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Fort Lauderdale Car Accident Lawyers
Top-Rated Fort Lauderdale Car Accident Lawyers On Your Side
Our team of Fort Lauderdale car accident lawyers specialize in personal wound police. We have an outstanding racetrack record of successfully handling all types of centrifugal fomite accident cases. Check out our car accident case results. From intoxicated and distracted driving to bad weather, South Florida centrifugal vehicle accidents can be dangerous. Lawlor, White & Murphey ’ second attorneys will go over all the facts of your case and let you know precisely what to expect. Choose the best Fort Lauderdale car accident lawyers you can in order to get the maximum compensation potential .
Lawlor, White & Murphey is Proud to be Rated Among the Best Car Accident Law Firms in Fort Lauderdale
If you want to recover maximum recompense for your injuries you should speak with an experience cable car accident lawyer who knows the Florida car accident laws inside and out and knows how to deal with the indemnity companies. Every cable car accident is different and while each accident is costly to all parties involved, the costs vary depending upon factors such as :
- Whether there was a fatality
- How severe your injuries were
- The amount of property damage
- How much insurance the person responsible for the accident has
As the victim of a cable car accident, you will probably have medical expenses, many years or a life of lose income, and intense pain and suffering. But an experience and qualify car accident lawyer can help you get the help you deserve. Get Free Advice From An Experienced Car Accident Lawyer. All You Have To Do Is Call 954-525-2345 or Fill Out Our free Case Evaluation Form .
Why You Should Hire Lawlor, White & Murphey
At Lawlor, White & Murphey, our Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyers understand precisely what you are going through after being in a car accident and we can help you guide you through the integral recovery serve. You already have a heavy load to shoulder so we are here to take on a lot of that burden for you so you can focus on recovering. We pride ourselves on providing personalized attention to each and every customer therefore that we can truly understand what you seek to accomplish. You should contact our fast because : WE ARE… .
- Injury Focused: We focus primarily on personal injury cases.
- Experienced: We have been successfully litigating cases for over 25 years.
- Successful: We have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for injuries
- Top-Rated: We have lots of five-star client reviews.
- Proven Litigators: We have the courtroom experience you need.
- Boutique Sized: We combine small firm attention with big firm results.
WE OFFER…
- Free Consultations: We will review your case for free.
- No Upfront Fees: We don’t get paid until you get paid.
- Aggressive Representation: We fight for maximum compensation.
- An Excellent Reputation: Check out our about page.
- Available Resources: We have the financial resources to handle your case right.
- A Caring Approach: Helping people recover through difficult times is what we do.
- Convenient Services: Available 24 /7, home and hospital visits available, multilingual staff, phone calls returned promptly and video consultations available.
At Lawlor, White & Murphey, we have represented hundreds of car accident victims in Fort Lauderdale and across Florida. We are committed to helping car accident injury victims negotiate with insurance companies and judges, both in and out of the court, in holy order to secure fair compensation for their injuries. We fight to make sure you receive compensation not only for your current aesculapian expenses but for the care that may be required to ensure a full physical and emotional recovery in the future .
What Clients of Lawlor, White & Murphey Have to Say
“ The attorneys at the firm were very helpful in assisting me with my legal issues. They were genuine and upfront with me. I highly recommend them ” “ Hiring this firm to represent me in my car accident was the best decision I made. This was my first car accident and I had no mind where to begin and how to handle everything. The team at Lawlor White and Murphey not only walked me thru everything and kept me inform but authentically cared for my good being. I appreciate all the hard work they put in and making the process painless for me. ” “ This law firm helped me out when other jurisprudence firms refused. We not lone hired great attorneys, we now have good friends. ”
What Are The Most Common Types of Fort Lauderdale Car Accidents?
You may be able to file an car accident claim for an accident involving any character of motive vehicle, including cars, buses, motorcycles, and boats. Our firm has successfully handled hundreds of car accident cases, including those caused by :
- Rear-end collisions: This type of accident occurs when a vehicle hits the car in front of it. Rear-end collisions usually happen when the vehicle in front suddenly stops or slows down too rapidly, or when the car behind speeds up too quickly.
- Side-impact collisions: Also known as a T-bone collision, this type of accident refers to the side of one vehicle getting hit by either the front or rear of another vehicle. These accidents can cause serious damage, as occupants or the driver are often fairly unprotected.
- Sideswipe accidents: Sideswipe accidents happen when a car makes an impact with either another vehicle moving in the same direction or hits a fixed object. Usually, sideswipe accidents only result in property damage.
- Rollover accidents: A rollover is common with sport-utility vehicles. A rollover accident happens when a vehicle flips onto its side or onto its roof, typically due to a driver taking too sharp a turn at an unadvisable speed.
- Head-on collisions: These are the most deadly accidents. They occur when the front ends of two cars collide or when the front end of one vehicle hits a fixed object. Head-on collisions are the most likely type of auto accident to be fatal.
The austereness of injuries and property damage depends on the character of accident. Accidents tend to be the least severe in sideswipe collisions and the most severe in head-on collisions. Find Out What Your case Is Worth – Call 954-525-2345 or Fill Out Our absolve Case Evaluation Form .
What Are The Most Common Types of Car Accident Injuries?
many car accident injuries may be resolved with minor treatment in the hospital and minimal recovery time, but others require across-the-board future care—and indemnity companies frequently fail to account for this necessary future concern when developing an initial settlement offer. car accidents can cause some of the most devastate injuries, from :
- Cuts/Abrasions: While cuts and abrasions are relatively minor compared to other injuries, they do carry a risk for infections and other complications.
- Whiplash: Car accidents often cause whiplash, which is a neck injury due to the forceful, rapid back-and-forth movement of the neck during impact, like the cracking of a whip.
- Muscle, tendon, and ligament injuries: Your body can move suddenly and very fast in a car accident. This motion can injure you badly without causing any fractures. Whiplash can take a long time to heal.
- Knee Trauma: Your knees can be damaged by the interior of the car in an accident. These injuries can often be severe and long-lasting. At times, knee reconstruction is required, which can make it impossible to walk for an extended period.
