Florida Injury Attorney Blawg

Passengers and seamen seeking to be compensated by vessel owners for personal injuries must show that the accident was caused by a condition onboard which makes the vessel unseaworthy. (Employees may also seek compensation against their employers under the Jones Act.) Unseaworthiness is a modified negligence-based system, rather than one of strict liability, meaning that…

Insurance companies make money by paying out less in claims than they receive in premiums. As long as premium rates are fairly regulated, healthy competition exists within the industry to keep rates in check, and carriers operate in good faith with regard to the claim process, there is nothing wrong with carriers making respectable profits.…

Two legislative sessions have passed since State Senator Chris Smith, a Democrat, whose District 29 encompasses parts of Broward and Palm counties, voted with Republicans to eliminate reasonable fees from the state’s workers’ compensation system for claimants’ attorneys. The purpose of the bill was to keep injured workers from being able to fight for their…

Millions of passengers travel annually on cruise ships sailing from Florida ports. Thankfully, most of the voyages are uneventful in terms of negative events. However, some passengers do suffer serious personal injuries and even death through the fault of the cruise ship companies. General Maritime Law governs cases involving cruise ship passengers, Everett v. Carnival…

As the 2012 Florida legislative session is about to begin, Corporate Florida is rolling out its guns to prepare for its annual assault on the civil justice system. Although packaged as an effort to benefit consumers, make no mistake that the true goal is to maximize corporate profits at the expense of people. Profits over…

America’s civil and criminal justice systems are grounded on the Mosaic Code. The Law, contained in the Torah’s Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, pre-dates Roman laws and is the first to incorporate humanism and the democratic spirit into a written Judicial code. Four centuries before Christ, the Jews devised a legal system based…

From our experience, most Florida motor vehicle owners are not familiar with the many different types of coverages that are available, for the asking and at a price, under a standard vehicle insurance policy. Preliminarily, it should be understood that, in Florida, for a vehicle to be lawfully registered, the only mandatory coverages are PIP…

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…

For the past twenty years I have witnessed the steady and sometimes precipitous decline of rights and benefits available to injured workers under Florida’s workers’ compensation system (Chapter 440 Florida Statutes). The losses have come through legislative, rather than court, action, mostly by the hand of Republican legislators. Not surprisingly, the most damaging losses occurred…

As a Plaintiffs’ personal injury law firm, we deal with insurance companies every day. Thanks to current Florida law, insurance companies are duty bound to act in the best interests of their insureds, the individuals and companies who pay for insurance coverage. Acting in the best interests of an insured sometimes means that an insurance…