This question comes up often, especially in catastrophic injury cases. For example, the medical bills and associated expenses in spine injury cases could be more than $1 million in the first year and close to $5 million over the course of a lifetime. Most tortfeasors (negligent drivers) do not have nearly enough insurance coverage to [...]
Traditional evidence, like witness statements and the police accident report, can be important building blocks in most negligence cases. But there are problems with these tried-and-true proof methods. For example, witnesses are sometimes biased or incompetent. These strong-sounding words simply mean that their testimony is not always 100 percent accurate, even if their intentions are [...]
Proposed legislation which would ban most forms of distracted driving, and give police officers new enforcement tools, cleared an important hurdle in the State Senate. Sen. Wilton Simpson (R-Homosassa Springs) urged his fellow lawmakers to approve the bill, since “we’ve had record numbers of deaths in this state by distracted driving.” The proposal would apply [...]
In negligence cases, the victim/plaintiff must establish liability by a preponderance of the evidence. This legal term means “more likely than not.” Because of the low burden of proof, and because so many cases settle out of court, many lawyers are not very diligent when it comes to collecting electronic evidence. But this kind of [...]
Dangerous roadways and natural disasters cause a handful of car crashes. But human error causes about 93 percent of the car wrecks in Florida. Many of these incidents involve excessive speed, improper lookout, and/or driver inattention. There’s often an underlying cause as well, such as alcohol impairment or fatigue. Damages in car wreck cases often [...]
For as long as there have been negligence claims, insurance companies have tried to shift blame onto the victims. This trend began around 1900. As there were no federal safety standards at the time, many factories and cars were very dangerous. Defendants started calling job injuries and car crashes “accidents.” The word shifted focus away [...]
In Florida, human error causes over 90 percent of the car crashes. Momentary lapses cause a few of these wrecks. A few others happen because the driver was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the vast majority involve either negligence, which is a lack of ordinary care, or negligence per se, [...]
Today’s police officers and prosecutors have more tools than ever before with which to catch and convict “drunk drivers.” Yet alcohol is still directly responsible for about a third of the fatal car crashes in the Sunshine State. Alcohol is a depressant that causes unnatural relaxation by slowing motor skills. This substance also gives people [...]
The Sunshine State has the highest number of uninsured drivers in the country. Over a fourth of Floridians have no auto insurance at all. Moreover, Florida has one of the lowest auto insurance minimum in the country. So, thousands of other drivers in the state are dangerously underinsured. When these individuals cause accidents, there may [...]
Most of us speed much more often than we care to admit. If the road is flat, straight, and dry, the weather is clear, and the traffic is light, speeding is not particularly dangerous. But if even one of those “ifs” is not present, speed is often deadly. In fact, excessive velocity is a factor [...]
