Being involved in an accident that wasn’t your fault, then suffering injuries can be devastating. This is because the incident will leave you incurring expenses you never anticipated, like medical bills. Many people do not know what steps to take if involved in an accident like this. You should know that when you suffer injuries in a crash that wasn’t your doing, you can make the responsible party pay for your loss by filing a personal injury lawsuit. For you to be able to do this, you need to understand what Florida personal injury law says about the various types of accidents. Attorneys at Jacksonville Personal Injury Attorney can explain in detail these types of crashes and what the law says about them, plus how they can help Hastings residents recover compensation.

Wrongful Death

Under Florida statute, a wrongful death occurs when a person’s demise resulted from the negligence, wrongful act, or breach or default of contract of another party. Also, generally, Florida permits claims for damages suffered from the time the injury arose to the time of demise, plus interest and projected future earnings.

Before filing for compensation for wrongful death, you must first substantiate that it was indeed a wrongful demise and that you qualify to seek damages based on the relationship you had with the dead victim under the Florida statute.

There are several special rules & regulations and other factors that could make it challenging to determine who should be compensated when it comes to wrongful death claims. The complicating issues include factors like:

  • Divorce
  • Remarriage
  • Common law marriages
  • Intention to get married again
  • Stepchildren
  • Adopted children
  • Children born out of wedlock
  • Posthumous children,
  • Divorced parents
  • Stillborn children
  • Illegitimate children
  • Financial dependency, etc

Simply put, these kinds of claims are almost always complicated. That’s why you need a Hastings Personal Injury Attorney by your side for legal counsel. The attorney could also help you to win your case, thereby recovering just compensation.

The statute of limitations to file a wrongful death claim is two years from the date of death. However, if the liable party in your wrongful death case is a government organization, there are papers you need to file six months before you bring the lawsuit, and the maximum timeframe in which you can bring your suit to court is three years.

Car Accidents

Most car crash victims in Hastings aren’t aware where to begin when they want to seek compensation for their injuries after a collision, especially since Florida is a no-fault state.

Most drivers who sustain injuries in an auto crash think they have to claim damages from the other motorist’s insurance provider. However, that is not how car accident personal injury claims work under the law. Hurt motorists and the passengers of their auto should file their first claim with their insurance provider.

All the drivers involved in a car accident are evaluated for contributory negligence in causing the crash. Their carelessness is determined by percentages, which are used to discount any monetary compensation present for the motorist’s injuries.

One primary advantage of the no-fault insurance system is that the medical treatment for injuries could be authorized straight away irrespective of who’s to blame for the collision. However, there may still be issues to solve. All drivers must know the amount of insurance coverage they have. Those that have state insurance minimums and are severely hurt in a crash can maximize their coverage quickly, depending on the high medical care cost.

A driver can only pursue the other negligent party for damages if the amount of their compensation exceeds what their insurance can cover. Note that your insurance company can prove to be difficult or rigid when determining damages. Also, you are left to pursue any further compensation from other at-fault parties on your own after your insurance company has paid what they can cover. These are legal matters that will need you to reach out to a Hastings Personal Injury Attorney when involved in an accident.

Pedestrian Accident

A pedestrian who gets involved in an accident, owns a car, and has mandatory PIP insurance will be compensated up to $10000 for their injuries. And if the walker doesn’t have a car, the PIP insurance of the negligent driver will cover the expenses. Since pedestrian-related accidents may lead to life-changing injuries, this insurance may not be enough to pay the whole amount of the losses related to your accident. If this is the case, your lawyer will negotiate with the insurance company of the at-fault driver, and if need be, file a suit against the liable party seeking to recover damages for your injuries.

Suits for further damages are generally based on negligence. For your case to be successful, you are supposed to show that:

  • The driver that hit you owed you a duty of care
  • He/she breached that duty by either failing to be cautious of their surroundings, driving recklessly, or disregarding traffic-related laws
  • You suffered severe injuries due to the driver’s breach of duty of care

It’s expected of motorists and pedestrians to exercise a reasonable duty of care when using the roads. But, drivers are usually held to higher standards due to their capability of reacting quickly and avoiding accidents, particularly when the elderly and children are involved. Both pedestrians & drivers can play a role in causing the crash.

Florida is a comparative negligence state. This means that every party that contributed to the collision may be financially liable for a given percentage of the damages, based on the extent to which they were accountable. Often, the at-fault parties in pedestrian-related cases will try proving that the walker was partly to blame for the collision to cut down on the damages they have to pay.

Truck Accidents

Determining what led to your truck accident and proving liability can be complicated. This is because multiple parties could be at fault, including the truck driver, trucking company, truck Maintenance Company, loading company, etc. Therefore, your case would generally need a thorough investigation of the collision and collecting proof and documentation.  And if you find out that more than one party was at-fault, you can hold all of them responsible for your injuries provided you are capable of proving that it is their negligence that led to the trucking accident.

