How long does a car accident settlement take in NJ?

How long does it take to settle a car accident lawsuit in NJ?

Lawsuits that went all the way to an appeal took a median of 4 calendar years from filing to the appeal decision in our count.

We read 76 New Jersey crash-related court decisions and kept the 11 injury lawsuits that name both a trial-court docket and an appeal docket. The trial-court docket ends in the filing year, so we subtracted it from the year of the appeal decision.¹

No lawsuit in the group finished in under 2 calendar years. The spans start at filing, not on the accident date, so the months between the crash and the filing come before them.

How much time does an appeal add?

Across 72 NJ crash appeals with an appeal docket number, the median was 2 calendar years from docket year to decision, ranging from 1 to 4.¹

How the 72 appeals spread out:

• 1 calendar year: 12 appeals
• 2 calendar years: 41 appeals
• 3 calendar years: 16 appeals
• 4 calendar years: 3 appeals

The same 2-year median holds for the 11 injury lawsuits above.

One case with exact dates: in the Hacker case from Ocean County, a jury found for the plaintiff on January 19, 2023. The appeal was decided on June 13, 2025, almost two and a half years later, and the verdict was reversed.²

What is the longest a personal injury case can take?

In our count, 5 calendar years from filing to the appeal decision, which 5 of the 11 injury lawsuits reached.

The Malzberg case from Essex County was filed in 2017 and decided on appeal in September 2022. The Hassan case from Ocean County was filed in 2016 and decided in April 2021, and that appeal reversed the trial court.³

Every case, with its docket and outcome, is in our searchable index of NJ car accident court decisions.

Which steps decide when a NJ claim pays out?

Four steps can stretch it: a fault dispute, a public body's waiting period, the two-year filing limit and the paperwork after you sign.

• Fault is disputed. Your insurer must have an internal appeal for fault-percentage disputes, and after that you can go to DOBI's Office of Insurance Claims Ombudsman. DOBI says neither step takes away your right to sue.⁷
• A public body is involved. The 90-day notice and the 6-month wait in the waiting-periods table below come before any lawsuit.⁴
• Talks drag on. The statute requires an injury lawsuit to be started within two years of the claim arising. An insurance claim or a negotiation with an adjuster is not a lawsuit.⁸
• You sign. If a lawyer handled the case, the fee is taken from the net after case costs, medical liens are not deducted first, and you get a signed closing statement. See lawyer fees versus case costs.⁶

What legal waiting periods can slow a NJ claim?

Two rules build fixed waits into some New Jersey claims: a claim against a public entity, and the doctor's certification in a limited-tort lawsuit.

The 6-month wait comes from the Tort Claims Act, and the certification rule from the no-fault law.⁴⁵ Under limited tort, a court may also have to decide whether the injury qualifies, as in these NJ verbal threshold appeals rulings.

The 2-year filing deadline, the PIP lawsuit clock and the police notice rule are on our page listing every deadline after a NJ car accident. A fight over your own PIP benefits runs on a separate track, covered in what to do when PIP denies a medical bill.

Is there any data on how long NJ car accident settlements take?

We found none, and none of our 76 court decisions records the accident date in a field we could count from. The same gap for dollar amounts is explained in why there is no public average NJ car accident settlement. For first steps after a crash, start with our New Jersey car accident help guide.