- Herniated Disc: Car accidents can cause a herniated disc, which is when one or more vertebrae in your spine either rupture or shift out of place. Recovery from a herniated disc can take a long time and cause a lot of pain.
- Broken Ribs: Because ribs are fragile bones, even light or moderate impact can cause a rib fracture. The impact of the accident can cause multiple ribs to break, with recovery often being long and painful.
- Other Fractures: Broken arms, hips, legs, and shoulders are common in all types of car accidents. The sheer force of a collision can often cause multiple fractures that require a long healing period.
- Internal Bleeding: Internal bleeding can happen in any car crash and can be especially dangerous if not treated immediately after the crash. It’s important to seek medical attention immediately for anything but the most minor accidents. Internal bleeding can quickly become severe and can lead to death.
- Head Injuries: Brain injuries are the most severe type of car accident injury. They can cause not only an immediate injury but lifelong complications. Brain injuries are often left undiagnosed and can result in permanent damage or even death.
- Psychological Injuries: It is common for people who have been in a car accident to experience emotional damage. The emotional impact of a car accident can last far longer than any physical injury. For your long-term well-being, it is important to get the help that you need for your mental injuries as well as for your physical injuries.
After sustaining injuries in a cable car accident, the worst thing you can do is wait and hope that things will resolve themselves. Under the new PIP rules, you only have two weeks to seek aesculapian help before your policy company is no long required to pay. The preferably a personal wound firm like Lawlor, White & Murphey can start investigating your casing, the more probable it is that we will be able to obtain the compensation you deserve. Because we focus on wound suits and insurance claims, our firm has a successful track record in all kinds of motive vehicle accidents .
What Should I Do After a Fort Lauderdale Car Accident?
The meter menstruation immediately following a car accident can be traumatic and nerve-racking, and you may be wholly focused on recovering from your injuries. If you or a sleep together one have sustained injuries in a car accident, the follow carry through steps can help protect your correct to compensation :
Here is Why You Need to Have a Plan
Keeping an actionable list like the one downstairs can help protect you and your sleep together ones barely in case you find yourself in an accident. Knowing precisely what to do is the first dance step in remaining calm and convinced during a crisis. In lawsuit you are in a car accident, you should have a plan that covers :
- How to protect your passengers and yourself
- Exactly what not to do after a car accident
- How you can help others in the car that are in distress
- Reminders to call for help and record any and all information that could be important
Putting Your Plan Into Action
Keep Calm Immediately After a Car Accident
The foremost thing you need to do is stay calm air. You need to make certain that no one in the car is panicking and that you are in no further immediate danger .
Survey The Situation
Turn off your engine, and engage the emergency brake if you are on an incline. Your job right now is to assess if there ’ s anything else that can immediately hurt you. Are you in the in-between of the road ? Is there a gasoline escape ? Is it dark and your lights are all broken ?
When To Get Out of The Car
No count the extent of damage inside the car, if you are in further immediate danger by remaining inside the car, get out. You may besides want to remain in the car until local anesthetic authorities arrive if you deem it dangerous to exit your vehicle .
Call For Help
Always call for help if there are injuries. You or others inside your car may need medical attention. Because it is besides imperative to ensure that the scene is safe for you and others, patrol, the open fire department, and paramedics are all expertly trained to help you after an accident and make indisputable the scenery of the accident is secured .
Exchange Information With The Other Driver If You Collided With Another Car
You should exchange the postdate information with the other driver :
- Name
- Registration
- License number
- Insurance information
It ’ second besides crucial to ask the early driver if they own the car. If it ’ randomness company property, you may have to finally contact and deal with the party that owns the vehicle .
Gather Information About the Car Accident
equally soon as you are able and once you know that you are in no promote immediate danger, you need to gather ampere much data as potential about the accident. Always err on the side of far besides a lot information. trust on no one else to gather the data that may be critically important to any future case you might have against the driver, indemnity party, or any other party. Sketch out the scenery of the accident, criminal record any relevant information, and keep everything you capture in a safe place .
Inform Your Insurance Company
You should call your insurance company adenine soon as you are able and describe the site to them. Be sealed to ask for a address contact count for a representative and confirm what the adjacent steps are in the process. It is fresh to besides give them the insurance company all of the data about the other driver .
Do You Have a Strong Car Accident Injury Claim?
There are many factors involved to help determine whether you may have a potent car accident claim for your injuries. The key factors fall into three unlike categories :
- fault or responsibility;
- damages or extent of injuries;
- and ability to pay.
To have a strong car accident call, you need to have friendly facts in all three categories .
Fault
It is obviously critically important to determine what happened in your car accident. The facts of each car accident disagree, so it is important to be factually accurate about what happened and did not happen in your accident. The key is constantly evidence – what you are able to prove and not able to prove will rely on evidentiary defend for your claims. A patrol report is constantly critically important, which is why every car accident lawyer will ask you to get one. This is something very crucial to remember if you are always in a car accident. A patrol report is a form of attest and it is seen as an independent source by the courts. It is besides crucial to remember that the patrol report in itself is not the final text file to determine who was or was not at fault in a cable car accident. There have been many successful car accident claims where the police composition was not in the claimant ’ south favor. Witnesses are besides extremely significant evidentiary support for your claim. Witnesses are able to confirm what did happen, what didn ’ metric ton find and can besides frequently speak to the situation surrounding the accident. A witness ’ s ability to report on things such as weather conditions, any irregularities in traffic flow, or actually anything that might be relevant to your case, can be extremely authoritative. digression from having witnesses and a patrol report, car accident attorneys sometimes use the testimony of technical witnesses .
Damages or Extent of Injuries
fair because you may have been involved in a car accident or evening injured in one, does not mean that you have a claim for damages. To be able to successfully bring a call for bodily injury damages, you need to be able to show that you were hurt by a car accident. again, this relies on testify. You can demonstrate that you were hurt by the car accident by bringing forward aesculapian records, testimony, and any early facts that prove your claim. There are many unlike types of injuries that one can sustain in a car accident, and some of them actually heal fairly promptly. But there are besides other types of injuries sustained in a car accident that never heal, these types of accidents bring a life of pain, disability, lost income, and suffering. A skilled and feel personal injury lawyer who specializes in car accidents can help assess your claim and avail you recover what you have lost through being injured in a cable car accident .
