GOLDLAW – West Palm Beach Personal Injury Lawyers, Car Accident, Slip & Fall – Law Offices of Craig Goldenfarb

Category: Personal Injury Blog

  • Pedestrian Fatalities in Florida on the Decline, but Still Common

    A pedestrian accident is different from an auto accident in many ways. For one, when you get into your automobile to drive, the first thing you do (hopefully!) is buckle your seatbelt. But when you go outside to walk home from school, dinner or an event, no one thinks “I better watch out that I don’t get hit by a car.” It’s a given, sort of, that you will make it to your destination safely, but being hit by a car can be a life altering experience, and tragedies such as fatalities or permanent injury can happen as a result of an accident.

    According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Pedestrian fatalities have declined by 1.7 percent to 4,735, but that number is still 15 percent higher than the low in 2009 of 4,109 pedestrian fatalities. From 2011 to 2013 there were 25,900 pedestrian accidents in Florida, 75 percent of them resulting in injury or death. According to Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, “Florida has become one of the most dangerous states in the United States for pedestrians.”

    A 19-year-old University of South Florida student is in critical condition after being struck by a car. While in the crosswalk attempting to cross 50th Street at Sun Ridge Palm Drive, Elizabeth Courtney was crossing was struck by a Nissan Altima driven by Ernest Washington, 30, of Tampa Fl. Washington was cited for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk.

    An elderly couple, Francine Freedman, 80, and Philip Kendall, 85, were killed recently after being struck by a car on State Road A1A in Deerfield Beach. The couple was crossing at a point where a streetlight was not working but it is unclear according to investigators if that contributed to the accident. A neighbor who came out of his house when he heard the accident stated that the crossing was noted to be dangerous at night because of the lack of lighting due the the streetlight being out of order.

    The family of the Freedman’s or the Kendalls may have a wrongful death claim against the city of Deerfield Beach, or FPL (the operator and owner of the streetlamp) for their negligence in not addressing a deficient street lamp that may not have had the area lit well, contributing to the fatal pedestrian accident.

    In Largo, Florida, Sarah Arlia, a 32-year old mother, was crossing the street “outside of the crosswalk” with her 5-year-old son and 6-week-old daughter when the family was struck by a car causing the death of the infant girl. The driver stated that he saw the family but not soon enough to stop. The three were directly struck at the car’s full speed as there was no time at all to break. The car was driven by 65-year old Sandra Neki.

    One can never assume that just because lines are painted on a highway, a driver will necessarily obey them and stop or slow down. It’s always better to err on the side of patience and caution. It’s it up to us all when we are pedestrians to exercise the same level of caution and awareness while walking that we would exercise when we are driving.

  • Whose Fault Is It When You Slip and Fall?

    A slip and fall is not entirely your fault

    Businesses have a responsibility to keep their floors safe, clean, and free of hazards for their customers and anyone else who is on their property. This is Florida law. While some people might think of a slip and fall case as a frivolous or silly lawsuit, these cases are very serious.

    One of the ways a Jury determines how much of a slip and fall is the fault of the business, and how much is the fault of the person who fell, is a legal doctrine called “Comparative Negligence”. A Jury in a trial is asked to split up the fault by percentages. For example, a Jury could find that the business is 50% responsible, and the person who fell is 50% responsible.

    Comparative negligence is applied in cases that go to trial (which includes general negligence, auto accidents, and slip and fall injuries). Good lawyers will rarely accept a case where it’s not apparent that the accident was substantially the fault of the Defendant.

    How comparative negligence works

    Comparative negligence is determined by the Jury during deliberations at the end of the trial. The Jury uses a standard Florida verdict form to render their decision. The Jury’s job while in deliberation is to determine which of the parties in a lawsuit is at fault, and to what degree. They also determine the monetary award to the Plaintiff.

    There is no “most of the time, this happens” or rule-of-thumb when it comes to how a Jury decides the allocation of fault. Every single case is different. Over the 20 years we’ve been representing many thousands of clients, some Juries in our trials have determined our client to be 0% at fault, while other Juries have determined them to be more than 50% at fault. The bottom line is that there is simply no way to predict how a Jury will interpret the facts.

    How comparative negligence reduces monetary rewards

    After the Jury determines the percentages of fault, they then determine the monetary compensation for the Plaintiff. Then the Judge (not the Jury) reduces the monetary award by the percentage of fault allocated to the Plaintiff.

