New York Personal Injury Lawyers / Edison Drunk Driving Accident Attorneys

Edison Drunk Driving Accident Attorney

Everyone knows they shouldn’t drive after drinking, but unfortunately that doesn’t mean people don’t do it. In the most recent year for which data exists, well over 17,000 people died across the United States in accidents involving an alcohol-impaired driver. In New Jersey during that same year, over 20 percent of traffic fatalities involved a drunk driver. The numbers are staggering, and drunk driving accidents leave families ruined—victims who survive often struggle with lifelong physical and psychological pain, along with crushing medical debt.

It is the sad truth that, even if you are a responsible driver who never drives even after one drink, the poor decisions of others can injure you when they get behind the wheel after consuming alcohol. When that happens to you in Edison, call Jacoby & Meyers, LLP’s Edison Drunk Driving Accident lawyers for help.

Effects of Alcohol on Drivers

Although drunk drivers can cause all kinds of wrecks, some are more common than others due to the symptoms of alcohol-impairment.

Lack of Coordination

Alcohol, especially when consumed in excess, affects motor skills. Eye, hand, and foot coordination are impaired. Those experiencing a lack of coordination are often unable to respond to and avoid dangers on the road or from other vehicles. Those who are extremely intoxicated may not even be able to walk properly to their vehicles or get the keys into the ignition without a struggle.

Decreased Reaction Time

Individuals with alcohol in their systems experience a decreased ability to react and respond to different stimuli. Reaction times are reduced, and the likelihood of accidents increases substantially. An alcohol-impaired driver cannot respond to driving conditions as quickly as a sober driver because the alcohol-impaired individual’s brain’s response time is longer. This includes consequences like being unable to stop in time to avoid rear-ending another vehicle, to avoid pedestrians crossing the road, to make split-second decisions to react to the potentially dangerous behaviors of other drivers, or even to make turns at the appropriate time.

Reduced Ability to Concentrate

Driving is an activity that requires the driver’s undivided attention. Even small amounts of alcohol can affect a person’s ability to focus on staying in his or her lane, driving the speed limit, and concentrating on other vehicles on the road. Alcohol dramatically reduces a person’s attention span, which increases the chance of an accident.

Inhibited Judgment

When driving, it is of paramount importance that a driver’s judgment is completely unimpaired. Our brains control how we judge the circumstances in which we find ourselves, and our judgment skills play an important role in how we make decisions. In a vehicle, drivers need to be able to make clear decisions about other cars on the road and road conditions, such as snow, rain, or ice, as well as any unexpected factors, such as detours or construction zones. Alcohol limits drivers’ ability to make sound decisions about their environment, which can have deadly consequences when they get behind the wheel.

Impaired Vision

If you have ever consumed too much alcohol, you are aware that it can have negative effects on your vision. Blurred vision and trouble controlling eye movement are common side effects of the over-consumption of alcohol. It can also affect how much you see in your peripheral vision (what you see to the side without moving your head). All of these side effects negatively affect your ability to both see what’s going on around you and to know how to react. It’s difficult to avoid crashing into another vehicle if your vision is so impaired that you think the vehicle is in another lane.

Types of Drunk Driving Accidents

Although drunk drivers can cause all manner of accidents, some are more common than others, mostly due to the type of impairment alcohol imparts on those who consume it.

Wrong-Way Accidents

Because alcohol impairs vision, those who are intoxicated can experience difficulty reading and comprehending. When on the road, of course, reading and reacting to posted signs is critically important. A drunk driver may not see—and even if he does, understand—a one-way road sign and end up driving the wrong way down a one-way road or highway.

Head-On Collisions

Head-on collisions are an unfortunately common type of drunk driving accident. Because alcohol can make a person drowsy or fall asleep altogether, to say nothing of his inability to perceive and react to conditions around him, he may veer into oncoming traffic by crossing the center line and subsequently collide with an oncoming vehicle.

