Can You Sue Your Employer After a Workplace Injury in New Jersey?
In most cases, the New Jersey Workers' Compensation Act makes workers' compensation your exclusive remedy against your employer -- with only narrow exceptions.
The Workers’ Compensation “Trade-Off”
The New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Act reflects a historic compromise between employers and employees. Workers give up their right to bring common-law negligence suits against their employers in exchange for automatic entitlement to certain, but reduced, benefits when injured on the job.
As the New Jersey Supreme Court explained:
“The Workers’ Compensation Act reflects a historic trade-off whereby employees relinquish their right to pursue common-law remedies in exchange for automatic entitlement to certain, but reduced, benefits whenever they suffer injuries by accidents arising out of and in the course of employment.” -- Rodriguez v. Shelbourne Spring, LLC, 327 A.3d 134, 140 (N.J. 2024) (quoting Millison v. E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., 501 A.2d 505, 512 (N.J. 1985)).
This means that for most workplace injuries, workers’ compensation is your exclusive remedy.
The “Intentional Wrong” Exception
There is, however, one critical exception: when an employer commits an intentional wrong.
Under Richter v. Oakland Bd. of Educ., 252 A.3d 161 (N.J. 2021) and Laidlow v. Hariton Mach. Co., 790 A.2d 884 (N.J. 2002), to qualify under this exception, a plaintiff must show two things:
- Knowledge of substantial certainty. The employer knew its actions were substantially certain to cause injury or death to the employee; and
- Extraordinary circumstances. The injury and the way it occurred were more than the normal risks of industrial employment and were plainly beyond anything the Legislature intended the Act to cover.
The Court has emphasized that this is a high standard to meet. The “substantial certainty” test requires more than negligence, recklessness, or even gross negligence -- it demands a “virtual certainty” that harm would result.
As stated in Van Dunk v. Reckson Assocs. Realty Corp., 45 A.3d 965, 978 (N.J. 2012):
“To avoid allowing employees to circumvent the Act, courts must demand a virtual certainty before employees can proceed under the intentional wrong exception to sue their employer in tort.”
What This Means for Injured Workers
In most cases, if you are hurt at work -- whether from a fall, machinery accident, repetitive motion, or another job-related cause -- you’ll be required to file a workers’ compensation claim rather than a personal injury lawsuit. Only in rare cases involving intentional or egregious employer conduct might you be able to pursue a separate tort action.