If you’ve recently been in a Fort Lauderdale car accident, you may be wondering whether this ordeal will eventually wind up in a courtroom trial.
While every case is different, the most probable answer is: No.
That’s not to say it’s impossible. But the truth is, most Fort Lauderdale car accident cases never even become lawsuits – let alone make it all the way to trial.
Florida is a no-fault state when it comes to car accident claims. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t pursue monetary damages from negligent drivers. It also doesn’t mean you can’t be held responsible (at least partly) for your own injuries. The seat belt defense is a good example of the latter, as our Broward car accident lawyers can explain.
Let’s start with the fact that with very few exceptions, seat belts are required by Florida law for all drivers and passengers in motor vehicles.
Florida’s no-fault car insurance law holds that all vehicle owners must carry personal injury protection (PIP) coverage that provides up to $10,000 in compensation for any insureds injured in a crash with that vehicle – regardless of who was at-fault in causing the crash. An injured person can step outside the state’s no-fault PIP system and pursue a claim for additional monetary damages against any at-fault parties IF their injuries meet the serious injury threshold. As set forth in F.S. 627.737, they must prove their injuries – caused by the crash for which the defendant is responsible – resulted in significant/permanent loss of a bodily function, permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant/permanent scarring/disfigurement or death.
It’s worth noting that Florida is recognized as a pure comparative fault state when it comes to negligence claims. Per F.S. 768.81, that means each person/entity can only be held legally responsible to pay for the damages they caused. So for example, if one suffers $100,000 in damages and Defendant A is responsible for 40 percent and Defendant B is responsible for 60 percent, Defendant A will be ordered to pay $40,000 and Defendant B will be ordered to pay $60,000.
But what if one of the people responsible for a plaintiff’s injuries is the plaintiff themself? That is what we call contributory negligence. By way of their own negligence, they contributed to their own injuries. So if you suffered $100,000 in damages – but are 20 percent responsible for your own injuries – the most you can expect to be awarded is $80,000.
That brings us to the seat belt defense. Continue reading
If you’re injured in a Fort Lauderdale car accident, you may be aware that your first avenue to collect damages is personal injury protection (or “PIP”) coverage. This is state-mandated auto insurance that you pay for that will cover a portion of your medical bills and lost wages if you are injured in a Florida car accident – regardless of who is at-fault. However, as our Fort Lauderdale car accident lawyers can explain, PIP is not likely to cover all of your damages – particularly if it was a serious wreck. That is why if someone else caused the crash (or exacerbated your injuries from it), you will want to explore stepping outside of that no-fault system and filing a claim against the at-fault driver. 
Although PIP is the go-to for no-fault accident coverage in Florida, it does not cover every scenario, every type of loss – or even every person. The following is a list of what PIP won’t cover:
Florida motorists take on numerous responsibilities every time they get behind the wheel. One of those is carrying the statutory minimum amount of insurance coverage, or having the ability on their own to cover losses up to a certain dollar amount. Unfortunately, there are far too many motorists who fail to do either. Per the Florida Insurance Council, the Sunshine State has one of the highest rates of uninsured motorists anywhere in the country. If the driver who hit you was not insured, you may still have several options for financial recovery. It’s important to discuss these with an experienced Fort Lauderdale car accident attorney.
Before you registering a four-wheeled vehicle in Florida, you need to show proof of both personal injury protection (PIP) and property damage liability. PIP is going to cover 80 percent of what are considered “necessary and reasonable medical expenses” up to $10,000 – no matter who caused the crash. The property damage liability will cover damages to another person’s property if you or someone else cause a crash driving a vehicle insured by you.
You may notice that what is not required is bodily injury liability (unless you’re driving a taxi or commercial vehicle or if you’ve been convicted of a DUI). Bodily injury liability is the kind of coverage that will go to cover the expenses of others injured in a crash you cause. Continue reading
Following a car accident it’s wise to be wary of insurers. No matter how friendly they seem or how much they insist they’re there to help, an agent’s loyalty is to their employer. Saving the insurer money is their primary goal, and they do it by figuring out ways to pay you less.
Protecting yourself involves not providing any details to which they are not entitled. It’s important that you appreciate you do have a contract and legal obligation to honor. You are required to inform the insurance company about the accident. That means providing the basic necessary information. Beyond that, your lips should stay sealed until you’ve talked to a personal injury attorney.
Note too that you don’t have this same obligation to the other drivers’ insurer. You benefit nothing from giving that insurer a statement or signing any paperwork they send you. All you need to do is get the insurance information from the other driver. You don’t need to provide them with information. Continue reading
Florida lawmakers are looking to ditch the decades-old no-fault car insurance law that has dictated personal injury recovery from crashes since the 1970s. As our Fort Lauderdale car accident lawyers can explain, the new law, if signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, will do away with requirements to purchase no-fault personal injury protection (PIP) coverage and instead require bodily injury liability coverage. Ultimately, this will fundamentally change the way we pursue damages in Florida car accident cases. 
