Personal Injury

Over the course of two decades, Trautmann and Associates has represented those who have been seriously injured. Through experience and education, our firm is able to expertly evaluate medical injuries and pursue personal injury claims on behalf of the injured plaintiff. In doing so we have obtained millions of dollars in compensation for our clients. Trautmann and Associates provides sophisticated legal services for almost any type of medical injury. We have represented clients in many types of personal injury matters including workers who have been injured in the course and scope of their employment, wrongful death, auto accident injuries, construction site injuries, product liability claims, and injuries from exposure to environmental contamination. Much of our tort litigation consists of injuries such as traumatic brain injury, paralysis, catastrophic burn injuries and severe fractures requiring surgical intervention.

Personal injury law is also known as tort law. A tort is described as "a civil wrong or wrongful act, whether intentional or accidental, from which injury occurs to another. Torts include all negligence cases as well as intentional wrongs which result in harm." Torts fall under three categories:

Intentional torts - purposely inflicting injury.
Negligent torts - causing an accident that results in injury.
Strict liability torts - manufacturing, marketing or selling defective products that result in injury.

The most common grounds for a civil lawsuit involve negligence. These include motor vehicle accidents, motorcycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, swimming and diving accidents, boating accidents and premises liability (slip and fall) accidents. When an accident occurs due to negligence, the injured party may file a claim against the negligent party to recover all their damages. Damages generally include current and future medical expenses, property damage, pain and suffering, current and future loss of income, loss of enjoyment and in certain cases, punitive damages.

In order to prove negligence, you must support your claim with the following 4 facts:

Duty - The other party had a legally imposed duty to ensure the safety of the party who was ultimately injured;
Breach of Duty - That the other party breached the duty that the law imposes upon them;
Causation - That their breach of the legally imposed duty was the cause of the injury to our client
Damages - That our client suffered damages as a result of the incident.;

It is also imperative that you file your claim within the time allotted by the State of New Jersey.  The New Jersey statute of limitations for negligent tort cases is generally two years. The statute of limitations in tort cases based upon negligence starts on the date of the injury (for example a motor vehicle accident) or on the date that you discover that an injury has occurred (for example a pharmaceutical side effect). However, in certain cases, such as when the injured person is a minor, different rules apply. We strongly recommend that you contact our office immediately following the incident in order to ensure that the statute of limitations is not allowed to lapse. If suit is not filed filed within the statutorily proscribed period of time your right to collect damages will be forever lost.

Trautmann and Associates provides sophisticated and innovative legal services for almost any type of injury. We not only handle claims for plaintiffs with obvious injuries, but also pursue the more challenging and less obvious injuries such as a traumatic brain injury.

Trautmann and Associates believes that in order to represent our clients in the best possible manner, our firm must have an understanding of the human anatomy and how it responds to an injury. Therefore, through experience and education, our firm is able to expertly evaluate medical injuries and pursue personal injury claims on behalf of the injured plaintiff. We also have a registered nurse on staff with a strong background in emergency room medicine having worked for years at the trauma center at the University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey. Our medical staff provides instant reviews of medical records and recommendations for further investigation. Additionally, our close working relationship with one of New Jersey pre-eminent spine surgeons gives our clients unequaled opportunity for significant recovery.

While proving a physical, emotional, or cognitive injury can be difficult, our experienced and knowledgeable attorneys and staff are able to undertake difficult cases and prevail, convincing skeptics of the merits of a claim via credible, trustworthy evidence and objective test findings. Our law firm is committed to protecting our client's rights and has repeatedly demonstrated our ability to succeed in the most challenging and complex medical injury cases. Perhaps most importantly, our firm brings cases to trial. Many unsuspecting clients retain law firms with little trial experience that prefer to settle cases for less than full value in order not to have to actually try the case to a jury. Our lawyers pride themselves on their trial work and believe that if a defendant is not willing to settle for the reasonable value of the claim that a jury should decide the case.

At any given time we are representing numerous clients in personal injury actions. We invite you to review the one of the pending claims filed by Mr. Trautmann on behalf of his clients via the PDF contained within the current litigation link. Finally, we welcome your inquiries on these matters. Send your questions or comments to GDT@Trautmann.com.