Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorney Tag Archives

June 6, 2024

Why Would My Fort Lauderdale Injury Lawyer Need to Hire an Actuary for My Case?

If you are a plaintiff in a personal injury case, your Fort Lauderdale injury lawyer may well suggest hiring an actuary – and doing so fairly early on in the process. Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyer hiring an actuary

This is often a critical first step because actuaries, who are experts in mathematics, statistics, and financial theory, can help us get a better sense of the actual economic loss involved in a case. That reduces the uncertainty when it comes to personal injury settlement negotiations.

The vast majority of Fort Lauderdale personal injury cases are resolved through negotiation with insurers and defendants (as opposed to a trial or even litigation). Before we issue a demand letter or even consider a settlement offer from the other side, we need to know the full extent of your losses.

That might seem simple. As your attorney, we may have a pretty accurate ballpark estimate just from our years of experience in practicing personal injury law. But we’re not just tallying the actual wages you’ve already lost and bills you already owe. We want to know how this incident is going to continue to impact you professionally, financially, physically, mentally, and emotionally – for years to come. Only then can we confidently request or accept a settlement offer.

A common method to determine these kind of damages is called the “multiplier-multiplicand method” or the “courts method.” Basically, we’re looking at the amount of estimated annual loss, multiplied by the number of years that loss is expected to continue. Accuracy is important in these calculations, but without guidance from someone with expertise in finance and risk assessment, these kinds of forecasts can be somewhat subjective and even inaccurate. This is especially true in cases with complex, serious injuries. Continue reading

April 12, 2024

Steps of a Fort Lauderdale Personal Injury Lawsuit

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

The legal process is vexing for most people. A Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawsuit is no different – especially because you’re navigating it all after just emerging from a traumatic incident such as a car accident, medical malpractice, or hazardous conditions/violence on someone else’s property.

Most people aren’t experts on insurance coverage, liability, and the rules of litigation. And hopefully, this is the only time you’ll ever have to go through it. But knowing the steps of how the Florida personal injury claims process works can help ease some anxiety about what to expect. Your personal injury lawyer – who is not paid upfront, or at all unless you win – can break it down even more clearly based on the facts of your case.

If you’re asking, “What are the steps of a Florida personal injury lawsuit?” We have answers.

“It Depends”

Everyone hates this lawyerly answer.

But we must start with it as a caveat because the steps of your Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawsuit depend on a few factors. A Broward medical malpractice injury lawsuit is going to be much more involved and have many more steps compared to a Broward car accident lawsuit.

What we can say is that regardless of the type of injury claim you’re filing, it can be settled at any time (as opposed to going to court). In some cases, it’s not even necessary to file a lawsuit to get a fair settlement. Defendants that recognize their wrongdoing right out of the gate may be eager to put it behind them. And insurers also have a duty to act in good faith, meaning there is some incentive to settle solid claims quickly and fairly. Working with a skilled personal injury lawyer is the best way to facilitate a fast and fair Florida personal injury settlement.

Basic Steps of a Florida Injury Lawsuit

While the steps may vary slightly depending on the specifics of your case, claimants in Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawsuits can generally expect the following:

Investigation
Pre-suit demand and settlement negotiation
Filing the lawsuit
Discovery
Trial
Appeal/post-trial motions

Settlements, which is how 95% of injury claims are resolved, are often ideal because they minimize litigation (lawsuit) costs. Again, a claim can be settled at any point. We could be in the middle of trial, and the claim could be settled.

The key is to ensure the claim is reasonable. Accept a low-ball offer, and you’ll be stuck with it – even if your actual losses end up being much higher. Reject a fair offer, and you could end up reducing your payout if the verdict at trial ends up being within 25% of that offer. A Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyer can help you figure out what’s fair and what isn’t. Continue reading

April 10, 2023

Florida Personal Injury Plaintiffs Now Face New Comparative Fault Standard

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

Sweeping legislative reforms were passed by the Florida legislature late this month – including provisions will significantly and adversely impact the ability of personal injury plaintiffs in Fort Lauderdale to collect full and fair compensation for losses caused by another’s negligence. Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyer

As our Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyers can explain, tort reform proponents (mostly lobbyists for large corporations and insurers) have for years painted Florida as a “judicial hellhole” and decried how easy it was for plaintiffs to win big payouts for things like car accidents, premises liability, boating accidents, medical malpractice, etc.

The reality is: It’s not easy to win Florida personal injury cases, and never has been. Now it’s about to be even harder, and accountability for insurance companies has been weakened. Having a dedicated, experienced personal injury lawyer advocating on your behalf has always been an imperative to success in these cases, but now more than ever.

Among the changes now in effect thanks to HB 873: Continue reading

August 6, 2019

Florida Hotel Injuries May be Compensable if Preventable

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

Tourism is one of the biggest industries in Florida, with more than 128 million visitors flocking to the Sunshine State last year. A sizable number of those opt to stay in one of the state’s 423,000 hotel rooms. Like any other property owner, hotels, motels and resorts owe a duty of care to their patrons that requires they keep the property in reasonably safe condition, check for hazards and warn guests of any non-obvious dangers that can’t be remedied right away. In the event this does not happen and someone is seriously hurt, those injured should explore the possibility of a hotel injury lawsuit. hotel injury lawyer

Fort Lauderdale injury attorneys will examine your premises liability claim to determine whether it’s viable and identify all potential defendants. Some of the most common hotel injury claims include:

Parking lot injuries;
Swimming pool accidents/drowning;
Slip-and-fall injuries;
Trip-and-fall injuries;
Falls from heights;
Food poisoning;
Burns from fires, hot water, food or drinks;
Elevator/escalator injuries;
Animal attack;
Injury caused by broken/defective furniture;
Bed bugs/unsanitary conditions;
Exposure to toxic chemicals;
Playground injuries;
Assault/battery.

