Essential services benefits pay for services the injured person normally performed for the maintenance and care of his household or family which he can no longer perform as a result of injuries sustained from a motor vehicle accident. Similar to the above additional PIP benefits, the death benefit may also be increased. An insurance carrier may, however, offer a larger amount for this benefit. In order to recover PIP benefits, whether basic or additional, the injured party must be covered by a valid policy and sustained injury resulting from an accident while entering, occupying or exiting an automobile, as a pedestrian or by an object propelled from or by an automobile. An injured party may also seek to recover non-economic damages for his injuries from the responsible person under that individual s liability coverage.
Recovery depends upon the injured person s tort threshold election.
In order to recover under the verbal tort threshold election, the person must demonstrate an injury resulting in death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement, fracture, loss of fetus, or permanency where the organ or body part did not heal to function normally and will not even with further medical attention. If the liable party does not maintain liability insurance, the injured party may seek uninsured motorist benefits under his automobile insurance policy, if he has elected this coverage, to recover non-economic damages. When asserting an uninsured motorist claim, the person s recovery is subject to his tort threshold election. Esquire The Tax Relief Act of 1997 lowered the tax rate on certain capital gains effective January 1, 2001. This presents some income shifting possibilities between relatives in a higher bracket to relatives, such as grandchildren, in a lower bracket.