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Personal injury law is an ever-evolving area thanks to a host of factors, including societal shifts, technological advancements, legislative changes and regulatory updates. NJBIZ recently chatted with attorneys about emerging trends that are likely to affect the practice, the types of complaints being brought and how cases will be handled.

They also spoke about some of the ways in which the landscape has remained unchanged, as well as their thoughts on the newest generation of personal injury attorneys.

Start with new technology. As autonomous vehicles become more prevalent on the roads, determining liability in accidents involving self-driving cars will become complex. As a result, it will raise questions over whether fault lies with the vehicle’s manufacturer, software developer or human occupant.

“It’s going to be interesting to see what happens at that point,” said Christopher Musmanno, chair of the accidents/personal injury practice group at Einhorn, Barbarito, Frost, Botwinick, Nunn & Musmanno PC in Denville. “Are there going to be car accident cases? Are they going to be more like products liability cases because the vehicle itself failed in some way? Automobile personal injury law may become non-existent as technology becomes better.

“If there is a car accident, it’ll be because of some mechanical failure with the product itself, with the car. And so, well, who are you suing? Are you suing the manufacturer of the car because some computer program glitch caused an accident? I mean, I don’t know how that’s going to work, but you’re not going to be suing a person because they had nothing to do with the operation of the vehicle…a lot of personal injury lawyers that do car accident cases 15, 20 years from now, that may not be a viable area of law anymore,” said Musmanno, who recently became a named partner at his firm.

Richard Grungo Jr., a founding partner of Grungo Law, a personal injury trial firm in Cherry Hill, said, “As we continue to evolve, I would suspect that we will see an increase in products liability claims regarding these systems and defects, whether it be lane recognition, stopping, whatever it may be.”

“I believe what we will see is many, many lawsuits that continue to test whether or not this autonomous driving technology is here and ready for use. And we’ve seen these lawsuits actually being filed across the country against Tesla and other autonomous manufacturers regarding defects in their product or at least allegations of defects in their product,” said Grungo, a certified civil trial attorney.

The emergence of other technologies, like smart home devices and artificial intelligence, is also having an impact on product liability cases.  Moving ahead, claims could focus on software glitches, data breaches and other issues stemming from the use of these gadgets.

Many states – including New Jersey – are strengthening consumer protection laws by holding companies to higher standards of care and expanding grounds for claims. That could lead to more claims related to cybersecurity breaches and data privacy violations.

Grungo said, “What we’ve seen at intake is an uptick in filings for mass data breaches. That’s because the world now is relying on a tremendous amount of data and there’s a tremendous amount of ability for people to get a hold of people’s confidential data, whether it be through scams or fraud or lack of proper security of networks.”

“Just by observing what’s going on, I’ve seen numerous, numerous class actions filed for data breach, cybersecurity issues and things of that nature,” Grungo said. “It’s not necessarily considered personal injury but it’s injury in the sense of somebody’s reputation or exposure of their personal information.”

Health care advances

Advances in health care technology and standards of care are likely to reshape the area of medical malpractice, Musmanno said.

“As medical technology becomes better, I expect we’ll see the figure for pain and suffering awards become less…If someone gets injured in some type of accident and they have to have a surgery, they’re awarded money for their pain and suffering because they went through a painful surgery,” he said.

“But what happens as medicine improves and it becomes like ‘Star Trek,’ where all they do is wave a wand over your broken arm and it’s healed within five minutes? Well, then there’s really not much pain and suffering. The arm is as good as new in five minutes…So now you haven’t gone through nearly as much pain and suffering, so therefore the case would be worth less,” he said.

Alternative dispute resolution

Alternative dispute resolution methods – such as meditation and arbitration – are expected to continue to grow in popularity. Given the time and expense associated with litigation, as well as a continuing judge shortage and packed court dockets, settling out of court could become an even more attractive option.

Commenting on the trend, Grungo said, ”One thing I feel like I’m seeing is there seems to be a lack of accountability in this day and age – it seems that big companies are quick to come up with excuses or explanations for something as opposed to fixing problems and being held accountable.

“And I just feel that as a society, there’s less accountability. To me, that is what the whole purpose of a civil trial is – ultimately getting in front of a jury is to have people from the community hold others accountable,” said Grungo, whose practice focuses on catastrophic injury and wrongful death and who has more than 25 years of experience.

Artificial intelligence

As a range of industries look to use generative AI – which is a type of artificial intelligence that creates content such as graphics, text and documents – more legal professionals are turning to the technology to handle routine functions, like document review, legal research and contract editing. Tasks that are typically time-consuming can now be completed in minutes or hours – rather than days – enabling attorneys to focus on building client relationships, as well as actually practicing law, instead of being bogged down by administrative work.

“AI is something that we are actively fusing into our practice and have been growing with this technology over the last few years. We’ve found the right software that we can make sure, number one, protects our client’s confidentiality and adheres to all ethical rules,” Grungo said.

“We’re using it to better represent our clients. That means summarizing medical records, analyzing deposition transcripts for inconsistencies and helping prepare outlines on complex medical issues. It helps streamline our processes in telling that client’s story,” he added.

Zoom, zoom, zoom

Post pandemic, video conferencing remains a timesaving, cost-effective way for firms to conduct certain tasks, such as consultations, depositions and talking with experts for cases.  Most courts continue to use Zoom for pre-trial meetings and case status conferences.

