Florida Injury Attorney Blog

A firefighter (Dereck North) died in Southeast Georgia after the firetruck, in which he was a passenger, was involved in an accident after it swerved to avoid another accident in an intersection, according to the article from News4Jax.com. This accident occurred in Stockton, Georgia which is about two hours northwest of Jacksonville, Florida.

When analyzing a wrongful death case, wrongful death lawyers will look at all of the possible factors involved in an accident to determine all of the parties who caused or contributed to the accident and the resulting death. For instance, it is not uncommon for an initial accident to be the cause of a second, more serious accident. A fairly common example occurs when two cars get into an accident and remain in the roadway. This often causes traffic congestion and/or an obstruction in the road which is a danger to other motorists. This can lead to secondary accidents.

In such a case, personal injury/wrongful death lawyers will look at the direct cause of the secondary accident as well as the person(s) who caused the initial accident that created the road hazard. In serious cases such as the one involving the Stockton, Georgia firefighter, it is important to evaluate all possible causes of the accident so the family of the deceased driver or passenger can be fully compensated.

A Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO) officer was chasing a person who had committed a traffic violation and reached 98 miles per hour before crashing into a truck driven by 86 year old Matthew Ogden, according to an article on News4Jax.com. Matthews Ogden was killed as a result of the crash. Whenever there is a crash in Jacksonville, Florida, a traffic homicide detective will conduct an investigation to attempt to determine how the accident occurred. The detective will examine the scene, the resting positions of the vehicles and the deceased, the skid marks, the damage to the vehicles and any other evidence that helps him/her reconstruct the accident.

In this case, the Florida Highway Patrol conducted the post-accident investigation and determined that the Jacksonville officer was driving more than double the 40 miles per hour speed limit. In the context of a wrongful death lawsuit, there are some serious questions that the Jacksonville officer may need to answer. For instance, according to the article, some of the witnesses indicated that the Jacksonville officer did not have his flashing lights activated during the chase and immediately before crashing into Matthew Ogden. If this is true, I am sure it is a violation of Jacksonville Sheriff's Office policy to engage in a high speed chase without alerting the other motorists with the flashing lights. Additionally, before deciding to chase other cars at such high speeds, police officers must make the decision to determine if the risk to other drivers outweighs the benefit of catching the suspect. In this case, where the suspect has merely committed a traffic violation, it is questionable that the suspect's apprehension warranted a high speed chase through traffic at 98 miles per hour. Even if the police officer decides to initiate a chase after a person who has violated the traffic laws, the police officer should make the decision to call off the chase for the safety of the public if the officer's and/or the suspect's speed gets too high and traffic becomes too congested.

Being involved and injured in an accident, whether it is with another passenger vehicle or a big semi truck, creates a frightening and confusing situation. A serious accident disrupts your life in so many ways and raises questions and problems that are difficult to deal with at a time when a you just want to recover and get back to your life. A personal injury lawyer can help you do that by educating you on the steps that can be taken to get medical treatment, get compensation for your injuries, medical expenses and lost wages and negotiate the legal issues that are present in complex serious injury lawsuits.

The following are a few things to remember in the early stages after a serious accident that results in injuries or death to a loved one. It is important to obtain the medical treatment that your injury requires. A lot of people want to remain stoic after a serious car crash, but the medical treatment a person gets after an accident support that person's claim for damages. It is important to have all injuries, treatment, medical procedures and therapy accurately documented so an insurance adjuster, or a jury, can properly evaluate the extent of the injuries. Failure to obtain treatment will invite the insurance company to claim that a person was not really injured in the accident.

Another important point to remember is that the insurance company for the person who caused the accident or your own insurance company, or someone on their behalf, may try and contact you shortly after the accident and get a detailed statement from you about the accident and your injuries. This is often done at a time when you are in the early stages of the initial recovery process, on medication or otherwise in no condition to give a statement. That is not the time to give that statement which will be recorded and used against you later.

Finally, there may be evidence at the scene of the accident that needs to be recovered or photographed immediately after the accident or else it will be lost forever. Do not assume that the person who caused the accident will tell the truth about his/her negligence to his insurance company, during a deposition or at a trial. That is why it is important to preserve as much evidence relating to the accident as possible as soon as possible.

There are many other issues after a serious accident that causes injuries or a death that need to be dealt with immediately after the accident to protect your injury or wrongful death claim and maximize your recovery. Unfortunately, due to the shock and damage caused by such an accident, you are in the worst position to handle these issues. Therefore, after you or a loved one is involved in an accident that causes injuries or death, it is important to contact a personal injury lawyer or wrongful death lawyer, as the case may be, so those issues can be handled and you can focus on the healing process.

