Law Offices of Drinkwater & Goldstein, LLP

07/08/2025

Came across this reel and wanted to get your opinion. Who is at fault in this scenario? Drop your thoughts in the comments and let me know what you think.



https://www.facebook.com/reel/1764694701062677

05/07/2025

Did you know that as of July 11, 2024, all tort and contract claims against any State of New Jersey entity/agency must be filed electronically and will not be accepted in a paper format? In case you didn't, here is the link where you can file a claim against the state and their agencies: https://www.nj.gov/treasury/riskmgt/genpubattyins.shtml

New Jersey enacted the Tort Claims Act in 1972 and it is set up to allow for the State and the agencies/entities to be sued, with limitations. The Tort Claims Act Notice is required to be submitted to the responsible party within 90 days of the incident (unless you are a minor and under specific circumstances that you should speak to a lawyer about), or within one year if a motion seeking additional time to file a "late notice" is filed and granted when the injured party has established "extraordinary circumstances."

I am not seeing a lot of postings about this change (paper notices will not be accepted any longer by state entities) and wanted to share.

The Division of Risk Management serves all three branches of the New Jersey State government.

05/06/2025

As a personal injury attorney, I deal with a fair amount of video, whether it is surveillance video, dash cam video, or store recordings. Sound off in the comments and feel free to drop links or recordings of the funniest videos you've seen.

05/03/2025

We missed ! Enjoy this share from Wisconsin. https://www.facebook.com/share/1WGLe81g7A/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Do you zipper correctly? I feel like my experience is that many people (myself included at times) do not.

It’s , so here’s a reminder about the zipper merge—a technique that helps ease traffic congestion when lanes close due to emergencies or construction.

✅ Stay in your lane until the merge point.
🔄 Take turns with other drivers when merging.
⚠️ No need for a zipper merge if traffic is moving smoothly at highway speeds.

Smart merging keeps traffic flowing and roads safer for everyone. Let’s work together and merge the right way!

04/14/2025

TIL how to find related messages in Outlook. What are your fun tips for working?

04/11/2025

So it looks like a rainy weekend for our area. Remember to pay attention to the cars around you, leave a good amount of space and try not to lock up your brakes if you do have to do a sudden or hard stop. If you can't avoid an accident or are hit and it is not your fault, give us a call to help you through the recovery.

03/28/2025

I cannot tell you how many times this question comes up, but I wanted to address it today:

"I am the power of attorney for my (insert family member) and also their health care representative. They died a month ago, and the bank is no longer accepting them as they did before. I don't understand why not, please help." I've also seen "I am the health care representative for my sister, who passed away. I tried to get her medical records after she died, but the hospital is refusing to give them to me, and they aren't allowed to. What can I do to make them give me the records?"

The first thing to know is that the two documents mentioned, a power of attorney and a health care representative document, are documents that are only effective while the grantor (person granting the powers to a third party) is alive. When they pass, those powers end.

The reason the powers end is because all of the powers now belong to the estate of the person. So if you want statements from a bank or medical records from a hospital after the person has died, they should not be honored because the rights given to you have ended.

So death severs the rights that were given while the person was still living, and the executor or administrator of the estate will now have to seek appointment, and the bank and hospital will honor their requests when accompanied by the documents from the Surrogate Court which show that you have been appointed, which is the second thing to know.

However, if you are also a joint holder on the account for the bank, they should continue to honor your individual requests, just not those on behalf of the deceased holder.

Have you had this experience? Have any questions or concerns? Drop a comment and let me know your thoughts. If you have a question, I just might answer it or respond in a later post.

03/28/2025

So while I'm not an insurance agent, I deal regularly with automobile insurance policies. So when I came across an article discussing 5 popular car insurance myths, 2 in particular caught my eye. You'll see two posts for this as I discuss each myth in turn.

Myth #1: Legally required minimum coverage is all you need
Myth #2: If a loved one crashes your car, that driver's insurance covers it.

So I practice in New Jersey and with regard to myth number 2, this is not exactly accurate.

Let's talk about different scenarios and how insurance works in New Jersey:

Scenario #1: your loved one drives your car and gets into a crash that is their fault. You might be surprised to learn that your insurance coverage is who would pay for the repair bill. This is because in this instance, coverage follows the car not the operator. The operator's insurance coverage (should they have it) would be secondary or excess to your own.

