Slip & Fall Lawyer in New Jersey

New Jersey's general personal injury statute of limitations is two years under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2 — counted from the date of your fall. For slip-and-fall claims against public entities (NJ Transit property, municipal sidewalks, county-owned facilities), the New Jersey Tort Claims Act (N.J.S.A. 59:1-1 et seq.) imposes a 90-day notice of claim requirement that runs from the date of the accident. Miss the 90-day notice deadline against a public entity and your claim is almost certainly barred, regardless of how serious your injuries are. If your fall happened on or near government property — a bus stop, a public parking deck, a courthouse plaza — the clock on that notice starts immediately.

New Jersey has some of the most plaintiff-friendly premises liability doctrines in the country. In Nisivoccia v. Glass Gardens, 175 N.J. 559 (2003), the NJ Supreme Court adopted the 'mode of operation' rule: when a business's self-service model creates a foreseeable risk of hazards (a grocery store, a buffet, a home improvement store), the plaintiff does not need to prove the owner had actual or constructive notice of the specific spill. The nature of the business itself puts the owner on constructive notice. If you fell in a self-service retail environment, you may not need a 'how long was it there?' witness.

New Jersey's modified comparative negligence rule under N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1 means that your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault, but you only lose everything if you are found more than 50% responsible. Property owners and their insurers routinely argue you were distracted by your phone, wearing inappropriate footwear, or 'not watching where you were going.' The counter-argument requires meticulous evidence preservation: surveillance video (often overwritten in 24-72 hours), incident reports, witness statements, maintenance logs, and prior complaint records. Your attorney must send a preservation demand immediately.

Snow and ice claims in New Jersey are governed by a duty to clear sidewalks within a reasonable time. The NJ Supreme Court in Stewart v. 104 Wallace St., Inc., 87 N.J. 146 (1981) confirmed that commercial property owners have an affirmative duty to remove snow and ice from public sidewalks adjacent to their property. Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, and Trenton all have municipal ordinances imposing specific timeframes for sidewalk clearance — typically within 12 hours of snowfall. A property owner who fails to comply with both the common law standard and the local ordinance faces dual exposure. Photographs of conditions, weather records, and maintenance logs are critical evidence in ice-and-snow cases.