While we always try to avoid personal injuries, they still happen, and they can lead to severe damages. For instance, you may have to go through a lengthy medical treatment or even lose your loved one. However, we at the Clay County Personal Injury Attorney in Hampton believe that you should not suffer alone but hold the fault party liable, whether you are injured in an accident or medical malpractice. We are ready to help you seek compensation by representing you in court and negotiating with insurance companies, so get in touch with us today.
Wrongful Death
The claim of wrongful death is brought forth through the field of Tort law that often deals with negligence. It happens where a person is the cause of death of another, whose death would have been prevented were it not for the negligence applied. Although an offender may be rightfully convicted in a criminal court, the survivors of the deceased may raise a civil suit for wrongful death caused, rightfully so.
The suit may be brought forth by any person who is mentioned in the deceased’s will as a beneficiary of his estate. They will typically accommodate persons with varying relationships with the deceased. The persons may include parents, children, spouses, or siblings of the deceased. If he or she dies intestate, that is to say, without having written a will, the court’s discretion is applied in appointing someone with a valid relationship with the deceased to bring forth the suit.
The law in Florida has a limit of two years by which aggrieved parties should have filed their suit in court. Unfortunately, it may become difficult to enforce proceedings outside this timeframe, as the court takes two years sufficient time to initiate the civil proceedings. Thankfully, the statute allows specific extensions under Section 95.11 (4)(d). The circumstances revolving around the delay should be valid and provable in court.
So, what damages are available for a claim of a wrongful death?
With the help of a Hampton personal injury attorney, victims of wrongful death have access to damages in terms of monetary compensation, which is the most appropriate remedy given in civil suits. Section 768.21 of Florida provides for what victims may recover from a case of wrongful death. The possible grounds for compensation include loss of parent-child companionship, the future loss that will be faced by survivors of the deceased if he or she was the breadwinner of the family, and reliance loss suffered by paying medical bills in advance of the death of the person. The offender should cover the compensation by providing monetary remission to the family of the aggrieved.
The death of a loved one is always a hard blow on those left behind, and it is only fair that they get the best possible assistance in claiming their right of compensation to help them move forward with their lives.
Car Accidents
Current statistics indicate that Florida takes the lead in occurrences of car accidents in the entire country. The leading cause of this type of accident has to do with the negligence of drivers on the roads. A common occurrence in Bradford County, as everywhere else in the state are DUI cases, with alcohol being the most abused drug by drivers on the road. Being charged with a DUI is taken as a serious offense, more so for persons who are charged as a repeat offense. The stringent law provisions in dealing with DUI cases are to deter the recurrence of such incidents.
However, there are more causes of car accidents, which are just as common causes as driving under the influence. The distraction of drivers by texting while driving is a significant contributor to car accidents. Besides, over speeding, poor visibility, and ignoring traffic lights also cause a lot of car accidents.
The law in Florida has a no-fault principle when it comes to car accidents. This means that generally, parties are not required to pay sums to each other, as the insurance companies handle the compensation to the respective parties. However, your Hampton personal injury attorney should offer assistance in claiming personal injury compensation that goes beyond the provisions of insurance companies.
Victims may bring forth a suit for permanent bodily injury, which may involve permanent scarring, breaking of bones which may not entirely heal or permanent paralysis from an accident. What needs to be established is that negligence occurred on the road and that a duty of reasonable care is owed by the driver who caused the accident.
Car accidents may be devastating to the victims who may incur huge losses as well as impounding normal bodily functions. Getting in touch with your personal injury attorney will be your first step in seeking recovery and moving forward from the unfortunate ordeal.
Truck Accidents
In the recent past, truck accidents have also become common in Bradford County. The accidents are based on repeated acts that allow negligence to prevail. Although it is not always the drivers’ fault, some causes may be only faulted to them.
One of the most common reasons why truck accidents happen is a failure of truck brakes. The need to make routine checks on the condition of the brakes may often be overlooked, resulting in grim accidents. The distraction of drivers on the road also ceases a lot of truck accidents. They include but are not limited to texting, drowsiness, and fatigue. Truck drivers often work long hours beyond the provided limit. Under the Florida Department of Transportation and Transit Office, truck drivers should not work beyond sixteen hours consecutively.
