The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled in a 3-2 decision that motorists who opt for the $15,000 insurance minimum in personal injury protection, or PIP benefits, cannot recover medical expenses exceeding that amount.

The justices found no evidence that the Legislature, when it amended the Automobile Insurance Cost Reduction Act to allow motorists to elect smaller amounts of medical coverage, intended to depart from the first-party PIP system. To rule otherwise would be a return to fault-based suits consisting solely of economic damages claims for medical expenses in excess of an elected, lesser level of PIP coverage, which is not what lawmakers intended, the court said. The ruling reversed an Appellate Division decision that allowed plaintiffs in auto accident cases to  recover medical expenses exceeding their $15,000 PIP.

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