Florida Personal Injury Laws

Pedestrian Hit By Car

If you or a loved one have been struck by a motor vehicle while a pedestrian, you very well may have a basis to pursue a claim against the driver of the car. But the basis for that claim depends on the circumstances surrounding the crash. You’d have to be able to demonstrate that the driver was negligent or careless, meaning that he or she did something wrong to cause the crash. An example would be that the driver run a stop sign or a red light, or failed to yield to you while crossing in the crosswalk.  If the car was owned by somebody other than the driver, you may also have a basis to pursue a claim against the owner of the car. And if the accident happened at the time that the driver was on duty for an employer, then the employer may also be responsible for your injuries.

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

Attorney Fees And Contingency Fees

Typically most attorneys in the state of Florida will charge on a contingent fee basis. And what that means – it allows us, or allows any attorney, to represent you as a consumer on a contingent fee basis meaning there’s no upfront fees and no upfront costs that have to be paid by you as a consumer. We are able to represent you and we don’t get paid until the end of the case and only if there’s a successful recovery on your behalf do we get a percentage of that recovery in attorney fees and do we recoup the cost that we have advanced on your behalf during our handling of the case.

At-Fault Driver Is Uninsured

All too often in the state of Florida, automobile accidents occur and the at-fault driver who caused the crash is uninsured. It’s important in the state of Florida, because there are so many uninsured or underinsured drivers that you carry uninsured motorist coverage under your own automobile insurance policy. So if it happens where somebody causes a crash, causes you injuries or damages, but does not have adequate insurance to cover your loses and damages, you can then turn to your own underinsured motorist coverage to help compensate you for injuries and your loses.

Contingency Fees

In Florida, attorneys are permitted to represent you as consumers on a contingent fee basis. Oftentimes, when you’ve been involved in a catastrophic injury case or accident or situation, those cases will take years sometimes to travel through the litigation process. If you’ve suffered a catastrophic injury and you have mounting medical bills and are unable to work, a contingent fee representation system such as the one we have in Florida permits you and your attorneys to match the resources of the insurance industry or the trucking industry to help you along in your catastrophic injury case. All that means is you don’t pay your attorney fees until the end of the case, and only pay them if there’s been a recovery in the case. The attorneys get a percentage of that recovery for attorney fees. It also allows your attorneys to advance the costs of your case, and then only recoup those costs at the end of the case if there’s been a successful recovery on your behalf.

Medical Malpractice Injury

If you believe that you’ve been injured as the result of medical malpractice, you should talk to a medical malpractice attorney about who may be legally responsible for those injuries. Typically, you’d be looking at any of the healthcare providers that provided medical care or treatment to you but it’s important to keep in mind that a bad outcome does not necessarily equal medical malpractice. You have to be able to demonstrate that the healthcare provider that provided medical care to you was negligent, meaning that he or she somehow fell below or deviated from the acceptable standard of care in providing that treatment to you.

Car Accident on the Job in Orlando

If you’re involved in an auto accident while you’re on the job, you have a worker’s compensation claim, of course, but you can still sue the driver of the other car for your injuries. Those are two claims in one. I’m Mel Wright. I’m a partner at Calling, Gilbert, Wright, and Carter. Call us at 1-800-49-LEGAL.

By: Mel Wright

Suing Driver, Bicycle Accident

If you’re injured while riding your bicycle, can you sue the driver that hit you? Well the answer to that really is it depends. In order to have a valid basis to file a lawsuit or a claim of any kind against the driver that hits you, you have to look at the circumstances surrounding the accident, because in order to hold the other driver responsible, you have to be able to prove that that driver was negligent or careless, meaning that he or she did something wrong or something inappropriate. It usually involves trying to demonstrate that that driver violated the common rules of the road, or committed a traffic infraction that resulted in the accident.

Semi-Truck Accident Attorney

Retaining an attorney after you’ve been injured in a big rig trucking accident is essential, but you want to get not just a good lawyer, the best lawyer. You want someone who is qualified, someone who has had experience in handling, in litigating, and hopefully in taking to verdict some big rig tractor trailer truck cases. You need a lawyer who knows the federal regulations. You need a lawyer who is trusted by other lawyers. It’s not good enough to just research a lawyer on the Internet. You want to find out his or her reputation by checking with other lawyers or by checking with organizations to see what her qualifications are and what she has been doing over the course of her career.