    Here’s an example of how this actually plays out:

    Jane suffered injuries at a big-box grocery store after a jar of pickles fell off the shelf, smashing on the floor. Before a store clerk could clean it up, she slipped and fell on the mess. At trial, she sought recovery for economic and non-economic damages of $500. After deliberations, the Jury returned a verdict: they awarded her $500, but determined that she was at fault for 20% of the accident. The Judge applies the calculations to the award, and awards the $500, less the 20% comparative fault (which is $100), for a total net recovery of $400.

    Analyzing comparative negligence is an important part of slip-and-fall cases. It is a consideration our lawyers must keep in mind while preparing for trial. If you are a client of our firm currently in litigation, our lawyers are here to explain in much greater detail how comparative negligence works at trial. If yours is one of the cases that we have set for trial, you will learn more about comparative negligence from your lawyer as the trial draws closer.

    If you are not a client, but have a question about comparative negligence, or you have a potential slip and fall accident case, call our office. You can speak to one of the personal injury lawyers in our firm.

  • Avante at Boca Raton: The Worst Nursing Home in Palm Beach County?

    This summer was a busy one for the owners of Avante at Boca Raton, Inc., the operators of the skilled nursing home of the same name in central Boca Raton. On four different visits from field office representatives of the Agency for Health Care Administration, or AHCA, the governing regulatory body of all heath care facilities in the state of Florida, dozens of deficiencies were cited between April 2014 and June 2014.

    One of the visits, conducted over three days beginning on May 27 th, 2014, generated a Statement of Deficiencies summary report that is 81 pages long. This visit was a standard re-certification visit, which is required of a nursing home on the agency’s “Watch List”. Another report documents 59 pages of violations after agency workers were called to the facility unannounced in mid-May to investigate an official complaint of mistreatment and physical neglect.

    Avante certainly isn’t the only poorly-performing Palm Beach County skilled nursing facility, more commonly known as a nursing home. But it is one that stands out among other homes in our area. The facility is currently on the ACHA’s Watch List for three active cases. The agency’s Watch List allows a nursing home to operate under a particular conditional status, allowing the owners the opportunity under direct scrutiny to cure extraordinary deficiencies or violations. In the most recent of the three pending cases, the facility was placed on the Watch List for a conditional timeframe of 103 days, beginning on May 16 th, 2014 – the same date the unannounced ACHA conducted its on-site investigation following the patient complaint described above.

    Failure to resolve the deficiencies, or perpetuation of violations of applicable State and Federal law could result in the permanent revocation of Avante’s license to operate this particular facility, forcing a shutdown.

    To be fair to Avante and other nursing homes in our area, the mere issuance of a Statement of Deficiencies does not constitute a penalty. It is only the results of an on-site inspection by the ACHA. Any facility cited with deficiencies has the right to appeal the findings. The Statement of Deficiencies requires the facility to create and implement a plan of correction for each deficiency cited. If and when the facility does correct the cited issues, and the agency can verify the correction on a follow-up visit, often there are no further civil or criminal penalties of any sort.

    No Gold Stars for Avante

    A quick and handy tool for consumers who are considering or comparing nursing homes is the Nursing Home Inspection Ratings ranker, which categorizes inspection and deficiency reports into a sortable data table on an ACHA-run website.

    The tool uses graphical stars to depict how well one facility ranks against another based on several customizable inspection components. One easy way to see the “best” and “worst” is to simply rank the results by the “Overall Inspection” column, and then sort the results based on the highest stars (5), or the lowest stars (1). Avante at Boca Raton ranks at the very bottom of only seven facilities in Palm Beach County that have just one star. On the other end of the scale, Willowbrooke Court at St. Andrews Estates in Boca Raton has the highest number of stars across all categories.

    Granted, the “one-star” approach doesn’t tell the whole story. The rankings are compiled in relation only to peer facilities in the same county. So for a county or state with a record of relatively high instances of care and scoring, a facility with only one star may still be “better” than a high-ranking facility in another county or state, and vice-versa. How does Florida compare to other states? According to a 2010 Government Accountability Office Report to Congressional Requesters on “poorly performing nursing homes”, Florida is ranked #8 in the nation for the highest scores of Special Focus Facilities, or SFFs, which are nursing homes that have caught the attention of Federal regulators for continually poor performance. (Source: GAO – Special Focus Facilities)

    The ranker gives Avante a one-star score for most of its categories, including Overall Inspection, Quality of Care, Quality of Life, Nutrition and Hydration, Restraints and Abuse, and Decline.

