After a three-day trial in Hudson County, Joe Siclari, Esq. of the Law Office of Patrick Patel, on behalf of the Plaintiff, was awarded the limits of available insurance coverage in connection with injuries sustained in a June 6, 2016 auto accident. The offer to settle the claim before trial was a mere $1,500.00, and the jury awarded the full limits of the available $25,000.00 insurance policy available, over 16x the original offer to settle.

In this matter, liability was conceded by the Defendant, who acknowledged rear-ending the Plaintiff on Kennedy Boulevard in Jersey City, New Jersey and responsibility for the collision was not a factor in the trial. However, the Plaintiff had well-documented pre-existing complaints of neck and back pain from an auto accident in 2012, proven by MRIs, which were also the parts of her body injured in the 2016 collision. The Plaintiff underwent conservative treatment for the 2016 injuries with chiropractic care and no injections or surgeries.

Importantly, the Plaintiff in this matter was subject to the New Jersey Tort Threshold, which requires that the Plaintiff suffer a “permanent injury, within a reasonable degree of medical probability, proven by objective, credible medical evidence” as a mandatory condition of recovery. Obviously, the Defendant in this matter defended the claim on the basis that the Plaintiff’s injuries were pre-existing, not related to the 2016 collision and not permanent in nature.

After approximately two-hours of deliberations, on February 21, 2019, the jury found unanimously that the Plaintiff had sustained a permanent injury, and awarded the full-limits of the available $25,000.00 insurance policy available to the Plaintiff.