These wrecks are especially catastrophic because they often happen at greater speeds than other accidents, since the driver is not preparing to stop while the oncoming car is driving at a normal speed. Both of these factors lead to extreme force during the collision and can cause both severe injury and significant property damage.

Rear-End Accidents

Because an intoxicated person experiences impaired judgment and decreased reaction times, he or she may be unable to respond quickly enough to other drivers stopped or slowing down ahead. Impaired judgment may also lead drivers to incorrectly believe that they have enough road space and time to stop without hitting the other vehicle, when, in fact, the opposite is true.

Accidents Involving Pedestrians

Especially at night—though the effects of alcohol clearly affect people at all times of day—a drunk driver may not see a pedestrian approaching. For pedestrians, this can have catastrophic or fatal consequences. Even more awful, a drunk driver may not even realize that they have hit someone and continue driving.

What to Do if You Were in a Drunk Driving Accident

Depending on the severity of your injuries from a drunk driving accident, you may or may not be able to do all of these things right away, but they are all important.

File Your Insurance Claim

New Jersey is a no-fault accident state. This means that all drivers are required to have a personal injury protection (PIP) auto insurance plan. PIP pays you for medical costs, lost wages, essential services, and death benefits to your family if you suffer a fatal injury without regard to fault in the accident. The law requires that you carry at least $15,000 in PIP coverage, but you can buy up to $250,000 in coverage. A no-fault law is intended to reduce the amount of litigation surrounding car accidents and to pay benefits to those injured quickly without fighting in court about whose fault the accident was.

Document Your Costs

Because you will have to show your insurance company (and the other party, if you decide to file a personal injury lawsuit against the drunk driver who injured you) verification of the costs you’ve incurred, keep all documentation for costs surrounding your injury. If you can’t find it, your car accident lawyer can help you obtain copies.

This includes for medical expenses—those from your initial hospital stay, surgeries, diagnostic tests, those from follow-up appointments, medications, therapy (physical, mental health, speech, occupational), both inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, medical devices, or modifications you have been required to make to your home or vehicle to allow you to return to your pre-accident activities of daily living.

Because your PIP policy has a lost wages benefit and because you can sue the responsible party for lost wages, be sure to keep track of any time you miss work because of your injury, including your initial stay and what you miss for post-hospital appointments. In addition to wages you’re missing out on, be sure to document any tips, commission, or retirement benefits that you’ve lost due to being unable to work as a consequence of your injuries.

If you had to hire someone to perform services around your house that you could once perform yourself, such as laundry, lawn mowing, household maintenance, house cleaning, or shoveling snow, make sure you’re keeping track of those costs, too. PIP allows you $12 per day for these types of expenses, but you’ve got to prove them.

Talk to an Edison Drunk Driving Attorney

Even with insurance, you may still find yourself buried underneath what seems to be insurmountable medical costs. Insurance plans have deductibles, coinsurance amounts you’re responsible for, and, of course, upper limits to the benefits you can receive. If you find yourself in that situation, contact a competent Edison drunk driving attorney right away. It may be in your best interest to file a personal injury lawsuit against the driver who injured you.

Do so as soon as possible. New Jersey law requires that you file your personal injury suit within two years of the date of your accident. Don’t think this is a long time. These suits are complicated and involve many parties and moving parts. The sooner you retain an attorney to represent you, the more time she will have to evaluate your case and form sound legal arguments on your behalf, and the sooner you will receive the compensation to which the law says you’re entitled.

You should also keep in mind that a personal injury suit is a civil, rather than criminal, matter. That means that even if the person who injured you is charged with a crime and subsequently acquitted at trial, or accepts a plea deal to a charge lesser than drunk driving, you can still file and be successful in a personal injury lawsuit.

In civil matters, the burden of proof—the standard to which you have to prove your claims—is a preponderance of the evidence. This standard means that you only have to show that it is more likely than not that the other driver caused your injuries. It is significantly lower than the beyond a reasonable doubt standard that applies in criminal trials, because the possible punishment in those cases can involve prison time and other serious consequences beyond owing money.