Ability to Pay
intelligibly, the other parties ’ ability to pay is extremely important in determining whether you have a strong car accident personal wound call. While all the facts may be in your favor, if the early party does not have the ability to pay, you will merely be left with a judgment that you may never be able to collect. An feel car accident lawyer is skilled at evaluating the ability of the early side and their insurance caller to pay. They are able to determine how much money may be potentially available and to see whether the ability to pay will coincide with the depth and telescope of the wound and whether this makes for an attractive case .
Proving Negligence or Fault in a Florida Auto Accident Case
In any negligence font – including car accidents – you have to prove four things :
- That there was a duty of care
- That there was a breach of that duty
- That the breach of that duty caused injuries
- That damages resulted
If you are the plaintiff in a car accident case in Florida, proving negligence on the part of the defendant can mean the remainder between having your medical fees and damages covered or you being personally creditworthy for all of your accident-related expenses. good because it might seem extremely clear to you that you are able to prove these four critical things in relation to your accident, this needs to be looked at through a legal lens. What is significant is not what seems acquit to you, but what will be clean to a evaluate in a court of law. This is why it ’ s so crucial to work with an experience car accident lawyer who can present and sort through evidence in a room that a evaluator can appreciate. It ’ sulfur critical to ensure that you have enough evidential support to prove all of these four points .
1. Duty of Care
To illustrate a duty of care is relatively elementary. Every driver on the road owe every early driver the basic duty of care. This means that drivers are not allowed to operate their vehicles in a way that would injure others. If the foundation garment of your sheath is that the driver who caused the accident was negligent, then you need to actually go about proving that negligence. There is no deficit of ways that a driver on our roads and highways can be negligent. They might be intoxicated, distracted, they could be on the earphone, sending text, or playing on social media. They may have completed infrequent or inadequate car maintenance, causing a dangerous condition that contributed to your injury .
Gathering Evidence at the Scene of an Accident
Remember that this is all about evidence to prove your assertions. The best tell at the setting of the accident is going to be the police report. There are times where a patrol military officer may even testify to be able to provide compelling tell that the driver breached their duty of fair manage. For exemplar, possibly the officer observed and noted at the accident scenery that the driver that injured you was driving on bald tires. This would indicate that the driver has not been conscientious about car maintenance and was operating their car in a way that breached the fundamental duty of worry to you. Driving the roads and highways of Florida with tires that do not have reasonable and adequate tread, is something that contributes to accidents. For a police policeman to note this on the report and then ideally discuss this in person as testimony could be identical knock-down and help your case dramatically. This is another reason why gathering testify at the setting, including impressions of witnesses and photograph, is so authoritative. It is in truth a rare driver that will admit that they weren ’ t paying attention, but there is often real-time attest that can be gathered to prove this was the case. A big painting is deserving many thousands of words in the worldly concern of evidence .
2. Breach of Duty of Care
As for the early driver breaching their duty of care, it is not enough to fair assert that this was the case, but it besides needs to be proven. And it needs to be proven with some coarseness. How precisely did the driver breach their duty of care ? For case, if you have attest that the driver made a U-turn in an area of a busy road where expressly prohibits U-turns, this is brilliant attest of a rupture of the duty of care. aside from that U-turn being illegal, there is a reason why it is, which is normally that to make a u-turn in that specific blot would be highly dangerous. evidence, which can more much than not be easily obtained, that the driver was sending textbook or posting to social media in the seconds before an accident, can besides prove a rupture of duty of care. Courts do not look charitable, specially in inner light of the slaughter that distracted driving brings to Florida ’ s roads every day, on drivers who breached their duty of care to others by using their smartphones in the car. The breach of duty of care revolves around the notion of a standard of reasonable concern. This standard was designed to be objective quite than immanent. so using the exercise of bald tires, it is considered reasonable to expect drivers to maintain their tires in a means that allows them to drive their car safely. While there is surely an component of subjectivity ( for case, how much tire tread is a safe measure of tire tread ? ) we would all agree the tires that are virtually bald are insecure. When we speak of a standard of reasonable care, we are in truth asking what a reasonable person would do in this site. A fair person would not drive to the office on dangerous roads in Florida with bald tires. This is obviously dangerous. therefore, not changing the tires as the owner of a vehicle is an act of unreasonableness and is more likely than not going to cause some damage to the driver or to others .
3. Breach of Duty Causes Injuries
It is significant to look at the last two points together : causing and damages. What we are trying to prove is that the breach of the duty of wish of the other driver caused your injury and that this wound or injuries caused you to have damages. The argue this is then critically important is that the law does not allow you to collect for some things that happened to you where there has been no negative consequence. To be more clear, if the other driver breached their duty of care, caused an accident, but you were not harmed in any way, you have no properly to collect any money. Contrary to what we see sometimes on television shows, car accident jurisprudence is not about unjustly enriching those who have been in an accident, but rather trying to get them as stopping point to where they were before they were injured. so if a driver breaches their duty of care, causes an accident, but because of physics and the kind of car that you have there is no physical damage to you and no physical damage to the car, there is nothing to collect. conversely, there are many times where a apparently minor accident can cause both significant forcible injuries and significant damages, depending on the nature and type of vehicle. There are certain cars that merely don ’ thyroxine do well even in what seems to be a relatively minor condition, and there are other types of cars that do much better than expected even when faced with a fairly serious accident. The detail here is that you have to show damages to be in a position to recover them .
4. Resulting Damages
It is your responsibility to show that the defendant was the actual and proximate causal agent of your injuries. The burden is on you as the plaintiff to show that had it not been for the defendant ’ randomness actions, you would not have been harmed. This is called the “ but for ” examination. But for the defendant not doing what they did, you would not have been injured. The defendant must have been the proximate causal agent for your injuries, and as noted earlier, your injury must have been foreseeable. For case, a reasonable person would know that driving on bald tires could result in an accident. Skilled and feel car accident attorneys will understand the Florida system and the Florida courts. They will be well-positioned to advise you on what the reasonable person standard looks like in our state. In Florida, we need to imagine the fair standard as the most average person we can possibly envision. Would the average person believe that driving on tires that have lost their tread could possibly cause an accident ? The answer is, absolutely yes. To drive on bald tires is negligent and reasonable and the average Floridian would understand this. The reason it is so authoritative to have a skilled and experience car accident lawyer in your corner if you ’ re injured on the roads and highways of Florida is that alone an experience lawyer who deeply understand car accidents will be able to take your font through all four of these critical checkpoints .
