Paterson NJ Personal Injury Lawyer

If you were hurt in Paterson because someone else was careless, a personal injury claim is how you recover what it cost you: the hospital bills, the paychecks you missed, the car sitting in a lot, and the pain that never shows up on an invoice. This page explains how that works for a Paterson crash or fall, what New Jersey law says about your claim, where your case would be filed, and how to get the police report.

Birkhold & Maider is a New Jersey personal injury and workers’ compensation firm. Our office is in Montclair, in neighboring Essex County, and Passaic County is one of the three counties we hear from most. We represent clients in English or Spanish from the first call to the last check, and we will meet you at home or in the hospital if you cannot come to us. The evaluation is free, and you pay nothing unless we recover money for you.

What a Paterson personal injury lawyer actually does for you

A Paterson personal injury lawyer takes the insurance and legal work off your plate so you can focus on treatment.

• We handle the insurance calls. Once you hire us, every adjuster call comes to us. You do not need to speak to the insurance company again; that is ours to carry now.
• We investigate beyond the police report. Camera footage from stores, buses, and intersections can be overwritten quickly, so we send preservation letters right away, find witnesses, and in truck cases demand driver logs and vehicle data before they disappear.
• We manage the medical bills. We route bills to the right insurer, deal with liens, and negotiate balances with providers so more of the settlement stays with you.
• We find every policy that applies. We identify the at-fault driver’s limits, any commercial or employer policy behind them, and your own underinsured motorist coverage, because what a case can pay depends heavily on the insurance available.

One attorney owns your case from retainer to resolution, with a paralegal you can reach by phone or text. We update you before you have to ask, and no offer is accepted or rejected without your informed consent.

Injuries we handle in Paterson

Car crashes

Car accidents are the largest part of our practice, and the ones we see from Paterson follow the city’s traffic. Interstate 80 passes through the city with exits at Madison Avenue and Market Street, and the merges there produce rear-end and sideswipe crashes at highway speed. Route 20 (McLean Boulevard) runs up the east side, and Route 19 carries commuter traffic into downtown. Off the highways, the intersection crashes happen on Market Street, Main Street, Broadway, Madison Avenue, and Straight Street. Left turns across traffic. Red-light T-bones. Double-parked cars forcing drivers into the next lane. These crashes often injure several people in the same car, and we regularly represent whole families from a single collision, including children.

Truck and commercial vehicle crashes

I-80 carries tractor-trailers through Paterson all day, Route 20 and Route 19 move trucks between the highway and the city’s industrial and commercial blocks, and the local streets are full of box trucks, delivery vans, and contractor vehicles. When one of those hits a passenger car, the injuries are usually serious and the claim is more complicated.

A commercial truck crash usually involves more than one responsible party: the driver, the company that employs them, the owner of the trailer, and sometimes the shipper or a maintenance contractor. Each may carry its own insurance, and commercial policies can be far larger than personal auto policies. There is also evidence that does not exist in a car case: electronic logging data, dashcam video, dispatch records, inspection reports, and the driver’s hours-of-service history. Trucking insurers move fast after a crash, so we send preservation demands immediately and bring in reconstruction experts when fault is disputed. Our New Jersey truck accident practice also covers commercial vans, buses, and work vehicles, which make up much of the commercial traffic in Paterson.

Motorcycle crashes

A rider has no steel around them, so a crash that would be a fender-bender for a driver can mean fractures, road rash, and head injuries for a motorcyclist. A common Paterson motorcycle accident pattern is a driver turning left across a rider’s path on a city street, or changing lanes into a rider on I-80 or Route 20 without looking. Drivers often say the same thing afterward: “I never saw him.”

Two things matter early. Adjusters tend to assume the rider was speeding or weaving, so proving fault takes evidence gathered quickly: skid marks, damage patterns, camera footage, witness statements. And New Jersey’s no-fault medical coverage (PIP) is tied to the statutory definition of an “automobile,” which does not include motorcycles, so your bills may run through your health insurance and the at-fault driver’s liability coverage matters more. We sort out which coverage pays and make sure your choice of vehicle is not used against you.

Pedestrian and bicycle crashes

Paterson is one of the most densely populated cities in the country, and much of it is walked. The blocks around the Broadway Bus Terminal at 22 Broadway, the shopping stretch of Main Street, and the streets near Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park put a lot of people on foot next to a lot of cars. We handle pedestrian accidents at crosswalks, mid-block, and in parking lots, as well as bicycle crashes. If you were hit while walking, you may still have PIP medical coverage through your own auto policy or a household member’s, because N.J.S.A. 39:6A-4 covers the named insured and resident family members injured “as a pedestrian.” Many people do not know that.