People who have been injured by another car or truck or in some other accident in Jacksonville, Florida or the surrounding areas are often unsure if they have a personal injury case. They may understandably question whether an accident and injuries automatically translates into compensation or recoverable damages.

If you have been injured in an accident, there are a few general issues that determine whether you are entitled to damages. Let's use a car accident as an example. The first issue we look at is the issue of fault. In other words, who caused the accident? In order for you to be entitled to damages after an accident, the accident must be at least partially the fault of another person. This is not an all-or-nothing analysis. If the accident was completely the fault of another person, i.e. the other person crashed into you while you were stopped at a red light, then the fault part of the analysis is satisfied. However, even if the accident was partially your fault but also partially the fault of another person, you can still recover damages from the accident.

The second primary issue is damages. If the other driver was 100% at fault, you can recover damages from him/her, or his/her insurance company, if you suffered damages. "Damages" is a legal term, but it generally refers to an injury that you suffered as a result of the accident and the resulting past, present and future pain and suffering, your medical bills in the past, your expected medical bills in the future, past and future lost wages and other elements that relate to negative changes in your life as a result of your injuries. Assuming you suffered some or all of those elements of damages, you are entitled to compensation after an accident caused by another person.

The third primary element of a personal injury claim or lawsuit is insurance and/or the other party's ability to pay. If you were injured in an accident caused by another driver, you have a case. However, the other driver must have a valid insurance policy, or other means to pay, in order for you to recover your damages. Insurance issues and finding insurance coverage can be fairly complicated and are the subjects of other posts on our blog. However, after a person has been injured in an accident and contacts us, we immediately take the necessary steps to determine all of the available insurance policies and coverages that can be accessed to compensate a client for his/her injuries.

If you have been injured in an auto, truck or other type of accident in the Jacksonville, Florida area or anywhere else in Florida or Southeast Georgia, these are the preliminary issues you can consider if you have questions about whether you have a personal injury case. If you have any questions about whether you have a case after an accident, feel free to contact us to discuss your case and your rights further.

One often overlooked area of personal injury law is the damages a spouse of the injured party is entitled to after an accident. When a person's spouse is injured in an accident, whether it is an auto accident, truck accident, injury from a defective product or other kind of incident, that person is also entitled to damages based on what is referred to as a loss of consortium claim. In Florida, a loss of consortium claim is intended to compensate a spouse for the loss of companionship, love and comfort from the injured spouse as well as the assistance received from the injured spouse in performing household and other routine duties. Damages for a loss of consortium claim are supported by evidence that the married couple can no longer do the things they used to due to the injury such as: have sex, sleep in the same bed, go out to dinner and other social events, travel and do any number of other things the couple did prior to the accident. Additionally, in most households, both spouses share responsibility for the chores and child-caring responsibilities. When the non-injured spouse is forced to assume more or all of those responsibilities due to the injury, the claim for loss of consortium is greater.

Other evidence indicating a significant loss of consortium after a spouse has been injured in an accident depends on the particular relationship, the things the spouses did together and the lifestyles they led prior to the accident. If you, a spouse or any other loved one has been involved in a serious accident and has questions about whether you have a claim and what damages you may be entitled to, feel free to contact our office for a free consultation.

Driving around Jacksonville, Florida, it really is amazing how many people are driving while talking on their cell phones, sending or reading a text message or otherwise focusing on a mobile phone or messaging device. As personal injury and wrongful death lawyers, when we represent a client who has been injured in an auto or truck accident or had a family member killed in an accident, we always look for evidence that the at-fault driver was on his/her phone or text messaging device at the time of the accident as this is evidence that the driver was negligent in causing the crash and corresponding injuries or death.

However, the National Safety Council (NSC) is asking legislators to completely ban cell phone use while driving. The NSC points to studies that conclude that driving while talking on a cell phone is as dangerous as drunk driving and increases the likelihood of causing an accident by 400%. The study, conducted by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis , found that approximately 2,600 deaths and 12,000 injuries resulted from accidents caused by someone using a cell phone annually.

Police officers, sheriffs and other government officials in Florida have what is called sovereign immunity from lawsuits based upon negligent conduct that causes injury or death to a member of the public. This sovereign immunity basically means that they cannot be sued by a person for injuries or a death caused by their conduct. However, there are exceptions to the sovereign immunity rule in Florida.