Lawlor, White & Murphey Will Obtain Maximum Compensation for Car Accident Victims
here are several examples of our late car accident case results :
$3,300,000 PRE-TRIAL SETTLEMENT
G. and J. T. were rear-ended in their Nissan Sentra by a private school bus operated by an aged driver with terminal cancer. Mr. and Mrs. T. ’ randomness injuries were catastrophic, but both have made excellent recoveries after drawn-out hospital stays and surgeries. The defendant bus company destroyed evidence in rape of a Court Order, and this was a factor in obtaining the ultimate result .
$1,900,000.00 PRE-TRIAL SETTLEMENT
The litigation team at Lawlor, White & Murphey in Fort Lauderdale, Florida obtained a $ 1.9 Million pre-trial liquidation for a 56-year-old charwoman struck by a car. The victim sustained multiple open fractures of the lower extremities and did not have distal pulses in the lower extremities or the leave upper extremity at the setting of the accident. After being rushed to the hospital, she undergo multiple emergency surgeries to save her limbs, and months of in-patient treatment thereafter. The victim ’ mho past aesculapian bills exceeded $ 446,000.00. She is expected to live with hard disabilities for the rest of her life .
$1,775,000 PRE-TRIAL SETTLEMENT
In 2001, Plaintiff was driving his Nissan Pathfinder on Florida Avenue in Tampa, Florida when the defendant exited a park lot and struck the side of Plaintiff ’ s fomite causing it to turn on its side. Plaintiff ’ mho left weapon was resting on the windowpane at the time of the crash and the vehicle landed on acme of the arm, causing a near-amputation beat injury. plaintiff and his wife owned a cleaning party that they were forced to sell after Plaintiff could nobelium long work .
$1,336,593 VERDICT
late one night our client was working as a heavy-duty tow truck driver on the side of I-95. Two cars were involved in a lane change accident. One cable car caused the other to spin out of control. The early car crushed our customer between the car and the tow hand truck. Our client suffered multiple broken bones in his leg and pelvis. He went through a farseeing painful recovery and had to take a lower-paying job because he could not keep up with the physical demands of being a tow truck driver. One of the cars in the accident was a service lender from a local franchise. The franchise argued the Graves Amendment prevented our customer from suing the franchise. We obtained what appears to be the inaugural regnant on this issue in Florida. The woo ruled the Graves Amendment does not apply to servicing loaners. The jury ’ randomness verdict made up for our node ’ second lost wages and the damage he suffered .
How Do I Deal With the Insurance Company After My Accident?
One of the biggest mistakes people make in a car accident case is believing that the other party ’ second insurance company is not against them. It is not that people from the other policy company are not decent human beings, they very well may be. But you need to understand even before you get into an car accident that the way the system is built is for each party ’ s insurance party to powerfully represent their own interests. There are many times that person who has been in a car accident is impressed at how well the other party ’ s indemnity company communicates with them and sometimes how generous they perceive an offer from the party to be. Please do not be fooled. When the early party ’ s indemnity company makes you an put up it is a fraction of the amount they know they are apt to pay you. These are plainly the rules of the game and it ’ mho nothing you should take personally. But you should besides not allow yourself to be fooled. insurance companies don ’ t have just a few adjusters going out and looking at car accidents. They have massive teams of lawyers, and actuaries, and other professionals that are able to analyze a boastfully body of cases here in Florida and nationally and then predict the value of any individual cable car accident case. It is absolutely a certainty that the initial offer from the early party ’ south policy company is what is known as pennies on the dollar of the come that they have already determined they will end up owing you as your sheath moves closer to court. The biggest fight in most cable car accident cases centers around the measure of your damages. policy companies are particularly unfair when addressing damages .
What Does Car Accident “Liability” Mean and Why Do Insurance Companies Accept It?
The first thing that you need to prove after a car accident is just that it wasn ’ t your fault. It may have been partially your blame but your job, along with that of your lawyer, is to prove that it was chiefly the other party ’ south demerit. A skilled and have car accident lawyer will understand how to look at the entirety of your damages to come up with the come that you are owed, but none of this is important unless you are able to prove that the accident was the blame primarily of the other party. The legal shape can much be complex in car accident cases, which makes it an highly difficult road for plaintiffs looking to navigate the action on their own. Finding the right lawyer you can trust is the most crucial first footfall .
Putting Together What You Need for Your Car Accident Case
evidence is both king and queen when it comes to car accident cases. When you are putting together what you need for your car accident claim, you need to always keep the concept of fault, causing damages ( and ability to pay ) when gathering evidence to present your claim in the best way possible. There is nothing better than full moon software documentation. Anything that you have documented or can ’ thyroxine document is going to help you throughout your encase. Anything you are unable to document you have to assume that the other side won ’ thymine take. This is the difference between an assertion and evidence to support a fact .
So What do I Need in Order to Show That the Other Person is At Fault for the Car Accident?
The most significant thing may be the patrol report. After a collision, it is important to call the patrol and ask that they document what occurred. Too frequently, a person who caused an accident will admit demerit at the setting to avoid the police and then dramatically change their floor when speak to the policy company. Getting a written patrol report helps avoid this problem .
- Pictures of the scene and vehicle damage: it goes back to the old adage of a picture being worth 1000 words. To be able to describe the accident scene as one thing, but it is infinitely better to have pictures of the scene to help support your assertions as to why the accident happened. Pictures of the vehicles involved in the accident are also helpful. Here you want to be sure to get photos of all of the damage. Damage photos can help you prove that the impact was significant.
- 911 call recordings: Anytime somebody calls 911, there is a recording made of that conversation. If you are not in the position to call 911 after your accident, there is a very good chance that somebody else did. These calls are often requested by skilled and experienced car accident attorneys as they can be excellent forms of evidence to prove the other party was at fault.
