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Workers' Compensation Subrogation In All 50 States - 5th Edition - Hardcover
Workers' Compensation Subrogation In All 50 States - 5th Edition - Electronic
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§ 11.31 New Jersey
§ 11.31[1] Statutory Subrogation Rights
Workers' compensation subrogation in New Jersey is governed by
§ 34:15-40.1 New Jersey allows an injured worker to simultaneously
pursue a workers' compensation claim under the New Jersey Act and
a third-party action against any third party liable for the injuries he
sustained.2 Even if an employee is injured in an action arising out of
and in the course of his employment, and subsequently that injury is
aggravated by the negligence of a tortfeasor, the employee may
pursue an action against the tortfeasor for the aggravation of the
injury.3 If a worker files a third-party action, the insurance carrier
does not have any right to control the third-party action.4
Intervention by the carrier into the third-party actions is generally
frowned upon by the courts and New Jersey has held that the rights
of the compensation carrier to subrogation or reimbursement for
benefits paid is purely statutory and must be strictly construed
according to the statute.5 However, courts may allow intervention in
specific situations if the carrier can show a need to do so or that its
interests won't be adequately protected by simply providing notice of
its workers' compensation subrogation lien to the other parties.
Other than as set forth in the statute, the employer has no direct
cause of action against the third party in tort.7 Section 34:15-40
reads as follows:
§ 34:15-40. Liability of third party.
Where a third person is liable to the employee or his
dependents for an injury or death, the existence of a right of
compensation from the employer or insurance carrier under
this statute shall not operate as a bar to the action of the
employee or his dependents, nor be regarded as establishing
a measure of damage therein. In the event that the employee
or his dependents shall recover and be paid from the said
third person or his insurance carrier, any sum in release or
in judgment on account of his or its liability to the injured
employee or his dependents, the liability of the employer
under this statute thereupon shall be only such as is
hereinafter in this section provided.
§ 11.31 New Jersey
§ 11.31[1] Statutory Subrogation Rights
§ 11.31[2] Third Parties
§ 11.31[3] Allocation of Third-Party Recovery
§ 11.31[4] Attorneys' Fees and Costs
§ 11.31[5] Credit/Advance
§ 11.31[6] Related Subrogation Issues
§ 11.31[7] Extra-Territorial Subrogation
§ 11.31[8] Statutes of Limitations
§ 11.31[9] Workers' Compensation in New Jersey
Gary Wickert is an insurance trial lawyer and is regarded as one of the world's leading experts on insurance subrogation. He is the author of several subrogation books and legal treatises and is a national and international speaker and lecturer on subrogation and motivational topics. Mr. Wickert is also a politician in Wisconsin, serving his fourth term as Town Supervisor in the Township of Cedarburg. After 15 years as the youngest managing partner in the history of the 30-lawyer Houston law firm of Hughes, Watters & Askanase, L.L.P., he returned to his native Wisconsin in 1998 and co-founded the firm of Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C. He oversees a National Recovery Program which includes a network of nearly 300 contracted subrogation law firms in all 50 states, Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom and boasts recoveries of more than $500 million in recoveries and credits for more than 250 insurance companies. Gary Wickert is also a commercial fiction author and his latest political thriller, Dark Redemption (Tudor Publishers), is available on Amazon.com.
Licensed in both Texas and Wisconsin, Mr. Wickert is double board-certified in both personal injury law and civil trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He is also nationally certified as a Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA), for whom he has both written and graded the product liability questions contained on the NBTA national certification exam taken by trial lawyers around the country. For nearly twenty-five years, he has also served as an expert witness on subrogation and insurance related issues and has been consulted by insurance carriers, lawyers, and legislative bodies from several states. He is a licensed arbitrator and has attended more than 750 mediations in more than 30 different states. He is one of only a few lawyers to have ever represented a client before the United States Supreme Court on a subrogation issue, and was named one of Law & Politics and Milwaukee Super Lawyers magazine's Super Lawyers for 2005, 2006, and 2008. For a complete resume on Gary L. Wickert, see Appendix A-13 of this book.