One such exception was outlined in a recent Florida Supreme Court case based on an incident that occurred in Marion County, which is near Ocala, Florida and is about two hours southeast of Jacksonville, Florida. In that case, a relative of the victim called a neighbor to check on the victim who was home alone. When the victim did not answer calls or knocks on her door, the neighbor called 911. Two Marion County police officers arrived and made entry into the victim's home. The victim was found unconscious on the floor. The police yelled the victim's name and shook her, but the victim gave no response of any kind. Two witnesses implored the police officers to call for an ambulance, but the police officers assured the witnesses that the victim was merely sleeping. One of the witnesses even indicated to the police that the victim may be in a diabetic coma, but the police officers again reiterated that she was just sleeping. The police suggested that they leave a window open and left. The witnesses relied upon the police officers' opinion and left as well. One of the witnesses came back later and saw that the victim had not moved. An ambulance was then called, and the victim died shortly thereafter.

This case raises several issues, but two primary ones are whether the police officers owed a duty of care to the victim and if so, whether they were protected from a lawsuit in Florida by sovereign immunity. Police officers can only be sued in certain situations. In any case, a plaintiff can only sue someone if that person owed a duty of care to the plaintiff or decedent and breached, or violated, that duty. In this case, the Court found that the police officers did owe a duty of care to the victim based upon the undertaker's doctrine. This doctrine as it applies to this case says that if the police respond to a 911 call, undertake the duty to try and help the victim (i.e. assume the duty of care), fail to appreciate the obvious severity of the victim's condition and fail to call an ambulance and the victim is injured or dies as a result, then a duty of care is present. In other words, if the police officers decided to respond to this call later after handling other business first or decided not to go into the house after no one answered and the victim died as a result, the analysis may be different. But, since they saw the victim, undertook the effort to try and determine her condition and make an assessment as to what she needed, they went a long way towards assuming a duty of care for the victim.

Two other elements were also present here. By undertaking to care for the victim and deciding that she was just sleeping, the police officers increased the risk of harm to the victim and gave the witnesses a false sense of security thereby delaying their efforts to help. In other words, the police officers' gross misunderstanding and miscalculation of this situation left the victim worse off than she was before and gave the witnesses who wanted to help reason to believe that they did not need to do anything further for the victim.

Of course, just because a duty of care is present and breached does not mean a lawsuit can go forward. The second part of the analysis looks at whether the police officers or sheriff are immune from a lawsuit. The issues regarding immunity are too lengthy to cover here. However, in general, government officials are immune from a lawsuit based on discretionary, or planning or policy making, type decisions. For operational decisions, immunity does not apply and government officials can be sued for their conduct. The Court determined that the decisions made by the police officers in this case were operational.

Sovereign immunity protects government and law enforcement officials from lawsuits for injuries and deaths in many situations. However, as the case described above illustrates, there are exceptions to the sovereign immunity rule that allow lawsuits to go forward when injuries or deaths result from negligence on the part of police or other government officials.

I recently wrote a post about an auto accident involving two people who died in Green Cove Springs, Clay County, Florida, neither of whom was wearing a seat belt. Obviously, it is well known that seat belts are important in protecting vehicle occupants from serious injuries, ejections and deaths in a car crash. In the context of a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit, whether the plaintiff, or victim, of the crash was wearing his/her seat belt can be a major issue.

In a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit resulting from an auto accident, the plaintiff is entitled to compensation, or damages, caused by the negligence of another party. Those damages relate to past and future medical expenses, pain and suffering and lost wages as well as other elements of damages. However, a plaintiff's damages may be reduced by the percentage that plaintiff contributed to his/her own damages. For instance, if in a personal injury lawsuit the defendant was 60% at fault for causing the accident and the plaintiff was 40% at fault for causing the accident and the plaintiff's damages were determined to be $100,000, that plaintiff's damages would be reduced by 40%, or $40,000, due to his/her own percentage of fault.

Because seat belts are widely known to protect occupants from injuries or reduce the severity of injuries, when a person does not wear a seat belt and is involved in a crash, the lawyer for the insurance company will always argue that the plaintiff partially or completely contributed to his/her injuries due to the failure to wear the seat belt. In other words, the lawyer for the insurance company will argue that the plaintiff would have been injured much less seriously, or not at all, if he/she had been wearing a seat belt in the crash. The insurance company will pay thousands of dollars for a so-called biomechanical expert to support the insurance company's position, even when it appears obvious that a seat belt would have made no difference in the crash. The plaintiff's lawyer will hire his/her own expert. This seat belt issue can complicate a personal injury or wrongful death case and take a jury's, and insurance adjuster's, focus away from the important issues- that the insurance company's driver caused the accident and the victim is seriously injury or deceased.

