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Knowledge, experience, and dedication have brought the lawyers of The Epstein Law Firm to the forefront of their profession. From personal injury to civil litigation, they have built a strong record of success in achieving justice for their clients.
Our practice is diverse and well-established. Recognizing that every case is unique, we always begin by listening to you.
The Epstein Law Firm, P.A. has been successfully representing clients throughout New Jersey since 1973
A workplace injury can leave you with medical bills, missed paychecks, and an employer or insurance carrier that suddenly seems to be speaking a different language. New Jersey’s workers’ compensation system exists so that does not happen. It is a no-fault system: if you were hurt in the course of your employment, you are generally entitled to medical care, wage-replacement benefits, and compensation for any permanent loss of function — without having to prove your employer did anything wrong.
The catch is that the system runs on deadlines, authorized doctors, and paperwork — benefits are not automatic. The Epstein Law Firm, P.A. has represented New Jersey injury victims since 1973, and our main office at 340 West Passaic Street in Rochelle Park is minutes from Hackensack. If you were hurt working anywhere in Bergen County, call (201) 231-7847 for a free consultation, and read on for how the process actually works.
Most employees in New Jersey are covered from their first day on the job. You may have a claim if:
It does not matter whether the accident was your fault, a coworker’s fault, or nobody’s fault at all. What matters is that the injury arose out of and in the course of your employment. If any of the situations above sound familiar, your claim is worth a careful look — and our New Jersey workers’ compensation lawyers can tell you where you stand at no cost.
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Hackensack is the Bergen County seat, and its workforce is bigger and more varied than the city’s residential population suggests. Thousands of people commute in every day to work in health care, county government, retail, warehouses, restaurants, and construction — and each of those settings produces its own pattern of injuries.
Health care. Hackensack University Medical Center on Prospect Avenue, the flagship hospital of Hackensack Meridian Health, is one of the largest employers in the region. Nurses, aides, technicians, and support staff are hurt lifting and transferring patients, slipping on wet floors, and in incidents involving agitated patients. Health care workers also face needle sticks and exposure to infectious disease, which New Jersey law treats as occupational claims.
County government and offices. Bergen County’s administrative offices, courthouse complex, and public works departments employ thousands of people in and around downtown Hackensack. Office workers develop repetitive-stress injuries; maintenance workers, sheriff’s officers, and road crews face the same physical risks as any construction or industrial workforce.
Warehouses, retail, and the highway corridors. The Route 4 and Route 17 retail corridors, the Shops at Riverside, and the distribution and warehouse operations spread across Bergen County put workers around forklifts, loading docks, ladders, and delivery vehicles all day. Interstate 80 runs through the south end of Hackensack, and delivery and truck drivers are injured in crashes on I-80, Route 4, and Route 17 every year — injuries that can involve both a workers’ compensation claim and a claim against the driver who caused the crash.
Construction. Bergen County’s constant cycle of renovation and redevelopment means scaffolds, roofs, trenches, and power tools. Falls from height and electrocutions remain among the most serious workplace injuries we see, and construction accidents frequently involve general contractors, subcontractors, and equipment companies beyond the injured worker’s own employer.
Wherever your injury happened, the legal questions are the same: Was the claim reported on time? Are you getting the treatment and benefit rate the law provides? And is someone besides your employer also responsible? Our Hackensack personal injury lawyers work through those questions with every client.
1. Get medical attention first. In a true emergency, go to the nearest emergency room — Hackensack University Medical Center is right in town. For non-emergency care, tell your employer right away and ask where you are authorized to treat, because New Jersey employers and their carriers direct workers’ compensation medical care.
2. Report the injury to your employer promptly. Tell a supervisor, the personnel office, or anyone in a position of authority. Notice does not have to be in writing under New Jersey law, but a short email or text confirming what happened creates a record. The legal deadline is 90 days under N.J.S.A. 34:15-17, and waiting can give the carrier an argument it does not deserve.
3. Write down what happened. The date, the time, where you were, what you were doing, who saw it, and every body part that hurts — not just the one that hurts most. Details fade fast, and the first report often shapes the entire claim.
4. Follow the authorized treatment plan. Keep every appointment and follow the treating doctor’s restrictions. Gaps in treatment are the carrier’s favorite reason to cut off benefits, and if you believe you need care the carrier will not authorize, that is a problem a judge can fix — not a reason to stop treating.
