Whitaker v. DeVilla

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

STEIN, J.

The critical issues in this appeal concern the proper interpretation, as well as the constitutionality, of N.J.S.A. 17:28-1.4, New Jersey’s so-called “deemer” statute. That statute deems New Jersey’s “verbal threshold,” which allows automobile accident tort recovery for non-economic losses only for bodily injury of a type or degree within one of the nine defined categories set forth in N.J.S.A. 39:6A-8a, to apply to the policies of out-of-state residents using their automobiles in New Jersey if their insurers are authorized to do business in…