by hotrodPT » Fri Oct 25, 2013 8:20 pm
Every year when you renew your auto insurance there is a booklet that most people throw away. It is in that booklet that various options are discussed and the No Threshold option is explained in there. Basically, if you are injured but your doctor won't or can't bring himself to say the permanency word, and you have not suffered a compound fracture or lost a bodily function or have not lost a pregnancy or are still living and breathing, you cannot assert a claim for pain and suffering unless you pay for the No Threshold.* Imagine this, a person is rear-ended so hard the car is compressed up to the front seat and the front seat is broken off its mounts and the person has been pushed into the dashboard, his head and spinal column and therefore the spinal cord stretching and compressing resulting in various spinal disc herniations, and lots of pain every time you walk or try to stand or sit or lie down, yet your treating physician won't say your condition is permanent, which is the usual case of "whiplash," because you didn't pay for the No Threshold option, you grin and bear it and get no monetary compensation. Sure, your meds will be paid in accordance with what you selected as your PIP limit, but even then $250,000 doesn't go very far any more. You can sue for economic loss, e.g. unpaid medical bills, but still no compensation for pain and suffering. I tell people this all the time and they look at me like I have 3 heads because they don't want to pay for the No Threshold option, and yet they complain they can't assert a claim for pain and suffering once they are in an accident. And in New Jersey, accidents happen. The only exception is if you are hit by a vehicle that is not defined as an automobile, e.g. a bus or a commercial truck.
*A person with the lawsuit threshold (that is, without the No Threshold option) may not assert a claim "unless that person has sustained a bodily injury which results in death; dismemberment; significant disfigurement or significant scarring; displaced fractures; loss of a fetus; or a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medial probability, other than scarring or disfigurement. An injury shall be considered permanent when the body part or organ, or both, has not healed to function normally and will not heal to function normally with further medical treatment." N.J.S.A. 39:6A-8.
The foregoing does not constitute legal advice.