How Our Drunk Driving Accident Attorneys Can Help

It is always—always—in your best interest to have legal representation. Especially in personal injury suits, which are complex and time-consuming, you need someone in your corner fighting for your rights, who knows the law and has handled drunk driving lawsuits before. Furthermore, you can bet that the people on the other side of your suit will have lawyers of their own. No doubt at least one insurance company will be involved, and if the driver is smart, he or she will also be lawyered up.

Going in without sufficient legal experience or knowledge of the law is a recipe for disaster and for you missing out on perhaps a significant amount of compensation you are entitled to under the law. Don’t seek compensation alone.

Negotiation

Because most personal injury lawsuits are settled out of court and never go to a jury trial, your attorney’s negotiation skills are of utmost importance. He or she will be facing off against what is likely to be a team of attorneys on the other side, and knowing when to be tough and push back and when to back off is critical to getting you the highest settlement offer possible. Negotiations can continue throughout almost the entirety of your suit—right up until the time the jury begins to deliberate your case—your attorney must keep the door open to negotiations.

Your attorney has a legal obligation to come to you with every offer made to you, regardless of his or her opinion about how good an offer it is. It’s always your choice whether to accept it. Your attorney should give you an opinion about whether the offer appears fair, and it’s a good idea to consider that advice, but ultimately the choice is yours. It’s your lawsuit and your future is affected by its outcome.

Taking Your Case to a Jury, if Necessary

If you’ve negotiated with the other side and it becomes obvious that you cannot come to a satisfactory resolution outside of court, you have the right to take your case to trial in front of a jury. Your attorney’s experience level can make all the difference here, too. Not all attorneys understand how to litigate a case. Choose one who does. Check out the trial experience of any attorney you are considering to represent you and make sure that it’s not just trial experience, but drunk driving accident trial experience.

Contact Jacoby & Meyers, LLP’s Edison Drunk Driving Attorneys

Drunk driving accidents can be catastrophic for those who suffer injuries because of them. Having a competent attorney on your side can be the difference between a settlement or jury verdict that meets your financial needs and one that leaves you still with unpaid bills.

For nearly 50 years, the attorneys at Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, have been committed to making high-quality legal representation available to everyone who needs it. It is in that spirit that we offer a free case evaluation and operate on a contingency fee basis, meaning you don’t owe us a thing unless and until we successfully recover for you. Your priority after a drunk driving accident should be on your recovery and getting your life back. Ours is to fight for your rights and achieve the best possible outcome in your case.

Trust our vast experience, extensive knowledge of New Jersey personal injury law, and the true compassion we bring to each and every case we take on. Contact us online or by phone toll free at (877)-565-2993 today for your free case evaluation.

Edison Drunk Driving Accident FAQs

In recent years, the number of motor vehicle accidents in the Edison area has increased, with more than 28,000 accidents now occurring on roadways throughout the county each year. One of the most common factors in traffic-related crashes in Edison and across the nation is alcohol impairment.

If a drunk driver injured you in an accident in Edison, you can seek compensation through a drunk driving accident lawsuit. The experienced drunk driving accident attorneys from Jacoby & Meyers LLP can provide guidance and valuable services to secure the maximum amount of compensation in your case.

We have ample experience and success with drunk driving accident cases. Our case results include a $1,272,000 settlement for a 20-year-old client who a drunk driver struck head-on on his way home from work. The drunk driver was in a company truck at the time of the accident. The accident resulted in severe injuries for our client, including a fractured wrist, a laceration on his scalp with subsequent scarring, and damage to his foot that required him to receive surgery and hardware. He could not work for 11 months due to his injuries.

Read on for answers to some questions our Edison drunk driving accident clients ask us most often about the process of obtaining compensation.

What is considered drunk driving in New Jersey?

