A headache may fade while the fog lingers. Words come slower, bright lights feel overwhelming, and getting through a normal workday takes more effort than before. A concussion can disrupt daily life even when there is no visible injury.
You may be able to sue for a concussion in New Jersey if someone else’s negligence caused it. A claim generally requires evidence showing how the accident happened, how it caused the concussion, and what losses followed. The legal route also matters: car accident claims may face restrictions on pain-and-suffering damages, while workplace injuries generally qualify for workers’ compensation without proof of employer negligence.
A New Jersey personal injury lawyer can review the circumstances and explain which rules apply.
Key Takeaways: Can I Sue for a Concussion in New Jersey?
- A concussion is a traumatic brain injury that may support a personal injury claim when someone else is legally responsible for causing it.
- A diagnosis helps document the injury, but it does not establish who caused the accident.
- Car accident claims may require proof of a permanent injury to recover pain-and-suffering damages when the limitation-on-lawsuit option applies.
- Workers’ compensation generally does not require proof of employer negligence. A separate lawsuit may also be possible against a responsible third party.
- Symptoms can appear hours or days after an injury, and a normal CT scan does not rule out a concussion.
- New Jersey generally allows two years to file a personal injury lawsuit, but earlier notice requirements and other exceptions can apply.
- Being partly responsible for an accident can reduce your compensation and, if your share of fault exceeds 50%, generally prevent recovery in a negligence claim.
When Can You Sue for a Concussion in New Jersey?
A concussion can support a New Jersey personal injury lawsuit when another party is legally responsible for causing it. In an ordinary negligence claim, you generally need to establish four things:
- Duty: The other party had a legal responsibility to use reasonable care.
- Breach: The other party failed to meet that responsibility.
- Causation: That failure caused the accident and your concussion.
- Damages: The injury caused harm, such as medical expenses, missed work, or pain and suffering.
For example, a driver who runs a red light and causes a collision may be responsible for a concussion suffered in the crash. A business that fails to address a dangerous condition may be responsible for a customer’s fall and resulting head injury.
The diagnosis alone does not prove the entire case. Medical records help establish the injury, while accident reports, photos, video, and witness accounts can help show who was responsible.
How Does the Type of Accident Affect Your Concussion Claim?
The rules for seeking compensation depend on how the concussion happened. Car accidents, falls, and workplace injuries can involve different requirements.
Concussions After Car Accidents
If the limitation-on-lawsuit option applies to your New Jersey car accident claim, you generally must meet one of the state’s listed injury categories to recover non-economic damages, including pain and suffering. This option may apply through an insurance policy even if you did not personally select it.
For a concussion, the most relevant category is usually permanent injury. This means the affected body part or organ has not returned to normal function and is not expected to do so with further medical treatment.
The claim must be supported by objective clinical evidence and the required physician certification. A concussion diagnosis or symptoms that continue for several weeks do not automatically meet this standard.
The limitation-on-lawsuit option concerns non-economic damages. Payment of medical bills and other financial losses involves separate insurance and legal rules. Personal injury protection, or PIP, may cover eligible medical expenses regardless of who caused the crash.
Concussions After Falls or Other Property Accidents
A concussion caused by a fall may support a premises-liability claim if a property owner or another responsible party failed to use the care the law required.
For example, a business may be responsible for a hazard it created or one it knew, or reasonably should have known, about and failed to address. Evidence might include photos of the condition, maintenance records, witness statements, or video showing how long the hazard was present.
A fall on someone else’s property does not automatically establish liability. The claim must connect the injury to a failure for which the property owner or another party can be held responsible.
Concussions at Work
An employee who suffers a concussion in a compensable workplace accident generally seeks benefits through New Jersey’s workers’ compensation system. These benefits may include medical treatment, wage replacement, and compensation for qualifying permanent disability.
You generally do not have to prove that your employer was negligent to receive benefits. In exchange, an ordinary negligence lawsuit against the employer is generally barred. A narrow exception exists for an employer’s intentional wrong.