Rideshare crashes

We treat rideshare and commercial vehicle cases as a priority. Whether you were a passenger, a driver hit by a rideshare vehicle, or a pedestrian struck by one, the coverage depends on what the rideshare driver was doing at that moment: waiting for a request, heading to a pickup, or carrying a passenger. Which insurance applies, and how much, can change with the stage. We identify the stage, put the right insurer on notice, and push back on the quick, low offer.

Slip and fall and premises liability

A property owner must keep the premises reasonably safe for the people they invite in. When they do not, and you are hurt, that is a premises liability claim. The Paterson cases we see most are falls in apartment buildings (broken stairs, missing handrails, dark hallways), wet floors in stores and restaurants, trips on broken sidewalks, and winter falls on ice that was never salted outside a business or multifamily building. The hard part of a slip and fall case is proving the owner knew, or should have known, about the hazard. Photos of the spot taken that day, names of anyone who saw you fall, and any incident report the business wrote make or break these claims. If you fell on property owned by the city or county, a much shorter notice deadline applies; see the deadlines section below.

Workplace and construction injuries

If you were hurt on the job in Paterson, you have a workers’ compensation claim regardless of fault. It pays your medical care and part of your lost wages. If someone other than your employer caused the injury (a subcontractor on a construction site, a driver who hit you during a delivery, the owner of the building where you were working), you may also have a separate negligence claim against them for the full value of your injury, including pain and suffering. We handle both together so neither undercuts the other. Immigration status does not affect either claim.

Wrongful death

When a crash or fall in Paterson takes someone’s life, New Jersey law gives the family two claims. The wrongful death claim compensates the surviving spouse, children, or other dependents for what they lost financially: the income the person would have earned, the value of the care and guidance they provided, and funeral costs. A separate “survival” claim covers the pain and suffering the person experienced between the injury and their death. Both are brought in the name of the estate’s representative under the Wrongful Death Act and the survival statute, which usually means a family member must be appointed by the Passaic County Surrogate before suit can be filed. We walk families through that step, deal with the insurers while they grieve, and are honest about timing: these cases take longer than most, because the evidence and the damages both take time to establish.

Injuries we see after a Paterson accident

Injuries we often handle include herniated discs in the neck and lower back, whiplash and other soft-tissue injuries, fractures (wrists, ankles, ribs, hips), knee and shoulder tears, and traumatic brain injuries, including concussions that were brushed off in the emergency room and turned out to be more serious.

Two honest points. Symptoms of a herniated disc or a concussion can appear later; if you started hurting after the fact, get seen then, because the gap between the accident and your first visit is something the insurer will use. And your treatment records are the case. Insurers value a claim on the diagnosis, the imaging (MRI, CT), the treatment you actually received (therapy, injections, surgery), and what your doctors say about permanence. Gaps in care lower the value of a real injury, so we help you keep treatment on track.

Paterson-specific practicalities

Getting a crash or incident report from the Paterson Police Department

Reports for crashes investigated by city police come from the Paterson Police Department Records Division at (973) 321-1160. As of this writing it is open Monday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Tuesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., and closed Wednesdays and weekends, according to the department’s contact page. If the New Jersey State Police investigated your crash, which can happen on I-80, the report is requested through the State Police crash report portal. If you hire us, we obtain the report for you.

Where a Paterson case is filed

Personal injury lawsuits arising in Paterson are filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Passaic Vicinage, in downtown Paterson; the Civil Case Management Office is at 77 Hamilton Street, Paterson, NJ 07505. Your case is heard by Passaic County judges and, if it goes to trial, decided by a Passaic County jury. We prepare each case as if it will go to trial, and our team includes a certified civil trial attorney for the ones that do.

Treatment after an accident

St. Joseph’s University Medical Center at 703 Main Street is a Level II trauma center listed by the New Jersey Department of Health. After the emergency room, you can see your own doctor. No insurance company gets to choose who treats you. If you do not have a doctor, we can point you to Passaic County providers who treat injury patients and work with auto insurance billing.

