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My name is Charles Nugent. I’m called Charlie, Chuck, Charles, depending on who, what, when, and where. I’ve been practicing for 39 years. I’m admitted in the state of New Jersey. I’m also admitted in the state of Pennsylvania. I have gone to trial and had cases in Texas. I’ve had cases in Delaware. I’ve had cases in New York State, and I’ve had cases in Florida. I’ve tried cases in all of those states. I am a certified civil trial attorney in the state of New Jersey. That’s important because less than 2.5% of attorneys in the state of New Jersey are certified civil trial attorneys by the New Jersey Supreme Court. That means that I have tried a number of cases that I possess the experience to handle certain types of cases. My practice is mostly personal injury cases, any type of injury, automobile accidents, premises liability, alcohol-related dram shop cases, malpractice cases, so product liability cases, dog bite cases, so anything where a person suffers injury, my office is capable of handling the case for a client. I was born and raised in New Jersey. I’m a New Jersey guy through and through. Raised in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Live in Medford, New Jersey. I’ve been there for over 30 years. My practice is statewide, although primarily in South Jersey, Burlington County, Camden County, Gloucester County, Atlantic County, Cape May County, Salem County, Mercer County, and as far north as Hunterdon County, Essex County, wherever it is that a client needs representation. I have tried cases in federal court. I’ve tried cases in state court. I’ve tried cases in municipal court, everything from as low as a traffic ticket and a DWI to a homicide case, to federal racketeering trials in federal court. So, I have the experience to handle almost any type of case. I think I communicate well with juries and we get good results for clients.

Experience and results and the way my client my office treats clients we’re a small law firm we don’t have when you meet me you get me you’re going to meet my staff you’re going to know my staff the staff is going to know you by name we’re going to know you by name you’re going to call us, you’re going to talk to me, you, you’re not going to get a call signer from like some of these law firms out there. You’re not going to get different layers or levels of people you talk to. You’re going to get personal attention in every case. And that’s what sets us apart. I have been doing this for 39 years. There are a few lawyers, I think, that get the respect I get, get the results I get. And while they may advertise more or they, people need to be careful about who they hire for their case.

The insurance industry knows who the lawyers are. They know who the good ones are. They know who which lawyers will go to trial. And that’s important. Now you have law firms that take cases, kind of churn them through and try to settle it quickly as possible without maximizing your recovery. The insurance companies are not dumb. They’ve got everybody pegged. They know who’s who. I’ve been doing this for 39 years. I’ve tried so many cases in front of juries, like I said, in Florida, in Delaware, in New Jersey, in Pennsylvania. And if my client is not happy with an offer made by an insurance company, justice comes through juries. And juries hear you, they get to listen to you, they get to evaluate the liability issues, the damage issues, and award compensation not only for pain and suffering and your disability and impairment, but for the loss of the enjoyment of your life, for the impact on your life, and for the economic losses you’ve suffered such as wage losses, out-of-pocket expenses.

My grandfather’s firm growing up was a family law firm who did a little bit of everything. Growing up around the firm, I felt that it was always the personal injury and the criminal clients who spoke the highest of my grandfather and the other lawyers at the firm. I felt that anytime an attorney has a criminal case or a personal injury case, you really have to put yourself in their shoes. They’re trusting you with their life, whether it’s being charged with a crime that has jail time as a potential or a personal injury case where someone’s entire life has been affected and they really need compensation if they can’t work anymore, if they’re injured and their entire life has been, you know, changed. I felt that criminal and personal injury brought the most pride. And when you see people talk about how an attorney, you know, really helped my family, helped me, changed my entire life, they were there every step of the way. And I didn’t think you could get that with other types of law.

Anybody who handles a claim on their own is making a mistake and is respectfully a fool. The insurance company knows that you’re not experienced in handling a claim. The insurance company knows that they can take advantage of you. They know that you can’t file a lawsuit. They know that you don’t know the rules of evidence. You don’t know the rules of civil procedure. You don’t know the rules of criminal procedure. So you have no shot of being successful or as successful as an experienced personal injury lawyer.

