Florida Personal Injury Laws

Settle Out Of The Court Room

In most personal injury case, your attorney is going to make an effort to try to settle or resolve your case with the other side, usually an insurance company, before filing a lawsuit and taking the case to court. That doesn’t always happen, and it doesn’t always succeed. If it does not succeed, your attorney then has to file a suit and put the case into litigation, then there are generally ongoing negotiations and opportunities along the way to try to settle the case before it gets to trial. Just one primary example is that every judge in the floor is going to order your case to mediation before trial, and that’s usually a more formal settlement conference providing the parties with an opportunity to try to settle your case before it actually gets to trial.

Motorcycle Bias

Typically what we found in Florida, through the years of handling motorcycle accident cases, is that jurors have somewhat of a bias against motorcycle operators just like many of us have a bias against truck drivers. Oftentimes the mere fact that a motorcycle operator is operating a motorcycle as opposed to a motor vehicle, sometimes jurors will hold that against that person just by the mere fact that they’re operating a motorcycle. Thinking that they must be reckless, because who would operate a motorcycle on the roads in Florida?

And oftentimes it’s difficult for us, even where the motorcycle client of ours is not at fault in any manner whatsoever, we still have to overcome that bias that many potential jurors out there have. So you must keep that in mind when pursuing a motorcycle accident case.

Florida Wrongful Death Act

Florida has a specific wrongful Death Act. There are different types of cases that you can bring in Florida, or medical malpractice cases, nursing home cases, and general negligence cases. If you had a loved one pass away, or suffer a wrongful death that you think may be the result of negligence, it’s important to call us and talk about the facts of the case right away. There are different laws that apply to this situation. A lot of times, people ask us who’s entitled the recover and who can bring the case. We will help you set that up. We will get a probate lawyer involved, we’ll open the estate, we’ll appoint somebody to be the personal representative to bring the case, and we’ll figure out the exact statute that applies. If you have any questions about a wrongful death case in Florida, call us today. Nathan Carter at Colling Gilbert Wright & Carter, 1-800-49-LEGAL.

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.

Defective Product Claim

Oftentimes you may not realize that an injury or catastrophic injury has been the result of a defective product. But if you believe that you have been injured by a defective product, you want to contact a reputable law firm: has a good track record of getting good results, and going to trial and product liability cases. That law firm has to assess whether or not there is a causal link between the defective product and your injuries.

And oftentimes even people that have been in automobile accidents may just think, “Well, the driver that hit me is the person at fault.” Well it’s important – even in automobile accident cases or trucking accident cases – that you also assess whether or not there are product defect avenues of recovery in a case. Oftentimes you are hit by a driver and you’re not necessarily injured by the impact from the at-fault driver but, for example, a seat belt doesn’t work properly or an airbag doesn’t go off and you want to have a law firm that can assess those potential product liability issues.

Pedestrian Reasonable Care

First of all, as a pedestrian, you are required by law to use reasonable care. To walk within crosswalks. To follow pedestrian crossing signals. If you fail to do that, and you’re injured as a result of that, you can be held responsible for your injuries or at least held partially responsible for your injuries. So you have a duty to make sure that you abide by all crossing signals and to cross at proper pedestrian crossing points.

How long do you have to file your car accident claim in Florida?

Generally four years, but there are exceptions. Don’t take any chances. You need to hire an experienced Florida car accident lawyer.  I’m Mel Wright. I’m a partner at Colling, Gilbert, Wright, & Carter. Call us at 1-800-49-LEGAL.

By: Mel Wright

Lawyer Referral Service

Hi, I’m Matt Dolman, of the Dolman Law Group. I’m a Clearwater civil trial attorney. If you were just in an accident you may be wondering whether you should call a lawyer referral service, one that advertises on television or the radio. In fact, if you live in the Tampa Bay area, our market is inundated with these advertisements all day long, and you’re probably wondering how good are they. Well, keep in mind that lawyer referral services are only partly regulated by the Florida Bar. When I say partly, only the lawyers are regulated. The lawyer referral service can often make advertisements, make claims, make statements that don’t pass Bar scrutiny. In fact, they don’t have to submit their advertisements to the Florida Bar.

411 Pain & Ask Gary

If you listen to a recent radio advertisement for 411 PAIN, you’ll note that the non-lawyer attorney spokesperson makes a very curious statement. And the statement they make is we have a very exclusive group of attorneys. We’ve spent many years putting this group together. Well, what does that really mean? Does that mean that these lawyers are superbly talented? I don’t want to make a generalization because there are some good lawyers that belong to these networks, but really if you become a member of 411 PAIN or Ask Gary, you simply have to pay to become a member. It’s a pay for play system. It doesn’t state the quality of the lawyer, how many cases they’ve tried, the types of verdicts they’ve obtained, are they experiencing any personal injury claims like yours. It simply means that they paid to be a member of a lawyer referral service, but keep in mind that being a member of such an exclusive group does not convey quality. It just conveys they paid.

Hire Matt Dolman

Thank you again for listening. This is Matt Dolman, of Dolman Law Group. 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

Usable Basis To Pursue A Case

If you’ve been injured as a result of the negligence of another person, your attorney’s going to look at several factors to determine whether or not you have a viable basis to pursue a case. Those factors include looking at the circumstances surrounding the accident. In other words, how were you hurt and what conduct by the other person cause your contributed to your accident, so that’s assessing liability. Do the other person have legal fault or legal liability for causing your injuries? In addition to that, the attorney’s going to look at the nature and extent of your damages, and that would include the nature of any physical or personal injuries you may have, and in monetary or financial losses you may have as a result of that, and the long-term consequences if any of those injuries. The other thing the attorney will have to carefully consider is whether or not and to what extent those injuries were caused by the accident. In other words, did you have any other events or pre-existing conditions that may have played a role in causing or contributing to your current injuries.