Scenario #2: your loved one drives your car and gets into a crash that is not their fault. In this case, you have two options for coverage: You can seek coverage through the responsible party's coverage OR you can go through your own.

Scenario #3: your loved one drives your car and gets into a crash. They are injured and want to seek medical treatment. In this instance, coverage does not follow the car, but rather follows the individual. So to the extent your loved one has their own auto policy with PIP benefits, that policy will pay. If they do not have coverage through any potential policy, it is only then that your coverage for the car would provide PIP benefits.

Scenario #4: your loved one drives your car and gets into a crash with a driver who has basic insurance with only $5,000 in property damage covered. The damage is $12,500.00. In that scenario, the basic coverage will pay out the $5,000.00 and you will have to seek the remaining $7,500.00 from your UIM coverage.

I'm saying this in all caps on purpose: THE RESPONSIBLE DRIVER'S INSURANCE DOES NOT PAY FOR MEDICAL COVERAGE. This was an intentional decision in New Jersey to ensure prompt access to medical treatment versus waiting for a fault investigation to conclude.

Have any experience with any of this, feel free to drop a comment. Have a question or concern, leave me a comment and it just might be answered in a later post.

03/28/2025

So while I'm not an insurance agent, I deal regularly with automobile insurance policies. So when I came across an article discussing 5 popular car insurance myths, 2 in particular caught my eye. You'll see two posts for this as I discuss each myth in turn.

Myth #1: Legally required minimum coverage is all you need
Myth #2: If a loved one crashes your car, that driver's insurance covers it.

So I practice in New Jersey, which requires thee types of mandatory insurance: (a) Liability insurance; (b) Personal Injury Protection (PIP); and (c) uninsured motorist (UM) coverage.

In order to be considered to be insured, you must have at least a basic policy providing property damage limits of $5,000.00 per accident and PIP of $15,000 per person. This however is not considered a "standard" policy.

A standard policy requires a minimum of $25,000.00 for bodily injury coverage, and the same for UM coverage. PIP benefits range from $15,000 to $250,000.00.

So let's talk about why the minimums are not ideal, even if they make you legal to drive. UM and UIM (underinsured motorist) provide coverage to you when you are injured in an accident that is not your fault and other driver is either uninsured, or has less bodily injury coverage in comparison to your UM/UIM coverage. If they have the minimum coverage of $25,000.00, and you had selected a policy with $100,000.00, you can recover up to an additional $75,000.00 as a result of your non-minimum selection. If you selected $25,000.00 there is no additional coverage available to you.

Now for coverage purposes you cannot select UM/UIM coverage in an amount greater than your bodily injury coverage (although the opposite is not true, so you can select more bodily injury coverage than UM/UIM), so to have the greater UM/UIM coverage (which pays for your injuries) you also have to have a higher bodily injury amount (which pays for others when you cause an accident).

Similarly, if you select a $15,000.00 PIP selection over the standard $250,000.00 you are leaving a lot of medical coverage on the table that could be utilized to pay for your treatment if you are in a motor vehicle accident, regardless of fault which can save you money.

Drop your experiences in the comments, along with any questions and they might be answered in a future post.

03/07/2025

Today is Friday and I want to switch it up a bit. Anyone have fun plans for the weekend? Drop a comment and let me know what you have going on. Feel free to ask any questions as well.

03/04/2025

A few years ago (possibly more) I received a daily calendar at Christmas called "Lawyers" and I kept the ones that most spoke to me.

I found them again and these are the ones that particularly speak to me in the moment:

A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you- Ramsey Clark

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free- Clarence Darrow

We have the means to change the laws we find unjust or onerous. We cannot, as citizens, pick and choose the laws we will or will not obey- Ronald Reagan, on dismissing 12,000 striking air traffic controllers

and

Law is not justice and a trial is not a scientific inquiry into truth. A trial is the resolution of a dispute- Edison Haines

02/21/2025

Hey everyone, if you have landed on our page, would you mind dropping a question or comment about a topic you’d like to see covered? Dropping the link to our youtube channel with past videos and our website which has access to blog posts.

https://youtube.com/?si=pVKdYakeFcw1J5fA

Drinkwatergoldsteinlaw.com

Welcome to the Drinkwater & Goldstein, LLP video blog! Stanley Drinkwater & Ben Goldstein have been experts in the personal injury field for decades. If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident or in a slip & fall, or has suffered any type of catastrophic injury due to the negligence of...