    The other six Palm Beach County facilities included in the ranker with only one star for Overall Inspection are:

    • Coral Bay Heathcare (West Palm Beach)
    • Darcy Hall (West Palm Beach)
    • North Lake Rehabilitation (Lake Park)
    • Signature Healthcare of Palm Beach (Lake Worth)
    • Terraces of Lake Worth
    • Wood Lake Health and Rehab (West Palm Beach)

    Legal Actions Against Avante

    Avante at Boca Raton has defended itself against more than half a dozen lawsuits brought by the State of Florida and the AHCA in only the last decade (records prior to 2014 were not immediately available on the FloridaHealthFinder.gov website at the time of publishing.) According to the most recent complaint filed in 2012, with a final order settled in January of 2013, Avante was charged with violating the dignity standards of at least six named patients. Some of these violations mentioned in the complaint, among many others, include:

    • Failing to respond or deliberately ignoring resident call bells
    • Deliberate restriction of patient access to common area bathrooms
    • Staff behaving or responding rudely while fulfilling or performing basic and necessary tasks at the requests and care of patients, or ignoring those requests all together
    • At least one instance in which a staff member placed a soiled bed pan among a resident’s personal items

    According to available records, Avante has been fined at least $21,125 in the last ten years for various cases, violations, and complaints. In 2009, a complaint was filed by the AHCA alleging serious violations of the Life Safety Code, which are Florida laws that mandate minimum standards for safety precautions. On various occasions, the AHCA cites Avante at Boca Raton for the property’s deficient or improperly configured fire and smoke alarm systems during routine Life Safety Survey visits. The complaint described how management failed to adequately correct the violations, which are documented on multiple follow-up visits, leading to a long and arduous legal case that eventually settled for a $16,500 fine.

    According to the research conducted and presented in and for this article, there is no other skilled nursing home facility in Palm Beach County with a record like Avante at Boca Raton’s record. The facility is the lowest-scoring of the bottom 10% of Palm Beach County facilities, according to the Nursing Home Inspection Ratings on the FloridaHealthFinder.gov website, a division of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. The facility has had more Statements of Deficiencies and lawsuits filed against it in ten years than its peers. Avante is also the only facility in Palm Beach County to be placed on three separate Watch Lists concurrently, as the result of and pending three separate, active, complaint-driven cases.

    We highly suggest that you conduct your own research when comparing available nursing homes in Palm Beach County. If you suspect you or someone you love has been the victim of nursing home neglect or abuse, call the Law Offices of Craig Goldenfarb. There is no up-front cost to hire our firm to represent you or your family.

  • Understanding Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]As discussed in an earlier blog post on Personal Injury Protection, or PIP, and how PIP protects Florida drivers under the state’s “No Fault” laws as it relates to car accident injuries, there are other types of protections that are available through your auto insurance company. These protections can be a little confusing, so here’s another article in a series we are doing about auto insurance in Florida.

    Previous posts in this series: How PIP Insurance Protects Drivers under Florida’s No-Fault Laws

    As mentioned in the last article, Underinsured Motorist coverage, also called by some auto insurance companies “Uninsured Motorist Coverage”, or “UM” for short, is an optional policy that is available in addition to your state minimum auto insurance policy coverage. This policy provides money to you to be used for medical bills if you are injured in a car accident where the other driver has insufficient auto insurance, or is without car insurance entirely.

    UM is a policy option you purchase to protect yourself. If you purchase an Uninsured Motorist policy, you are covered in the event that you are in an accident where the other driver has no car insurance at all. In Palm Beach County, high rates of uninsured drivers are a particularly apparent problem. Hit-and-run rates in the county are also very high, and many times, authorities on the subject say, the typical hit-and-run is a fender-bender that involves an uninsured or unlicensed driver, which causes one or more of the drivers to flee the scene of the accident out of fear of punishment or retribution.

    It’s clear that having Uninsured Motorist coverage is a good investment if you live and drive in Palm Beach County. And it’s not very much money – perhaps an extra $10 or $12 a month in premium, which is well worth the potential policy payout you would be entitled to in addition to your PIP payout.