New Jersey rules that shape a Paterson claim

Your own PIP pays your medical bills first

New Jersey is a no-fault state for medical bills. Under N.J.S.A. 39:6A-4, the personal injury protection (PIP) coverage on your own auto policy pays your crash-related medical bills regardless of who caused the crash. A standard policy carries up to $250,000 in PIP, though some drivers choose lower limits, and some choose an option that makes their health insurance pay first with PIP covering the rest. Either way, your own insurer gets involved even when the other driver was clearly at fault; it does not mean you are being blamed. The at-fault driver’s insurer pays for your other losses: lost wages beyond what PIP covers, pain and suffering, and property damage.

The “limitation on lawsuit” option

Check your auto policy declarations page for the words “limitation on lawsuit” or “verbal threshold.” If you chose that option, N.J.S.A. 39:6A-8 says you can recover for pain and suffering only if your injury falls into a listed category: death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement or scarring, a displaced fracture, loss of a fetus, or a permanent injury that a treating doctor certifies will not heal to normal function. Whether your injury qualifies depends on the medical proof, so it is one of the first things we check.

If you were partly at fault

New Jersey uses modified comparative negligence, set out in N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1. You can still recover as long as your share of fault is not greater than the other side’s, meaning 50 percent or less, but your recovery is reduced by that percentage. At 51 percent or more, you recover nothing. Insurers may assign a share of fault to the injured person to lower the payout, which is why the investigation matters. The FAQ below has an example.

The deadlines

New Jersey generally gives you two years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury lawsuit (N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2), and two years from the date of death for a wrongful death claim. Two years sounds long, but building a case, including enough treatment to know what your injury really is, takes months. The deadline is a reason to get answers early, not a reason to panic.

The exception that catches people is a claim against a public entity such as the City of Paterson, Passaic County, or the State. Under the Tort Claims Act (N.J.S.A. 59:8-8), you must serve a formal notice of claim within 90 days of the accident, then wait six months before filing suit. Miss the 90 days and the claim is usually lost. If a government vehicle or public property was involved, call someone right away.

About Paterson

Paterson is the county seat of Passaic County and, with 159,732 residents in the 2020 Census, the third-largest city in New Jersey. Built around the Great Falls of the Passaic River, it earned the name “Silk City” in the 19th century and today has large Dominican, Peruvian, Puerto Rican, and Colombian communities. The city borders Clifton, Haledon, Hawthorne, Prospect Park, Totowa, and Woodland Park in Passaic County, along with Elmwood Park and Fair Lawn in Bergen County. Woodland Park was known as West Paterson until 2009, and many people still call it West Paterson. We represent people from all of these towns, and our Passaic County personal injury page covers the county more broadly.

Abogado de lesiones personales en Paterson: atención completa en español

Si usted o un familiar sufrió un accidente en Paterson por culpa de otra persona, puede hablar con nosotros en español desde la primera llamada hasta el cierre de su caso. No usamos intérpretes. Nuestros abogados, paralegales y el equipo de admisión hablan español, y toda su comunicación, sus documentos y sus decisiones se manejan en su idioma.

Como abogados de accidentes en Paterson, atendemos los casos que más se ven en la ciudad: choques de carro en la I-80, la Ruta 20 y las calles del centro como Market Street y Main Street; accidentes de camiones y vehículos comerciales; motociclistas golpeados por conductores que no los vieron; peatones atropellados cerca de la terminal de autobuses de Broadway; caídas en edificios de apartamentos y tiendas; y lesiones en el trabajo, incluyendo la construcción. También acompañamos a familias que perdieron a un ser querido.

Dos cosas que debe saber. Primero, su estatus migratorio no afecta su derecho a reclamar por una lesión ni a recibir compensación laboral en Nueva Jersey. Segundo, la consulta es gratis y no paga nada por adelantado. Solo cobramos un porcentaje si recuperamos dinero para usted; si no recuperamos nada, no nos debe nada.

Nosotros hablamos con la aseguradora para que usted no tenga que hacerlo, conseguimos el reporte de la policía, le ayudamos a organizar su tratamiento médico y negociamos sus cuentas. Usted tendrá un abogado asignado y un paralegal que responde a sus llamadas y mensajes de texto en menos de 24 horas.

Cuéntenos lo que pasó. Llame al 973-319-7795 para una evaluación gratuita de su caso en español, o visite nuestra página en español para más información sobre accidentes de auto y compensación laboral.

What clients say

Reproduced word for word from our client reviews page, where they are verified as Google reviews.

