Car Accident

Florida Appellate Decision Recognizes Importance of Accident Victim’s Right to Seek Counsel

Published on: May 6, 2013 | by Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada, P.A.

The recent appellate decision in Howard v. Palmer illustrates that the courts recognize the importance of being able to hire an experienced, savvy personal injury attorney right away. In that case, an employee of Groupware ran a stop sign and crashed into the plaintiff’s car. The plaintiff sued for personal injuries in a negligence and vicarious liability lawsuit against both employee and employer.

Before trial, the plaintiff’s attorney made a motion to prevent the defense attorney from presenting evidence that on the day of the accident, the plaintiff contacted an attorney who referred him to a doctor. The plaintiff’s attorney believed that the defense attorney would ask all of the plaintiff’s doctors if they knew he had met with an attorney. The defense confirmed that this was its plan, claiming that plaintiff contacting an attorney the day of the accident created an issue as to whether he actually experienced a permanent injury or if it was a manufactured permanent injury.

The trial court ruled for the plaintiff and prohibited the defense attorney from asking questions about when plaintiff contacted an attorney. Nonetheless, when questioning the plaintiff’s treating physicians, the defense attorney asked one of the doctors if he knew that the plaintiff had seen an attorney before going to the first treating doctor. In a sidebar before the court, the attorneys disagreed about what the court’s ruling had been, and the plaintiff’s counsel brought up the case law he had brought up during the motion. That case law concerned a similar issue in which the court ruled inadmissible any evidence of a plaintiff seeing an attorney three days after an accident.

The trial court in the instant case agreed with the plaintiff and said it would give the jury a curative instruction. The plaintiff’s counsel next asked for a mistrial to sanction defense counsel for violating the court’s order.

Florida Legislative Ban on Texting While Driving

Published on: May 2, 2013 | by Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada, P.A.

After four years of thinking about whether or not to ban texting, the Florida legislature has sent a texting-while-driving ban to Florida Governor Rick Scott this week. The House voted 110-6 to pass the ban, while the Senate voted 39-1 to approve the bill that the House had amended.

Critics of the ban say that this ban is a watered-down bill. It makes texting while driving a secondary offense, rather than a primary one. In other words, a driver has to also violate another law in order to be pulled over for texting. A driver who violates the ban for the first time can only be fined $30.00 plus court costs.

The ban permits cellphone records to be used as evidence only if an accident causes a death or personal injury. While this latter point is good news for those who have suffered a personal injury, it does not help those who are killed as a result of others’ negligence in texting while driving. This is a big enough problem in Florida that the ban probably should have been stronger. Thirty-nine states and D.C. already ban texting.

Most of us know someone who texts while he or she drives, even though studies show that texting while driving is incredibly dangerous. One in 7 adults has admitted he or she texts while driving. Texting while driving diverts a driver’s visual, manual and cognitive attention away from the road. In 2011, 23% of car crashes (which comes out to equal approximately 1.3 million) involved cell phone use. That year, 3,331 people in the United States were killed by a distracted driver (not just including those who texted, but anybody whose attention was fixed on something other than driving).

Florida Appellate Court Rules New Trial Not Appropriate in Car Accident Case

Published on: April 12, 2013 | by Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada, P.A.

In Smith v. Lllamas, the Second District Court of Appeal of Florida ruled on the question of whether a motion for new trial was appropriately granted in an auto accident case. The case arose from a car collision that occurred in 2008, when a man and woman were each traveling in opposite directions on a two-lane road.

The woman was turning left when the cars crashed. The man sued her, alleging personal injuries in his neck and knees. The woman raised comparative negligence as her defense.
At trial, the parties presented conflicting expert testimony on the man’s neck injury. The neurosurgeon who treated the man said it was a permanent injury and that although he had undergone surgery, he did not expect the surgery to fully eliminate his neck pain. The orthopedic surgeon who testified for the woman said he didn’t think the injury arose from the car accident and that he would have recommended a more conservative approach than surgery.

The parties also presented conflicting evidence with respect to the knee injury the man alleged. The orthopedic surgeon who treated the man said the injury was caused by the accident and permanent, but that the basis for his opinions was partially from the history given by the man. He admitted there were inconsistencies in what the man had told him. For example, the man had gone to the chiropractor immediately following the accident, rather than the emergency room even though he claimed he was bleeding. He didn’t seek treatment for his knees until eight months after the accident. Also, he didn’t consistently report knee pain to his doctors–even four days after the accident.

The jury found the woman solely liable and awarded the man past medical expenses in the amount of $37,000 without apportioning the award between his neck and knee injuries. They found the injuries weren’t permanent and awarded him nothing for his future care and pain and suffering.

New Florida PIP Law Limits Time and Medical Options for Those Injured In a Car Accident

Published on: February 13, 2013 | by Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada, P.A.

Four children and one adult driver had to be taken to the hospital near Miami, Florida after a driver crossed the center-line and hit their shuttle van head-on. Two children were ejected from the vehicle, but were in stable condition, one child’s condition was unknown, and the fourth child and driver remained uninjured. The driver claimed he was having a heart attack, but that was subsequently shown to be untrue.

While the victims in this recent accident quickly sought needed medical attention, other insured Florida car accident victims may not think they need, or can afford, medical services. The latest version of the Florida Motor Vehicle No-Fault statute, recently made effective at the beginning of 2013, substantially changed the laws regulating Personal Injury Protection (PIP). Foremost among the changes, is the mandate for those injured to receive initial services and care within 14 days of the accident.

Follow-up care is allowed, but must qualify under the statute. The new version of the PIP guidelines delineates the medical care providers that can perform the initial evaluation and treatment. Massage therapists and acupuncturists were explicitly excluded. Once that treatment is administered, then follow-up care related to the underlying condition is permitted.

The amount of coverage you receive under Florida’s new PIP laws will depend on whether the condition is considered an “emergency medical condition”. If it is, then you can receive up to $10,000. If not, then the maximum coverage is $2500. An “emergency medical condition” must be so serious that without immediate care, serious jeopardy to the patient’s health, serious impairment to bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of a body part or organ will occur. The previous statutory coverage also went up to $10,000, but allowed up to 80% of all reasonable expenses for medically necessary services, 60% of disability for any loss of gross income and earning capacity per individual from inability to work that was proximately caused by the accident, and 100% of replacement services like lawn care or childcare.