    But for the Underinsured Motorist Coverage, it’s a little trickier – the payout under these policies is based on a few factors:

    • How much policy coverage you purchase for yourself.
    • How substantial the medical bills that are associated with your car accident are.
    • To what extent the other party involved in the car accident are “underinsured”.

    What does this UM coverage cover, exactly?

    UM coverage in Florida will offer a number of benefits to you and your family members in the event you need it. If you are a passenger in a vehicle that is involved in a car crash, and you have suffered injuries, you may be entitled to the host vehicle’s UM insurance coverage, if it is available. Likewise, if you are driving a vehicle owned by an immediate family member whom you live with, you may also be entitled to the host vehicle UM coverage (provided the other vehicle or vehicles involved in the wreck were at fault).

    It’s important to note that UM coverage may be available to you if you are in a car accident in addition to other coverage – not in replacement of other coverage. But what coverage applies and how it applies is dependent upon the nature or situation of the car accident itself – who was driving, which party was at fault, and the specific coverage outlined in the auto insurance policies of each of the drivers involved. That’s why it’s so important to hire a personal injury lawyer who has experience representing people who are injured in car accidents in Palm Beach County.

    There may be more compensation available for your medical bills and injuries than you realize, but only a good, competent personal injury lawyer can tell you if that’s true or not.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

  • How PIP insurance protect drivers under Florida’s no-fault laws

    Were you at fault in a car accident that happened in Palm Beach County? Are you worried that you might have trouble with your insurance company? And if you are hurt, are you concerned that you might not be eligible to receive insurance money to pay for your injuries?

    Don’t be. In Florida, we have laws that are designed to protect drivers who are in an incidence where an auto accident occurs with injuries, regardless of who is at fault for the collision or accident. Florida, and Palm Beach County by extension, operates under what is called “No-Fault” laws.

    These laws specifically exclude insurance companies from withholding certain compensation for injuries you incur during an accident. Typically, that compensation is paid out for what’s called a “PIP claim”. PIP stands for Personal Injury Protection, and it’s a basic policy of car insurance all drivers in Florida must carry.

    Here’s how PIP works.

    • If you are in an accident, and you are injured, your insurance company pays you up to $10,000 in PIP money, regardless of who is at fault for the accident.
    • PIP dollars can only be used to pay towards medical bills incurred as a result of the accident.
    • You MUST have an insurance policy to qualify for PIP if you are injured in an accident. Basic PIP coverage is a minimum requirement under Florida law.

    The last point is an important one, because it means that if you have any car, auto, motorcycle, or trucking insurance in Florida, you have at least mandatory minimum PIP coverage, and therefore, you qualify for compensation in the event of an accident.

    It is illegal to own a car in Florida that you operate on public roads without the minimum Florida mandatory insurance coverage. PIP laws allow for Florida to be a no-fault state, and the fact that this coverage is required of every driver eliminates the need for the insurance companies to spend needless time and resources trying to figure out who is “at fault”.

    But, you might ask, what if you are injured while riding as a passenger in someone else’s car? Your medical bills can still be covered as a passenger under what’s called “Host Vehicle PIP”. This allows the insurance company to pay your medical claims using the driver of the host vehicle’s PIP coverage, but only if the driver carries insurance, of course.

    Here’s another scenario: If you do not own the car you are driving, but are involved in an accident, then you likely have no auto insurance because you do not own a vehicle (there is no requirement in Florida that a driver with a valid license own the car he or she is driving, or that he or she carry insurance – the mandate only applies to drivers who own and drive their own vehicle.) In this case, an insurance caveat called “Resident Relative PIP” could apply.

    Resident Relative PIP allows you to be covered under the auto insurance policy of a family member or relative who lives in the same household as you do. For example, Resident Relative PIP could apply if you are driving the vehicle owned by a parent or spouse, sibling, aunt, or uncle, provided that you all live under the same roof.

    Under Florida’s No-Fault laws, there are other protections in place for you if you are involved in an auto accident. Some other protections include Bodily Injury Coverage and Uninsured Motorist Coverage, which will be discussed in later blog posts (click the links if they are active).

  • Get the Message, Get Safe Motorcycle Safety Campaign Launches

    We won’t bore you with the usual mantras about wearing helmets and speeding less. We are all adults, and we all make our own choices. It’s unlikely that those choices can be swayed by a public service announcement from a law firm.