According to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, a person is guilty of drunk driving if he or she operates a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08 grams of alcohol per deciliter of blood. However, even if a driver’s BAC is under the legal limit, the driver can still face conviction of driving while alcohol-impaired if driving in an unsafe manner because of alcohol consumption. Alcohol creates deficits in a person’s ability to operate a motor vehicle safely, and these deficits do not just begin when one’s BAC reaches 0.08. Rather, they begin with the first drink that someone takes.

Alcohol-impaired drivers experience:

• Difficulty focusing on more than one task at a time.
• Difficulty tracking a moving target.
• Difficulty steering.
• Reduced response in emergency driving situations.
• Reduced ability to maintain lane position or to brake appropriately.
• Inability to pay attention to the task of safe driving or to exercise good judgment.

What is the process of obtaining compensation after suffering an injury in a drunk driving accident?

If you sustained injuries in an accident that a drunk driver caused, you can seek compensation through a drunk driving accident lawsuit.

This process usually begins when your attorney submits a demand package to the at-fault party’s insurance provider. The demand package outlines the facts of the case, including the actions that created liability for the insured, and requests payment of the full value of the case. The insurance provider may accept the claim and pay the full amount, reject the claim, or offer a settlement.

Usually, the initial settlement offer is far below the case value. However, it is a starting point for the negotiation process. In New Jersey, the statute of limitations for drunk driving accident cases is generally two years from the date on which the accident occurs. As this statutory deadline draws closer, you and your attorney may decide to file your lawsuit in court.

This does not end the negotiations, as you may enter into a settlement agreement at any point before the court renders a judgment. However, filing the lawsuit does begin the discovery phase in which your attorney can access evidence and witnesses from the defense in preparation for trial.

While the vast majority of drunk driving accident cases resolve outside the courtroom, work with an attorney who feels comfortable obtaining compensation for you through either the settlement process or through litigation. Reach out to the legal team at Jacoby & Meyers LLP for help with your Edison drunk driving accident claim.

What may I receive compensation for through an Edison drunk driving accident lawsuit?

New Jersey allows accident victims to use the drunk driving accident claims process to recover both economic and non-economic damages. Damages refer to compensation for economic harm—the expenses you incurred because of your injury, as well as for non-economic harm, which is the negative impacts that your injury has had on your quality of life.

The types of expenses and impacts that are commonly included in a damage claim after a drunk driving accident include:

• Medical expenses, such as emergency treatment at the scene or in the emergency department, transport to the hospital via ambulance or air ambulance, diagnostic imaging tests, physician and surgical services, physical therapy and rehabilitation, prescription medication, and the provision of assistive devices, such as crutches, a wheelchair, or a prosthetic limb.
• Wage loss, if your injury causes you to miss work.
• Loss of future earning capacity, if your injury results in a permanent disability, and you cannot earn as much as before the accident.
• Property damage, such as the cost of repairing and replacing the vehicle you were driving when you were struck by a drunk driver.
• Physical pain and suffering.
• Emotional distress.
• Loss of the enjoyment of life.

Who is liable in an accident involving an intoxicated minor?

New Jersey’s Dram Shop Act holds business establishments and social guests responsible in certain situations for injuries and fatalities caused by a minor to whom they have sold or provided alcohol. The law includes the minor’s parents, who face liability not only if they furnished the minor with alcohol but also if they knew or had reason to know that the minor planned to drive while impaired and failed to control the minor and prevent these actions.

The drunk driver in my case was arrested. Can I seek compensation from an incarcerated person?

Yes. Even when a criminal and a civil case arise from the same circumstances, the criminal process involved in a drunk driving case and the civil process of pursuing damages from the drunk driver are two separate cases that you may pursue simultaneously. The police perform field sobriety tests, test the suspected drunk driver’s breath, blood, or urine for alcohol impairment, and jail the drunk driver. The prosecutor pursues a criminal conviction. The financial penalties of the crime are both imposed and collected by the government.

