Personal Injury Lawyer, Island Heights NJ

Yes, it matters, because New Jersey measures a homeowner's duty partly by why you were on the property. A social guest is owed a warning about, or a repair of, any dangerous condition the owner actually knows of and the guest would not be expected to notice; the owner is not required to go looking for hidden defects the way a store must. So the case is built on what your friend knew: an earlier stumble, a repair that kept being put off, a remark that the step had been loose for a while. In most cases any payment comes from the homeowner's insurance policy and not from your friend personally. Photograph the steps before they are fixed and write down what was said afterward.

Most likely yes. A landlord has to use reasonable care over the parts of a rental property he controls and over defects he has been told about, and a broken stair reported before the fall is the clearest kind of notice there is. What proves it is the paper trail: the text, email or letter reporting the problem, the date on it, and the landlord's reply or silence. Your own health insurance, if you have it, usually covers treatment in the meantime, and the claim for the injury is made against the landlord's liability policy within the two years allowed by N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2. Save every message, photograph the stairs today, and sign nothing the landlord's insurer sends until we have read it.

It is partly true. Under N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-7 a nonprofit organized exclusively for religious, charitable or educational purposes cannot be held liable for ordinary negligence to a person who was a beneficiary of its work when hurt, and someone attending a service or an event usually counts as one. The immunity has limits. It does not cover gross negligence or intentional harm, it does not apply to a person who had nothing to do with the organization's mission, such as a delivery driver or a passerby on the sidewalk, and an outside contractor or caterer whose carelessness caused the injury has no immunity at all. Some organizations also carry medical payments coverage that pays without fault. Tell us who ran the event and we will check.

Not always, but the door is closing. The Tort Claims Act requires a notice of claim within 90 days, N.J.S.A. 59:8-8, and a person who misses it may ask the Superior Court for permission to file late under N.J.S.A. 59:8-9, but only within one year of the injury, and only by showing extraordinary circumstances for the delay and that the borough has not been substantially prejudiced. Not knowing the rule existed is generally not enough; a serious hospitalization or incapacity may be. Every week that passes weakens the application, so call us now with the date of the fall, where on the boardwalk it happened and the treatment you have had, and we will tell you honestly where you stand.

The New Jersey State Police do, through their marine unit, not the borough's police department: state law requires the operator of a vessel involved in an accident that injures someone to report it to the State Police. That operator's own report is confidential and cannot be used in court, so the claim is proved the ordinary way, from the troopers' investigation, photographs, the people aboard and anyone watching from the docks or the boardwalk. Fault follows the rules of the water, including speed, lookout and right of way, and operating a boat under the influence is an offense here just as it is on the road. Write down the registration number on the hull and the names of everyone aboard, then call us.