injury lawyer

Published on: August 5, 2020

Florida Punishes Car Owners Who Fail to Carry Insurance – PIP Setoff

You probably have some kind of car insurance, since the law requires it. However, oftentimes you may not know what your car insurance actually pays until it’s too late. After a car accident, you call your insurance company, they might ask you follow-up questions by mail or phone, and then a month or more later, one of the people involved in the accidentgets a check covering the some of their eleigible expenses. Just what are all those details that the insurance companies are working out before they decide how much to pay? Different types of car insurance pay for different things, and in some cases, they can even cancel each other out. If you are not sure if the amount that the insurance company offered you after your accident is correct, contact an attorneybefore you accept the settlement offer.

What is PIP Insurance?

All registered vehicle owners in Florida must carry PIP insurance, as well property damage liability insurance. PIP stands for Personal Injury Protection, which covers up to $10,000 of medical expenses and lost income when someone gets injured at an accident, regardless of who is at fault for the accident. In order to get PIP insurance to cover your accident-related expenses, you must seek medical treatment within 14 days of the accident. If a driver collides with a pedestrian or bicyclist who does not own a car (and therefore does not have PIP insurance), the driver’s PIP insurance might also pay the medical expenses and lost income of the pedestrian or bicyclist. If the drivers involved in the accident have additional optional car insurance, such as bodily injury or uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, then the amount covered by PIP gets subtracted from what the other types of insurance must cover. This is called the PIP setoff.

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Published on: April 6, 2018

Exploring Third-Party Liability in Florida Drunk Driving Injury Lawsuits

By Dean Freeman

Drunk driving remains one of the leading causes of serious car accidents resulting in injury or death. Florida is a no-fault state when it comes to auto insurance, but if you meet the “serious injury threshold,” as outlined in F.S. 627.737, you can collect more than just personal injury protection (PIP) benefits by pursuing action against the at-fault driver. What many drunk driving victims don’t realize is that in addition to this, they may have the option of a third-party liability claim.

While it’s true drunk drivers are generally the only ones criminally charged, civil liability is different. Third parties can be accountable in civil court for the negligence and even criminal conduct of someone else if they breach a duty of care that in turn allowed the injurious incident to occur.

In Florida drunk driving cases, such third party defendants may include: Continue reading →

Published on: February 28, 2018

Shoddy Repair of a Vehicle Traps Couple in Fiery Crash, Jury Awards $42 Million

By Dean Freeman

Shoddy repair work by an auto body shop nearly cost a Texas couple their lives, and has left them with major burns and crushing injuries. It was a crash from which they otherwise should have walked away relatively unscathed.

The Dallas Morning News reports that prior to the 2013 crash, the couple brought the vehicle into a local repair shop to address damage to the vehicle roof after a bad hail storm. But instead of welding the repair, as is recommended by the vehicle manufacturer, the body shop used an approach that was cheaper, untested and involved a glue-like adhesive. This, plaintiffs attorney argued at trial, made a huge difference in the outcome of a subsequent crash.

The message the jury sent with its $42 million verdict favoring the plaintiff is that repair shops must fix vehicles properly, or else pay the price if someone is hurt when you don’t. Plaintiffs are also suing their auto insurer, alleging agents there bullied the auto shop into using the cheaper method – something that is common practice among auto insurers seeking to bolster their bottom line. Continue reading →

Published on: January 24, 2018

Injury Attorneys: Be Wary of Early Car Accident Settlement Offers

By Dean Freeman

Following a car accident in Florida, it is not uncommon for auto insurers to contact either insureds or third parties, seeking to reach a settlement on the claim (sometimes even before it’s been formally filed). Our injury attorneys urge great caution in these interactions.

Insurers essentially have two goals with these contacts:

To glean information about the collision;
To extend a low-ball settlement offer before you have a chance to fully comprehend the scope of your damages.