If someone outside your employer, such as another driver or an outside contractor, caused the injury, you may also have a separate personal injury claim. Any recovery must be coordinated with workers’ compensation benefits.
What Evidence Helps Prove a Concussion After an Accident?
Proving a concussion claim means documenting both the injury and how it happened. Useful evidence may include:
- Medical records: Emergency or urgent care visits, diagnosis, follow-up appointments, treatment, and referrals.
- Accident records: Reports, photos, video, witness accounts, and information about the circumstances of the injury.
- Work records: Missed work, reduced hours, job restrictions, and changes in your ability to perform your duties.
- Records of daily difficulties: Changes in memory, concentration, sleep, balance, mood, or your ability to manage ordinary activities.
A symptom journal can help you describe changes accurately at medical appointments. It does not replace medical evaluation or other evidence needed to establish the claim.
Expert medical testimony may also be needed to explain what caused the injury, whether it has lasting effects, and what future care may be necessary. In a car accident claim subject to the limitation-on-lawsuit option, the evidence must also satisfy the applicable injury threshold.
How Do Delayed Symptoms Affect a Concussion Claim?
Concussion symptoms do not always appear immediately. Some develop or become noticeable hours or days after the injury. Symptoms may include:
- Headaches
- Dizziness or balance problems
- Fatigue
- Trouble concentrating or remembering things
- Sensitivity to light or noise
- Sleep changes
- Irritability or other emotional changes
Delayed symptoms do not automatically defeat a claim. They also do not, by themselves, prove that the accident caused the condition. Medical evaluation and follow-up help document when symptoms appeared and whether they are related to the injury.
Tell your provider when the accident happened, how it occurred, and when you first noticed each symptom. Explain any delay in seeking care so the record accurately reflects your experience.
Seek prompt medical evaluation after a suspected concussion. A worsening headache, repeated vomiting, seizures, weakness, slurred speech, or difficulty waking after a head injury requires emergency care.
What if Imaging Tests Do Not Show the Concussion?
A normal CT scan does not rule out a concussion. CT imaging may be used to check for bleeding or other serious structural injuries, but a concussion may not appear on the scan.
A medical provider may assess a suspected concussion through:
- Injury history: How the accident happened and whether there was a blow or jolt to the head or body.
- Symptoms: Headaches, dizziness, memory problems, or sensitivity to light and noise.
- Physical examination: Balance, coordination, vision, and other neurological functions.
- Cognitive assessment: Attention, memory, or processing speed when further evaluation is appropriate.
A concussion can also be overlooked during an initial examination, especially when symptoms are subtle or have not fully developed. Follow-up care can help clarify the injury and its effects.
For legal purposes, a valid medical diagnosis and proof of a permanent injury are different questions. If your car accident claim is subject to the limitation-on-lawsuit option, normal imaging does not automatically end the claim, but the required objective clinical evidence must still be established.
What Compensation Can You Seek for a Concussion?
A concussion claim may include financial losses and non-economic harm, depending on the evidence and the rules that apply to the claim.
Financial losses may include:
- Medical expenses related to diagnosis and treatment
- Lost wages or income
- Reduced future earning ability
- Future medical care and other injury-related expenses supported by the evidence
Non-economic damages may include pain and suffering and the injury’s effects on ordinary activities and quality of life.
A concussion that improves within a few weeks may involve different losses than one that causes lasting cognitive or physical difficulties. Records showing how the injury affects your work, household responsibilities, relationships, and daily activities can help explain its impact.
There is no fixed formula that determines the value of every concussion claim. Available damages depend on the severity and duration of the injury, the evidence connecting it to the accident, and any applicable legal restrictions. Workers’ compensation provides benefits under its own rules and does not pay pain-and-suffering damages.
How Can Pre-Existing Conditions Affect a Concussion Claim?
A prior concussion, migraines, or another pre-existing condition does not automatically prevent you from recovering compensation. If an accident made an existing condition worse, the resulting harm may be compensable.
The evidence needs to distinguish, as far as reasonably possible, between symptoms you already had and changes caused by the accident. Medical records from before and after the injury can help explain that difference.
