Articles Posted in Personal Injury

Everyone is familiar with the idiom, “Keep your eye on the ball.” What it means, quite simply, is to keep one’s attention focused on the matter at hand. Lawyers must remember this during intense situations. Last week we experienced just such an intense situation. In a case involving severe personal injuries sustained by our client,…

It is not uncommon for an individual hurt in a work-related accident, for which workers’ compensation benefits are due, to also have a liability case against a negligent third party. Where compensation is recovered in both cases, the injured party may have to give some of the third-party recovery to the workers’ compensation insurance carrier…

Active tortfeasors become legally liable for engaging in negligent conduct. Passive tortfeasors become liable for the negligent conduct of active tortfeasors through the legal principle known as vicarious liability. Examples include owners of motor vehicles whose permissive drivers cause crashes and employers for the acts of their employees. Nowadays, active tortfeasors can be released from…

Some states exempt charities from liability for damages caused by their servants. Florida does not. Nicholson v. Good Samaritan Hospital, 199 So. 344 (Fla. 1940). This is consistent with the legal doctrine known as respondeat superior, which holds employers liable for the negligent or purposeful acts of their employees. See Valeo v. East Coast Furniture…

Not infrequently, both a workers’ compensation case and a personal injury liability case will arise from the same accident. For example, a construction site supervisor involved in a motor vehicle crash while traveling to Home Depot for supplies can pursue workers’ compensation benefits from the employer and civil liability damages from the at-fault party. Florida…

“Sine die,” the dropping of the handkerchief ceremony to signal the end of the legislative session in Florida, could not come soon enough this year for residents hoping for safer roads and highways. During the 2024 legislative session, which ran from January 9, 2024 to March 8, 2024, Republican legislators proposed a variety of bills…

Florida’s civil liability and workers’ compensation systems handle legal matters for people injured or who have died in accidents. The systems have some similarities and differences. The biggest differences are that the plaintiff must prove fault to recover under civil law, and recoveries for non-economic damages (such as pain and suffering) are not available in…

In Florida, Native American tribes operate popular business establishments. On occasion, patrons frequenting the establishments are hurt by dangerous conditions created through negligence. The U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 2, Clause 3; Article I, Section 8; The Fourteenth Amendment), treaties, and laws, authorize Native American tribes to govern themselves as sovereign nations within the United…

Republicans control all phases of lawmaking at the state level in Florida. This has been the case since the election of Jeb Bush as governor in 1998, complementing their majorities in the Florida House and Senate. Presently, they rule by supermajority in the Legislature, meaning they don’t have to negotiate with members of other parties…

One of the primary public policy reasons for having a robust civil justice system that is able to exact full compensatory damages from negligent actors is to encourage safe conduct. Short of criminal punishment, nothing motivates people and corporations to act responsibly more than the threat of losing money. Sovereign Immunity is a legal concept…