Florida Personal Injury Laws

Determining Damages For A Wrongful Death

damages in any wrongful death case where you have an 18-wheeler responsible for causing that death are going to be determined solely at the judgment and discretion of the jury. The judge, in any given case, is going to give the members of the jury a brief explanation of the law, and the jury will determine what the damages are for such things as: final medical expenses and funeral expenses, the mental pain and anguish of any surviving person – which would be like a surviving child, if a parent were killed, or perhaps a surviving spouse. if the other spouse had been killed, then you have damages for what are called Loss of Net Accumulations, and the jury makes that decision based on the evidence each juror hears during the trial itself.

Legal Rights For A Trucking Injury

There’re a number of steps you need to take in order to protect your legal rights after you have been injured by a semi-tractor trailer truck in an incident. Number one is you’re going to want to make sure you seek and obtain the best medical care to get better. Number two you want to seek the services of a qualified lawyer who has experience in handling big rig tractor trailer truck cases. Number three, you must take steps to preserve the evidence and that means preserving any of the vehicles which were involved in this incident. Number four, you must put your own insurance company on notice immediately. There’re certain requirements there and you don’t want to give up any rights in terms of your own insurance.

Legally Responsible For A Defective Product

Typically in the state of Florida, every company or individual responsible for getting a product into the hands of you as consumers is responsible for selling, or manufacturing, or designing, or marketing a defective product. It’s incumbent upon you, and it’s important, to find an attorney with a good reputation of handling product defect cases to assess everyone who is responsible for getting that product designed, manufactured, and ultimately sold to you as consumers, to assess liability on the part of each and everyone of those potential defendants.

Valuing A Personal Injury Case

Well unfortunately there’s no magic formula to determine exactly how much your personal injury cases worth. An experienced attorney is going to draw a number of sources to try to help make that determination. No matter what, making that determination early on in the case is often very very difficult because that assessment generally can’t be made with any reasonable degree of certainty until a tremendous amount of information is obtained about the case including the strength of the evidence involving the liability of the parties and the nature in extent of any damages that you may have suffered. The value of the case can often very or differ from the beginning of the case to the end as additional information is obtained. The most important thing is you should communicate with your attorney throughout the case regarding his or her assessment of the value. An attorney is going to look at various sources including verdicts and settlement reporters to see what other cases have settled for, and what the jury verdicts have been in other similar cases. An attorney will also draw his or her personal experienced in handling other similar cases to help give you a better idea of what your case may be worth.

Need An Attorney

You don’t need an attorney for your personal injury case, because you can always pursue the claim on your own. However, it’s a mistake to do so. An attorney can help you carefully evaluate your case, look at the evidence that’s available, evaluate the potential causes of actions or claims that you may be able to bring, and look carefully at any and all persons or entities who may be responsible for your damages. An attorney generally is going to be able to help you recover more money than what you’d be able to recover on your own, and generally that difference is going to be substantial.

Partial Fault In An Auto Accident

Any individual who is in an accident in Florida and who is driving can be found to be wholly or partially responsible for that accident. A jury is always going to be asked to assess the relative fault of each of the parties involved in the litigation. And if, for example, you have one vehicle – the other vehicle where someone ran a stop sign – but perhaps in your vehicle you were not wearing a seat belt, a jury can assess your responsibility for your injuries because you were not wearing a seat belt.

You’re involved in a car accident in Florida. How do you pay for your lawyer?

If you hire Colling, Gilbert, Wright, & Carter, you pay us nothing unless we recover money for you. With other questions call us at 1-800-49-LEGAL at Colling, Gilbert, Wright, & Carter.

By: Mel Wright

Swimming Pool Owner Liability

The owner of a swimming pool can sometimes be held legally liable for any accidents, injuries, or drownings that happen in the pool. But that depends on whether or not the owner took reasonable steps to prevent the accident from happening.

Common examples of reasonable steps that a swimming pool owner can take, is making sure that there is the appropriate fence or enclosure around the pool to prevent children from wondering into it, to make sure that it is adequately lit.

In certain circumstances making sure that there is a lifeguard, or making sure that other people are around to prevent accidents from happening. Another important thing is to pay close attention to the surface surrounding the pool, make sure that it is a non-slip or slip-resistant surface to prevent slip and fall type accidents in the pools area.

Truck Drivers Cannot Use Phones

Truck drivers cannot use hand-held cellphones, or smartphones, or similar devices when driving and operating big rig tractor trailer trucks at any time. If a truck driver feels the need to make a phone call or to in any way operate a hand-held device, that truck driver has a duty to pull over to a safe place and then make the call or send the text message or do whatever he or she wants to do.