However, with more and more happening virtually, there’s concern that younger generations of attorneys could be missing out on some valuable learning experiences.

Musmanno said, “There was so much education that an attorney got after law school in court. We went to court every single day and you’d sit in court while you were waiting for your hearing or whatever. I’d go into an adjacent courtroom and just sit and watch some trial that was going on, watch some attorney cross examine a witness or a doctor and you learned. You’d meet older lawyers and you asked them questions, ‘well, what do you think about this?’ or ‘what expert would you use in this case?’ and ‘how would you handle this?’

“But now because of COVID, most hearings other than a trial are done remotely. Depositions are done remotely. Arbitration hearings are done remotely. So, there aren’t as many opportunities for young lawyers to go into court and just sort of pick the brain of an older lawyer,” he said.

Musmanno said, “Personal injury, if done correctly, is probably the most lucrative type of law that an attorney can do…Because of that, you have a lot of lawyers who want to get into it.”

However, establishing a successful practice takes time, he said.  “The way you do that is you have to be willing to go to trial and try cases that are difficult and win them. And if you do, then you develop a reputation as a good trial attorney and that helps. But in the older days – 30 years ago – there were so many more trials, so attorneys got so much more experience. You would be waiting for a jury result in one courtroom, and you were picking a jury in another courtroom down the hall,” Musmanno said. “The amount of trial experience that young lawyers got 30 years ago isn’t what’s happening today.”

Increasing competition

Another trend Musmanno said he’s observed is increasingly fierce competition for personal injury cases, particularly among younger attorneys seeking volume. “Many of these attorneys are not even meeting these clients. Some paralegal or secretary will have clients sign retainer agreements and the client isn’t even really consulting with an attorney,” he said.

“The other trend I see is that personal injury law firms that are solo or maybe two lawyers are falling by the wayside. People now want to go to a larger law firm that has a more substantial personal injury practice that can really get behind their case. The smaller law firms are being gobbled up by larger law firms…It seems like the number of personal injury law firms is decreasing and the size of those law firms are increasing the ones that exist.”

What’s the same?

While many aspects of the personal injury law landscape have changed, there’s a few constants, Grungo and Musmanno both said.

Grungo said, “We are storytellers on behalf of our injured clients – the ability to stand up in front of a jury and tell your client’s story in a way that exudes credibility, makes a connection and can tell a juror who is disinterested to take action and cause something to change by entering a verdict on behalf of a plaintiff and making sure that they are compensated for their damages for the past, the present, and the future. What hasn’t changed is the need and necessity of connecting with the jury and making sure they understand your client’s story.”

To reach jurors, Grungo said he’s had to tweak his approach a bit, however. “People’s attention spans are much shorter now, so when I prepare for trial, I am preparing for a trial that is going to be heavy on technology that uses lots of imagery and lots of screens because jurors now, young and old, are accustomed to screens,” he said. “When we take complex cases, like medical issues or injuries, the goal is to simplify them. And I’ve used and relied heavily on technology in order to do that.”

During his legal career, Grungo said he’s “had no choice but to learn and understand” new technologies that have been developed over the last two-and-a-half decades. “There are many, many attorneys that have refused to embrace technology and therefore they are still stuck in the old ways. And I’m not ruling out using old ways when I go to trial. I use technology, but I also use some of the older formats, like big blow-up documents that a jury could see sitting in front of them on an easel. It’s a combination of tools that I use to try and hit upon what each juror may need to understand the story,” he said.

What hasn’t changed is the need and necessity of connecting with the jury and making sure they understand your client’s story.
– Richard Grungo Jr., Grungo Law

“But certainly, the firms that have not evolved and who have not embraced this technology – I believe that we have an advantage over them and our clients have a better opportunity of success,” Grungo said.

Musmanno stressed that it can take years to develop a client base.

“I spend so much time meeting clients, talking with them and going over the facts of their case and trying to treat people like the way I would want to be treated if I was the client,” he said. “It takes a lot of time to represent a client. I’ve always prepared a client for trial by going to their home. You can learn so much about a client if you walk into their house, about their family…or their hobbies and interests…things you’d never learn if you either never spoke with a client or just did very quickly over a telephone. The time that’s required to do personal injury law seems to be lost on the younger generation.”

At Einhorn Barbarito, Musmanno chairs the largest personal injury department in Morris County and one of the largest in North Jersey. His specialties include medical malpractice, products liability, automobile accidents, workplace injuries, employment discrimination and insurance fraud.

One of his most high-profile cases was representing a number of passengers who sued NJ Transit after a train crashed through a concrete barrier at Hoboken Terminal, killing one woman and injuring 108 people on board in 2016. Overall, NJ Transit has paid more than $22 million to settle 76 lawsuits and 41 non-lawsuit claims.

Moving into 2025, Musmanno said, “I expect the smaller law firms to continue to be gobbled up by larger law firms. I expect the quantity of cases to increase. I expect the amount of personal attention that a personal injury lawyer gives to a file to decrease because they’re looking for volume. They’re looking to move files without really any client contact or minimal client contact.

“So, I expect younger attorneys to continue to either not develop or develop far more slowly because of the lack of practical experience. There’s going to come a point where attorneys will not know how to try a case because no one has ever had enough experience doing it,” he said.