intent. Instead, our Clifton personal injury lawyers will turn to expert witnesses to identify the defect and connect it to the cause of your injuries.

Product defects fall into three categories: design, manufacturing, and warning defects. The first is design defects, which render products unsafe for all uses. In other words, a product with a design defect is always dangerous for its intended use.

The second is manufacturing defects, which can render a safe product dangerous because of problems introduced when it was made. The third category, warning defects, involves a failure to warn the user against dangerous uses, including foreseeable misuses. Alternatively, warning defects fail to instruct the user on the product’s safe uses.

Mass torts are a type of product liability case that affects many people due to the wide distribution of defective products. Products associated with mass torts include cigarettes, asbestos, and silicone breast implants.

The elements for proving liability are the same as for other products. However, these cases involve massive organization and management due to the number of victims.

New Jersey authorizes a deceased person’s executor or personal representative to pursue a wrongful death claim if they died due to another’s actionable conduct. Thus, if any of the above incidents cause fatalities, the estate can pursue a wrongful death claim against any party responsible for the death.