car accident attorney

April 5, 2016

De La Torre v. Gallardo – Florida Dram Shop Law

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

When a drunk driver crashes into your vehicle in Florida, what recourse do you have to recover damages?

The answer depends on the underlying circumstances, but generally, you will want to explore:

The at-fault driver/ insurance;
The owner of the vehicle/ insurance;
The employer of the at-fault driver (if he or she was working);
The establishment that served the at-fault driver alcohol.

That last one – which falls under Florida’s dram shop law – will only work if the drunk driver was either under 21 or known to the establishment to be habitually addicted to alcohol. Per F.S. 768.125, those are the only circumstances under which an establishment may be held accountable for the injurious actions of a drunk driver. Continue reading

March 14, 2016

Florida Supreme Court: Insurers Can’t Unreasonably Delay

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

The Florida Supreme Court recently made it clear that auto insurance companies don’t have the right to ward off bad faith lawsuits after years of unreasonable delays, denials and non-response by paying the policy limits at the last minute.

In Fridman v. Safeco Ins. Co. of Ill., the court denied a bid by the insurer to assert it couldn’t have acted in bad faith because it did finally pay the insured. But bad faith by insurers can be revealed as much as much by the timing of the payment as the amount.

And in this case, the plaintiff – a man who was injured in a car accident by an underinsured driver – waited four full years to get a check from the insurance company. And even then, it came with settlement agreement language that effectively barred him from taking further action to collect anything further. He refused to accept it, and it was another six months before the insurer sent him another check with no such language.

But by that time, plaintiff was set on pursuing a bad faith insurance action. In Florida, people can file either a first- or third-party lawsuit against insurance companies for delaying or denying reasonable claims for benefits under the policy. If the court finds the insurer was liable for the underlying claim and acted in bad faith toward the insured, it can be made to pay triple damages. That’s not three times the policy limit – that’s three times the actual damages. Continue reading

March 2, 2016

Study: Technology Could Curb Florida Rear-End Accidents

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

Just weeks ago, a driver operating a passenger car rear-ended a Broward County public school bus on Northeast Ninth Avenue in Fort Lauderdale. The entire hood of the black Acura TSX was underneath the bus.

No one was seriously injured, but as evidenced by news reports, these kinds of incidents aren’t all that common. If someone could miss a large yellow bus looming in front of them, it stands to reason smaller vehicles stopped in traffic are at higher risk. AAA reports distracted driving accounts for between a quarter and half of all crashes, and likely an even larger chunk of rear-end crashes.

Drivers simply aren’t paying attention to what’s happening in front of them. In fact, a recent Virginia Tech study, “Second Strategic Highway Research Program Naturalistic Driving Study,” found after analyzing three years’ worth of footage that 75 percent of crashes are due to driver error and people are engaged in distracted behavior 68 percent of the time they are behind the wheel. Continue reading

February 10, 2016

Researchers: Economic Improvement Tied to Uptick in Traffic Deaths

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

There are over 20,000 car accidents in Florida every year. Preliminary counts of South Florida traffic deaths in 2015 suggest a sharp increase. In Palm Beach County, for example, The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles counted a 29 percent increase in the first six months of the years to the first six months of 2014 – 102 deaths versus 79 deaths. Motor vehicle fatalities in Florida were also up 29 percent and nationally, up 14 percent.

There is of course the growing element of distraction now that most every driver has access to their own person computer at all times via their smart phone. But there is something else going on, researchers say.

We are now at the tail end of what has been one of the longest roads to economic recovery since the end of WW II. The labor market has improved. Unemployment is down. So are gas prices. This has meant people have more money in their pocket. More freedom to take a trip. More incentive to take a private vehicle rather than opt for public transportation or bicycling. In turn, there are more vehicles on the road and a higher likelihood of traffic deaths. Continue reading