Beverly Beach

It is a painful ordeal to handle bodily harm and damages you or your loved one incurs owing to someone else’s mistake, wrongdoing, recklessness, or negligence.

You may lose your job, you cannot walk your kids to school, your spouse leaves you, or even close down your business as your injuries are so severe that you cannot perform even the simplest of tasks.

Things are worse when your loved one dies as a result of injuries, or they were the breadwinner and now cannot provide since they incurred severe injuries.

If another person’s acts cause injuries to you in Beverly Beach, get in touch with us at the Clay County Personal Injury Attorney. We have helped many people who incurred injuries in road accidents, workplaces, and in violence cases to file and pursue compensation as they recuperate at home.

Our lawyers have a deep understanding of personal injury law in California and are relentless when representing you in court. Allow us this chance to recover damages for your harm and losses.

What Is a Personal Injury Claim?

When another person causes bodily harm to you, Florida law requires you to file claims in a court. The application helps you receive fair compensation for damages, injuries, and losses the parties at fault caused you.

The law, after you prove beyond a reasonable doubt, holds the defendant liable for their recklessness, carelessness, or negligence. Situations that could cause you to file a claim include medical malpractice, traffic accidents, or even on-premises accidents and your place of work.

Informal vs. Formal Injury Lawsuits

You can formalize your personal injury case through a Beverly Beach personal injury attorney in a civil court, or resolve the dispute with the at-fault parties informally before you can file a lawsuit.

You have two options in every personal injury case where you would need, for instance, compensation for medical treatment or lost wages.

Informal Settlements

Many injury disputes get settled informally, where your injury attorney pursues the liable party or insurers for both sides.

Usually, the settlement involves negotiation, agreeing on the compensation amount, and lastly, a written agreement. After getting into a consensus, both you and the at-fault party sign the deal to bow out from a court case or forgo any other action in the future.

Formal Claims

Plaintiffs are responsible for filing civil complaints in personal injury lawsuits, unlike criminal cases, where the government is the initiator. Defendants in formal cases could include corporations, government agencies, or businesses. Usually, the outline of the crime entails information like how your injuries occurred, what role the defendant played, and the kind of damages you require.

Common Types of Personal Injury Cases

To successfully file a civil claim, you need to hire a Beverly Beach personal injury attorney who has experience with Florida statutes. Common injury claims involve someone else’s actions and various incidents. Understanding specific concerns of claims help you strengthen your injury claims.

Traffic Accidents

Traffic accidents refer to road crashes involving automobiles like cars, motorcycles, and at times bicycles get involved too.

Even though a biker and a motorist could incur similar damages, the seriousness of injuries in each differ a lot. See, a biker is not protected by any compartment, unlike a vehicle. Therefore, a biker could sustain more severe injuries in a traffic accident. Florida law offers more compensation if you are in more severe damage. Common damages and compensation in traffic accidents include medical fees, loss of income, and possible loss of earning ability in the future.

Premises Liability

You could sustain bodily harm and damages when in a building due to hazards existing within the property or the owner’s negligence. You must prove beyond a reasonable doubt in court that the manager of the premises knew that the danger existed and failed to mitigate it.

Product Liability

Business owners subject themselves to liabilities if their products cause harm and damages to buyers and consumers. Florida law requires manufacturers to recall products if there are reports of hazardous effects. Failure to recall the products, punitive damages could apply should you suffer injuries, property damage, or the death of a loved one. The court imposes punitive damages to the product maker for gross negligence or willful harm.

Medical Malpractice

Every sunrise, plaintiffs file civil lawsuits in court involving medical malpractices. Prevalent medical malpractices include misdiagnosis, negligence, incorrect medical procedures, wrong treatment, and leaving medical equipment inside someone’s body.

You need to hire a Beverly Beach personal injury attorney who has experience with medical malpractice cases to help you gather as much proof as possible for the court to hold the hospital or negligent nurse liable.

Elder Abuse and Neglect

Often, the elderly suffer various injuries because of abuse and neglect in assisted living units and home-nursing facilities.

If you have an elderly relative dwelling in a nursing home, you should hire a lawyer the moment you learn of their injuries. Considering the age of the elder, it is so hard for them to pursue lawsuits; thus, the directors at the assisted living units could quickly get away with their mistakes. But with a knowledgeable lawyer, rest assured that no stone would remain unturned.

Types of Damages Personal Injury Cover

In a personal injury claim, the defendant pays the plaintiff damages for harm and loss caused. The settlement of costs could include income loss compensation, medical bills, or wrongful death.

But you and your attorney bear the burden to prove that the defendant's negligence or mistake caused your injury.

Punitive Damages in the Claim

Judges have the jurisdiction to impose extra punishment referred to as punitive to at-fault parties if they deem standard damage compensation insufficient. However, punitive damages are applicable where there is proof of horrific criminal conduct and injury. The kind of injuries horrible criminal behavior cause is like amputations, brain trauma, and neck injuries as a result of willful torture.

Situations, where the judge could use punitive damages against defendants, are where there is proof of deliberate harm and reckless conduct.

Note that punitive damages are an additional compensation to standard costs.

Economic Losses

Unlike non-economic losses, these types of losses are those that one can compute and have a significant figure. For example, hospital fees, loss of wages, and damage to property.

