Condado de Morris / Morristown / Accidentes de Motocicleta

Morristown Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Condado de Morris, New Jersey

If you were hurt in Hackensack, James Vasquez fights to get you every dollar you are owed. He has represented Bergen County's injured since 2004, and he knows this county seat's I-80, Route 4 and Route 17 corridors, its historic Hackensack River bridges, and the streets around Main Street and Hackensack University Medical Center.

Free Case Review

case results

No Fee Unless We Win

Available 24/7

Response Within 1 Hour

Car Accidents in Hackensack

An equipment ticket is not a defence

$500 Million

Recovered for New Jersey Families

22 Yrs

Serving New Jersey

Motorcycles attract equipment scrutiny that cars do not. After a collision that scrutiny becomes a strategy, and it works because riders assume a modification puts them in the wrong generally.

New Jersey does regulate motorcycle equipment specifically. Beyond the general muffler requirement, motorcycles must be fitted with muffler systems designed especially for motorcycles and of a type approved by the director. The general provision requires a muffler in good working order and in constant operation to prevent excessive or unusual noise, and prohibits using a muffler cut out, bypass or similar device on a highway. A separate provision prohibits installing on an exhaust system any device emitting an audible sound without authorisation from the Motor Vehicle Commission. New Jersey also addresses handlebar height, seating, and goggles or a face shield unless a windscreen is fitted. Those are real requirements and the penalties attached to them are modest, currently in the region of twenty five dollars per violation, though bills raising that figure substantially have been introduced repeatedly. What matters for an injury claim is different. An equipment violation only reduces a recovery if it contributed to the collision, and a modified exhaust does not cause a driver to turn left across an oncoming motorcycle. Morristown is the Morris County seat, so a civil suit arising from a crash here is filed at the Morris County Courthouse at Washington and Court Streets, a few hundred metres from the Green where a good many of these collisions happen. James Vasquez has handled New Jersey injury claims since 2004.

See past case results

Injuries we handle

Rider claims we handle in Morris County

Equipment arguments run through most of them and decide very few.

yes Accident Facts

Where Morristown riders go down

A county seat with a street plan older than the motor car and highways bolted onto its edges.

South Street and Madison Avenue

Arterials carrying traffic in and out of the town centre with turning movements across oncoming lanes past restaurants and offices.

What gets raised: your exhaust or lighting, which has nothing to connect to a driver failing to yield to traffic close enough to be an immediate hazard.

The Interstate 287 and Route 202 approaches

Traffic moving between highway and local speeds over short distances, with late lane decisions and heavy commuter volume.

What gets raised: that you appeared suddenly. Drivers routinely misjudge a motorcycle's approach speed, and the evidence tests the account.

Route 24 and the western approaches

Routes out toward the hills used heavily in good weather, at consistent speeds and frequently in company.

What gets raised: riding style generally, which is an impression rather than evidence, and is answered by what the machine and the scene actually show.

The Green and the streets around it

A one way system around the Green with angled approaches, tight radii and constant pedestrian movement, negotiated by drivers looking for parking rather than for motorcycles.

What gets raised: rider speed through the centre. Physical evidence establishes it, and the geometry itself explains why a driver did not see you until late.

Speedwell Avenue

Vehicles entering and leaving businesses across the carriageway, with parked cars restricting the view in both directions.

What gets raised: visibility, answered by measuring sight distance at the location rather than accepting a driver's account of what could be seen.

Morristown Station approaches

Concentrated activity twice a day, with vehicles dropping off, circling for parking and pulling out among people on foot.

What gets raised: lane position. Riders are entitled to full use of a lane, and where they were is establishable from the resting positions.

In each of these the machine, the gear and the scene evidence are the perishable material, and all three disappear within weeks.

Talk to James Today

What The Rules Actually Require

Four equipment requirements, and what they are worth

Confirm the current position, because penalty levels here have been the subject of repeated legislative proposals.

A motorcycle specific muffler

Beyond the general requirement, motorcycles must be equipped with muffler systems designed especially for motorcycles and of a type approved by the director.