- Video: Especially in our larger cities, so much of our lives are captured on video whether we know it or not. There may be video evidence taken from street cameras, nearby stores, traffic lights, or any place around the accident that can help prove fault. A skilled and experienced car accident lawyer will contact any businesses around the area of the accident and also be able to find out if they were any local or municipal cameras there.
- Phone records: Your chances of obtaining the other party’s phone records without the help of a skilled and experienced car accident lawyer are very slim, this is something that can prove remarkably helpful in some cases. Not only could obtaining the other party’s phone records be very helpful, but you can also provide your own phone record that shows that while you were in your car and especially near the time of the accident you did not use your phone and did not send or receive any texts.
There are frequently other records that are available that may be helpful. These records can include black box reports from the vehicles involved in the collision, GPS datum from the phones that were in the vehicles involved in the collision, and other records .
What is Needed to Show the Extent of Your Damages?
The follow is an overview of items you will want to pull together to help show the extent of your losses and injuries. Medical and billing records associated with the car accident: You should always keep a record of any doctor or aesculapian practitioner you see from the time of your accident. It is authoritative to have a detail and full list of every consultation, every procedure, every call call or confluence you have with any doctor or other aesculapian professional. You need to keep track of every penny that you spend on your medical treatments, keep every diagnosis in writing that anyone always gives you, and never fail to gather a read of any interaction you have with anybody about your injuries. If your accident was fairly dangerous, you might not have a memory of being treated on the fit or even later in the hospital. At the hospital, you will be seen by different doctors who are not directly employed by the hospital. In these circumstances, you will probably need to order charge records from multiple sources to fully understand the entire price of your discussion. Rest assured that records from paramedics, doctors, and the hospital are available and a skilled and know cable car accident lawyer will know how to get and best use them.
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Insurance records: If your health insurance covered any of your treatment, you will need to speak with the policy company and get what is known as an explanation of Benefits for the treatment associated with the car accident. Prior medical records: You will probably need to gather medical records from before your accident. indemnity companies are ill-famed for attempting to claim that injuries you say were a resultant role of the accident were preexistent conditions and should not be covered by any type of colonization. It will be your duty to determine that any and all of your injuries are newfangled ones, wholly unrelated to any conditions that you had before. There is, of course, a possibility that your car accident has made existing conditions significantly worse. For exercise, if you have a history of neck or back problems and these are made significantly worse due to a car accident, these new injuries would count in any cable car accident event, specially if they were making older injuries much worse. Payroll records: There is a very good luck that your car accident has caused you to miss out on income through being ineffective to work. You will need to prove this confused income with payroll and related records that prove what you would ’ ve earned had you not been injured and been able to work. Keep adept racetrack of all of the records that you have and may need in your car accident claim. Pictures: It is identical important to get photograph of all of your injuries as close to the time you incur these injuries as possible. As we have said all along, a mental picture can be worth many thousands of words. Pictures of accidents and the injuries they produce in people who were not at fault can be highly knock-down in a car accident claim. Pictures of cuts, abrasions, scars, wounds, and the like, are all an significant contribution of building your claim .
What is Needed to Help Determine a Person’s Ability or the Coverage Available for Your Car Accident?
Determining the early party ’ s ability to pay is another reason why you need a skilled and experienced car accident lawyer. generally, the other insurance ship’s company and surely the person who injured you, are not about to volunteer information they are not legally bound to provide. Once you figure out your own indemnity situation, including what parts of the accident your indemnity caller will cover, you would be able to gather information on the other party should you file a call. Because every cable car accident claim is different so we encourage you to give us a call so we can help you determine whether our Fort Lauderdale car accident lawyers can help you .
Determining the Settlement Value of a Car Accident Injury Case
equitable as an have car accident lawyer is able to figure out your damages based on the details of your case, the other party ’ second policy adjuster and their lawyer can do the same. You should understand that from the moment of the accident the early party ’ mho lawyer and indemnity company are going to do their best to find and interpret the facts of your shell in the light most favorable to them .
What’s the Real Story?
When you make a claim with the policy ship’s company of the party that injured you, this is known as a third-party claim ( since they aren ’ t your insurance company ). So it ’ randomness natural that the first thing the other party ’ mho policy company is going to want to know is their policyholder ’ sulfur slope of the report. This is another argue why immediate software documentation is so critically important. even where the other party I may have, at the scene of the accident, for example, agreed with your take on what happened during the accident, very frequently a party can change their thinker when speaking to their indemnity company and lawyer. Of course, apart from talking to the insured person to hear his or her history firsthand, the policy adjuster will read any police report or accident report related to the incident .
Investigating the Claimant
not everybody suing an indemnity company does sol in good faith, even if you are. The early party ’ randomness indemnity party will do everything from background searches on you to checking if you are a serial file clerk of policy claims or lawsuits. Any soil the early side can possibly dig up on you they will, in an campaign to get you to go away or settle your claim promptly. While it ’ randomness true that these tactics do not inevitably impact how good your title might be, they can be very distressing and part of the reality of a car accident lawsuit .
Requesting Documentation of the Claim
The adjuster will contact you or your lawyer to introduce themselves and request documentation relating to the claim including aesculapian bills, proof of earnings, tax returns, and proof of property damage. You shouldn ’ t expect anything but very exhaustive software documentation. The indemnity company will go through every individual page of medical records and bills to see if anything is missing or if there is tied one thing to suggest that the claimant has had anterior injuries or that the claimant is a series file clerk of claims or lawsuits. An adjuster will about never make a settlement offer without first digesting every single detail necessity to value your personal wound shell .
Determining Settlement Value
none of this is personal, no topic how personal it actually feels. The indemnity company cares about two things :
- What are your chances of winning a trial if you go through with filing a personal injury lawsuit?
- How much money is a jury likely to award you in damages?
