Articles Posted in personal injury

Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM) coverage – governed by section 627.727, Florida Statutes – is first-party insurance designed to compensate insureds for both economic damages (such as medical expenses and lost wages) and non-economic damages (such as pain and suffering) resulting from motor vehicle accidents caused by uninsured or underinsured drivers. Although every automobile insurer authorized to…

For those of us in Florida familiar with the constraints of the state’s sovereign immunity law, Florida Statute 768.28, the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. §§ 2671-2680, comes as a pleasant surprise. Under the state law, judgment damages against the state—or any of its agencies or subdivisions — are capped at $200,000 per…

Personal injury and workers’ compensation cases differ significantly in the remedies they offer and the parties they involve. It is not uncommon for an individual injured in the course of employment to also have a viable personal injury claim. Workers’ compensation cases are brought against the employer and its insurance carrier, whereas personal injury actions…

In every negligence action for personal injury or wrongful death, the plaintiff must establish three core elements: (1) a duty owed by the defendant; (2) a breach of that duty; and (3) that the breach proximately caused the claimed damages. While duty and breach often dominate attention, proximate cause is the element that connects wrongdoing…

Some legal wrongs give the aggrieved party more than one avenue of redress. A common example arises when an injured person must choose between pursuing a remedy under common law or seeking benefits under Florida’s Workers’ Compensation Law, Chapter 440, Florida Statutes. However, once a path is chosen and pursued past a certain threshold, the…

It is common for health and disability (lost wages) insurance carriers to pay benefits to their insureds who are injured due to someone else’s negligence. Many of these policies include reimbursement provisions allowing the insurer to recover payments from any personal injury settlement or judgment obtained by the insured. How Much Must Be Repaid? The…

Our law firm handles both workers’ compensation and personal injury cases, claimant’s/plaintiff’s side only. For years we have been dealing with Medicare Set-Asides (MSA) in our workers’ compensation cases. We have not been doing it in our personal injury cases. It may be time to start. A Medicare Set-Aside is a legal device used to…

A lien is a claim held by a party against the settlement or judgment in a personal injury or death case for reimbursement of damages it has paid in the case. This blog will discuss two types of liens commonly arising in death cases, the Medicare lien and the workers’ compensation lien. Medicare pays medical…

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…

Duty and proximate cause are essential elements of every Florida personal injury and wrongful death negligence case. DUTY: “Where a defendant’s conduct creates a foreseeable zone of risk, the law generally will recognize a duty placed upon defendant either to lessen the risk or see that sufficient precautions are taken to protect others from the…