After a car accident in New Jersey, some drivers may be surprised to learn that a provision called limited tort in their insurance policy restricts their ability to recover for pain and suffering damages for injuries sustained in the collision. Limited tort or “limitation on lawsuit” is a provision that prevents the insured from suing for noneconomic damages unless their injury falls into one of six categories enumerated under the law. New Jersey personal injury attorney Edward Capozzi explains what limited tort means, how it can limit recovery in a car accident lawsuit, and the exceptions and strategies that permit recovery for full damages even under limited tort policies.

Edward Capozzi is a member at Brach Eichler LLC. Edward is based in New Jersey and concentrates his practice in auto, trucking, NJ Transit, products liability, and other catastrophic personal injury cases.

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TRANSCRIPT
An Interview with Personal Injury Lawyer Edward Capozzi — New Jersey

Joel Cohen (Host): Hello and welcome to TalksOnLaw. I'm Joel Cohen. Today, we're talking about car accident liability in a very specific way, in a specific region. We'll be talking about New Jersey’s limited tort law and we're joined remotely today by Ed Capozzi, an attorney based in New Jersey. Ed, welcome to TalksOnLaw.

Ed Capozzi: Thank you. It's nice to be here.

Host: Glad to have you virtually in our studio today. Why don't we get right into it. What does limited tort mean and why is it important?

Ed Capozzi: Limited tort is an option that's given to you on your insurance policy. So, in other words, when you purchase auto insurance, you typically get a discount for something called limited tort or limited right to sue, and it's exactly what it sounds like. It limits your right to sue unless you have one of six enumerated injuries.

Host: So, this is a way for policyholders to save money and insurance companies to save money by limiting the amount of damages that they generally pay?

Ed Capozzi: Yes, because if you purchase a policy and you have full tort, which means you could sue for anything, it almost doesn't make sense because, even me as an attorney, I have the limited tort on my policy, because if i'm not injured I don't want to sue anybody, it's a waste of everybody's time, so it does make some sense. However, insurance companies view it very differently.
Host: Why don't we talk about the actual criteria under limited tort in New Jersey. You have to meet one of a certain number of criteria?

Ed Capozzi: Yes, there are six categories that you have to meet. One would be death, which is obvious. One would be dismemberment, loss of a fetus, displaced fracture, significant scarring, or permanent injury.

Host: As you mentioned, some of these, most of the six, are pretty obvious. What about the last one: permanent injury? Could you give us an example of a type of injury that would meet that threshold?

Ed Capozzi: What the permanent injury typically leads to is a spine injury, spine injuries where there is a herniated disc or a bulging disc, or some disc injury seen on an MRI, because you have to prove it by objective credible medical evidence. So, what it did was when this law actually came into effect, I believe it was 1998, it just led to a boom in MRIs. I mean because you needed objective medical evidence and MRI facilities just — it went crazy. I think it had the opposite effect. They thought it would save money on medical costs but in actuality it increased the cost because everybody went for an MRI.
Host: And MRI scans are quite expensive themselves.

Ed Capozzi: About fifteen hundred dollars per scan.

Host: You're talking about a lawsuit, you're talking about a trial, what's the actual claim that's being made in such a case? Are you suing the insurance company?

Ed Capozzi: Yeah, well the complaint that you actually draft, the actual document itself, doesn't list the insurance company, it lists the person who is at fault for the accident. Whenever anybody is in an accident and you're being sued, you get served with a lawsuit. You typically send that lawsuit to your insurance carrier who provides you with a defense, an attorney, and economically pursuant to your insurance policy. So, in other words, if you have a policy with a bodily injury limit of $15,000, the insurance company will protect you up to $15,000.

Host: Ed Capozzi is an attorney in New Jersey. Ed, thanks for the time.

Ed Capozzi: You're welcome.

[Transcript redacted due to word count constraints.]