If you are a trucking crash victim, whether it was due to clear carelessness or not, you need help dealing with the repercussions, including injuries, loss of income, medical bills, missed work, and pain & suffering you’ve been through since the accident occurred. Due to the particular complications that involve truck collisions, you must have an experienced Hastings Personal Injury Attorney by your side, who may help you gather proof. For instance, he/she may help you by:

  • Subpoenaing the black box of the truck before critical info is destroyed. The truck company won’t merely hand you this box, and it could contain the details your lawyer needs to help you get your deserved settlement.
  • Ensuring no crucial proof is destroyed or hidden. The lawyer can get a court order that will prevent the truck company from towing away the damaged truck to a place where it can’t be inspected for proof. A skilled lawyer knows how to recreate the accident scene and what proof will be critical along the way.

Bus Accidents

Florida statutes hold buses to a responsibility duty known as the duty of care. By this, it means that bus companies have to make an effort to make sure their passengers are safe. The standard of liability differs across different buses based on whether they’re categorized as common or private carriers.

Common carriers refer to means of transport available for public use. These carriers have to exercise maximum care to make sure their passengers are safe. This requirement is quite strict. It implies that a common carrier has to act with the level of care that competent and prudent persons would act with under a similar situation. This includes making sure that they sufficiently train their motorists and perform regular maintenance and inspections of their automobiles.

Private carriers can decline services to the public and transport goods and individuals only under given circumstances.  Coach, charter, school, corporate buses, and the buses that carry passengers to & from cruise ships and theme parks are all categorized as private carriers. These private carriers have to exercise only a reasonable level of care to avoid accidents and injuries. This is typically the degree of care that an ordinary individual would act with under the same conditions.

Failure to exercise the proper duty of care may amount to negligence on the bus carrier and driver’s part. Negligence victims can pursue damages from the bus driver or company for any injury and suffering they went through due to negligence by filing a personal injury claim.

After a crash, the liable party’s insurance company may offer to settle to minimize financial losses from a bus accident suit. However, you ought to contact your Hastings personal injury attorney before agreeing to any offers from the company. The lawyer may help you in determining if the amount you are being awarded is fair to cover your medical costs, lost wages, and pain & suffering resulting from the bus collision.

Motorcycle Accidents

Whereas Florida is a no-fault state when it comes to four-wheeled autos, this doesn’t apply to motorcycles. By this, it implies that insurance coverage may differ significantly from one motorcyclist to the next, and you could find yourself wondering whether the damages are covered, or how you’ll pay for treatment of your injuries. If insurance coverage isn’t adequate to cover the losses you suffered after a crash, seeking compensation through filing a lawsuit could be the ideal option.

After you file a legal claim, a settlement may be reached at any juncture between you and the involved parties. A settlement represents a form of resolution that’s valued by an agreed-upon amount of money paid to end a dispute (in this case, your claim). Determining the value of settlement of your motorcycle crash claim involves considering several factors like:

  • The party to blame for the crash
  • Your insurance policy
  • How severe your injuries are and the extent to which your motorcycle was damaged.

All these factors vary significantly from one accident to the next. Therefore, it is critical to keep in mind that the average amounts obtained in a settlement might not reflect the specific circumstances present in your motorcycle crash case as well as the involved damages.

Every crash brings about different results. Talking to a skilled motorcycle accident lawyer immediately after the collision is the ideal way of understanding what factors are critical to your case and the available options for recovery.

Types of Compensable Injuries

Accident-related injuries vary from one person to another and from one accident to another. However, there are common injuries that any person involved in any type of accident can sustain. They include:

  • Concussions
  • Whiplash
  • Brain damage
  • Seizures
  • Spinal cord injuries
  • Separated joints
  • Amputations and limb loss
  • Burns
  • Broken bones and fractures
  • Internal injuries
  • Neck injuries
  • Knee injuries

When you suffer these kinds of injuries due to any type of accident that wasn’t your fault, you can pursue compensation from the at-fault party. In Hastings, you will have four years from the time of the crash to file your lawsuit. If you are suing a government agency, then you will have three years from the date of the injury to do that.

Medical Malpractice

If you believe you may have a legal claim for medical malpractice in Hastings, the various key things to note are the timeframe for bringing your medical malpractice suit, as well as the procedural requirements for filing.

Medical malpractice has a strict statute of limitations. You have to file the suit within two years of your discovery of the injury or when you should’ve discovered your injuries or four years from the time the malpractice took place.

An exception is when the medical profession is fraudulently concealing the malpractice. That is, intentionally lying to you, so you do not know about the malpractice. In this case, the statute of limitations will be two years from the time you finally discovered the injuries or seven years from the time the malpractice took place.

Usually, there are special requirements you have to fulfill before you can file a lawsuit for medical malpractice. If you fail to follow the proper procedure, it may force you to postpone the filing, which may cause you to miss the filing deadline. Also, making it more complicated, it can be challenging to determine when the statute of limitations started running, and when the actual deadline is. Your Hastings Personal Injury Attorney may help you figure out when your statute of limitations starts and ends, so you don’t miss out on compensation.

Find a Personal Injury Attorney Near Me

If you or the person you love in Hastings is involved in any type of accident we have discussed above and sustains the injuries above or any other injury, contact Jacksonville Personal Injury Attorney as soon as possible. We will evaluate your case and determine if you have a claim to file. And if you have one, we will help you file and fight for you every step of the process to ensure you get the compensation you deserve. Call us now at 904-800-7557, so we can have ample time to work on your case and achieve the best possible results.