5. Track your wages and missed time. Keep pay stubs from before the injury and records of every day you miss. Your temporary disability rate is calculated from your wages, and errors in that calculation are common and correctable.
6. Be careful with paperwork and recorded statements. Do not sign settlement documents, resignations, or broad medical authorizations without understanding what they do. A resignation, in particular, can be used to argue you voluntarily gave up your job and your benefits.
7. Ask about deadlines before they become problems. Beyond the 90-day notice rule, a formal claim petition generally must be filed within two years. A short consultation early on costs nothing and can protect rights that cannot be recovered later.
New Jersey provides four main categories of workers’ compensation benefits. Understanding which ones apply to you — and whether you are actually receiving all of them — is the heart of any claim.
Under N.J.S.A. 34:15-15, your employer must furnish the medical, surgical, and hospital treatment necessary to cure and relieve the effects of your injury. In practice, the employer and its insurance carrier choose the authorized treating physician, and treatment with unauthorized doctors may not be covered except in an emergency. There are no co-pays and no deductibles for authorized care. If the carrier refuses to authorize treatment your doctor says you need — an MRI, a specialist referral, surgery — your lawyer can file a motion with the Division of Workers’ Compensation and ask a judge to order it.
If your injury keeps you out of work, you are entitled to temporary total disability benefits while you are under active medical care and unable to work. The rate is 70% of your average weekly wage, subject to a state minimum (20% of the Statewide Average Weekly Wage) and maximum (75% of the SAWW) that adjust every year, under N.J.S.A. 34:15-12(a). There is a seven-day waiting period under N.J.S.A. 34:15-14, but once you have been disabled for more than seven days, benefits are paid retroactively to the first day you missed. Temporary benefits can continue for up to 400 weeks, until you return to work, or until a doctor finds you have reached maximum medical improvement.
Many injuries heal, but not completely — a shoulder that never regains full motion, a back that cannot take heavy lifting anymore, hearing loss that does not come back. When treatment ends and a permanent loss of function remains, you are entitled to a permanency award: a schedule of weekly payments based on the percentage of disability and the body part involved. This is usually the largest part of a workers’ compensation case, it is where carrier evaluations and your own medical experts most often disagree, and it is the stage where experienced representation changes outcomes most.
If a work injury leaves you unable to work in any capacity, permanent total disability benefits are paid at the same 70% rate, initially for 450 weeks, and they can continue beyond that period for as long as the total disability lasts. Some cases involve a combination of work-related disability and pre-existing conditions; in those cases the Second Injury Fund may share responsibility for the total disability award. These are the most valuable claims in the system, and they are the ones carriers defend hardest.
When a workplace accident or occupational disease takes a worker’s life, the worker’s dependents — typically a spouse and children — are entitled to weekly death benefits under N.J.S.A. 34:15-13, calculated as a percentage of the worker’s wages, plus a funeral expense allowance of up to $3,500. Dependency is decided at a hearing, and the shares among dependents are set by a judge of compensation.
The Epstein Law Firm can review the evidence, insurance issues, and next steps that may matter in your workers’ compensation claim.
Workers’ compensation has more than one clock, and they run at the same time. Missing the wrong one can cost you benefits no lawyer can get back.
Under N.J.S.A. 34:15-17, your employer is not obligated to pay benefits until it receives notice of the injury or otherwise learns about it. The statute works in steps: notice within 14 days preserves benefits in full; notice within 30 days is allowed unless the employer was genuinely prejudiced by the delay; notice within 90 days can still be allowed if the delay resulted from mistake, inadvertence, or another reasonable cause. After 90 days with no notice and no employer knowledge of the accident, no compensation is allowed at all. Report the injury the same day if you possibly can.
Reporting the injury to your employer is not the same as filing a claim. If your case is not resolved by agreement, a formal claim petition must be filed with the Division of Workers’ Compensation within two years after the date of the accident — or, if the employer has paid some compensation, within two years after the last payment — under N.J.S.A. 34:15-51. For occupational diseases that develop over time, the analysis turns on when you knew, or reasonably should have known, that your condition was connected to your work. Either way, the two-year date should be on your calendar from the start, not discovered at the end.
