Broward Injury Lawyer Blog

A Florida driver who suffered serious injuries in a 2009 auto accident in Hollywood was recently awarded $1.8 million in damages against the at-fault driver’s insurer by Broward Circuit Court jury, following a six-day trial.

In Brown v. Pennicook, defense fought hard against the notion plaintiff’s injuries were caused by the crash. Instead, defense focused intensively on an old work-related shoulder injury, a pre-existing degenerative condition and the assertion by one doctor that crash-related injury was nothing more than a sprain that didn’t even necessitate surgery.

Plaintiff presented expert witness testimony from a radiologist, two pain management doctors and two neurosurgeons. Each contributed to his position that the injuries he sustained were severe, that he required surgery and pain injections in the past and that he was likely to require long-term medical care and pain management.
Continue reading

In Dania Beach, a man stands accused of killing an 8-year-old boy and seriously injuring his 14-year-old brother before fleeing the scene. Authorities found the 22-year-old after he reportedly attempted to have the vehicle repaired at an auto body shop. He has since been charged with one count of leaving an accident scene involving death, one count leaving the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury and one count of tampering with physical evidence.

Despite a new Florida law that increased penalities for hit-and-run drivers, raising the punishment for those charged leaving the scene of an injurious or fatal crash, cases like the one in Dania Beach continue to proliferate.

That’s according to new figures released by the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. The agency reports, in the most recent data available, that there were 15,600 crashes in 2013 in which drivers fled the scene of a crash. Many of those were simple fender-benders, but that figure includes deadly crashes too.
Continue reading

A judge overseeing the product liability case against a vehicle manufacturer whose alleged acceleration problems led to a paralyzing crash has approved a plaintiff request to seek punitive damages.

What that means is the former University of Central Florida student whose injuries rendered him quadriplegic could potentially receive somewhere between $135 million to $180 million if he’s successful in his case. That’s roughly 10 times what he could have received had Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Meenu Sasser not approved the request.

The man now requires around-the-clock care – and will for the rest of his life. But the greater factor concerning why those additional funds are warranted has to do with the alleged actions of the auto maker. After all, punitive damages are intended to serve as punishment to a liable defendant.
Continue reading

Parents of 4- and 5-year-old children, take note: As of Jan. 1, 2015, you are in violation of the law if your child is in a moving motor vehicle without being strapped to a child car seat or booster seat.

A new child car seat law took effect at the start of the year, with the aim of reducing the number of child injuries and fatalities attributed to car accidents.

The Florida Highway Patrol reported according to preliminary figures, five children died and another 145 were injured in wrecks due to improper or no child safety restraints last year.
Continue reading

On Christmas Eve, 2013, a mother and grandmother anxiously waited for a 9-year-old girl to arrive. Her father was to bring her over, and they planned to make gingerbread houses and set out cookies for Santa.

But the little girl never made it. Her father, 27, was drunk, lost control of the vehicle and smashed into a tree. The roof of the vehicle was crushed. It took rescue crews 45 minutes to extricate him from the vehicle. It was only then they realized the 9-year-old girl in the back seat. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Her father’s blood-alcohol content was 0.137 percent – well above the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

He was recently convicted in Illinois of aggravated DUI resulting in death, and sentenced to three years in prison. The guilt that follows him, no doubt, will be a lifetime sentence.

Our Fort Lauderdale drunk driving accident lawyers understand no matter what criminal or civil penalties a drunk driver receives, it will never make it totally right. Still, pursuit of personal injury and wrongful death cases is sometimes financially necessary and often helps families to receive a modicum of closure.

The holidays are a tough time for anyone who has suffered loss, but it’s especially difficult when this time of year marks the anniversary of such a devastating tragedy. The U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports 40 percent of traffic-related deaths on both Christmas and New Year’s involve driver’s who are drunk. This is 12 percent higher than during the rest of December.

