Florida Personal Injury Laws

Hurt By A Government or City Employee in Orlando

A lot of clients call us with questions after they’ve been hurt by a government or a city employee. There are many different laws that apply to those situations. A lot of times the statute of limitations is actually shorter if you’re hurt by a government employee. A lot of times there’s also caps on damages and other different laws that apply. So it’s really important if you’re hurt by a government or city or any kind of municipality employee that you call an attorney right away. If you have any questions about that kind of case, feel free to call me, Nathan Carter at Calling, Gilbert, Wright, and Carter. 1-800-49-LEGAL.

By: Nathan Carter

Failure To Wear Protective Gear, Motorcycle Accident

Insurance companies and defense lawyers will always try to use that against you or a consumer or a loved one who’s been involved in an accident – the failure to wear any protective gear. However, in Florida, you’re not required to wear a helmet on a motorcycle if you comply with certain parameters, if you’re over a certain age, if you have eye protection, and if you have medical payments coverage in an off chance that you’re injured in a motorcycle accident. However, failure to wear any protective gear should not preclude you from contacting an attorney to handle your motorcycle accident case. While the failure to wear a protective gear will be used as a defense against you in an attempt to try reduce your overall recovery, it should not preclude you or prevent you from pursuing your motorcycle accident injury case, especially where you, as a motorcycle operator, were not at fault whatsoever in the cause of the accident itself.

Finding the Right Personal Injury Attorney

Hi, I’m Matt Dolman of the Dolman Law Group. I’m a Clearwater civil trial attorney. A question many consumers are faced with is: How do I find the best personal injury attorney? It’s a difficult question, but let me start by telling you what you should not do. Do not pick an attorney based solely off of a billboard, a television or radio advertisement, and the reason being is that this does not tell you the quality of the lawyer. In fact, many law firms are little more than settlement mills, where paralegals and legal assistants run the majority of the case. You’ll never get to meet your attorney, or rarely. This is a generalization. Not every law firm is like that that advertises but many are.

Check Website and Reviews

What you should look for is online resources. Look at legal directories. Find out what kind of awards this attorney has won. Look at their reviews. Go online to Google and see if other members of the community have reviewed this law firm. What kind of reviews do they have? Keep in mind there will always be negative reviews on anyone, but what do the majority reviews tell you? Is the lawyer accessible? Are they knowledgeable? Are they competent? Have they tried cases before?

Hire The Best Fit For You

You can’t find that out by looking at a billboard, or listening to a television commercial or radio commercial.This isn’t a beauty contest. You get one bite at the apple. You have one chance to hit your case out of the park. Do your research and be careful out there. Thanks again for visiting our YouTube channel. I greatly appreciate your time. Look forward to seeing you soon, and click on our button here to subscribe to our channel. Thank you.

By: Matt Dolman

My Most Rewarding Case in Orlando

One of the most rewarding cases for me personally was a case that I handled many years ago. It involved the brain injury of a baby. Every year I would get, after that case was over, I’d get a Christmas card from the mother, that went on for many, many years. What was most rewarding though was about 18 years after I handled that case, I got a graduation notice. That young man had grown up, gone to high school with the brain injury and he graduated high school. That was because of the early intervention that we were able to get for him. So if you have questions about brain injury, give me a call. I’m Ron Gilbert with Colling Gilbert Wright and Carter. 1-800-49-LEGAL.

By: Ron Gilbert

What is My Medical Malpractice Claim in Orlando Worth?

A lot of people call us or when they first meet with us they ask us, “What is my medical malpractice case worth?” To be honest, we really don’t know when we first meet with clients. I think some lawyers will tell you your case is worth X or worth Y, but if they’re being honest with you, they don’t really know early on what the case is worth.  A lot of times, once we take a case and start working on it we get a much better idea what the case is worth. Once we evaluate the damages, once we see all the records, once we talk to our experts. So to be honest, at the front end of a case, we never really know what it’s worth. We get to know that as we proceed with the case.  If you have a question about what your case is worth, call me, Nathan Carter at Calling, Gilbert, Wright, and Carter at 1-800-49-LEGAL.

By: Nathan Carter

If you live in Florida but you’re injured in a car accident in another state, who do you hire?

You probably should hire a Florida attorney and let them choose your out-of-state attorney. I’m Mel Wright. I’m a partner at Calling, Gilbert, Wright, and Carter. Call us at 1-800-49-LEGAL.

By: Mel Wright

Premises Liability Claims in Orlando

Here at Best & Anderson we handle a multitude of cases and kinds of cases. One of those is premises liability. It’s probably the one concept in the law that most people don’t know or understand. Clearly, if you were walking down the sidewalk and a pit bull dog runs out of somebody’s yard and bites you, you would probably figure you have a case – and you probably would. But the rest of the concept is a little more complicated.

Business Premises Liability

If you go to a business – let’s say a convenience store, a bar even, a restaurant, or even an apartment complex – and you’re the victim of a crime, and the criminal is not even related to the business, most people think that’s just a criminal matter for the police. But, in fact, it may be a matter that can be handled in civil court, and you may be entitled to damages for your injuries.

You hear about people that have been abducted and attacked sexually at a business, and no one would ordinarily think they’d have a case because the business owner didn’t cause that directly. But if the business allows a condition to exist, a danger zone to exist, and they knew or should have known that there’s a danger there and they do nothing to correct it, they can be liable. That’s called a foreseeable zone of risk. So, if reasonable people that own a business know of prior criminal activities or the likelihood of disorderly conduct, they have to correct it.

Investigation & Litigation

If someone gets injured even by a criminal unrelated to the business, they could have a case. And you really don’t know ahead of time whether the insurance company or the business has told the truth. You don’t know whether there’ve been prior incidents on that property or not.

Even if you file a claim, you can’t find out what happened without doing investigation. That’s what we do. We get crime grids and we find out how many crimes have been committed on their property. Then, if we can establish that they knew or should have known that there was a danger and someone got injured from that, you could have a good case. Thank you for listening to me.

By: David Best

Timeline On Pedestrian Accident Claims

It’s imperative if you or a loved one has been injured in a pedestrian accident case, that you contact an attorney quickly. The insurance company, once they’re on notice that there’s been an incident involving one of their insured drivers or vehicles, they are going to be assessing the scene of the incident and assessing the damage to the vehicle very quickly.

You, as a pedestrian, are oftentimes at a disadvantage because typically you’ve suffered injuries that have put you in a hospital. But you or a loved one should contact an attorney quickly because in pedestrian accident cases, evidence at the scene is oftentimes lost very quickly and it’s imperative that the scene of the incident be investigated properly by attorneys and experts and investigators so that, that critical evidence of what happened at the scene can be obtained.

Partial Fault, Catastrophic Injury

Yes we can, but that should not dissuade you from contacting an attorney or a law firm. In Florida we are fortunate because we have Pure Comparative Fault. All too often individuals who are involved in a catastrophic injury accident will just decide, “Well I think I was partially at fault so I have no case and therefore I should not contact an attorney.” You don’t want to think that way.

As I mentioned, in Florida we have pure comparative fault. What that means is even if you have been partially at fault – if someone else has been also partially at fault – you can still recover for your percentage of your damages and injuries, even if you are determined to be partially or even mostly at fault. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault.