New Jersey Accident and Injury Law Blog : New Jersey Injury Lawyer & Attorney : The Grossman Law Firm : Serving Monmouth County, Bergen County

Denver Nuggets guard J.R Smith has been sentenced to 30 days in a jail in Monmouth County jail after he pleaded guilty earlier this week to reckless driving in a 2007 car accident that killed his friend. The judge sentenced him to 90 days in the jail, but suspended 60 days.  He has also been ordered to perform community service.

On June 9^th 2007, Smith with basketball player Carl Marshal and his friend Andre Bell were on their way to his new home in his parent's 2003 GMC Yukon Denali. Smith drove around a vehicle that was stopped at a Millstone intersection, but crashed into another vehicle coming from the other side. Both Smith and Bell were thrown from the SUV. Bell suffered serious head injuries, and died two days later. His mother Wanda Bell has told investigators that she does not want Smith to face criminal prosecution because of her family’s desire for closure. However she will proceed with civil charges in the accident. According to Bell, she is proceeding with her wrongful death lawsuit because Smith has not made efforts to stop his dangerous driving habits which were responsible for the accident in the first place.

Smith has expressed remorse for the accident, and offered his apologies to Bell’s mother. He has even vowed to stop his dangerous driving habits. However, his actions speak otherwise. Between the time of the fatal accident and March of 2008, Smith has allegedly accumulated two more speeding tickets and three more license suspensions. His license is currently suspended for two years, and he will only regain his driving rights in August 2010. At the time of the accident, he had 27 points and five suspensions on his record. Most of the violations seemed to involve speeding.

With Smith setting up temporary residence at the Monmouth County jail in Freehold, do I believe that this fatal accident and the death of his friend will make him change his rash driving ways? I wouldn't bet on it, but hopefully a civil lawsuit will be able to make him see the error of his ways.

Scott Grossman is a New Jersey personal injury lawyer, representing victims in Monmouth, Bergen, and Passaic Counties and all over New Jersey.

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The mother of a South Brunswick man who committed suicide at a Trenton hospital has been awarded a wrongful death settlement of $600,000. Michael Janicki was undergoing treatment for schizophrenia at the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital when he managed to walk out of the hospital one day and slash his wrists. The verdict is interesting in the way Janicki's "services" as a son were calculated to arrive at a settlement.

Michael Janicki stabbed his father Ortwin to death in July of 2002. He claimed that he had heard voices that his parents were going to die, but he could save his mother if he killed his father.   He was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and was sentenced to treatment at a psychiatric hospital. By 2005, he was believed to have been making progress at the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital. However his mother claims that his progress began to decelerate when staff at the facility delayed their plans to move him to a less restricted facility after he told one of the staff members that he wanted to kill himself because of his guilt at murdering his father. His privileges to wander about the facility campus freely were restricted, but the hospital failed to change his keycard. On August 30, of 2005, Michael walked out of the hospital and onto the grounds with his old expired card. No one saw him again until September 6 when his badly decomposed body was found in the hospital grounds. 

The judge in his verdict ruled that his mother was entitled to $400,000 for the loss of companionship and her son's help, as well as $200,000 for the pain and suffering that Michael went through as he bled to death. The Deputy Attorney General had issues with the evaluation of Janicki's ability to help his mother because of his history of mental illness and drug problems. But a forensic economist, with the help of the psychiatrist who was treating Michael just before he died, were able to confirm that Michael in all likelihood, would have eventually recovered and with some monitoring, been able to lead a productive and independent life. The Department of Human Services which is responsible for the running of the hospital, may appeal the decision.

The estimate of the forensic economist in Michael's case did not take into account his projected future earning capacity for obvious reasons. Generally, a wrongful death settlement however, will involve reimbursement that includes loss of future earnings of the deceased. Compensation will also include funeral expenses, hospital or medical bills if applicable, as well as loss of companionship and help that the deceased would have provided to surviving members. By their very nature, such cases are always tragic in a bitter sweet manner for wrongful death attorneys as well as the families they represent, because the family would always prefer to have their loved one back with them instead of a compensation for his or her loss.

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