    For Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month this year, we have been on social media doing something a little different.

    We are spreading facts and statistics that we hope will simply nudge you to think about how safe you are on your bike, and if you can make small chances in your riding behavior that could one day save your life. A few of the ads below were designed to do just that.

    Motorcycle accident statistics are not as well-tracked as motor vehicle accident statistics. In fact, the last time the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles released updated motorcycle accidents stats was put out updated figures was in 2011. So in that regard, they are sort-of “hidden”, and we want to bring them to your attention.

    Our Facebook ad campaign, Get the Message, Get Safe has been delivering graphics to motorcycle riders with hidden messages that you might not see if you don’t look closely.

    If you see the ads on Facebook this month, be sure to “like” them!

    Here are additional motorcycle safety resources:

    Motorcycles are rarely at-fault
    Motorcycle helmet law stats
    Motorcycle accident crash stats

  • Halifax Health Reports Increased Motorcycle Accident Trauma During Daytona Bike Fest

    As the mass of hundreds of thousands of motorcycle riders in Daytona Beach, Florida disbands following the end of Daytona Bike Fest for 2014, the public is being granted some insight into trauma and hospital admittance statistics for motorcyclists involved in accidents.

    Each year, Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona publishes a report, commissioned by Trauma Center Manager Kevin Captain, which provides a look into how busy the emergency room ward was. The report is considered conclusive, because Halifax Health is the only trauma unit that services Daytona Beach Bike Week participants.

    The center says it attended to 50 motorcycle crash-related trauma visits during the weeks of March 7th-16th, 2014, while the Bike Fest was in full swing. Last year the center recorded only 44 visits, representing a 12% increase in visits this year.

    Two deaths were recorded by the hospital for patients in care, from injuries sustained following a motorcycle accident. The report also goes into more detail about who the patients were in aggregate. The average age of a patient was 44, with more than 80% of patients being male.

    There really is no concrete evidence for an explanation behind the increase, says Captain. We only know that motorcycle crash and injuries have been on a steady rise since 2000, dipping slightly in 2008, but then again continuing the upward trend since.

    Back in 2000, Florida’s helmet law was repealed, resulting in a steady 21 percent increase in fatalities resulting from motorcycle crashes on Florida roadways over the last 14 years. In 2008, new motorcycle licensing requirements incorporated mandatory safety classes and instruction, which is credited with a 3-year dip in fatalities and injuries.

    But since 2011, the numbers have been again on a steady rise, which judging from the statistics Halifax released last month, shows no signs of abating. For more information on the rise of motorcycle accidents in Florida, click the link for detailed report our firm released recently.

    There are State and Federally-funded public safety outreach programs that are active in Florida, like Survive the Ride and Ride Smart Florida. These programs are aimed at spreading motorcycle safety outreach across the state. But whether or not they are effective will remain to be seen.

    There isn’t much our firm can do to prevent motorcycle accidents at Daytona Bike Fest, but we can provide some help now. If you or someone you know has been involved in a motorcycle accident, call our firm to find out if we can pursue compensation for an injury or death. The call is free, and there is no upfront cost to begin working on your case.

  • Have you received a phone call shortly after a car accident?

    Personal Injury lawyers don’t have the greatest reputation. Why is this true? Part of the reason is that we are considered “ambulance chasers” that aggressively pursue accident victims. However, there are laws and rules that have been established by the Florida legislature and by the Florida Bar (which sets up the rules for lawyers) that say we are not supposed to solicit accident victims. I play by those rules. Unfortunately, not all law firms do. When a law firm breaks the rules, the reputation of all lawyers suffers.

    Recently, I have heard of a drastic increase in accident victims receiving calls or text messages from various people, looking to “help”, even on the same day the accident occurred. These criminals usually claim they are from an insurance company, an “accident resource center”, a “medical clinic” or even a law firm. They convince the victim that they need to go to a certain medical clinic, where they can receive treatment. Sometimes they even offer a cash bribe if the victim goes to that clinic or lawyer. These phone calls often come from an “untraceable” phone number, so it is difficult for the authorities to catch and prosecute them.

    The following laws and rules govern this behavior in Florida:

    Florida Statute 877.02 “Solicitation of legal services” says that it is illegal for any person or his or her representative to directly solicit an accident victim. This includes phone calls, emails, or any other method of direct or indirect contact. Any person who violates this law is guilty of a first degree misdemeanor.