That ’ s it, truly. This is the foundation garment upon which an insurance company decides its strategy. obviously, if the early side feels that you have a significant gamble of winning if you go to court, and the amount you would be awarded could be very senior high school, they will be more motivated to settle for what is hopefully a reasonable amount. conversely, if they feel that you have a low opportunity of winning, and even if you did win – the sum awarded to you would be very broken, they are not very motivated to come up with a quick and fair propose. As to the damages themselves, they can be broken into damages that can be very precisely calculated ( medical bills and lost earnings ), and besides damages that can ’ metric ton be precisely calculated ( for example, “ pain and suffering ” ). Of course, medical bills are easy because the hospital has already calculated them. nowadays, however, policy companies look identical closely at bills they deem to be soft ( much not from doctors or hospitals ). This can result in them refusing to pay for necessary treatment, such as chiropractic, massage therapy, rehabilitation, acupuncture, and the like .
The Importance of a Real Value on Your Pain and Suffering
Well it sounds like putting a fiscal value on your pain and suffer would be an impossible thing to do, indemnity adjusters use formulas to figure this out and a skilled experience cable car accident lawyer will understand this at least angstrom well as the indemnity companies and be able to guide you through the process .
The First Offer
The way it works is that the indemnity ship’s company will reach a compass point where they understand it in their minds what your case is worth. From there, it makes smell for them to offer you an initial settlement crack that is normally significantly below that numeral. This is plainly how the action works. Each insurance company works in different ways, possibly the first offer will be approximately 30 % of the real value of your claim. One absolutely critically authoritative reason why it is all-important to have representation by a skilled and have cable car accident lawyer is that policy companies tend to make lower offers to claimants who don ’ t have a lawyer. indemnity companies are besides very very able to look at the timbre of the plaintiff ’ sulfur lawyer and decide from there how to adjust their claim. obviously, they would prefer not to go deep into the process with a skilled and experienced cable car accident lawyer .
What Should I Look Out for When Dealing with the Insurance Company?
Before you talk to an policy adjuster, understand what their job actually is. An indemnity adjuster gets paid to :
- Prevent insurance fraud
- Settle claims for as little as they possibly can
- Settle claims fast
Some insurance adjusters are dealing with 5 new claims every workday. That adds up to well over 100 new cases some months. So how can you make your claim an easy one to get off their active workload and into the settle column ? The most crucial thing is that you have more in-depth cognition of your case than anyone else, including the other side ’ second policy company. If you have all of the data about what actually happened during your case and you have actually solid testify to back it up, you are credibly going to be ahead of 95 % of the other cases that they ’ ra dealing with. When you speak with a claims adjuster, you need to immediately find out who they are and exactly who they work for. then you need to keep the conversation professional and short. This is where the steering of a skilled have car accident lawyer has a huge measure for anyone injured in an accident. Because every case is different, your lawyer can advise you on what facts you should reveal during a conversation with the adjuster, and what facts you should not reveal. flush if you did something wrong in the accident, this is not where you should be discussing it. You should besides not be putting forth your own hypotheses about what happened during the accident, such as possibly the other driver was drinking or distracted. indemnity adjusters besides want to have an early sense of the physical wound and damage that you may have suffered. The trouble with many car accidents is that the injuries get worse over time after the accident. While your injuries might be relatively minor merely after the accident, weeks or months later newly symptoms and newfangled ailments keep you from the quality of life and range of activities you had before the accident. Waiting for a proper medical diagnosis pays off. An insurance adjuster will take it far more seriously than a self-diagnosis. Get all of your reports and paperwork in order. Just tell the indemnity adjuster you ’ re seeking medical treatment in Fort Lauderdale and that you and your lawyer will send a written summary of your injuries. It is decidedly in the best matter to of the policy adjuster if they can get you to give them a record statement or then sign something angstrom promptly as possible after the accident. In no way should you do this because in no room does this benefit you. haste is not your friend here, as there is nothing to be gained only a draw to be lost by moving promptly. Well, it is a natural inclination to want to settle everything quickly and get second on the path you were on before the accident, this is not the room to make it happen. This includes giving access to your aesculapian records to any insurance adjuster because they might indicate that the process will move more promptly if you do that. This is a frightful theme, as they will attempt to access the sum of your medical records so they can make an argument that the injuries you have sustained from the car accident we ’ re actually just preexistent ones. By far the best thing to do is to work with the skilled and have cable car accident lawyer to prepare and send a statement that outlines all of the injuries sustained in the accident. Disk and then be sent to the policy adjuster fairly quickly. We can not reinforce adequate the way policy adjusters are trained to deal with car accident victims. Almost all indemnity adjusters have allocated a specific measure of money for your claim. They will surely offer you a lower offer than what is allocated and keep their fingers crossed that you accept it. No matter how good an initial offer might seem, it is absolutely certain that the number they start with will go up if you negotiate thoroughly and properly. But the lone means to get the offers to keep going up is to gather compelling evidence and make intelligent counteroffers. While it is true that the indemnity adjuster wants to settle the claim, they will settle the strongest and best-prepared claims first. A skilled and experience car accident lawyer can help you make your claim one of the claims it makes good sense for the insurance adjuster to settle. The equation is very elementary : Get experience legal advice + do what you need to do in order to gather and present evidence to support your claim = soap Inez your find of success .
Florida Car Accident Laws
Florida’s No-Fault Car Insurance Laws
Florida has what is known as no-fault car policy. If you are in a car accident, you need to file a claim with your own policy company and you may be able to be compensated for your injuries and monetary losses based on your own policy. however, if your injury call from your car accident meets certain requirements, you can step outside of the no-fault system and make a title directly against the early driver. This is why it is so authoritative to have a skilled and have car accident lawyer in Florida, as they will be able to work through the details of your case .
The Florida Car Accident Statute of Limitations
A “ legislative act of limitations ” is a police that sets a clock time limit on your right to bring a lawsuit. not filing within the legislative act of limitations is a big a softwood as you can possibly imagine. not just for car accident claims, but for any lawsuit, if you miss filing within the period allowed in a codified of limitations, you will about constantly be barred from filing your claim. An have lawyer will understand and communicate to you the legislative act of limitations with any claim you ’ re considering charge. In Florida ( if you are reading this article from another state it is very important to consult an experience car accident lawyer in your home state, as rules vary state by express ) you have four years, starting from the date of the doss, to file your car accident claim in the Florida court system .