There’s two parts of every personal injury case in New Jersey. There’s liability, meaning was the other person at fault. For example, if you get in an accident, but you went through the red light and hit somebody, you are responsible for the accident, so you don’t have a claim. If the other person is at fault, or at least partly at fault, you may have a claim. The second part of any claim, aside from liability establishing who’s at fault, If you have to suffer injuries, if you suffered no injuries, there’s no claim. If you suffer injuries, then you have a claim. So there’s really two parts. You have to prove that somebody else was at fault and was liable for whatever happened and that you suffered injuries as a result of what happened. Injuries can be personal injuries. They can be broken bones. They can be sprains and strains. They can be scarring. That is personal injuries. And then we have what’s called economic injuries. Those would be out-of-pocket expenses, medical bills, deductibles and copayments, wage losses, loss of income, loss of profits if you own a business. And that is also a compensable area of compensation under New Jersey law.

It’s very important to have an attorney for a workers’ compensation case because a lot of times the insurance companies and the insurance doctors try to minimize everything. They try to minimize your injury. They try to minimize the temporary disability benefits you’re getting. They try to minimize the permanency award. You need an attorney to protect your rights. You need an attorney that’s going to fight for you if you’re not getting the treatment you need. You need an attorney who’s going to fight for you if a doctor says they think you’re fine to go back to work but you’re not actually fine. You need an attorney who’s really going to have you in mind to fight against the insurance company because a lot of times the insurance and the employer doesn’t have you as their best interest. They want to minimize and say your injury isn’t as bad as it actually is they want you to go back to work. They don’t want you out of work collecting temporary disability payments while they may have to hire someone else. Workers compensation a lot of times does things to try to minimize your claim and an attorney will fight for you every step of the way to make sure that you’re getting the treatment you need, you’re being compensated fairly, and ultimately you receive a permanency award that fairly and accurately compensates you for the injury that you sustained.

People in New Jersey have to understand that there’s no such thing as a felony or misdemeanor in the state of New Jersey. Most other states classify crimes as felonies and misdemeanors. In New Jersey, they’re classified as crimes and disorderly persons offenses. So we have no such words, felony and misdemeanor, in the state of New Jersey, but there’s still crimes and disorderly person’s offenses, they’re still serious. You still need a lawyer to represent you. In New Jersey, it’s a crime if it’s six months or more than six months in jail, in which case you’re entitled to a jury trial. Those types of crimes are prosecuted by the local county prosecutor’s office. If it’s six months or less of potential jail time, you’re not entitled to a jury trial. Those matters, disorderly persons offenses, are heard in the municipal courts. The municipal courts handle everything from local township ordinances to DWIs to traffic tickets up to disorderly persons offenses. And under the umbrella of a disorderly persons offense are many crimes, simple assaults, minor thefts, disorderly conduct, drunken disorderly. But even though they’re not classified as crimes, they still go on your criminal history. So there’s very serious consequences.

The very first thing they should do is learn to say nothing, keep their mouth shut, exercise their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Because sometimes you think you’re saying the right thing, but you may not be saying what you need to say. And when you give statements, you box yourself in and you’re locked into that statement. So the best thing is to say nothing until you know the facts and more information is available to you and you’ve talked to an experienced attorney.

The first thing that an employee should do after getting injured is tell someone in a position of authority at their company that they were injured. In New Jersey, you have 90 days to put your company on notice that you were injured while in the course and scope of your employment. We recommend putting this in writing. Down the line, there might be a dispute over whether you told someone, did you actually tell them, did you not tell them. If you put it in writing in a letter, an email, a text it makes it hard for the employee or the insurance company to say that you didn’t tell anyone. Additionally, you want to tell someone in a position of authority, meaning a boss, a supervisor, a manager, or someone that you report to. In New Jersey you have 90 days to put them on notice. The longer you wait, the easier it is for the employer or the insurance company to make the claim that you weren’t actually injured at work. If you’re injured while on the job, you should tell someone immediately. Even though statutorily you have 90 days, the longer you wait, the easier it is for people to try to deny your claim or say that it didn’t happen while at work.