    Florida Statute 316.066 “Written reports of crashes” forbids anyone not involved in car accident, or their lawyer or insurance company, from obtaining a car accident report for 60 days after the accident. Anyone who obtains a car accident report must swear on a written document that they will not use the accident report for the purpose of commercial solicitation. This law can be interpreted to prevent doctors, lawyers, or anyone else from contacting a car accident victim for any business purpose, after obtaining the information from a car accident report. Anyone guilty of violating this law has committed a third degree felony.

    Florida Bar Rule 4-7.18 outlines the rules for lawyers’ direct contact with prospective clients. Lawyers may not attempt to contact prospective clients by any means for 30 days after the accident. However, attorneys may send a letter to prospective clients more than 30 days after the accident, as long as the letter includes some very specific contents that are listed in the Rule. A lawyer who violates this Rule is subject to discipline by the Bar, including the loss of his or her license to practice law.

    As you can see, there are laws and rules already in place in Florida to prevent “ambulance chasing”. Unfortunately, the public is unaware that these communications are actually illegal. If you have been the victim of illegal solicitation by a lawyer or some other business, report the lawyer to the Florida Bar by filing a Complaint at FloridaBar.org, or report the crime to the police, so that these crimes will be stopped.

    As a Personal Injury lawyer, I have taken an oath to follow the law. If you have been contacted by a lawyer who violated that oath, you might not want that unethical lawyer to represent you in your case.

  • Sunshine and Tailpipes: Florida Laws That Protect the Rights of Motorcyclists

    Florida is a beautiful state to enjoy a day on a motorcycle. From the Keys, up the coast to St. Augustine, and across the state to Clearwater Beach or in the Panhandle, Florida offers the serene roadways and weather that were meant to be enjoyed outdoors on a bike.

    However, motorcyclists face a great risk each time they go for that casual ride. When a motorcyclist is in an accident where an automobile or some larger vehicle is involved, the injuries are almost always disproportionately incurred by the motorcyclist. Because the motorcycle is smaller and the rider is physically more susceptible, motorcycle accidents are often catastrophic, resulting in permanent injury or death to the motorcyclist.

    For that reason, it’s important for riders to recognize the importance of motorcycle safety, like carrying adequate insurance and wearing a helmet, and to be aware of the rights afforded to a rider under Florida law if he or she is involved in a motorcycle accident. Below is a small synopsis of some of those rights.

    The right to recovery after a motorcycle accident

    According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control, which is the most recent data available on the subject, motorcyclist deaths doubled over the decade between 1998 and 2008, while motor vehicle crash-related deaths had reached an all-time low.

    This analysis supports the claim that motorcyclists suffer a proportionately greater amount of damages, both physical and economic, when involved in an accident or crash with another vehicle. The same Florida laws that grant automobile motorists the right to recover for damages after an accident also cover motorcyclists.

    Under Florida law, a motorcyclist who is hurt in an accident has the right to pursue monetary compensation up to the policy limits of the other driver’s insurance policy to help pay for benefits like medical care and treatment, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other economic and non-economic losses that occur as a result of the accident.

    A motorcyclist, generally, has up to four years from the date of a non-fatal accident to make a claim against the Defendant, so it’s important to contact an attorney immediately. An experienced personal injury attorney can help the motorcyclist get the medical treatment they need to recover, at no-cost up front. If the motorcyclist has been killed in an accident, the surviving family has only two years to file a lawsuit.

    Right to recover from uninsured/underinsured coverage

    Sadly, we are all familiar with “hit-and-run” incidents, where a negligent driver causes personal injury or property damage in an accident, but then flees the scene. If a motorcyclist is hit by an unidentified or uninsured driver, he may still recover compensation from his own Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist Coverage (UM) part of his insurance policy.

    To find out whether compensation for injuries may be obtained in this scenario, it’s important to speak with a qualified personal injury attorney immediately following the incident. The longer you wait, the less effective your attorney might be in pursuing a claim for you.

    “Threshold” requirements to recover money for pain and suffering

    The “Threshold” is a legal standard in Florida law that requires a Plaintiff to demonstrate a permanent impairment or death in order to attempt to collect monetary benefits for non-economic damages like pain and suffering or loss of enjoyment of life.