This is not to say auto insurers never offer a fair deal on the first go, but it’s best to have your auto accident attorney review the offer to determine if you are entitled to more – and if so, to help you negotiate for it. Continue reading →

Published on: August 16, 2017

Establishing Marijuana Impairment Proves Challenging in Crash Injury Lawsuit

By Dean Freeman

It’s well known that smoking or otherwise consuming marijuana before getting behind the wheel dramatically increases the likelihood of a car accident – even when the dose in question is small. However, proving marijuana impairment is much more difficult than proving intoxication by alcohol. That’s because marijuana remains in one’s system for much longer than alcohol. The effects may have long worn off, but traces of the drug remain days or even weeks after consumption.

Although some states have a legal limit allowable, scientists and medical experts mostly agree these limits are arbitrary, and aren’t necessarily the most accurate markers for determining impairment. Florida does not have a per se limit for drivers when it comes to marijuana.

In car accident civil injury lawsuits, that can be a double-edged sword. If it is believed defendant driver was under the influence, plaintiff attorneys will be tasked with carefully piecing together the circumstantial evidence to show impairment was a causal factor – knowing the presence of the drug in one’s bloodstream in and of itself isn’t proof positive. On the other hand, it will be tougher for defendants to assert plaintiff impairment simply by virtue of the drug’s presence in the body. If a defendant is successful, it could significantly hurt plaintiff’s case in determining both liability and damages. Continue reading →

Published on: August 11, 2017

Florida Appeals Court Reverses Premises Liability Lawsuit After DUI Death

By Dean Freeman

There may be a number of potential legal avenues to explore in civil court following a DUI death in Florida. These can include dram shop liability, vicarious liability (of vehicle owner or employer) as well as claims for uninsured/ underinsured motorist coverage. Premises liability, though, isn’t typically one of them. A recent case tested this theory – and won at trial – but was later reversed by the Florida 4th District Court of Appeal.

Plaintiff in this case suffered a terrible tragedy while on vacation for a church retreat in South Florida with his pregnant wife. While sunbathing near the pool cabana, an intoxicated driver recklessly drove her vehicle into the wall of the cabana, collapsing the structure and killing plaintiff’s wife and unborn child, who was 7 months along.

Plaintiff alleged premises liability for negligence in failure to address a potentially dangerous condition on the property (i.e., lack of protective features around the rear of the cabana that abuts a curve around which drivers were known to speed). Jurors at trial returned a verdict finding the hotel’s negligence was a partial cause of death here. Jurors awarded $24 million in total damages, determining the hotel was 15 percent liable and owed $3.6 million to plaintiff. But the 4th DCA ruled the lower court should have granted defense motion for a directed verdict in this matter. Continue reading →

Published on: January 17, 2017

Report: States Slow Rush to Restrict Elder Driver’s Licenses

By Dean Freeman

Florida has the most senior driver traffic fatalities in the country, according to a report released a few years ago by TRIP, a national transportation research group. The study showed that in a single year, 271 drivers over 65 were killed in auto accidents that year, and more than 500 traffic deaths of all ages involved at least one senior driver. Those totals are higher than any other state, including California, which has the most over-65 drivers in the nation (3.1 million, which is about half a million more than here in the Sunshine State).

We can only expect these figures have increased as not only has the number of overall auto accidents and fatalities spiked in recent years, but so too have the number of over-65 drivers. Back in the 1970s, roughly half of all American seniors had a driver’s license. Today, 84 percent of them do.

Recently, a study by Pew Charitable Trusts highlighted the fact that by 2030, more than 60 million senior drivers are going to be on our nation’s roadways. Many states – including Florida – have laws already on the books that seek to restrict the licenses of elderly drivers, either through required vision tests or more frequent renewals. However, in the last few years, researchers noted, there has been reticence in state legislatures to enact additional measures – despite the growing number of older drivers. In fact, some states have even been rolling back these restrictions. Continue reading →