First of all, I have 39 years worth of experience. Secondly, I have tried in front of juries many, many, many cases. I have tried hundreds of non-jury trials, everything from DUI to domestic violence cases. So having someone with experience is very important. Having somebody with a good reputation is important. and having somebody who has a history of good results is important and and i have all of those qualifications

The typical benefits that are available through workers’ compensation are temporary disability benefits, which if you’re out of work medically, meaning a doctor has placed you out of work more than seven days, after that seventh day, you start to receive temporary disability benefits, which are 70% of your salary in the forms of a weekly or biweekly check for however long that doctor has you medically out of work. There are also ways with temporary disability where if a doctor has you on light duty, but your company doesn’t offer light duty, you could still be entitled to that 70% of your salary while you’re out of work. In addition to temporary disability benefits, you also are able to recover permanency award through workers’ comp. At some point through the course and scope of your treatment, when you finish treating, you’ll reach something which is called maximum medical improvement or MMI or you’ll make a full recovery. Once that hits you are entitled to see an expert doctor who will place a percentage partial total loss to specific parts of your body which will help you receive a permanency award. The other benefits that you receive through workers’ comp are medical treatment and the payment of your medical bills which your employer and the insurance will pay for throughout your treatment as long as you have an injury and you’re treating for that injury.

We had a worker almost more than 10 years ago lose a finger while in the course and scope of his employment. There were issues in that case over whether he was doing something wrong that he shouldn’t have been done. We argued against that. The claim was accepted. And it turned out to not only be his finger that was affected, but the pain ran up and down his entire arm, into his shoulder, into his bicep. This claim started in 2014. We were one of the first firms in New Jersey that, as a form of pain management, filed a motion for our client to receive medical marijuana, which he still receives to this day. And workers’ compensation insurance still pays for it to this day. We were able to get him a very favorable result in workers comp. Fingers in and of themselves aren’t worth an extensive amount of money, but the more body parts that are involved, the more compensation for a permanency award you can get. We ended up getting his entire arm involved in the case and got him compensated very lucratively.

In very, very rare circumstances, for instance, you may not be a target, you may have not done anything, you may be a witness. In those circumstances, generally there’s not going to be any problem. If you have any questions, any concerns at all, you should not say anything, talk to an attorney, and the attorney and you can contact law enforcement later to cooperate.

The earliest you can receive workers’ comp payments or temporary disability is seven days after a doctor has you medically out of work. Now, if you consider medical treatment and the payment of medical bills a payment, immediately. If you put your employer on notice and they send you to the doctor, you will be receiving those benefits in medical treatment and the payment of medical bills as soon as you report it to your company if they are following protocol. If you’re talking about temporary disability benefits, you will receive that 70% of your salary if a doctor has you medically out of work after that seventh day that you miss from work, and it’ll pay you retroactively back to that first day after the seventh day.

In New Jersey, there is a two-year statute limitation. So, a person has to file a lawsuit within two years of the date of the accident or the injury. Now, sometimes people don’t know they suffered an injury until later. So, the law permits that a claim can be filed within two years when they knew or should have known. And I’ll give you an example. An attorney makes a mistake. You don’t know the day he makes the mistake that he made the mistake. The same with a medical provider. You don’t discover it until three months, six months, a year later. You have two years from when you reasonably should have discovered that mistake to file the claim. So, although the law is two years to file a claim, sometimes it can be longer based upon when you make that discovery.

Well, the most important thing to do is meet with the client. To learn as many facts as you can to either exonerate the client, meaning develop a defense, and it could be self-defense. There’s a lot of defenses. It could be insanity. There could be a lot of different defenses under the New Jersey Criminal Code. So, you have to meet with the client. You have to learn the facts. It’s important to understand what witnesses there are, what mitigating circumstances there are. Things that may convince a prosecutor not to pursue charges or to pursue lesser charges if there’s reasons for mitigation or things that might provide some defense to the charges.

I’ve found the easiest way to make it less stressful is to just talk to them. I sit in my office right here. I speak to them. I tell them about the process, and I make sure I explain everything. I start from the beginning of what they should do immediately after getting injured. I walk them through the process of the treatment, the doctors. I go through hypothetical situations of a doctor might say this, a doctor might say that that doctor might send you here and then walk them through the entire process of how they can expect to collect temporary disability benefits, what they should expect from the doctors if a doctor cuts them off of treatment, thinks they’ve reached maximum medical improvement, and then what they can really expect after that when it comes to seeing an expert doctor and trying to obtain a permanency award. The process is less scary when someone stays in constant contact with you and explains thing. It’s an extremely complex process if you’ve never been through it, but if someone sits there with you and goes through everything in detail, it makes it a lot less complex than it might appear on paper or from afar. I like to sit with our clients I’m interviewing, even if we’re not taking the case, to go through the entire process from the beginning. Answer all their questions, tell them what they need to know. Tell them the things they should be doing, the things they shouldn’t be doing. If you explain everything to someone, I think it’s easier for them to understand. I always ask them if they have any questions and I’ll sit here for however long they need to answer all their questions.

