Hamilton Padgett Rinaldi, LLP
Thomas F. Rinaldi, Esq.
← Main site The Fifteen
New Jersey guide

What
disappears.

The evidence that is gone in two weeks, and the deadlines that end claims.

Most of this you can protect yourself, today, for free.

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Why this page exists

Some of this
is already
disappearing.

Most of what proves a case is created in the first two weeks and destroyed shortly after. Not by anyone acting badly. By ordinary systems doing what they are set up to do.

You do not need a lawyer to protect most of it. You need to know it is happening.

Gone fastest

Video.

Business cameras Shops, restaurants, bars and petrol stations overwrite on short cycles. A week is common. Thirty days is generous. Nobody saves footage unless someone asks, and once it loops it is gone permanently.
Doorbell and home cameras Often days, sometimes hours, unless the owner pays for storage. The neighbour who filmed your crash may not know they have it and may lose it before they look.
Dashcams Loop over themselves continuously. The other driver's dashcam, and any passing vehicle's, is recording over the crash right now.
Social media Bystander video posted to a community page can be deleted, hidden or lost when an account changes. It is public today and may not be next week.
What you can do today, without a lawyer Walk the block and ask. Most business owners will save footage if asked politely and promptly, and most will not know to unless you do. Ask for the owner or manager rather than whoever is at the counter, and ask them to preserve it rather than to give it to you. Preserving is easy and free. Handing over footage makes people nervous.
Gone next

The vehicles.

Once a car is repaired, sold at auction or crushed, everything it could have told you goes with it. The crush pattern, the airbag data, the seat positions, the damage that shows how hard the impact really was.

Photograph your own vehicle before it leaves your possession. All four sides, the damage close up, the interior, the odometer and the VIN plate. Once it is towed and released you will not get another chance.

The other vehicle is harder, because you do not control it. If it matters, somebody has to ask for it to be held, and that has to happen in days rather than months.

Deadlines that end claims

Dates that
do not move.

A claim against a town, county or the state If a government vehicle, a government employee or a public road was involved, New Jersey requires a formal notice of claim within ninety days. Ninety days. Miss it and the claim is generally over regardless of how strong it was.
Your PIP application There are deadlines for notifying your own carrier and completing the application. Late notice can mean denied medical bills.
Notice to the other insurer Policies require prompt notice. Waiting gives a carrier an argument it should not have.
The statute of limitations New Jersey generally gives two years for a personal injury claim. It sounds like a long time. It is not, and there are circumstances where it is shorter.
The ninety day one is the one to worry about Most people have no idea it exists. A police car, a municipal truck, a school bus, a pothole, a county road. If any government entity is anywhere near your crash, the clock started the day it happened and it is much shorter than you think.
Harder to see, just as perishable

People.

Witnesses move, change numbers and forget. The person who stopped and said they saw everything is findable this week and may not be in six months.

If anyone gave you a name or a number, write it down somewhere other than your phone today. Phones get replaced and broken and the one piece of paper nobody can reconstruct is a witness list.

And your own memory is best now. Write down what happened while you remember it, including the small details that seem unimportant. Where the sun was. What you heard. What anyone said at the scene.

The honest version

This is not
a sales pitch.

Everything on this page is true whether you hire me, hire someone else, or handle it yourself.

Most of it you can do today, for free, with a phone and twenty minutes. Walk the block. Photograph the car. Write down the witnesses. Note the date.

And if a government vehicle was involved, call someone this week. Not because you need to hire them. Because ninety days is short and most people do not know it is running.

If you are not sure whether any of this applies Call me and describe what happened. If there is nothing here, I will tell you that. If there is a ninety day clock running, you will know today instead of in month four.
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