car accident lawsuit

May 3, 2016

Snapchat Named in Car Accident Injury Lawsuit

A man injured in a car accident last year is suing not only the young driver who slammed into him, but the social media platform on which she was allegedly engaged at the time of the wreck.

According to the complaint in Maynard v. McGee and Snapchat, filed in a Georgia state court, plaintiff alleges a critical cause of the crash was the mobile software produced and made available by Snapchat.

For those unfamiliar, Snapchat is a messaging app that allows users to take photos or videos and than add a caption, doodle or lens graphic over the top and send it to a friend. Users can also create “stories” and broadcast them publicly – either to everyone or just to your followers. Some of these images can only be viewed for a short period of time before they disappear. Continue reading

March 25, 2016

Rish v. Simao – Low Impact Car Accident Defense

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

Just because a Fort Lauderdale car accident occurs at relatively low speeds does not mean it cannot cause serious injuries. Consider that a typical passenger car weighs about 2,000 pounds. If that vehicle makes impact at 10 mph, it’s going to strike with 3.7 tons of force.

Of course, this has the potential to cause injuries.

Still, that won’t prevent the at-fault driver from asserting the low-impact defense if they can help it. They will try to introduce as evidence pictures of the minimal amount of damage to the vehicle. They may also introduce witness testimony to illustrate the crash occurred in stop-and-go traffic or while vehicles were not traveling fast. They may also highlight the fact that plaintiff refused medical attention immediately after the crash, insinuating that plaintiff may be exaggerating the extent of his or her injuries. Continue reading

February 14, 2016

Fort Lauderdale Crash Injury Victim Wins $300K Against Police

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

Jurors in Broward County have awarded more than $300,000 to a woman who was seriously injured following a Fort Lauderdale car accident with a police officer six years ago.

Unfortunately, because the defendant is a municipality, the award is capped at $100,000. The city hasn’t yet said whether it will appeal the decision.

Plaintiff, 52, was a passenger in a vehicle driven by her son just a few weeks before Christmas 2010. Defendant Daniel Gowans, a Fort Lauderdale police officer, was responding to a domestic violence call when he arrived at the intersection of Southeast Fourth Avenue and Sunrise Boulevard. His cruiser collided with the vehicle driven by plaintiff’s son. As a result of that impact, plaintiff’s wrist was broken in eight different places. Continue reading

February 6, 2016

Methadone Clinic, Doctor Settle Drugged Driving Crash Case for $8M

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

You may have heard of Florida’s dram shop law, which allows drunk driving victims in some cases to recover damages from the establishment that served alcohol to the impaired driver. As far as dram shop laws go, it’s not the greatest; it only allows compensation when the driver was under 21 or known to habitually abuse alcohol. Still, it’s an important resource for some victims of these wholly preventable collisions.

Now, given the precedent set by a recent settlement agreement in Minnesota, there may be another alternative for victims of drugged drivers: Action against the doctor or clinic where the driver received prescription medications.

Given the fact that Florida was not long ago labeled the “Oxy Express” and that abuse of prescription painkillers led to an epidemic of opioid addiction and overdose, it’s likely we might see similar cases crop up here. Continue reading