Florida law would allow recovery of car rental fees if the car you were driving at the time of accident sustained damages. If your injuries cannot allow you to go to work, the court calculates the loss of wages per what you warm weekly or monthly.

Economic damages also involve the possibility of you not earning a living in the future owing to your injuries. Other losses falling under economic losses are household chores that you cannot perform because of your injuries. Examples of household duties are washing the house, fetching kids from school, and mowing the lawn. Florida law also treats loss of a loan or bills you cannot settle because of injuries as direct economic losses.

Non-Economic Losses

These types of losses entail no possible computable figures nor formulas. Frequent non-economic losses are pain and suffering, of which it is hard to calculate the amount of pain one suffers. Pain and suffering are measured through the magnitude of trauma the occurrence leading to your injury entailed.

Other non-economic damages are loss of enjoyment and inconvenience. At times injuries like disfigurement, body impairment, and loss of limbs are classified under non-economic losses.

Statute of Limitations

The statute of limitations in civil lawsuits refers to the period a plaintiff can file claims against an offender. The deadline of time limit to file lawsuits ensures that cases are handled in good time and to uphold fairness.

The court is likely to reject your lawsuit if you make claims past the time limit. You cannot, in any way, hold the party accountable for your loss, damages, or even injuries.

However, Florida law stipulates serious crimes that do not have a statute of limitations. Factors determining the statute of limitations for torts or civil injury claims are such as:

• The nature of your lawsuit
• The supposed at-fault party. Are they a private or public unit?

Below is a table showing the statute of limitations for various Florida civil injury cases.

Florida Statute (FS)	Injury Case	Deadline
FS 95.11(3)(a)	Personal injury	Four years
FS 95.11 (3)(a), (3)(e), (3)(k), (4)(d)	Product Liability	Two/ four years
FS 95.11(3)(o)	Assault and battery	Four years
FS 95.11(4)(b)	Medical malpractice	Two years
FS 440.19(1)	Workers’ compensation	Two years
FS 768.28(6)(a)	Claims against the government	Six-month investigation period and Three years deadline
FS 95.11(3) (a)	Motor vehicle accident	Four years
FS 95.11(4)(d)	Wrongful death	Two years

 

Note that different deadlines apply to various civil claims. So, you must engage a competent lawyer to handle your case asap.

When Does the Statute of Limitations “Clock” Commence?

Many factors influence when the clock for the statute of limitations begins. It is crucial to not every lawsuit is unique, and there are exceptions for particular cases.

The Date You Incurred Injuries

Many times the statute of limitations begins the moment you sustain an injury or accident happens. That could mean the date your road crash occurred, or the day you slipped and fell at your workplace.

The Moment of Injury Discovery

Your injuries could go unnoticed after certain events like assault or sexual abuse. Activities that could cause harm to you but get discovered after a while are medical malpractices, for example, wrong diagnoses, or lack of diagnoses.

Here, the statute of limitations starts the moment you find out about your underlying injuries or the connection linking your injuries to wrongful or negligent acts.

Tolling

Certain situations are beyond the control of humans. If there are unavoidable circumstances that prevent you from filing a claim, you could pause/ toll the statute of limitations for a specified period.

Factors that could cause you to toll the statute of limitations is when you or your loved one’s mental health is compromised, the at-fault party disappeared, or your state is in war.

Florida Statute section 95.11(3)(a) rules that the statute of limitations for accident cases is four years. But many factors could shorten or extend the statute of limitations, and they include:

• The type of lawsuit. Wrongful death, product liability, and medical malpractice are all civil injury cases. According to Florida law, these cases have different statutes of limitations.
• Your age. According to Florida Statute 95.051, persons under the age of 18 years (minors) have an additional seven years to the standard statute of limitations to pursue lawsuits beginning the date of their injuries.
• The type of injury. There exist many situations where damages or injuries don’t show until many years later. Exposure to toxic elements is the leading cause of such ailments and prevalent in particular occupations. For example, if you work in an industry that handles a lot of asbestos, the odds are that you could suffer mesothelioma after prolonged exposure. In such a situation, you are allowed a longer statute of limitation
• Statute of repose. The statute of repose involves limitations in medical malpractices. The statute of limitations requires the plaintiff to file injury claims for damages incurred through medical malpractices before four years after discovery. The statute of repose seeks to increase the deadline to 12 years for exceptional cases, for example, where doctors and healthcare facilities alike fraudulently hide the plaintiff’s injury.
• Product liability. Per Florida Statute 95.031, you have four years to file claims for injuries incurred due to defective products. The statute explains that products have an approximate shelf life of 10 years. That means that users cannot file claims for injuries the products caused after 12 years.

Find a Beverly Beach Personal Injury Attorney Near Me

Injuries are not things one anticipates in life. When these troubles come knocking, you could lose a lot in income, your marriage, limbs, or even death. You deserve to receive sufficient compensation if someone else caused harm to you.

You want to hire a Beverly Beach personal injury attorney to help file injury claims. The lawyer should have a good understanding of various damages and injury lawsuits before doing business with them. 

We at the Clay County Personal Injury Attorney have a team of personal injury lawyers in Beverly Beach who are ready to help you receive your legal compensation. Speak to us today and schedule a cost-free appointment at 904-494-8242.