Essex County Jury Values a Passenger's Five Herniated Discs at $4.5 Million After Her Insurer Offered $25,000, Though the Underinsured-Motorist Policy Capped Her Recovery

On November 19, 2017, Jennifer Burden was riding as a passenger in her sister's car when it was violently struck by a vehicle driven by Michael G. Harrington. She had never before treated for or complained of neck or back problems. After the crash her MRIs showed disc herniations at L3-4, L4-5 and L5-S1 in the lower back and at C5-6 and C6-7 in the neck, and she developed foot drop and headaches. Her treating spinal surgeon, Dr. Kadimcherla, concluded she would need spinal surgeries in the future, which he priced at about $400,000 in 2020 dollars.

Burden and her husband Craig, who brought a per quod claim, sued Harrington in the Law Division in Essex County in 2019. That claim settled for Harrington's full liability limits, which left the Burdens' own underinsured-motorist coverage as the remaining source of recovery. They amended the complaint in March 2021 to bring the UIM claim against their carrier, Mid-Century Insurance Company, a Farmers company, which had a $400,000 UIM limit, along with a common-law bad-faith claim that the court stayed pending trial. Mitchell J. Makowicz, Jr. and Terrence J. Hull of Blume Forte Fried Zerres & Molinari represented the Burdens.

The insurer resisted the claim at every stage. On April 26, 2023 a non-binding arbitration panel valued the case at $300,000, or $200,000 net of the tortfeasor's credit; Mid-Century rejected the award and demanded a trial de novo. The Burdens served a $300,000 offer of judgment in May 2023. Mid-Century responded with $25,000, then in September 2023 served its own offer of judgment for $125,000. On the day of trial a panel of three bar attorneys valued the case at $250,000, $300,000, and more than the $400,000 limit; Mid-Century proposed only a high-low trial parameter of $100,000 to $400,000, which the Burdens declined.

The case was tried before Judge Robert H. Gardner from April 23 to April 25, 2024. The dispute was causation. Mid-Century's expert, Dr. Joseph Dryer, testified that Burden's neck and back findings were degenerative and age-related rather than traumatic, though on cross-examination he conceded her complaints were credible, that the MRIs showed objective evidence of injury, that she had been asymptomatic before the crash, and that at least one of the spinal surgeries would in fact be necessary. The jury found Burden's total damages to be $4,500,000.

Because the claim was against her own carrier, the court molded the verdict to the coverage available. The final judgment was $517,350.44, representing the $400,000 UIM limit together with attorney's fees, litigation costs including expert fees, and prejudgment interest under the offer-of-judgment and arbitration de novo rules.

The Burdens then moved to lift the stay on their bad-faith claim and to add a claim under the New Jersey Insurance Fair Conduct Act, the statute enacted in January 2022 that allows treble damages for unreasonable delay or denial of UM and UIM benefits. On August 2, 2024 Judge Gardner denied the motion and dismissed the bad-faith counts, holding the Act applies only prospectively and could not reach a 2017 accident and a 2019 suit; he denied reconsideration on September 27, 2024. On March 13, 2026 the Appellate Division affirmed in an unpublished per curiam opinion, agreeing that the Act's "take effect immediately" language signals prospective application and that the amendment would have been futile. The insurer did not challenge the $4.5 million verdict itself.