The easy solution is for everyone to wear a seat belt. However, if you have been involved in an accident and there is a seat belt issue, contact a law firm whose attorneys are experienced and knowledgeable about the complex issues that will likely materialize in the personal injury or wrongful death case.

The law of workers compensation generally provides that if you have been injured at work in Florida, your employer's workers compensation insurance carrier will pay for your lost wages and reasonable medical care so long as you notify your employer within 30 days of the injury or the time you are aware of the injury. A worker injured on the job is entitled to workers compensation benefits regardless of whose fault the injury was. The trade-off is that the worker cannot sue the employer for the injuries; he/she is limited to the benefits under the workers compensation laws.

Several years ago in Florida, a law was put into place that severely limited the attorneys' fees workers compensation lawyers who represented injured workers could collect from the employers' insurance companies in these cases. A formula was created that allowed workers compensation lawyers who represented injured workers to receive only a minimal fee even for prolonged and complex cases. On the other hand, the insurance companies could pay defense lawyers representing workers compensation insurance companies large fees to defend workers compensation cases. As a result of this imbalance, injured workers were at a severe disadvantage in making a claim for injuries at work and finding a law firm that would handle a serious workers compensation case. Under the old law, a lawyer representing an injured worker may be expect to make near minimum wage for dozens of hours of work while the insurance company paid its lawyer $15,000 or more on the same case.

Recently, in the case of Murray v. Mariner Health, the Florida Supreme Court struck down that law that was clearly unfair for injured workers. Based on that ruling, lawyers for injured workers can collect fair attorneys' fees for their time and effort on workers compensation cases on behalf of injured workers. This recent ruling should level the playing field and allow people injured at work to retain the workers compensation lawyer of his/her choice without worrying that his/her case or lawyer will be compromised.

If you have been injured at work in Jacksonville, Florida or anywhere in Northeast Florida, contact a law firm whose lawyers are knowledgeable in workers compensation issues to learn more about your right to be compensated for your injuries.

An auto accident involving a car and pickup truck in Macclenny, Baker County, Florida (which is about 30 minutes west of Jacksonville, Florida) resulted in the death of two people. A second occupant of the car was slightly injured. According to the article, the car crossed over the center line and caused the head-on collision on State Road 121 near Bobby Sapp Road.

When a serious accident such as this occurs that involves a death or serious injuries that may result in a death, Florida Highway Patrol traffic homicide detectives, or Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO) traffic homicide detectives if the accident occurs in Jacksonville, will typically come to the scene and conduct an investigation to determine how the accident occurred, who caused the accident and whether criminal charges or civil citations are appropriate. The traffic homicide investigators will interview witnesses, take photos of important aspects of the accident scene such as the resting place of the vehicles and the vehicle occupants, blood stains, damage to the roadway, debris from the vehicles and skid marks. The detectives will also take measurements to assist them in preparing an accident reconstruction.

These functions help personal injury and wrongful death lawyers prepare the case for their clients and show that the defendant was at fault in causing the accident. Of course, after serious accidents that result in severe injuries and/or death, personal injury and wrongful death lawyers will often hire their own experts to prepare their clients' cases to supplement the work done by the police or to provide a more accurate reconstruction of the accident when the police reports do not provide an accurate or complete depiction of the crash.

It is not uncommon for a person driving a car, SUV or truck to back out of a garage, driveway or other parking spot without looking, after only a cursory look in the vehicle's mirrors or without checking the vehicle's blind spots. However, particularly in residential areas, the risk of running over a child while backing up is significant. According to data released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and reported by www.News4Jax.com, 100 children were killed and 2,000 were injured in 2007 by vehicles that were backing up. Many of these accidents occurred in residential areas. Overall, 221 people were killed and 14,000 were injured in these backover accidents in 2007.

From a personal injury and wrongful death lawyer's perspective, if someone backs over a child in a residential area (or anywhere else for that matter), it is important to take a long, hard look into how careful that driver was before starting to back up his/her vehicle. If a child was run over in this manner, particularly in a residential area, it is important to find out, among other things, exactly what the driver did to determine whether the path behind him/her was clear and what the driver did to determine what children were in the area before starting the car and putting it in reverse. Even if a child quickly darts behind a car in reverse, it is a driver's responsibility to watch for children and others and take every reasonable step to avoid an accident. The fact that a child was in a driver's blind spot is not a valid defense to negligence after that driver hits or runs over that child in a lawsuit for injuries or a death.