No cut outs or bypasses

The general provision requires a muffler in good working order and in constant operation, and prohibits a muffler cut out, bypass or similar device on a highway.

No unauthorised sound devices

A separate provision prohibits installing on an exhaust system any device which emits an audible sound without authorisation from the Motor Vehicle Commission.

Bars, seating and eye protection

New Jersey addresses handlebar height, requires riding on the permanent regular seat, and requires goggles or a face shield unless a windscreen is fitted.

The penalties attached to these are modest. Their value to an insurer is that they sound like wrongdoing, not that they explain a collision. For how rider claims work statewide, see the motorcycle accident practice area page.

Why It Usually Fails

Two things an equipment argument has to do

Both are demanding, and insurers raise the point long before they can satisfy either.

Connect the modification to the collision

Comparative fault requires conduct that actually contributed. A louder exhaust does not cause a driver to turn left across an oncoming motorcycle, and a non compliant bar height does not explain a vehicle pulling out of a driveway into your path. Where the allegation is that a lighting modification reduced your visibility, or that a seat or bar change affected your control at the moment it mattered, there is at least a theory to test. Outside that, the argument describes a traffic offence rather than a cause.

Survive the apportionment framework

Even where a connection is established, New Jersey reduces a recovery by the percentage of fault attributed to the injured person and bars it only where that share exceeds that of the parties claimed against. So an equipment point that lands ordinarily reduces rather than defeats. Riders assume the opposite, which is why some of these claims are never brought, and that assumption is worth more to an insurer than the argument itself.

Know Before You Call

Three rules about equipment and recovery

Confirm current provisions, because penalties in this area have been the subject of repeated bills.

N.J.S.A. 39:3-76.4

Motorcycle specific muffler systems

In addition to the general muffler requirements, motorcycles must be equipped with muffler systems designed especially for motorcycles and of a type approved by the director. The general provision separately requires a muffler in good working order and in constant operation and prohibits a cut out or bypass on a highway.

N.J.S.A. 39:3-69

Unauthorised exhaust sound devices

A person may not install or use on the exhaust system of any motor vehicle a device which emits an audible sound unless authorised by the Motor Vehicle Commission. Penalties for these provisions are modest at present, and legislation raising them substantially has been introduced repeatedly.

N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1

It reduces only if it contributed

Comparative fault requires conduct that actually contributed to the collision. Where an equipment violation had no bearing on how the crash happened, it does not reduce a recovery, and where it did, it reduces by a percentage rather than defeating the claim unless that share exceeds the other party's.

The absence of automatic medical benefits for riders, the two year filing deadline and uninsured motorist claims are covered on the motorcycle practice area page and the Morristown personal injury page.

What answers the argument

Evidence about the driver, not a defence of your machine.

Preserve the machine before it is disposed of

Damage, fork compression and scrape patterns establish speed and angle, which is what a suddenly appeared account is tested against.

Photograph the junction geometry

Around the Green and the older streets, the layout itself frequently explains why a driver committed late. That is evidence in your favour.

Establish what the driver was doing

Speed, attention, signal compliance and phone use are measurable, and they are what any equipment point gets weighed against.

Do not concede a connection

If a modification is raised, the question is what it had to do with the collision. Answer that rather than debating whether the part was compliant.

conozca a su abogado

James Vasquez

Antes de que James Vasquez representara a su primera persona lesionada, se sentaba al otro lado de la mesa. Como exfiscal y abogado de defensa de aseguradoras, pasó años aprendiendo exactamente cómo se ganan y se pierden estos casos.

Ahora lo usa a su favor. Cuando los ajustadores y los abogados contrarios se enfrentan a James, se enfrentan a alguien que ha leído su manual, ha litigado en sus tribunales y sabe con precisión dónde se quiebran sus argumentos.

Con sede en Clifton y sirviendo a los condados de Passaic, Morris y Essex, su firma le brinda a cada cliente la atención personal de James, respaldada por un equipo que conoce su expediente a fondo.