Any one of these incidents can cause serious and lasting injuries and trauma. If there is evidence the hotel staff knew or should have known about the risk and failed to fix it or provide guests warning, there is a good chance a personal injury claim could be successfully made.

Defendant hotels will often argue comparative negligence (i.e., the person injured shared some or all of the blame, proportionately reducing damages) or that the claimant wasn’t as seriously injured as they said. Having an experienced personal injury attorney will be imperative. Continue reading

April 30, 2019

Florida Injury Lawsuit Tort Reform Bill Would Cap Pain & Suffering Damages

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

State lawmakers are weighing a bill that would reimpose caps on non-economic damages in all Florida injury lawsuit and damage claims, limiting plaintiffs to $1 million for damages like pain and suffering and loss of consortium. Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyers know such caps were already struck down as unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court, but legislators are reportedly banking on the fact that more newly-appointed conservative justices will take a different view. personal injury lawyer Fort Lauderdale

Florida State House Bill 17 is slated for consideration by the House Judiciary Committee, after already moving through the Commerce Committee and the Civil Justice Committee. It prevailed, though votes were split along party lines.

The question is whether the new state supreme court will adhere to the constitutionality precedent set by the previous justices. In the 2014 Florida Supreme Court ruling of McCall v. U.S., the court rejected lawmaker-initiated non-economic damage caps in wrongful death lawsuits, finding them to be a constitutional violation on the equal protection clause. Continue reading

February 23, 2017

Trip-and-Fall Injury Settlement for $1.5M in Favor of Personal Chef

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

A personal chef who sustained severe personal injuries following a trip-and-fall while at work in a private home was awarded $1.5 million in damages as part of a settlement agreement in exchange for voluntarily dismissing his claim in court.

According to the Greenwich Time, the settlement was reached between the chef and the remodeling company, which allegedly laid down a dangerous plastic runner on a set of stairs in the rear of the kitchen. The remodeling firm was contracting with the homeowner to carry out a series of residential renovations.

This settlement was important for the worker because in Connecticut, similar to in Florida, homeowner do not have to purchase workers’ compensation coverage for domestic workers they hire. The exemption laid out in F.S. 440.02(15)(c)1 specifies that domestic servants in private homes are exempt from the definition of “employment.” But homeowners who choose not to buy workers’ compensation insurance for housekeepers, personal chefs, nannies and others may find they are personally liable for injuries suffered by these workers on their properties. Granted, the worker would have to prove negligence on the part of the homeowner (something they don’t have to do in typical workers’ compensation claims), but if that worker prevails, he or she will be able to collect all of their lost wages (as opposed to just a portion), all medical bills and compensation for pain and suffering, emotional distress and loss of consortium. These payouts would most likely be made through the homeowner’s insurance policy. Continue reading

September 29, 2016

Student Injured in Musical at High School Suing

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

A woman is seeking $50,000 in damages on behalf of her daughter, who was injured while watching a musical production of, “Aladdin” at a local high school in Illinois.

The girl, a minor, was reportedly hit on the head with a light fixture during the production. The girl’s mother alleges the youth theater company as well as the school district are liable to pay damages for the resulting injuries – specifically, medical bills, pain and suffering and the mother’s lost wages.

According to The Chicago Tribune, the girl was participating in the production for school credit in one of her classes. According to the lawsuit, her role in the production was to pick up confetti that had been fired out of a cannon at the end of Act I and then to leave through the back curtains. Behind that curtain was an adjustable stage light that was on a pole. The complaint asserts that an employee of the company adjusted the light to be about five feet off the ground. However, complainant student is 5 feet 8 inches tall. The girl reportedly was picking up the confetti and then stood up, striking her head on the light as she did so. Continue reading

May 22, 2016

Grimes v. Family Dollar Stores of Florida – Parking Lot Trip-and-Fall

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

Generally, if you trip-and-fall in a landscaped area that obviously isn’t intended for foot traffic, the property owner isn’t going to be responsible to compensate you for any resulting injuries.

However, as the recent case of Grimes v. Family Dollar Stores of Florida reveals, when those landscaped areas have well-worn pedestrian tracks indicating it is regularly used as a shortcut, the potentially for liability is increased.

That’s according to Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal. The court conceded there were a number of prior cases (on which defendants relied) that established property owners/ controllers aren’t responsible when pedestrians/ shoppers take a shortcut through landscaped features that aren’t designed for or used by pedestrians. (Specifically, the court relied on Wolf v. Sam’s East, Inc.) Continue reading

February 20, 2016

Student Athlete Concussion Target of Fort Lauderdale Teen App

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

Plans for a mobile app that aims to reduce student athlete concussions, the brainchild of seventh-graders at Pine Crest School, is now close to becoming reality. This was after they received the top honor in a national contest for the app, which they’ve been developing for the last two years.

Now, they’re in the running to work alongside software engineers with MIT to improve their app before it goes on the market. They’ll also receive $20,000 from the Verizon Foundation. It was one of 1,200 submissions nationally, and this was one of eight teams chosen to compete.

The goal of the app is to slash the number of student concussions and prevent traumatic brain injuries among young athletes. It’s an issue close to home for these Fort Lauderdale students, where just last year, 1 in 5 junior and varsity football team players – 10 out of 48 – suffered a concussion-related injury. Continue reading