If someone other than your employer caused your injury — a negligent driver, a property owner, an equipment manufacturer — a civil lawsuit against that party must be filed within two years of the accident under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2, the same statute of limitations that governs New Jersey personal injury cases generally. Claims involving public entities carry an additional 90-day notice requirement. Because evidence disappears and vehicles get repaired, third-party claims should be investigated immediately, not after the comp case ends.
Disputed workers’ compensation cases in Bergen County are handled by the New Jersey Division of Workers’ Compensation district office in Hackensack, at 60 State Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601. That office serves Bergen County, and it is where claim petitions are heard by judges of compensation. Many cases begin with an informal hearing — a conference with a judge aimed at resolving disputes without full litigation. If the case cannot be settled there, it proceeds as a formal claim petition, with medical examinations on both sides, testimony, and ultimately a judge’s decision or an approved settlement.
Two features of this system surprise most injured workers. First, there are no juries in workers’ compensation court; a judge of compensation decides everything. Second, settlements generally require a judge’s approval, and any attorney fee is set by the judge and capped by statute — counsel fees cannot exceed 25% of the award under N.J.S.A. 34:15-64. Our lawyers appear in the Hackensack district office regularly and know its judges, its calendar, and its pace.
Civil lawsuits arising from the same accident — the third-party cases described below — follow a different track. Those are filed in Superior Court, and for Bergen County cases that means the Bergen County Justice Center at 10 Main Street in Hackensack, a short walk from the workers’ compensation court. Handling both halves of a case under one roof, with one legal team coordinating the two, is how injured workers avoid the gaps that open up when the left hand does not know what the right hand filed.
Workers’ compensation is usually your only remedy against your employer itself — in exchange for no-fault benefits, employees generally cannot sue their employer for negligence. But that bargain does not protect anyone else. Under N.J.S.A. 34:15-40, when a third party’s negligence causes a work injury, you may pursue a civil claim against that party in addition to your workers’ compensation benefits.
Third-party cases matter because workers’ compensation does not pay for pain and suffering, and its wage benefits replace only part of your earnings. A civil claim can recover full lost wages, future earning losses, and compensation for the human cost of the injury. Common examples include a delivery driver hit by a careless motorist on Route 17, a warehouse worker injured by a defective forklift, a nurse assaulted because of negligent security, or a construction worker hurt by another contractor’s crew on a shared job site. Our workplace accident lawyers evaluate every comp case for a third-party claim as a matter of routine.
One coordination rule matters: the workers’ compensation carrier holds a statutory lien on part of any third-party recovery, to reimburse benefits it paid, reduced by its share of the costs and fees of obtaining that recovery. The lien does not make the third-party case not worth bringing — it makes experienced coordination between the two claims essential, because the timing and structure of each settlement affects the other.
Treatment is where workers’ compensation cases are won, lost, and delayed. Because the carrier chooses the authorized treating physician, your recovery runs through doctors you did not pick. That system works when the authorized doctor listens, documents carefully, and refers you to specialists when you need them. It breaks down when appointments are rushed, complaints are left out of the chart, or a carrier nurse case manager steers decisions that should be medical.
Serious injuries in Hackensack often begin at Hackensack University Medical Center, whose emergency department treats traumatic injuries from across Bergen County. From there, authorized follow-up care may involve orthopedists, neurologists, pain management specialists, physical therapists, and surgeons throughout the area. Keep every discharge paper, work note, and prescription record, and tell the treating doctor about every symptom and every body part involved — an injury left out of the early records becomes an argument the carrier will use for years.
If you reach the end of treatment and still have real limitations, the permanency stage begins: medical experts evaluate the percentage of disability, and the difference between the carrier’s number and your doctor’s number is often the difference between a token award and a fair one. Our Secaucus workers’ compensation lawyers and Jersey City workers’ compensation lawyers handle permanency disputes across Hudson County as well.
The Epstein Law Firm, P.A. has represented New Jersey injury victims since 1973. Our main office is in Rochelle Park, at 340 West Passaic Street — close enough to Hackensack that our lawyers are in its courts and its workers’ compensation district office every week — with additional offices in Montclair and Englewood Cliffs. Workers’ compensation is one part of a broader trial practice, which matters when a work injury also supports a civil lawsuit: the same firm that files your claim petition can investigate the third-party case, take it to the Bergen County Justice Center, and try it if the insurance company will not be reasonable.