Many people are on vacation. They are gathering with friends and family. Alcohol is often a part of these functions. But such beverages must be consumed responsibly, especially if one plans to get behind the wheel.

While law enforcement ramps up enforcement around these holidays, the NIAAA and other traffic safety advocacy organizations are pushing for an increased awareness about how quickly one’s judgment and driving ability can be impaired.

The NIAA conveyed the following facts in a recent advertisement:

–Alcohol acts quickly. It interferes with one’s judgment, coordination and ability to drive long before any obvious signs of physical intoxication appear. The initial energy surge people experience when drinking is deceptive. The reality is, continued alcohol consumption will significantly slow reaction time.
–The effects of alcohol are lasting. It enters the bloodstream and will subsequently impact the body for many hours after consumption. When someone drives late at night after drinking, the sedative effects of the drug are compounded because people are instinctively more tired at night.
–Caffeine is not going to help. It doesn’t counteract the affects of alcohol or help anyone make better decisions. The only thing that will bring on sobriety is time.

While everyone metabolizes alcohol differently, a general rule is to have no more than one alcoholic drink per hour, and to make every other drink a non-alcoholic one.

When people leave holiday functions impaired, they are not setting out to hurt anyone. But lack of bad intent means little to a parent who has lost a child.

Our Fort Lauderdale accident lawyers are experienced in guiding drunk driving victims through all possible legal options.
Continue reading

For some, it rattles the conscience to think a drunk driver or his survivors could sue someone else for his involvement in a crash.

However, there are some instances where the argument for this is legally sound. Some cases may involve Florida Dram Shop laws. In other instances, it may be rooted in a simple theory of general negligence.

In any case, an injured driver who was impaired at the time of a crash is going to face an uphill battle to prove the cause of the crash and to limit his own personal liability for what happened.

Our experienced Fort Lauderdale DUI injury lawyers know such claims are going to be complex and require the assistance of an experienced legal team.

One of the scenarios in which such an assertion can make good legal sense is if the impaired driver did not cause the crash. It may not be the most common situation, but it is possible. One example might be if an impaired driver is struck by someone who runs a stop sign. Or perhaps the other driver is impaired too.

The bottom line in these cases is a person is not barred from recovery of personal injury damages in Florida simply because he or she was intoxicated. What will likely come into play is the issue of comparative fault. F.S. 768.81 outlines comparative fault. It grants an injured person the ability to recover damages from someone else, even if the injured person shared part of the blame for what happened. The degree of comparative fault will then be factored in to the ultimate amount of compensation, if plaintiff is successful.

So for example, that impaired driver struck by the stop sign runner: If he wins at trial and the jury awards him $200,000, but the jury assigns him 40 percent comparative fault, he’s only going to be able to collect $120,000 in damages.

Other cases brought by drunk drivers may include the Florida dram shop statute, codified in F.S. 768.125. The law says third parties who legally supply alcohol to someone can’t be held responsible for injury that person causes as a result of consuming that alcohol. Exceptions are made, however, when the seller furnishes alcohol to someone who is either underage or known to be habitually addicted to alcohol.

Usually, this law is used by victims of drunk drivers to file action against the bar who supplied the at-fault driver alcohol. But in Florida, it can sometimes be used by the impaired driver to pursue damages. For example, if an underage driver is served an excessive amount of alcohol and is subsequently injured in a crash, he or she may have grounds to sue the bar as well.

Some states expressly forbid this kind of recovery. In Georgia, for example, the state’s dram shop law specifically states an impaired driver can’t collect damages from the person or entity that furnished the drinks. This was recently reaffirmed in Dion v. Y.S.G. Enterprises, Inc., a case before the Georgia Supreme Court. There, the court ruled the widow of a drunk driver who was served alcohol for eight hours straight – even after he was visibly intoxicated, as forbidden by law – could not succeed in a lawsuit against the bar because of the provisions in state dram shop law.

In Florida, however, it continues to be worthwhile for all injured crash victims to explore legal options with an experienced attorney.
Continue reading