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Stop me if you heard this before from politicians, if we pass this bill it will bring down insurance rates and if it doesn’t we will address the rates later. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Every year the insurance industry lobbies the state legislature for “reform” that it says will reduce insurance rates. Fortunately, until now, drastic “reform” has not occurred and the insurance lobby has not been able to get its wish list passed by the state. Unfortunately, Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies have indicated that they are about to give the insurance industry the biggest gift they can, all in the name of “tort reform”. HB 837 does nothing except strengthen the insurance companies and deny victims meaningful access to the courts, representation by an attorney and access to medical care.

What you need to know when looking for an injury attorney.

As we are now fully into the Florida rainy season, many injury law firms, hospitals and doctors’ offices are seeing the annual increase in persons injured in car crashes. It happens every year around during the rainy season. While you cannot prevent all accidents from occurring there are steps that you can take to lower your risk of an accident during the rainy season.

I cannot tell you how many times I have had a client call our office and tell us they have “full coverage.” Unfortunately, their idea of full Coverage is usually different than what I and most other attorneys would consider full Coverage. In fact, in Florida, over 20% of the drivers on the road have no insurance at all. If you add to it the persons driving on our roads with the minimum amount of insurance required by Florida law, that percentage skyrockets.

Texting and driving is an unacceptable and illegal action to take. Many lives can be saved, and many injuries can be avoided by simply putting your cell phone away while driving. Even hands-free devices can result in distracted driving. Statistics from the National Safety Council evidence that over 1.6 million motor vehicle accidents per year involve one of the persons involved using his/her cell phone at the time of the accident. Of the 1.6 million accidents, almost 400,000 (25%) include texting and driving at the time of the accident. The average text takes approximately 5 seconds to type, and at 55 mph, you are distracted almost the length of a football field. We all know how dangerous drunk driving is, and we all probably know somebody that has been in an accident with a drunk driver or was driving drunk themselves. What if I were to tell you that texting and driving are statistically more dangerous than drunk driving. According to the National Safety Council, texting while driving is 6x more likely to cause an accident than a person driving drunk. All types of distracted driving, whether texting, surfing the internet, talking on your cell phone, or eating and driving, significantly increase the likelihood of being involved in a motor vehicle accident.

Be very careful signaling to other cars and pedestrians that it is safe for them to cross a road or enter traffic. Just because you were not involved in the accident does not mean you may not have some liability for causing the accident.

In a case, with $65.00 in property damage, no surgeries by our Client, we obtained a settlement of $210,000.00. In another case with less than $250.00 in property damage, we secured a $610,000.00 settlement, again without any surgeries on our Client. Finally, with no visible property damage and a letter from an insurance company less than 72 hours after the accident occurred that stated the insurance company will not be paying any injury claim on the case, we were able to obtain a settlement of $200,000.00, which was the total amount of insurance available for this accident. Now, these settlements are just examples of excellent results. There are other cases in which in fact, the injuries sustained by our clients are minor. However, two of the three cases referenced above were rejected by other Law Firms before we took over the cases. It is our attention to detail and belief that no accident is too minor or case too small that allows us to get these great results. Every accident and every case is unique, regardless of what the insurance company tries to claim.

Imagine you are involved in a car accident, your car is towed from the scene of the accident, and you are taken by ambulance to the hospital. You immediately call a car accident attorney, and he/she gets to work on your case as quickly as possible. You begin to get treatment for your injuries. Your car receives the $6,000.00 for the damages it sustained. Your vehicle is repaired, and everything is as good as new. Eventually, your injury claim is settled, and you are paid some money for your injuries. All is right in the world. Hopefully, you weren't catastrophically injured, your medical bills got paid, your car got fixed, and you have some additional money in your pocket. A few years later, you go to trade-in your vehicle. You look up the Kelly Blue Book value before you go to the car dealership and find that your car is worth $20,000.00. With this information in hand, you go to the car dealership to buy a new car. You are excited because you have all the information you need to make sure you finally win a battle with a car salesperson. You pick out the new car you want. The dealership takes your vehicle to be evaluated. After being appraised, the dealership informs you that your car is only worth $13,000.00 due to the accident. Stunned, you can barely talk, but you manage to ask why. The dealership shows you the numbers, and you are not happy. This fact scenario happens often (different amounts and sometimes trying to sell your car as opposed to trading it in, but we see this all the time). Your car suffered diminished value; the second the car was involved in the accident. Your vehicle may run the same way it did before the accident, and it may look the same, but unfortunately, it is not worth the same. Can you be compensated for the diminished value of your car when it is involved in an accident that you did not cause? The simple answer is yes, however, there are many variables that can turn this yes into a no.

You and your friends go to the local sports bar to watch the football game. You are having a great time when suddenly three visibly drunk and rowdy guys show up to the bar. You watch them stand at the bar, order a few beers and a few shots. They are yelling at the television as their team is losing. Ultimately their team loses, and as you make your way to the bathroom (wearing the team colors of the team that beat theirs), the unruly men taunt you and threaten you. You try to ignore them the best you can. After you exit the restroom, the men at the bar continue to insult you. You go back to your table, things escalate, and the next thing you know... you have a severe injury.