Committing Fraud Doesn’t Pay

By: Christine C. Ryan, Esq.

A Superior Court judge in Essex County recently granted a motion for summary judgment filed by our office against a plaintiff, who made material misrepresentations of fact while seeking $250,000 in personal injury protection (“PIP”) benefits from our client, in violation of the New Jersey Insurance Fraud Prevention Act (“NJIFPA”).

The court held that the plaintiff’s material misrepresentations included misrepresenting to an insurance investigator that she did not know the owner of the vehicle that struck her (with whom she lived at the time of the accident). The court also held that the plaintiff violated the NJIFPA by driving the vehicle at issue with knowledge that it was uninsured. Prior to the accident, the plaintiff received traffic citations for driving without insurance, and had the citations dismissed by presenting a false insurance identification card to the Municipal Prosecutor.

The Judge ruled that our office presented clear and unambiguous evidence that the plaintiff knowingly made material misrepresentations in violation of the NJIFPA and denied the plaintiff’s claim for $250,000 in PIP benefits.