Managing partner Michael J. Epstein was named to the Super Lawyers Top 100 New Jersey list for 2026. The firm’s results have also been recognized by TopVerdict, including a Top 10 New Jersey personal injury settlement of 2024 and a Top 20 United States medical malpractice settlement of 2024. Firm attorneys have authored articles on injury law and litigation published on third-party legal and professional websites.
Selected case results obtained by The Epstein Law Firm include a $13.585 million confidential settlement; a confidential $10 million settlement in a case exposing critical lapses in training and oversight within the home health care industry; and a $4.25 million confidential settlement in a wrongful death and survival action for a Teaneck husband and father who died after a tire fell off his car, causing it to flip and catch fire, where a major mechanic operations company was at fault for failing to attach the tire properly. Every case is different, these results do not guarantee a similar outcome in any other matter, and a workers’ compensation award is calculated under the statutory system described on this page rather than by a jury.
“I was extremely pleased with the Epstein law firm. Michael Epstein and his co-worker Evelyn were so helpful. They answered all my questions in a timely manner and made me feel at ease from day one. They continuously kept me informed by email and phone calls.”— Janice, Google review
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Below are answers to common questions about workers’ compensation claims in Hackensack and Bergen County, New Jersey. This information is general and not legal advice — the facts of your injury, your wages, and your medical records can change the analysis, so contact our office for guidance about your specific situation.
In most cases, a formal claim petition must be filed with the Division of Workers’ Compensation within two years after the date of the accident, under N.J.S.A. 34:15-51. If your employer has already paid some compensation on the claim, the deadline instead runs two years from the date of the last payment of compensation.
Filing a claim petition is different from reporting the injury to your employer, and the two deadlines run independently. For occupational diseases, the timing analysis turns on when you knew or should have known the condition was related to your work, which makes early legal advice especially important in exposure and repetitive-stress cases.
Sources: New Jersey Legislature — N.J.S.A. 34:15-51; NJ Division of Workers’ Compensation — Contact Us and District Office Directory
As soon as possible — and no later than 90 days after the accident. Under N.J.S.A. 34:15-17, your employer has no obligation to pay compensation until it receives notice of the injury or otherwise learns about it, and if neither happens within 90 days, no compensation is allowed.
The statute gives the most protection to workers who report promptly: notice within 14 days preserves benefits in full, notice within 30 days is excused unless the employer proves it was prejudiced by the delay, and notice within 90 days may still be allowed where the delay came from mistake or another reasonable cause. Notice can be given to a supervisor or anyone in authority and does not have to be in writing, although a written record protects you.
Sources: New Jersey Legislature — N.J.S.A. 34:15-17; NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development — Workers’ Compensation Pamphlet
No. New Jersey workers’ compensation is a no-fault system. If your injury arose out of and in the course of your employment, benefits are available even if the accident was partly your own fault, a coworker’s fault, or simply bad luck. Fault matters in a civil lawsuit against a third party, not in the compensation claim itself.
The trade-off for no-fault benefits is that workers’ compensation is generally your exclusive remedy against your employer, so you cannot also sue your employer for pain and suffering. Disputes in comp cases usually are not about fault at all — they are about whether the injury is work-related, what treatment is necessary, and how much disability the injury caused.
Sources: New Jersey Legislature — N.J.S.A. 34:15-1 et seq.; NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development — Workers’ Compensation Pamphlet
Temporary total disability benefits replace 70% of your average weekly wage while you are out of work and under active medical care. Under N.J.S.A. 34:15-12(a), the weekly rate cannot exceed 75% of the Statewide Average Weekly Wage or fall below 20% of it; those minimum and maximum figures are recalculated every year, so the dollar caps depend on the year of your accident.
There is a seven-day waiting period before benefits begin, but if you are disabled for more than seven days, benefits are paid retroactively back to the first day you missed work, and they can continue for up to 400 weeks. If your checks are calculated on the wrong wage figure — a common error for workers with overtime, bonuses, or a second job — the rate can be corrected, and it is worth having the math reviewed.
Sources: NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development — Workers’ Compensation Pamphlet (Benefit Rates); New Jersey Legislature — N.J.S.A. 34:15-12 and 34:15-14
In New Jersey, your employer and its workers’ compensation insurance carrier choose the authorized treating physician. Under N.J.S.A. 34:15-15, the employer must furnish all medical, surgical, and hospital treatment necessary to cure and relieve the effects of the injury, but treatment you arrange on your own — other than genuine emergency care — may not be paid for by the carrier.
