Slip, Trip and Fall Injuries in New Jersey

New Jersey uses the traditional visitor categories. An owner or occupier must use ordinary, reasonable care to make the premises reasonably safe for an invitee (someone on the premises for the owner's purposes, including business customers), which includes making reasonable inspections and correcting or warning of hazards it knows of or could discover. To recover, an injured invitee generally must show the owner had actual notice of the unsafe condition in time to fix it, or constructive notice (it existed long enough that a reasonably careful owner would have found it), with exceptions such as conditions the owner created and the 'mode of operation' rule for self-service businesses. A licensee or social guest must be warned of dangerous conditions the owner actually knows about and the guest does not, and an adult trespasser is owed only a duty not to be willfully injured.

Under New Jersey's official model jury charge, a residential owner is not required to clear the natural accumulation of snow and ice from an abutting public sidewalk, but is liable if clearing it negligently creates a new or increased hazard. A commercial property owner must use reasonable care to keep abutting sidewalks reasonably safe, which may require removing snow and ice within a reasonable time, but has no duty to clear them during an ongoing storm (the duty arises within a reasonable time after the storm) unless its own actions increased the risk or a hazard existed before the storm. For public entities, the Tort Claims Act makes neither a public entity nor a public employee liable for an injury caused solely by the effect of weather conditions on the use of streets and highways.

Per New Jersey's model jury charge, a residential owner next to a public sidewalk is not responsible for defects caused by the elements or ordinary wear and tear, unless the owner negligently built or repaired it or created the hazard through its own activity. A commercial property owner (including the owner of a vacant commercial lot) must use reasonable care to keep the abutting sidewalk in reasonably good condition and is chargeable with notice of conditions that reasonable observation would reveal. A city or other public entity is liable for a dangerous condition of its property only under the Tort Claims Act: the plaintiff must show the condition was dangerous and caused a foreseeable injury, and either an employee created it or the entity had actual or constructive notice in time to protect against it, and liability requires that the entity's action or inaction was 'palpably unreasonable.'

Under the New Jersey Tort Claims Act, a claim for injury or death against a local public entity (city, county, school board, etc.) must be filed with that entity within 90 days after the claim accrues; claims against the State go to the Attorney General or the agency involved. The claimant may sue after six months from when the entity received the notice, and no suit may be filed later than two years after accrual. A judge may allow a late notice within one year after accrual for extraordinary circumstances if the entity is not substantially prejudiced. There is no pre-judgment interest or punitive damages, and pain-and-suffering damages are barred except for permanent loss of a bodily function, permanent disfigurement or dismemberment with medical expenses over $3,600 (or certain sexual abuse claims).

Modified comparative negligence (51% bar). The injured person's negligence does not bar recovery if it was not greater than the negligence of the defendant (or the combined negligence of the defendants); damages are reduced by the injured person's percentage of negligence.

Two years. An action for injury to the person caused by the wrongful act, neglect or default of another must be filed within two years after the cause of action accrues.