In seeking compensation for losses resulting from truck accidents, it is essential to comb through the surveillance cameras set in place in the highways, as they may provide crucial evidence as to what happened immediately before or after a truck accident. This may even be introduced in court as evidence.
Also, it is important to establish that the driver who may have caused the accident has all the required credentials and licenses to operate a truck. This is important in building a case arising from negligent driving, which is the most common claim received by personal injury lawyers regarding truck accidents.
Who May Seek Compensation?
Injured persons may file a suit for compensation of personal injury, which is a result of a truck accident. The impact of trucks happens to be very grave, as their make is massive. An average truck may weigh anywhere from 10,000 pounds. It, therefore, often results in severe injuries for survivors ranging from spinal injuries to severe head trauma.
Bus Accidents
Bus accidents often leave behind a grave result for the victims. Many deaths have been recorded in Florida, arising from bus accidents. The main reason why many accidents become fatal is that most buses do not have functional seatbelts. It is also unfortunate that there is no law expressly requiring that belts be set in place in the buses. The passengers are the worst hit when it comes to bus accidents, as the impact is often tough and dangerous. This, added to the lack of seatbelts in most buses, further provides a leeway for accidents to happen.
Other causes of accidents are similar to those of car and truck accidents. They are brought about by distractions on the road, running red lights and, most commonly, fatigue.
Regulations in Florida require all bus drivers to have a commercial driver’s license, under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986. The law functions to deter unqualified workers from handling buses, to prevent and reduce the number of bus accidents. There is also regulation for bus transit working hours for drivers. A bus driver has a limit of 12 hours of driving, in 24 hours. This means that a long shift is unlawful, and is often the reason for such serious accidents involving buses.
In bus accident cases, there are specific exclusions of liability that are enforced, much to the detriment of the aggrieved parties. In the case of bus drivers working under companies or the government, the employers may exclude themselves from liability of accidents. In Florida, the bus companies managed by the government often waive the rights of victims seeking compensation for amounts of up to $200,000. This places victims in unfair positions in seeking justice. However, drivers are not covered by the exclusion clause and will be held liable for cases of negligent accidents. Mostly, the driver’s insurance company will cover the compensation costs to passengers.
In a collision of buses with other vehicles, victims of personal injury may seek expert advice from a Hampton personal injury attorney in establishing if the bus driver will hold the liability, or if the other motorist will have some blame too.
Pedestrian Accidents
Several laws are governing pedestrian conduct on roads in Bradford County. Under section 316.130 of pedestrian regulations, pedestrians are required to use a sidewalk if it is available. Pedestrians also have the right of way, which is limited to when they are around marked crosswalks. Anywhere else along the roads, it is the vehicles that have the right of way, and pedestrians are required to let the car pass before crossing.
Despite these accurate law provisions, pedestrian accidents in Florida are the most prevalent in the entire country. In fact, as in car accident statistics, Florida is determined as the state with the highest number of cases of pedestrian accidents recorded. The accidents mainly claim the elderly as their victims. Causes of pedestrian accidents may arise from the driver or the pedestrian’s fault. Drivers who fail to slow down at marked crosswalks will most likely be held liable in the event of an accident. Similarly, the lack of extra caution from the driver may leave him in full liability of the pedestrian accident.
Elderly persons often lack helpful guides to help them crossroads, and in most cases, are involved in fatal accidents. Sadly, they make up a large chunk of the percentage of pedestrian accidents recorded. The group is closely followed by persons who live in underdeveloped neighborhoods, where there is poor urban planning resulting in poor road plans that put pedestrians at a higher risk of involvement in accidents.
In seeking compensation, a person who has been hit may claim compensation for bodily injury. This involves compensation for pain and suffering, loss of means of acquiring income and emotional distress.
In cases of vehicle merge crashes, a driver may be held fully liable for an accident as the victim was crossing in the designated area. However, in a midblock accident case, liability may fall on both parties because the pedestrian has not yielded to the oncoming vehicle. If a pedestrian is working along a road intersection and gets hit, he or she needs to prove lawful permission for operating on such premises.