A lot of times the insurance companies take advantage of workers’ comp petitioners before they have an attorney until they know someone’s there to fight for them. Workers comp petitioners have the right to medical treatment, temporary disability benefits, as well as permanency awards. Petitioners don’t know what to do in these situations. Here at Nugent Law, we are very communicative with them and make sure they are in the loop with everything going on. If they want to get on a phone call, if they want to get on a Zoom call, I’m always here for them. Our office is always here for them. If I am in court or out of the office, we have a great staff here that will answer the phone. You don’t get an operator, you get someone on the phone who will talk to them and see if they can help. A lot of times the insurance companies take their time with getting petitioners scheduled for appointments until they have an attorney. Here we get right involved with filing motions, getting on the phone, sending emails, sending letters to make sure that our clients get the treatment they need as quickly as possible

Well, it’s always important to make the client understand and put them at ease about their situation. They need to be in the proper medical care so they get the right treatment, so they get better. That’s number one. Number two, there’s always financial issues, whether there’s property damage to the car, whether there’s a loss of income, whether you apply for state disability, where there’s a workers’ compensation claim. So, people get anxious over the loss of income because like most people, they live check to check and week to week and can’t afford any loss of income. So, we help the people, we help the clients recover through state disability, through disability policies, through workers’ compensation, and through social security if necessary

You have to know who you’re dealing with. If you have a little old lady on the witness stand, you can’t be aggressive in cross-examination. We’ve all heard the term, kill them with kindness. You get more with honey than you do with vinegar. That’s important. So you have to know who your audience is. You have to be careful not to offend a jury or a judge. Now, sometimes you might have a witness who is aggressive, who’s mean, who’s incredible, who lies. There’s nothing wrong with going after that person, being aggressive with that person, attacking that person. In fact, in my experience, jurors like to see that. So it runs the gamut from kind to aggressive and attacking.

Well, there’s two parts of every personal injury case in New Jersey. There’s liability, meaning was the other person at fault. For example, if you get in an accident but you went through the red light and hit somebody, you are responsible for the accident, so you don’t have a claim. If the other person is at fault, or at least partly at fault, you may have a claim. The second part of any claim, aside from liability establishing who’s at fault, is you have to suffer injuries. If you suffered no injuries, there’s no claim. If you suffer injuries, then you have a claim. So, there’s really two parts. You have to prove that somebody else was at fault and was liable for whatever happened and that you suffered injuries as a result of what happened. Injuries can be personal injuries. They can be broken bones. They can be sprains and strains. They can be scarring. That is personal injuries and then we have what’s called economic injuries. Those would be out-of-pocket expenses, medical bills, deductibles and copayments, wage losses, loss of income, loss of profits if you own a business and that is also a compensable area of compensation under New Jersey law.

Talking to law enforcement, that’s the first thing. Second thing is not seeing an attorney soon enough. Many people think they can handle it on their own, they haven’t got the court date, they’ll worry about it then. It’s important to get a good attorney right off the bat and to exercise your privilege against self-incrimination. It’s your constitutional right, you need to take advantage of it.

Absolutely, you need a lawyer, a lawyer who’s experienced, who has handled cases in the area where you’ve been charged. It’s very important. Every offense has criminal consequences, fines, penalties, a permanent record, jail time. So absolutely, you should always get an attorney when you’ve been charged.