    Because of the nature of motorcycle accidents described in this article, which often cause tremendous personal injury to the rider, this legal barrier is sometimes easier to overcome. Sadly, permanent disfiguration or complete and total loss of limb or life is not uncommon for today’s motorcyclists who are involved in an accident.

    Florida tort law is designed to protect motorcyclists and riding enthusiasts from the careless behavior of others, just as it does for the driver or passengers of an automobile. Because of often excessive damage to personal property and life that is so common in motorcycle accidents, motorcyclists need to be always aware that Florida law protects them.

    Contacting a reputable, experienced personal injury attorney following a motorcycle accident in Florida is the smartest decision a rider can make, aside from buying the right insurance coverage and wearing a helmet while riding.

  • 3 Major Flaws in Florida’s Law Banning Texting While Driving

    Florida’s ban on texting while driving

    The Florida legislature celebrated the passing of a law last year prohibiting texting while driving, which went into effect on October 1st, 2013. Florida Senator Nancy Detert (R-Venice) championed the legislation, having drafted and moved it through both houses, while Governor Rick Scott talked of his expectation that the bill will keep his loved ones safer while they are on the road as he signed the bill into law at a high school in Miami.

    It’s been three months since the law went into effect, and to much chagrin among the families of people who have actually lost loved ones to distracted driving, The Sun Sentinel reports that the number of people who have been ticketed under the new law for texting and driving is dismal.

    In Broward County, only 32 citations were issued in the first 90 days of the law becoming effective. That’s an average of 2.8 citations a day. The question many advocates for tougher penalties for distracted driving are finding themselves asking is whether as a society we should be accepting that only about 2.8 drivers on the roads of Broward County on any given day are texting, while hundreds of thousands of others are not.

    The low numbers are actually the result of incumbent flaws in the legislative text, according to reporters, and they are right. Chapter 316.305 of the 2013 Florida Statutes is the section of the law entitled “Wireless Communications Devices; Prohibition”, also known as the Florida Ban on Texting While Driving Law. It’s really less of a strict and swift “prohibition”, as the stern title suggests, and more of a subtle warning of paltry fees for disregarding a loosely constructed ban.

    The three major flaws that are inherent in the bill’s text, rendering the prohibition much less effective as a tool to curb texting while driving, are listed and descried below.

    1. The law imposes a nonmoving violation for offenders

    Section 4(a) of the Chapter stipulates that anyone who violates the ban by typing, reading, or engaging in electronic communication via a handheld device while operating a motor vehicle has “committed a noncriminal traffic infraction, punishable as a nonmoving violation”. Nonmoving violations in Florida invoke a $30.00 civil penalty payable to the County in which the infraction occurred by mail.

    2. Enforcement of this law may only be conducted as a secondary action

    Section (5) stipulates that enforcement of the law can only be imposed as a “secondary action”, which means the violator must have already been under suspicion of having violated any other provision of the Florida code on motor vehicle law. The “precursor” provision effectively dulls an officer’s ability to issue tickets and penalties for violations, and it also explains why only 32 tickets have been issued in Broward County in the first three months of the law’s existence. It’s not enough for an officer to witness someone actively texting and driving to enforce the law.

    Perhaps it’s somewhat telling that this is the last very last line of the code; it’s almost as if someone was able to stick it in at the very last second before the bill went to a vote.

    3. The bill does nothing to address the harrowing statistics

    Legislators are playing catch-up with this bill. Traffic statistics show that distracted driving, a dangerous condition in which a driver is texting or otherwise engaging with their phones or handheld device while they drive, caused more than 5,000 deaths in the last year alone, and is responsible for more than 450,00 traffic accidents in the United States (source: The Safety Report).

    In 2009, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration released data that showed 16 of all fatal crashes involved distracted driving. Data has not yet been released for any year since, but that figure will almost certainly have been inflated in the last five years.

    Given these trends, with this law, can Floridians feel comfortable that we’ve addressed the core structural deficiencies in our Code that are causing people of all ages and backgrounds to be killed or injured in distracted driving accidents? Are we finished now that this law has passed?

    We would venture to guess the families of victims who have been killed or injured as a result of distracted driving wouldn’t be too pleased with the assumption that this law goes far enough, even for now.

    *Photo attribute: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) By Mr. Jason Weaver, used with permission.