Florida personal injury lawsuits can be filed for many types of injuries or losses, caused by a wide variety of incidents. If you were injured due to someone else’s negligence, you will want an experienced personal injury attorney to help you navigate the legal system, one who knows the intricacies of personal injury law and how to research and present your claim to maximize your compensation.
Demonstrating negligence
A personal injury lawsuit stands on four pillars, which could be called the “4 Ds”:
- Duty: The person or business who caused your injury owed you a duty of care
- Dereliction of duty: The person or business was negligent in that duty
- Direct or proximate cause: You suffered injury or damage that was caused by the breach of that duty
- Damages: The injury or damage can be demonstrated legally
Your personal injury lawsuit must include all four of these requirements when filed, including the injuries or losses sustained due to the incident.
Types of accidents
Accidents happen all the time. We’ve all experienced them, whether minor accidents such as spilling your coffee to major accidents such as an electrical fire. What turns an accident into a personal injury case is negligence on the part of another party. If you believe your accident was caused by someone else’s negligence, and the accident led to injury, you may have a case.
Types of accidents or injuries may include:
- Vehicular accidents, whether on land, sea, or air. Such accidents might involve an auto, truck, recreational vehicle, boat, jet ski, airplane, hang glider, bicycle, moped motorcycle, etc.
- Recreational accidents, such as accidents that occur during participation in extreme sports or while enjoying carnival rides or amusement parks
- Injuries on unsafe premises, such as slip and falls due to uneven surfaces and injuries due to insufficient exit strategies, crowd control, or security at public attractions
- Injuries at hotels, rentals, or public spaces due to poor maintenance; insufficient supervision; poor lighting; unhealthy ventilation, water, or plumbing; or insufficient fire safety
- Injuries due to medical malpractice, caused by negligence or omissions in diagnosis, treatment, after-care, etc.
- Injuries resulting from criminal attacks caused by unsafe conditions such as poor lighting at a hotel parking lot (the criminal case against the perpetrator being a separate legal action)
- Dog bites caused by vicious or unsecured animals and other animal attacks
- Injuries caused by the malfunction or poor design of a product
- Wrongful death, when an accident or injury caused by negligence leads to death
Types of compensation
Compensation is not limited solely to bodily injury. It can include economic, emotional, relational, and property losses, as well. As an experienced personal injury attorney, I dig deep into your case, examining every aspect of the accident to determine the full breadth of your injuries and losses in order to maximize your claim.
These losses or injuries may include:
- Medical expenses, current and future
- Mental health expenses, current and future
- Lost wages and future lost earnings
- Property damage
- Other expenses caused by the accident, such as necessary changes to your home to accommodate your injuries
- Pain and suffering: physical, emotional, and relational
- Loss of companionship in the case of serious permanent injury or death
In Florida, it is extremely difficult to claim emotional or psychological injury in the absence of physical injury, given the fourth requirement, that the injury must be able to be proven in court. However, emotional and psychological injury can be part of a personal injury case when physical injury is present.
At the beginning of the case, it is critical to properly determine all your injuries or losses and calculate the long-term costs of those injuries and losses in medical expenses, lost wages, and the pain and suffering that may linger for years. I call on experts in the areas of medicine, psychology, and finance to calculate a lifetime cost due to the accident and I support this number with expert testimony, to ensure the highest possible compensation for my injured clients.
Don’t delay. Contact me from anywhere in Florida at (954) 448-7288, 24/7 for a free consultation to discuss your case. I leave no stone unturned to help my clients receive the compensation they deserve.