Personal Injury Lawyer, Berkeley Township NJ

The one that controls the spot where you fell, and finding it takes care, because what people call Holiday City is several communities with separate associations and separate management. A clubhouse step or a common path usually belongs to the association; a private driveway belongs to the homeowner; the street itself may belong to Berkeley Township. Which of those you were standing on decides who the claim is against and which deadline runs, so the photograph that matters most is the wide one showing the spot in relation to the buildings around it. Take it, keep the shoes you were wearing, and call us before you give anyone's insurer a statement.

Sometimes, and it depends on what hurt you: the State is largely protected from claims over natural conditions of unimproved land such as the beach, the dunes and the surf, but an injury tied to a building, a walkway, a parking area or a State vehicle is analyzed differently. Because Island Beach is State land, any claim also needs a written notice under N.J.S.A. 59:8-8 within ninety days. Write down exactly where it happened and call us while the ninety days are still running.

Berkeley Township does, if the fall happened on a township street, sidewalk or park, because Holiday City sits inside Berkeley Township even though the post office calls it Toms River. That distinction matters: a notice of claim under N.J.S.A. 59:8-8 has to reach the correct public entity within ninety days, and one mailed to the wrong town may not protect you. The police report will also come from Berkeley Township, not Toms River. If the fall happened on association property instead, the claim goes to that association and its insurer under the ordinary two-year limit. We sort out which it is and send the notice ourselves.

Probably, yes. Crossing outside a crosswalk is one fact, not the end of the case: under N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1 your share of the blame reduces what you recover, and bars it only if that share is greater than the driver's. Your treatment bills do not wait on that argument: a pedestrian is covered by PIP under N.J.S.A. 39:6A-4, from an auto policy in your own household if you have one. The Berkeley Township report fixes where on the road you were and which way the car was travelling. On a one-lane-each-way street lined with businesses, what the driver could see is a question for evidence. Call us before you give that driver's insurer a statement.

Most often the business whose property the sidewalk runs along, because New Jersey puts the upkeep of that sidewalk on the commercial owner beside it, which makes it a private-owner claim under the ordinary two-year limit. Route 9 itself is maintained by the State, so if what tripped you was part of the road, such as the shoulder or a drain, the claim points to the State and the ninety-day notice under N.J.S.A. 59:8-8 applies. In front of a house the rule changes, since a homeowner generally does not answer for the public sidewalk. Photograph the slab with the storefront behind it and call us; the first conversation is free, by phone or video, with no fee unless we win.