Florida Personal Injury Laws

Insurance Companies Evaluating Your Losses

Insurance companies will evaluate your losses based on your economic and what we call your noneconomic damages. Your economic damages; what are your medical bills from the date of the crash up until the time of the trial or until the time of the settlement conference and what are your medical bills in the future that a doctor can determine are reasonably related to the crash itself. Also, what are your economic losses for missing work or your wage loss. Have you lost work as a result of this crash in the past, will you lose work in the future? So that’s the economic component that the insurance company will assess.

Aside from that is the noneconomic or the human damages element; what is the pain and suffering that you have experienced in the past and into the future related to a crash. What is your mental anguish, your loss of enjoyment of life? And while those damages are not as easily quantifiable as your economic damages, the insurance company will try to place a value on all of those damages together and that will determine what kind of money they may be willing to offer you to settle a case.

Orlando Personal Injury Case Valuation

The value of a personal injury claim is just that, it’s personal. It varies with every case, and there are different factors that work into how we value what a case is worth. It might be your lost wages. It might be the effect on other people, other family members that depend on you. So, there are many different things that go into valuing a personal injury claim. If you have a question about your personal injury claim, call me. I’m Ron Gilbert with Colling, Gilbert, Wright & Carter, 1-800-49-LEGAL.

By: Ron Gilbert

Collecting Damages For Injuries

Collecting damages for injuries in an accident case requires quite an impressive effort. It means getting an attorney who can go after those damages for you. It means pursing a defendant or the person legally responsible for causing those damages. In most accident cases, it is the insurance company of the other party which will be paying for the damages or paying an amount of money for the assessment of damages. In some instances, you may be going after a corporation, and it is the corporation itself paying those damages.

Can you recover punitive damages when another driver is texting while driving, and causes an accident and injuries to you?

In Florida that question somewhat unanswered, but yes you can. All depends on the facts. I’m Mel Wright. I’m a partner at Colling Gilbert Wright & Carter. Call us at 1800-49-LEGAL.

By: Mel Wright

Who Can be Sued For Medical Malpractice in Florida?

A lot of clients come to us and ask us what types of doctors and nurses and x-ray techs can be sued for medical malpractice in Florida. The short answer is that all health care providers can be sued if they’re negligent and they hurt someone. There are different statutes that apply to different types of cases so it does get kind of complex, but the short answer is that in Florida, we do have a medical malpractice statute that covers all different health care providers. Some of them work in the hospital. Some of them work outside the hospital in private offices so we need to evaluate your case closely to see what type of health care providers were involved. Sometimes there’s doctors, nurses, and techs involved in the same case. If you have a question about that, call me, Nathan Carter at Colling Gilbert Wright & Carter at 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.

Subrogation Rights

Subrogation rights in the state of Florida essentially means that somebody stands in your shoes to recover. And what that means most typically, especially in an automobile accident case, is you’re involved in an accident and you require medical treatment. And because of that medical treatment you incur, say $10,000 in medical bills that your health insurance company has to pay for.

Well your health insurance company gets to stand in your shoes and they have subrogation rights, where if you later settle the case and the at fault driver’s insurance company pays you for your injuries and damages, you have to pay back the health insurance company that paid for your medical care and treatment that was the result of the at fault driver causing you injuries.

How does the lawyer get paid?

If you have a medical malpractice case, we handle those cases on a contingency fee bases. So if you give me a call, I will be glad to discuss the contingency fee with you and basically if there’s no recovery, there is no fee. If we get a recovery for you, our fee is a percentage of that. My name is Ron Gilbert with Colling Gilbert Wright and Carter, 1800-49 LEGAL.

By: Ron Gilbert

Additional Compensation, Big Rig Truck Hits A Car

When a truck driver of the big rig loses control and causes an accident which injures you, you can seek recovery from that driver and from his or her employer, or the person, or company owning the vehicle itself. Sometimes the driver himself or herself may not have direct insurance coverage and you actually obtain the recovery through the employer or the owner of the vehicle.