That does not leave you without options. If the authorized doctor will not order a test, a referral, or a procedure you need, your attorney can file a motion for medical benefits and ask a judge of compensation to order the treatment. You are also entitled to be evaluated for permanency by medical experts on your side when the case reaches that stage.
Sources: New Jersey Legislature — N.J.S.A. 34:15-15; NJ Division of Workers’ Compensation — Contact Us and District Office Directory
A denial is not the end of the case. You can file a claim petition with the Division of Workers’ Compensation and have a judge of compensation decide the dispute. If the carrier stops your temporary benefits or refuses medical treatment while the case is pending, your lawyer can file a motion for medical and temporary disability benefits, which the Division schedules on an accelerated basis.
Keep copies of every denial letter, and keep treating and documenting your symptoms while the dispute is pending. Separately, if your employer punishes you for reporting an injury or raising a safety concern, federal law gives you the right to file a complaint with OSHA, and you should get legal advice quickly because retaliation claims have their own short deadlines.
Sources: NJ Division of Workers’ Compensation — Contact Us and District Office Directory; U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration — Workers’ Rights and Filing a Complaint
Yes. Under N.J.S.A. 34:15-40, a workers’ compensation claim does not bar a civil lawsuit against a third party whose negligence caused your injury — for example, a driver who hit you while you were working, a property owner who let a dangerous condition persist, or the manufacturer of defective equipment. A civil case can recover damages workers’ compensation does not pay, including pain and suffering and full wage loss.
The civil lawsuit must generally be filed within two years of the accident under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2, and the compensation carrier will hold a lien on part of the recovery to reimburse benefits it paid, reduced by its share of the recovery costs. Because the two cases affect each other, they should be evaluated together from the beginning rather than one after the other.
Sources: New Jersey Legislature — N.J.S.A. 34:15-40; NJ Courts — Bergen Vicinage (Superior Court, Bergen County)
Once your treatment is finished and you have reached maximum medical improvement, any lasting loss of function is compensated as permanent disability. A partial disability is paid as a permanency award — a schedule of weekly payments based on the percentage of disability found and the body part or function affected — while a worker who is totally and permanently disabled receives benefits at the temporary disability rate, initially for 450 weeks, continuing for as long as the total disability lasts.
The percentage finding drives the value of the case, and the carrier’s examining doctor and your own medical expert frequently reach very different numbers, which a judge then weighs. Where a pre-existing condition combines with the work injury to produce total disability, the Second Injury Fund may be responsible for part of the award, which is another reason these cases should be evaluated carefully before settlement.
Sources: NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development — Workers’ Compensation Pamphlet (Benefit Rates); New Jersey Legislature — N.J.S.A. 34:15-12
Bergen County workers’ compensation cases are handled by the Division of Workers’ Compensation district office in Hackensack, at 60 State Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Claim petitions, informal hearings, and trials before a judge of compensation all take place there; there are no jury trials in workers’ compensation court.
If your accident also supports a civil lawsuit against a third party, that case is filed in the Superior Court for Bergen County at the Bergen County Justice Center, 10 Main Street, Hackensack. The two courthouses are a few minutes apart, but the two cases follow different rules and different deadlines, so both calendars have to be managed together.
Sources: NJ Division of Workers’ Compensation — Contact Us and District Office Directory; NJ Courts — Bergen Vicinage (Superior Court, Bergen County)
It costs nothing up front. Workers’ compensation attorneys are paid on a contingent basis, and unlike most areas of law, the fee is controlled by statute and approved by the judge: under N.J.S.A. 34:15-64, a judge of compensation may allow a reasonable attorney fee of no more than 25% of the award, and in many cases a substantial share of that fee is assessed against the employer’s carrier rather than the injured worker.
At The Epstein Law Firm, the initial consultation is free, and you owe no fee at all unless we recover benefits or an award for you. Before you sign anything, we will explain exactly how the fee would be calculated on your case so there are no surprises at the end.
Sources: New Jersey Legislature — N.J.S.A. 34:15-64; NJ Division of Workers’ Compensation — Contact Us and District Office Directory
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The Epstein Law Firm
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