Terms Used In New Jersey Statutes 17:16K-6

  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
  • person: includes corporations, companies, associations, societies, firms, partnerships and joint stock companies as well as individuals, unless restricted by the context to an individual as distinguished from a corporate entity or specifically restricted to one or some of the above enumerated synonyms and, when used to designate the owner of property which may be the subject of an offense, includes this State, the United States, any other State of the United States as defined infra and any foreign country or government lawfully owning or possessing property within this State. See New Jersey Statutes 1:1-2
If a court of competent jurisdiction determines that a financial institution or a government agency acted negligently, willfully, or recklessly in violating this act, the financial institution or government agency shall be liable to the aggrieved person for actual damages sustained by him; reasonable litigation costs; reasonable attorneys’ fees; and only in cases where a financial institution or government agency acted willfully or recklessly, a court of competent jurisdiction may award punitive damages where appropriate. L.1983, c. 466, s. 6, eff. Jan. 12, 1984.