Articles Posted in Personal Injury

In every serious personal injury case in Florida, the issue of who will pay the medical providers and how much always arises. Needless to say, providers want to recover as much as they can. Patients, of course, want to pay as little as possible out-of-pocket. How this plays out often depends on who pays the…

Plaintiffs personal injury lawyers typically have preferences in which medical providers they use to treat and render expert opinions on such issues as causation, disability, and prognosis. This is often due to familiarity and confidence in the provider’s competence. It is sometimes dictated by financial considerations. Many people are uninsured or have inadequate coverage. When…

Payments made by health insurance and Medicare must be repaid by the beneficiary of the payments from money recovered in the personal injury case for which the medical care was furnished. (Note: PIP, which is no-fault insurance for medical bills in car accidents, does not have to be reimbursed.) In determing how much is owed,…

For Florida accident victims and those who care for and about them, the tyrannical reign of Jeb [Bush] the Horrible (Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007) continues to haunt. Once upon a time in Florida, employees hurt at work could sue their employers in tort by proving that an employer’s conduct created a “substantial…

Winning may not be a victim’s only concern in a personal injury case. Collecting on damages awarded post-victory can be of equal or greater importance. Not every tortfeasor (at-fault party) is adequately insured or has the independent financial means to satisfy a court judgment. In some instances a non-negligent party, one, perhaps, with the resources…

Rear-end crashes represent nearly 25% of all roadway motor vehicle accidents. The natural inclination is to blame the driver of the approaching vehicle, the one that slammed into the rear of the other vehicle. Florida law supports this notion by creating a presumption of fault against the approaching driver. Law enforcement, the courts, and personal…

Astute personal injury lawyers always look for ways to maximize their client’s financial recovery. Establishing aggravating factors against the at-fault party is one of the main ways of doing this. In motor vehicle accident cases, there is no better opportunity for scoring points against the liable party than connecting alcohol use to the accident. The…

Some 80 years ago in Florida, workers’ compensation was substituted for the personal injury system as the nearly exclusive remedy for employees seeking compensation from employers for workplace accidents. The idea was that workers should not have to establish fault, a basic element of every personal injury case, in order to be compensated. In exchange…

In Stuart v. Hertz Corporation, 351 So.2d 703 (Fla. 1977), the Florida Supreme Court decided that the Hertz Corporation, whose vehicle injured a woman in an accident, was liable for the injuries she sustained from medical negligence while receiving care for her original injuries, and that Hertz could not bring the doctor into the case…

Employees injured while working in accidents caused by third parties may be entitled to compensation through Florida’s workers’ compensation system and its personal injury laws. In the context of this blog, a third party is a person or company other than an injured worker’s employer. Examples include manufacturers of defective machinery and negligent operators of…