A few of the most common mistakes I see people make are first not reporting the accident within 90 days. And as I stated before, not reporting it right away. In New Jersey, statutorily, you have 90 days to put your employer on notice that you suffered an accident and were injured at work. The longer into that 90 days you wait, the easier it is for the insurance or the employer to say, we don’t think your injury happened at work. Other mistakes that I see mainly revolve around the actual medical treatment. Firstly, going and treating on your own. Generally speaking, the insurance and the employer have the right to direct your care. If you go off and treat on your own with your own doctors, they do not have to cover those bills, and you’ll be on the hook for them yourself. Another mistake people make are not following doctors’ treatment plans, meaning they’re not showing up to appointments, they’re not following the light duty restrictions or the restrictions which give the insurance the ability to cut off your treatment. Another mistake I see petitioners make is claiming they’re extremely injured, having a doctor put them out of work, and then posting on social media or other media platforms things that would tell someone that they’re not actually as hurt as they really are. Meaning someone is claiming to have serious neck and back injuries, but they’re posting on their Instagram story that they’re out skiing in the Swiss Alps. Things like that can really affect your case. Another mistake I see people make all the time is when collecting temporary disability benefits, they receive income from some other source. Meaning if a doctor has them medically out of work collecting 70% of your salary, you cannot go pick up a side job or collect income of another source. That is technically you’re committing fraud, you’re double dipping, you’re using the workers’ comp statutes against them to make more money than you normally would by being out of work, not having to complete your work duties and picking up other shifts, picking up outside work, doing online work or things of that nature.

Talking to the insurance company for the other person. Not getting medical care. Because what happens is following an accident, people are stressed, they’re anxious. And many times, the insurance company seizes upon that opportunity and tries to take advantage of it. They try to interview the client. And many times, clients cooperate because they don’t know better. They assume that the insurance company is going to act in their best interest, which is almost never the case. They act in the best interest of themselves, their own pocket, and that of their insurer. So, the most important thing to do is A, make sure your injuries are taken care of. If they’re emergency injuries, if they’re serious at the scene. And then hire an attorney, an experienced attorney like myself can walk you through it, can get you the help you need. can help establish liability or fault and can help get you in the right hands of the physicians and medical providers who can help you get better.

If you have a workers’ comp case, the employer gets to direct your treatment. Now, when you have a worker’s comp case, there’s a few rights that you have under the insurance. Your insurance or your employer will provide you medical care, meaning they’ll pay for your medical bills, they’ll provide you temporary disability benefits, and you have the right to seek a permanency award. Because your employer will be paying for your bills and paying for your treatment, generally speaking, they have the right to direct you to the doctors and treatment that they want you to go to. Treating on your own is one of the biggest mistakes that people make when having a worker’s comp claim. If you go treat on your own, the insurance or the employer will claim that you did not follow protocol, and they will deny the coverage of the medical bills and you will be on the hook for them out of your own

No, they cannot. It is illegal in the state of New Jersey for a company to retaliate against a worker for filing a worker’s comp claim. If that were to happen to you, you would want to call an attorney immediately. You would have a claim against the employer for doing that to you or retaliating against you.

I’ve got a tremendous amount of experience trying criminal cases. I’ve tried cases in multiple states. I’ve tried cases anywhere from DUIs to domestic violence to federal racketeering trials to homicide cases in state court. I’ve gotten acquittals in almost every kind of case that you can imagine, many more not guilty than guilty in cases I’ve taken to court. I have been on the board of governors. I’ve been a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. I was for years a member of the Board of Governors, on the Board of Governors of the New Jersey Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. I was the chair of the criminal law program in the Burlington County Bar Association. I attended one of the, probably the premier criminal defense college, the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia for several weeks, 25, 30 years ago, where the instructors were world-renowned criminal defense lawyers. I have been the program chair of one of the largest criminal law programs in the country with the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, that’s the old name. I ran the Boardwalk Seminar, held in Atlantic City every year. I did it for almost 15 years. I had some of the preeminent criminal defense lawyers in the country come. I’ve had racehorse Hanes from Texas. I’ve had lawyers come from all over the country to see us. And don’t let me forget, F. Lee Bailey, who is recognized probably as one of the greatest of all time, has spoken at my programs.

No, people do not have to pay anything. In New Jersey, these cases are taken on what’s called a contingent fee basis. That means if we get you money, we get a percentage of the money we obtain for you. If we get you no money, you will never owe me a dime or will you ever pay me a dime. I advance the cost of all litigation. So, if there’s cost to hire an investigator, filing fees, medical records, witness statements, depositions, I advance all of the costs of those. So a client will never have to go out of pocket if he hires my law firm.

Well, it’s always important to get immediate medical care if you’re injured, to try to preserve as much as you can the area where the incident or accident occurred, if you fall on a sidewalk, a carpet, anything like that, to get a picture because once you leave the scene, it may disappear. Changes may be made. And to call a lawyer, a lawyer who understands what needs to be done, how it needs to be done, and to make sure you get the right medical care and prosecute the claim.