Common activities at intersections include selling of snacks or passing off pamphlets. The driver’s negligence needs to be proven for compensation claims to succeed.
Motorcycle Accidents
These types of accidents often result in very unfortunate cases of injuries and are more likely to be fatal than car or truck accidents. The reason is that riders often move at high speeds. Without a shield body around the motorcycle, the impact is immensely rough.
Florida law uses the comparative fault analysis in motorcycle accidents. This means that in seeking any kind of compensation, financial liability is compared to the damage caused in the accident. The causes of motorcycle accidents are mostly attributed to omissions made in observing the law. For example, a rider is required to wear a helmet when riding. Unfortunately, the rule is not always observed, bringing forth many fatal cases. The cases also often result in permanent brain damage, a most unfortunate occurrence to the victim. Failure of other motorists to see an oncoming motorcycle is also a prevalent cause of accidents. The rider also has a duty of care in determining that the bikes are not defective, as stalled bikes have also led to numerous accidents on the roads.
In today’s society, there is a specific stereotypical basis of placing causes of motorcycle accidents. The riders are assumed to always be at fault, in the occurrence of such. The foundation is biased, and with the help of a Hampton personal injury attorney, a rider involved in an accident may be guided by a lawyer on useful steps to take in filing a suit. It is often discouraged to sign any insurance agreements without full awareness of the content within the document.
Your attorney is of importance in reading through it and highlighting clauses that may be predatory to the victim.
Medical Malpractice
The law will generally allow victims to bring forth a suit against professionals in the medical field, where they may have acted negligently. The list includes surgeons and even nurses and is not limited to doctors.
However, in bringing the suit forward, the claimant should be able to prove that the medical practitioner indeed acted negligently in the course of administering treatment. The court also considers the actual date when the victim was injured, as well as whether there is any direct relation of the victim’s injury to the medical professional’s act of negligence.
Common reported negligent actions would involve a misdiagnosis of disease, administering the wrong type of drug or dosage of the drug, mistaking laboratory results of different patients that brings wrongful treatment, and gross negligence while performing surgery. While there may be more incidents to be considered, the Florida law has a requirement that victims of these acts should not have reasonably foreseen the injury caused. Otherwise, they should have taken appropriate measures to suspend the treatment. Section 766.102 of the statue of law requires doctors and other professionals to exercise a standard duty of care that is reasonably acceptable.
If a victim of medical malpractice has suffered a personal injury under gross negligence, he or she has a rightful claim in compensation. However, the law also has a limit as to when the suits should be brought forward, which should not exceed two years from the malpractice occurrence.
Types of Compensable Injuries
Provisions of law expressly state what types of injuries are compensable under section 440.09 of Florida statute. For a claim to be determined as compensable, there must be a medical certification in the truth of the matter. Moreover, the cause of the compensable injury must be proved to have been negligent and should be linked directly to injury caused. The court had also determined that injury victims will only be compensated if injuries occurred before they benefited from the compensation law in Florida.
The types of injuries that are compensable are those obtained in the process of working. They are often linked with pre-existing medical conditions, if any, which may work against the claimant’s favor. However, your personal injury attorney has to ensure that you recover the maximum available costs in case of the occurrence of accidents.
The injuries include but are not limited to bodily injuries. Numerous defects arise as a result of injuries like these, for example, broken knee caps, dislocation of the spine leading to back problems, exposure to toxic materials such as gases that bring about lung problems as well as cases of electric shock. Disfigurement from falling objects in construction sites is also considered a compensable injury.
It is important to note that it does not necessarily require anyone to be at fault while working. The basis for compensation is that injury happened in work premises, where an employer owes a reasonable duty of care to his or her employees.
Contact a Hampton Personal Injury Attorney Near Me
Whether your injury is catastrophic or minor, Florida laws allow you to file a compensation claim as long as you don’t exceed the statute of limitations. Contact the Clay County Personal Injury Attorney in Hampton, Florida today at 904-494-8242 to talk to an experienced personal injury attorney.