Both the Florida House and Senate signed off on SB 54, a bill subject to substantial back-and-forth to close out the end of this legislative session.
Current law requires all vehicle owners to purchase PIP that covers $10,000 for their own medical, disability and funeral expenses if they’re hurt in a crash – regardless of fault. But as any Florida car accident attorney will tell you, $10,000 isn’t nearly enough to cover healthcare costs after most accidents. (The amount hasn’t changed since 1979.) Besides that, only $2,500 is available if injuries don’t require emergency treatment. Furthermore, PIP isn’t always as easy to obtain as it should be, and many injured motorists need assistance from an attorney to ensure they’re fairly compensated. The only way to step outside the no-fault system and pursue compensation from the at-fault driver is if one’s injuries meet or exceed the serious injury threshold, as outlined in F.S. 626.737. Continue reading
With more than 15 million licensed drivers and even more annual visitors, Florida roads are never wanting in traffic. The problem is not all those drivers are insured. In fact, Florida is No. 1 for uninsured motorists in the country for driving uninsured. More than 27 percent lacking the proper coverage, according to the Insurance Information Institute. 
There are many theories about why this is, but the bottom line for us as Fort Lauderdale injury lawyers is that many accidents involve an uninsured driver. This poses some definite challenges in terms of how we approach an injury case.
You can still often recover damages if you’re injured in a crash with a driver who isn’t insured, but it will depend on your own coverage, the personal finances of the at-fault driver, who owns the vehicle that was driven and whether any third-parties were at-fault. Continue reading
A South Florida woman has filed a car accident lawsuit in Broward Circuit Court, alleging negligence resulting in serious injury, pain, disability, disfigurement and something known as “loss of life enjoyment.” 
Such damages are typical to seek in Florida crash injury claims, but this last one is what we want to focus on here. While serious injury, disability and medical costs can be established with documentation such as medical records, bills, bank statements, pay stubs and tax returns (among other types of evidence), loss of life enjoyment is a little trickier because it is highly subjective. It’s also sometimes referred to as “hedonic damages,” “loss of life’s pleasures” or “lost value of life.” It is a type of non-economic damages, which means there is no clear-cut value for the loss, as opposed to economic damages, which are the result of monetary losses suffered as a result of an injury or wrongful death.
In this case, as reported by the Florida Record, the motorist alleges defendant struck her vehicle in December 2016, causing her to sustain severe injuries that required hospitalization and ongoing nursing care. It also had the effect of exacerbating an existing medical condition. Details of the injuries and crash circumstances weren’t given in the initial complaint, except that it occurred at an intersection of the southbound I-95 ramp in Fort Lauderdale and plaintiff alleges defendant failed to maintain control of her vehicle or exercise proper lookout for other vehicles. Continue reading
A $19 million damage award for the widow of a fatal railroad car accident victim was affirmed in Missouri, finding the circuit court didn’t err when finding the railroad company 95 percent liable for failure to trim vegetation surrounding the railroad tracks. 
The appeal from the railroad company stemmed from the argument a new trial was warranted due to an alleged error by the trial court of not granting a motion for a new trial based on the intentional nondisclosures of prior car accident litigation by a juror. Ultimately, the state supreme court determined that defense attorneys could have discovered the juror’s litigation history had they re-ran her name through a standard background search once they became aware (at the juror’s notification) that her name was misspelled by the clerk of courts.
The case is worth noting for the fact that this is one of those errors that could potentially happen to either attorney in this case, and there are so many technicalities can impact the outcome. That’s why it’s so important to have an eagle-eyed personal injury attorney in Fort Lauderdale working on your behalf. Continue reading
In a multiple vehicle car accident, where witnesses may give widely varying accounts of what actually happened and who is at-fault and to what degree, the credibility of each witness and party becomes critical. It’s not uncommon for defense attorneys to challenge the credibility of plaintiffs to challenge their own client’s liability.
In a recent case before the Hawaii Supreme Court, this was precisely what the defense attorney did, via alleging at various points during the trial that plaintiff was not even in the vehicle, was not injured in the course and scope of employment (she was a home health aide reportedly helping transport a patient to a doctor’s office at the time of the crash) and that she had filed this personal injury lawsuit as a money grab on top of her fraudulent workers’ compensation claim. He went so far as to tell the jury during closing arguments that if they sided with plaintiff, they should be ashamed of themselves as it would consummate plaintiff’s fraud. Mind you, this was not something of which she’d been formally accused or convicted.
Plaintiff sought a jury instruction that would stipulate they could not consider her motive in filing the case, but rather only whether defendant was negligent. Trial court rejected that request, and jurors returned an 11-1 verdict in the defense favor, finding defendant – the rear driver in a three-car pileup – was not the legal cause of plaintiff’s injury. Continue reading
Broward Injury Lawyer Blog