Who’s responsible for a sidewalk fall in New Jersey?

⚫ Towns push the responsibility to homeowners

⚫ Homeowners point to a decades-old Supreme Court ruling for coverage

⚫ Many victims are left without compensation

If someone trips and gets injured on your sidewalk, you probably have nothing to worry about financially.

That's good news for you, but bad news for the victim facing medical costs and other burdens due to the accident.

There's a push in New Jersey to change the way these matters are handled, so injured parties can receive compensation instead of the runaround.

"If no one is responsible, then no one is safe," said Tyrone Sergio, a partner at Glen Rock-based Britcher, Leone & Sergio, which specializes in personal injury and medical malpractice law.

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In August, Sergio filed a brief with the appellate division of the New Jersey Superior Court, asking that residential property owners be held to the same standards as commercial property owners when it comes to sidewalk maintenance, or that towns be blocked from passing ordinances making residents responsible for sidewalk upkeep.

"You have people that are being seriously injured, and there is no compensation for their pain, their suffering," Sergio said.

Commercial vs. residential liability

In a New Jersey Supreme Court decision handed down decades ago, it was ruled that commercial property owners are responsible for maintaining the sidewalks around their property. In general, if they're aware of a safety hazard, it's on the business to make the repair, or pay up when someone gets hurt.

But residential homeowners were excluded from that ruling, and they remain excluded today.

As the law currently stands, the homeowner bears no liability, unless they're responsible for causing the sidewalk defect — planting a tree that eventually lifts a sidewalk panel, for example.

Municipal ordinances across New Jersey pass the obligation of sidewalk maintenance on to residents. But when a homeowner is being sued, such ordinances "don't hold any weight," according to Sergio.

"Municipality points to homeowner, homeowner points to Supreme Court, and the person who was injured has no legal recourse," Sergio said.

Courts have held municipalities liable for sidewalk injuries, though. The injured party needs to prove that a municipality received notice of the defect that caused the injuries in question. But proving a town was aware of an issue is not always an easy task.

The message to the appellate court division, on behalf of the New Jersey Association for Justice, suggests that residents should not only be responsible for sidewalk issues they've caused, but also any sidewalk issues on their property that they know about.

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