The injured person must instigate the civil process of recovering damages—in cases where the injuries sustained in the accident incapacitated or killed the injured person—by a family member with authority to make decisions for the injured person or to benefit from a wrongful death action. The damage claim is filed against the drunk driver’s insurance policy, not against the driver. Because of this, you may successfully collect compensation, even if the at-fault party is incarcerated and not earning an income.

My wife died in an accident with a drunk driver. Is there compensation available to me?

Yes. Alcohol impairment is a factor in nearly a quarter of all fatal traffic accidents in New Jersey, and accounts for more than 100 deaths a year on the state’s roadways. Each of these tragedies leaves family members behind who must now not only navigate through loss and grief but often through the financial implications of the death, as well.

You obtain compensation for the financial and psychological losses that you incurred because of your wife’s death through a wrongful death lawsuit. You need to file this legal claim filed in civil court within two years of the date on which the death occurred. Typically, a personal representative of the deceased’s estate must file a claim on behalf of the family members. Family members who may benefit from such a claim include the deceased’s spouse, children, grandchildren, parents, and other family members who relied on the deceased for support. Priority goes to compensating the spouse and children living in the household.

The damages in an Edison wrongful death lawsuit may include:

• Medical expenses related to the treatment of the deceased’s final injuries.
• The costs of funeral services and burial or cremation of the deceased.
• Loss of financial support, based on what the deceased would have been reasonably expected to earn if he or she had survived.
• Loss of companionship, comfort, care, and guidance.
• Loss of the value of household services that the deceased provided, such as child care or lawn care.

If I was injured as a passenger in a car driven by a drunk driver, can I sue the driver for my injuries?

In some cases, you can seek to recover damages from a drunk driver whose car you were riding in as a passenger. However, these cases have a few issues that make them extremely complex, including questions as to whether you knew or had reason to know that the driver was drunk. Knowing that the driver was drunk and choosing to get into his or her car anyway may make you partially responsible for your injuries and can significantly reduce the amount of compensation you recover.

I can’t afford an attorney. Can I file my drunk driving accident claim on my own?

Having an experienced accident attorney to provide guidance and expertise is absolutely crucial to your ability to obtain the maximum amount of compensation available in your case. There are simply too many features and formalities of the legal arena that are confusing and overwhelming for people who have not been trained and do not have a support staff to gather the needed information and evidence.

However, the experienced drunk driving accident attorneys at Jacoby & Meyers LLP understand the concerns of individuals who need compensation but do not have the funds to hire an attorney.

In light of this, we provide:

• A free case evaluation, which is time for you to talk to one of our attorneys about your case, get answers to your legal questions, and obtain more information about the process of pursuing compensation for your injuries. There is no obligation to continue working with us after the case evaluation.
• A contingent-fee payment plan. This means that you owe nothing for our services unless and until we successfully recover compensation on your behalf. This allows us to get to work on your case right away without requiring you to put up an initial investment or worry about running out of funds in the middle of the process.

In addition, our attorneys may:

• Identify all sources of liability and all insurance resources that you may access to provide compensation for your losses.
• Establish a value to your case that is based on the expenses and impacts you have experienced because of your injury as well as those you will likely experience in the future.
• Timely file of your court-required paperwork.
• Negotiate with the at-fault party’s insurance provider.
• Prepare for court, including gathering and organizing evidence and witness testimony.
• Litigate your case, including representing you at trial if necessary.
• Helping you collect your settlement or award.

Let the knowledgeable accident attorneys at Jacoby & Meyers LLP help you make sense of the process of obtaining compensation for your injuries. For your free case evaluation in Edison, contact us today.
Edison Office

1929 NJ-27
Edison, NJ 08817
732-287-6890

Client Testimonials

Review: 5/5
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“I’m really grateful for the settlement my lawyers at Jacoby & Meyers helped me to obtain. I was badly hurt when another driver crashed into my card. The driver was carelessly. My team at Jacoby & Meyers didn’t let the reckless driver get away with it. I’m really glad I made the call to Jacoby & Meyers and would suggest anyone hurt in a car crash do the same.”
Review by: Jose V.

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