Condado de Essex / West Orange / Accidentes de Peatones

West Orange Pedestrian Accident Lawyer Condado de Essex, 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.

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Car Accidents in Hackensack

A child is not held to an adult's judgment

$500 Million

Recovered for New Jersey Families

22 Yrs

Serving New Jersey

Adults are measured against ordinary care. Children are not, and New Jersey has been clear about that for more than sixty years.

The Supreme Court held in 1959 that children under seven are protected by a presumption that they are incapable of negligence, and the Court reaffirmed that long standing presumption in 2004. The model jury directions carry it through: a jury is told that a child under seven is presumed incapable of acting negligently, and may reject that presumption only if the party claiming negligence proves that this particular child had the experience and capacity to avoid the danger present in the situation. It is worth being accurate about what that means. In some states the protection for young children is absolute. In New Jersey it is a rebuttable presumption, which the Court has described as a factual inquiry into whether the particular child had the capacity to act unreasonably in the circumstances, considering age, training, judgment and other relevant factors. So it is strong protection rather than a bar, and an insurer arguing otherwise is required to produce something. Above seven the approach is fact sensitive and context specific. The Court has said a child's conduct should be measured in light of his or her capacity to exercise care under all the attendant circumstances, and where a child is found capable, their conduct is compared to that of children of like age, experience and intelligence rather than to an adult's. James Vasquez has handled New Jersey injury claims since 2004.

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Injuries we handle

Pedestrian claims we handle in Essex County

Claims involving children raise questions adult claims do not.

yes Accident Facts

Where West Orange pedestrians are struck

A hillside township where sight distance changes with gradient and children walk to school on roads built for cars.

Northfield Avenue and Pleasant Valley Way

Through traffic carrying commuter volume past homes, with children crossing to friends' houses and bus stops.

What decides it: sight distance measured at the location, which is a fact rather than a matter of competing recollections.

Between parked cars

Narrow streets parked on both sides where anyone stepping out has a few metres of visibility either way and a child has less.

What decides it: not whether the child appeared suddenly, which is usually agreed, but whether a driver travelling appropriately could have stopped.

Driveways and reversing

Residential driveways where a small child can be entirely invisible from the driver's seat regardless of how carefully they look.

What decides it: what the driver did before moving, since a hazard that cannot be seen from the seat has to be checked for on foot.

School approaches

Concentrated movement at the start and end of the school day, with children crossing between vehicles waiting to collect them.

What decides it: the speed appropriate to a place where children are known to be present, which is a lower speed than the posted limit permits elsewhere.

Eagle Rock Avenue and Prospect Avenue

Climbing and descending roads on the ridge where a small child is out of view over a crest until a vehicle is very close, and where stopping distance lengthens with the gradient.

What decides it: stopping distance on that grade, which is calculable, and whether the speed was reasonable for what could actually be seen.

Mount Pleasant Avenue and the reservation approaches

Parking areas and entrances near South Mountain and Eagle Rock where families cross with young children, frequently carrying things and moving as a group.

What decides it: whether the crossing point was one drivers should have anticipated, given what the location is used for.

In each of these the physical measurements at the location answer questions that arguments about a child's behaviour cannot.

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How Children Are Judged

Four things New Jersey law establishes

Settled authority, and more nuanced than either side usually presents it.

A presumption of incapacity

Children under seven are protected by a presumption that they are incapable of negligence, established by the Supreme Court in 1959 and reaffirmed since.

It is rebuttable

Unlike some states, New Jersey's presumption is not absolute. It may be rejected only where the party claiming negligence proves this particular child had the experience and capacity to avoid the danger.

Capacity is a question of fact

The Court has described it as a factual inquiry into whether the particular child had capacity to act unreasonably, considering age, training, judgment and other relevant factors.

Compared to other children

A child found capable of negligence is measured against the care usually exercised by children of like age, experience and intelligence, not against an adult standard.

None of this changes what the driver owed. It changes what can fairly be attributed to a child, which is where these claims are usually contested. For how pedestrian claims work statewide, see the pedestrian accident practice area page.

The Real Argument

Two things that matter more than the child's conduct

Both concern the driver, and both are measurable.

What speed was appropriate for that place

The posted limit is a maximum rather than an entitlement. A speed that is lawful on an open arterial may be unreasonable outside a school at dismissal, on a residential street parked both sides, or approaching a crest on a hill. Where a driver was travelling at a speed that left no possibility of stopping for something a reasonable driver should have anticipated in that location, the fact that a child appeared suddenly describes the hazard rather than excusing it.

What could actually be seen from the seat

Sight distance is measured at the specific location rather than estimated afterwards, and it changes with gradient, parked vehicles and the height of the person involved. A small child is below the sight line of many vehicles at close range, and behind a vehicle no mirror covers the area at all. Where a hazard cannot be seen from the driving position, checking for it before moving is the only thing that answers the risk.

Know Before You Call

Three rules where a child was struck

Two about children and one about the driver's duty.

Bush v. N.J. & N.Y. Transit Co., 30 N.J. 345 (1959)

The presumption for children under seven

New Jersey follows a rebuttable presumption that children under seven are incapable of negligence, reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in 2004. The question of capacity is a factual inquiry into whether the particular child could act unreasonably in the circumstances, in light of age, training, judgment and other relevant factors.

The Standard Above Seven

Measured against other children

A child's conduct should be measured in light of his or her capacity to exercise care under all the attendant circumstances. Where a child is old enough to be capable of negligence, the degree of care required is that usually exercised by children of like age, experience and intelligence.

N.J.S.A. 39:4-36

The driver's duty is unchanged

A driver must stop and remain stopped for a pedestrian crossing within a marked crosswalk, which is stronger than yielding, and where a collision occurred in a marked or unmarked crosswalk at an intersection a permissive inference of failure to exercise due care is available.

How medical benefits reach an injured child, the deadline for a minor's claim and the court approval required to settle it are covered on the pedestrian practice area page and the West Orange personal injury page.

What matters most

Measurements at the location, not arguments about behaviour.

Fix exactly where the impact occurred

Within a crosswalk, at an intersection, mid block or in a driveway. That single fact determines which rules and inferences apply.

Record sight distance from the driver's position

Including gradient and any parked vehicles. What could actually be seen from the seat is the answer to appeared suddenly.

Note the time and what was happening

School dismissal, a park emptying, a bus stopping. Whether children should have been anticipated at that place and hour is central.

Request footage in writing quickly

Residential doorbell cameras and business systems record continuously and overwrite within days without a preservation request.

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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.