Comparative Negligence in Florida Car Accident Cases
If the other driver was wholly at demerit for your car accident, the resultant role is normally predictable : the other driver ( through their policy carrier ) will pay to compensate you for your lost income, checkup bills, other losses, and even your pain and suffer. But can you hush collect if you were partially at mistake for the doss ? Florida follows a “ arrant comparative defect ” rule when both parties are found to share blasted for an accident. This means that Florida is using a basic mathematical equation to figure out damages based on a share of fault. Under the pure comparative fault rule, the plaintiff ’ randomness damages award is reduced by a share equal to his or her share of fault. Let ’ s assume that you file a car accident injury case, it goes to trial, and the jury decides your total damages award should be $ 500,000 – which includes medical bills, car passing, lost income, and evening compensation for your pain and suffer. But the same jury decides you are 50 percentage creditworthy for the accident ( you were texting equitable before the crash ). Under Florida ’ s comparative mistake rule, you are entitled to get 50 percentage of the $ 500,000 sum, or $ 250,000. While not all states do things this way, the comparative fault rule in Florida applies even if you are found to be more responsible for the accident than the other driver. Let ’ s say that the like jury decides you are 80 percentage at fault, you are however technically entitled to 20 percentage of your total damages ( $ 100,000 ). The trouble here is that if the other party was besides injured, you could be responsible for 80 % of their damages. The policy adjusters in Florida are well aware of all of these rules and factor them into their considerations and calculations arsenic well as their strategic approach to your case. A skilled and know car accident lawyer will know precisely what you are entitled to and will set you up ampere better as possible to assert your claim and get the compensation that you deserve .
Reporting a Car Accident in Florida
If you ’ re a driver involved in a car accident in Florida, and the crash resulted in injury or death, or vehicle damage or damage to any other property in what appears to be an sum of at least $ 500, you have to report the accident to the local patrol department, if the accident occurred within a municipality. If the accident did not occur locally, you must report the accident to the office of the county sheriff or to the nearest agency or station of the Florida Highway Patrol. There is no choice here whether you need to report or where you should report, as this is all covered under the relevant Florida laws .
Fort Lauderdale Car Accident Statistics
South Florida has an undeniable repute for bad drivers. Whether it ’ s drink in drivers, uninsured motorists, or people distracted by their phones, there is an endless provide of dangers on our roads. This fact is specially true in Fort Lauderdale, which ranks as the most dangerous city to live in in the nation, largely due to driving. While the city is merely home to approximately 165,000 residents, it is one of Florida ’ s most democratic tourist destinations. Fort Lauderdale attracts roughly 12 million tourists every class, so naturally, the solid inflow of people unfamiliar with the roadways is bound to create thousands of accidents each class. The Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles reported that there were more than 41,300 car accidents in Broward County in 2017. That was the second-highest number of cable car accidents among Florida counties that year. Fort Lauderdale, in finical, had about 5,400 crashes in 2017, 2,100 of which resulted in injuries and 26 resulted in deaths. To some, 5,400 crashes a year for a large city like Fort Lauderdale may not seem all that meaning ; however, Fort Lauderdale car accidents are black far besides often. According to data gathered in Smart Growth America ’ sulfur 2019 Dangerous by Design report, 5,433 pedestrians were killed between 2008 and 2017 in the submit of Florida. twenty-eight percentage ( 1,549 ) of those deaths occurred in the three major South Florida counties : West Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, and Broward. These statistics have led to Fort Lauderdale getting the second-highest rate of pedestrian accidents in the nation .
Deadly Fort Lauderdale Roads
As a commuter or a pedestrian, there are a few intersections you should cautiously approach ascribable to the high leaning of cable car accidents happening there. The top two are A1A and Las Olas Boulevard, and Atlantic Boulevard and U.S. 1. Both saw a record-high numeral of car accidents in 2015 :
- A1A and Las Olas Blvd.: More than 1,000 injury-related accidents
- Atlantic Blvd. and U.S. 1: More than 6,000 accidents
Both intersections are not far from the beach, which is where road congestion is often at its heaviest .
Speak With Our Top Rated Car Accident Attorneys Today
At Lawlor, White & Murphey, we take great pride in defending the rights of Florida accident victims and their families. Our attorneys have been representing clients in South Florida and beyond for more than 25 years, driven by the goal of protecting our community, fighting for justice, and defending populace base hit. Our have personal injury attorneys are recognized for being among the best in the nation and are backed by a lead record of countless successful cases. We ’ ve helped clients throughout Florida obtain the recompense they need to get back on their feet with adept rede, audacious legal representation, and compassionate documentation. When it comes to protecting you and your family ’ s rights and securing your best chances for a full convalescence, you can ’ t afford to gamble on anyone but the best. At Lawlor, White & Murphey, we are convinced that we can protect your rights and interests, plug fair compensation, and set you and your family on the road to recovery. To determine whether we are the right firm for you, we encourage you to read on about our history, work, and mission, and to explore the wealth of resources on our web site .
The Benefits of Having an Experienced Car Accident Lawyer on Your Side
The most authoritative advice we can give anyone injured in a car accident is to meet with a skilled and feel car accident lawyer. The difference between being represented by person who knows all of the ends and outs of a potential car accident claim and being self-represented can be massive. It rightfully can make all the deviation between you receiving the recompense you deserve for your injuries and receiving nothing and being in a importantly worse position than you were in before the accident. digression from equitable being a critically important lead through the entire process of a potential lawsuit, a skilled and know car accident lawyer can do many, many things for you over the weeks and months after your accident, including :
- Gathering evidence to support your claim.
- Calculating any losses you have incurred as a result of the accident.
- Putting together your medical records that were a result of the accident.
- Filing any court documents that are required and being aware of the time allowed to file.
- Dealing and negotiating with the insurance company.
- Putting together any necessary witnesses, including expert witnesses and testimony.
Having the correct car accident lawyer on your side will drastically reduce your levels of tension and allow you to focus on healing. Hiring a skilled and experienced car accident lawyer will help you get the compensation you deserve .
Frequently Asked Questions About Florida Car Accidents
FAQ: How can a lawyer help determine the cause of my car accident when the other driver claims I was responsible?