“Calidad de servicio, comunicación excelente… se preocupan de cómo uno se siente en todo momento, fue una bendición haberles contactado y es un privilegio ser un cliente.”

Eduardo jaigua

“Esta oficina trabaja eficiente. Si tienen acidentes de carros los llaman. Y hablan espanol.”

Alexander Franco

“Communication and transparency with this law firm have been nothing but AMAZING! I’m forever thankful for the entire staff for how easy they have made my suit. I cannot recommend them enough!”

Christy Renna-YeYe

Results in cases like these

From our documented results in the kinds of cases described on this page:

• $2.5 million for a woman struck by a commercial van who required two spinal surgeries.
• $1.875 million for a man T-boned at an intersection who required a cervical fusion.
• $750,000 for a tractor-trailer driver who sustained spinal injuries requiring surgery in a motor vehicle accident.
• $600,000 for a slip and fall on steps that resulted in spinal surgery.

Every case depends on its own facts, the severity of the injury, and the insurance available. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Frequently asked questions about Paterson personal injury claims

Do I have a case if I was partly at fault?

Yes, as long as your share of the fault is 50 percent or less. New Jersey reduces your recovery by your percentage of fault rather than eliminating it: if you were 30 percent at fault and your damages are $100,000, you recover $70,000. Be careful about accepting blame on a recorded call; fault is decided on the evidence.

How long do I have to file?

Generally two years from the date of the accident for an injury claim, and two years from the date of death for a wrongful death claim. If a public entity is involved, such as the City of Paterson, the county, or the State, you must serve a notice of claim within 90 days. In rare cases where an injury could not reasonably have been discovered right away, the clock may start later, but do not count on that.

How much does it cost to hire a Paterson personal injury lawyer?

Nothing up front. We work on a contingency fee, which means our fee is a percentage of what we recover for you, and if we recover nothing, you owe us no fee. The case evaluation is free, in English or Spanish, by phone, at our office, or at your home or hospital.

How much is my case worth?

It depends on two things more than anything else: how serious and permanent your injury is, and how much insurance is available. A herniated disc that needs surgery is worth more than one that resolves with therapy. A crash with a commercial vehicle usually has far more coverage behind it than one with a driver carrying New Jersey’s minimum liability limits, which rose to $35,000 per person and $70,000 per accident on January 1, 2026 under P.L. 2022, c. 87. Anyone who quotes a number before seeing your medical records and the policies involved is guessing; we give you an honest range once we have both.

Why do I have to use my own insurance if the crash was not my fault?

Because New Jersey’s no-fault system requires your own PIP coverage to pay your medical bills first, no matter who caused the crash. It is a payment mechanism, not a finding of fault. Your claim against the at-fault driver for pain and suffering, lost wages, and other losses is separate and continues alongside.

Can I see my own doctor?

Yes. You choose your treating doctors. The insurer may ask you to attend an “independent medical examination” with a doctor it selects, and your policy may require pre-approval for some treatment, but no insurer picks who treats you.

What if no police report was filed?

You can still bring a claim. A police report helps but is not required; the claim is proven with photos, witness statements, medical records, and vehicle damage. New Jersey law (see the NJDOT crash reporting guide) requires drivers to report any crash involving injury or more than $500 in damage, and if police did not respond you can file a self-report with the Motor Vehicle Commission. If that did not happen, we build the record another way.

Can I work with your firm entirely in Spanish?

Yes. Our intake team, paralegals, and attorneys all speak Spanish, so your entire case, from the first call through settlement or trial, is handled in Spanish without an interpreter. The Spanish section above explains more, and our Spanish-language site covers each practice area.

I was hurt at work in Paterson. Is that workers’ comp or a personal injury claim?

Usually workers’ comp, and sometimes both. Workers’ compensation covers any injury in the course of your job regardless of fault, but it does not pay for pain and suffering and it bars you from suing your employer. If someone other than your employer caused the injury (another contractor, a property owner, a driver who hit you while you were working), you may also have a personal injury claim against them. We evaluate both at the free consultation.

Tell us what happened

You are carrying enough right now: the pain, the missed shifts, the car, the calls. Let us carry the claim. Call 973-319-7795 any time, day or night, or tell us what happened online, and a member of our team will walk you through a free case evaluation in English or Spanish. We will tell you honestly whether you have a case, what it is likely to involve, and what comes next.