Truck crash claim: what can I do?

New Jersey truck-accident lawsuits are filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, in the county vicinage where the collision occurred or where the motor carrier maintains its principal place of business. The state's freight spine — the New Jersey Turnpike (I-95), I-78, I-80, I-287 and the Port Newark–Elizabeth marine terminal complex — concentrates commercial-truck crashes in Bergen, Middlesex, Essex and Union counties. Claims against interstate carriers are frequently removed to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (Newark, Trenton or Camden vicinages) on diversity grounds, where the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (49 C.F.R. Parts 390–397) govern driver hours-of-service, vehicle maintenance and drug-testing records. New Jersey applies a two-year statute of limitations (N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2) and a modified comparative-negligence rule (N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1): an injured plaintiff who is 50 percent or less at fault recovers damages reduced by their share, but is barred entirely at 51 percent. Preserving the truck's electronic control-module data and the carrier's maintenance and log records early is decisive.