Be accurate with your providers about your medical history. A clear record of your condition before the accident and the changes afterward can help establish what the accident caused.
How Long Do You Have to File a Concussion Lawsuit in New Jersey?
New Jersey generally gives you two years to file a personal injury lawsuit, usually measured from the accident date. Exceptions can change that deadline, and some claims require earlier action.
For example, a claim against a public entity or public employee generally requires a notice of claim within 90 days after the claim accrues. Limited exceptions may apply, but you should not assume you can wait two years before taking any action.
Workplace injuries follow separate reporting and filing rules. Report the injury to your employer as soon as possible. New Jersey generally requires notice within 90 days of a workplace accident, although your employer’s existing knowledge of the injury can affect that requirement. A formal workers’ compensation claim petition generally must be filed within two years of the injury or the last payment of compensation, whichever is later. Employer-authorized medical treatment counts as a payment of compensation.
Do not assume that delayed symptoms automatically restart a filing deadline. Identifying the applicable deadlines early can help avoid losing the ability to pursue a claim.
How Can Comparative Negligence Affect a Concussion Claim in New Jersey?
New Jersey’s comparative negligence rules can reduce your compensation if you were partly responsible for the accident.
In a typical negligence case, you may recover damages if your share of fault is no greater than the combined fault of the defendants against whom you seek recovery. This generally means you can recover if you are 50% responsible, but not if you are more than 50% responsible.
Your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault. For example, if your damages total $100,000 and you are found 20% responsible, the reduced amount would be $80,000, before any other applicable adjustments.
This is why evidence about how the accident occurred matters alongside the medical records. One helps establish responsibility; the other helps establish the injury and its effects.
Workers’ compensation generally does not use this same fault-based calculation.
Frequently Asked Questions About New Jersey Concussion Claims
Can You Still Have a Case if You Did Not See a Doctor Right Away?
A delay in treatment does not automatically end a claim, but it can raise questions about what caused your symptoms. Seek care when you notice symptoms, explain the accident to your provider, and describe any reasons for the delay. Follow-up records can help document how the condition develops.
Does a Concussion Diagnosis From Urgent Care Count?
A diagnosis from an appropriately qualified urgent care provider can help document your injury. The quality and completeness of the evaluation matter more than the facility’s name. Depending on your symptoms, you may need emergency care, follow-up treatment, or a specialist’s assessment.
An urgent care diagnosis does not automatically satisfy every legal requirement, including proof of permanent injury when the automobile lawsuit threshold applies.
Can a Spouse Have a Loss of Consortium Claim?
In some cases, a spouse may have a claim for the injury’s effects on companionship, services, comfort, or intimacy. This is commonly called loss of consortium. It involves the spouse’s own losses but depends on an underlying injury claim for which the defendant can be held responsible.
What Happens if the At-Fault Driver or Property Owner Does Not Have Insurance?
If an uninsured driver caused the accident, uninsured motorist coverage under an applicable auto policy may help. Underinsured motorist coverage may apply when the other driver’s coverage is lower than your applicable UIM limit and does not cover your damages. New Jersey Basic policies do not include either coverage.
If an uninsured property owner caused your injury, other applicable insurance and the possibility of collecting directly from the responsible party would need to be reviewed.
Can You Settle a Concussion Claim Before You Have Fully Recovered?
A claim can be settled before recovery is complete, but doing so may make it harder to account for ongoing symptoms, future care, or lasting work limitations. A final settlement generally prevents you from seeking additional compensation from the released parties for the same injury later.
Before settling, it is important to understand what is known about your recovery and what remains uncertain.
Get Legal Help with Brandon J. Broderick, Attorney at Law
A concussion can affect your work and daily life even when others cannot see the injury. If someone else caused the accident, understanding your legal options can help you decide what to do next.
At Brandon J. Broderick, Attorney at Law, we offer a free consultation to discuss what happened, the symptoms you are experiencing, and your options for seeking compensation. Our team is available 24/7.