We consult with experts in the field, examine all records, and conduct our own investigation to uncover all possible testify that could help establish the campaign of your car accident. Our lawyers have the resources and experience necessary to succeed in these cases and are here to help discover what very happened in your event .FAQ: What if the other driver is claiming I was partly responsible for my car accident. Can I still recover compensation for my injuries?
Yes. Florida is a saturated comparative negligence state which means that you can recover compensation even if you were partially responsible for the accident. however, your recompense award will be reduced to the extent that it was determined that you were at fault for the accident .FAQ: What happens in a free initial consultation with one of your car accident lawyers?
In a release initial reference, you basically tell us what happened in your sheath and we give you our honest public opinion as to the likelihood that we will be able to recover compensation and what that convalescence action might look like. The free initial consultation besides gives car accident victims an opportunity to get to know us and understand how we work, equally well as ask any questions about our practice so that they can make an inform decisiveness as to whether to retain our services formally .FAQ: If I was rear-ended, does that automatically mean that the other driver was at fault? What about left turns?
A number of factors must be evaluated to determine who is at blame after a car accident. We investigate car accident cases in order to discover all available attest in your case—including any video recording or photograph tell, arsenic well as eyewitness testimony. In some cases, we will consult with accident reconstruction experts in order to gain a more clear agreement of what happened in your car accident to build a compel controversy that the accident was not your demerit. If you were rear-end, there is a presumption that the other driver was at demerit, but that presumption can be rebutted based upon the particular evidence available in your event. similarly, vehicles making a leave turn are required to yield the veracious of way to oncoming traffic, but an investigation will be necessity to determine whether unusual circumstances exist so as to render another driver technically at-fault for the accident .FAQ: Can multiple parties be found at-fault for a car accident under Florida law?
Yes. Florida ’ south saturated relative negligence rule means that the academic degree of fault will be assigned to each driver involved in the accident based on all available attest. Financial province will then be assigned to those drivers in proportion to their proportional degrees of fault. For model, if you were involved in a multi-car accident, and you were found to be 20 percentage at-fault for the accident, with two other drivers each receive to be 40 percentage creditworthy, your compensation prize will be reduced by 20 percentage, which each of the other drivers will be responsible for paying their 40 percentage parcel of the compensation award .FAQ: Is there a time period in which I need to make a claim with my insurance company after a car accident?
not formally, but it is important to contact your insurance company a soon as potential after you have sustained injuries in a cable car accident. This can help speed the procedure of recovering funds from your insurance policy. Despite this, it is important to refrain from making any ball written statements until you have spoken to your car accident lawyer .FAQ: Where can I obtain a copy of the police report that was compiled after my car accident?
You can, and should, obtain a copy of the police report from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, and can contact the location nearest to where the accident occurred. It is significant to obtain a imitate of the police report after your cable car accident to ensure that the report card is accurate and contains no errors. Errors should be reported to the agency where the report was obtained a soon as potential after you discover them .FAQ: What is the no-fault insurance law that applies in Florida car accident cases?
Florida ’ s no-fault policy law requires that every driver with a vehicle registered in the state of Florida obtain insurance coverage satisfying certain coverage limits. The minimal indemnity requirements in Florida are presently $ 10,000 in personal injury protective covering ( PIP ) coverage and $ 10,000 in property wrong liability ( PDL ) coverage. Bodily insurance liability ( BIL ) coverage is different and is not technically required under Florida jurisprudence for all drivers. BIL coverage is typically extra coverage designed to protect yourself further against the risk of high future medical costs stemming from a car accident. While not strictly required under Florida law, BIL coverage may be required of individuals who have shown that they may be a gamble, in terms of causing injury to others in a car accident, such as drivers who have been convicted of drink in or drugged tug in the past .FAQ: What are the basic forms of compensation that I can recover after I sustained injuries in a Florida car accident?
Under Florida law, you can recover economic and non-economic compensatory damages after an accident. economic damages are designed to cover the actual fiscal outlays that you are required to make after sustaining injuries in a car accident—covering items such as aesculapian expenses, physical therapy, aesculapian devices, property damage, and similar costs. Economic damages besides cover the money that you have lost because of the injury, including lost wages during your recovery period. Non-economic damages are more intangible and are designed to account for the non-quantifiable damage caused by your injuries, such as pain and suffering and aroused distress .FAQ: Can I recover compensation designed to punish the at-fault driver in a Florida car accident case?
Florida law allows cable car accident victims to recover punitive damages, or damages designed to punish the driver if you can prove that the at-fault party was guilty of gross negligence or intentional wrongdoing that caused the accident. In other words, in the typical case where an at-fault driver was merely careless and caused an accident, punitive damages will not be available. If punitive damages are available, Florida police limits the convalescence of such damages to $ 500,000 or three times the total of compensatory damages awarded in your case, whichever is greater. however, if the arrant negligence that caused your car accident was motivated entirely by fiscal addition, those limits are increased to the greater of $ 2 million or four times the compensatory damages in your casing. If the cable car accident was caused on function, because the at-fault party intended to hurt you, there is no hood .FAQ: Is there a time period in which I need to make a claim with my insurance company after a car accident?
not formally, but it is authoritative to contact your insurance company equally soon as possible after you have sustained injuries in a cable car accident. This can help speed the process of recovering funds from your insurance policy. Despite this, it is significant to refrain from making any courtly written statements until you have spoken to your car accident lawyer.
In what locations does Lawlor, White & Murphey handle car accident cases? Pompano Beach Car Accidents
Lake Worth Car Accidents
Fort Lauderdale Car Accidents
Boynton Beach Car Accidents
West Palm Beach Car Accidents
Boca Raton Car Accidents
Delray Beach Car Accidents
Wellington Car Accidents
Miramar Car Accidents
Coral Springs Car Accidents
Greenacres Car Accidents
Palm Beach Gardens Car Accidents
Royal Palm Beach Car Accidents
Sunrise Car Accidents
Plantation Car Accidents
Jupiter Car Accidents
Hollywood Car Accidents
Pembroke Pines Car AccidentsFAQ: What should I do if I was in a car accident?