If you are currently dealing with injuries due to the negligence of another individual, you have grounds to file a personal injury lawsuit, especially in Florida. In 2018, over 41,000 crashes happened in Broward County, Florida, and more than 24,000 people were injured.
Most of the time, your injuries are the fault of a third party’s negligence, and they are not limited to auto accidents. Since most people are unaware of the laws, we don’t know what a personal injury lawsuit is.
A personal injury counts as any physical injury that a person suffers due to the negligence of others. An example of this is someone texting while driving and rear-ending your car. A personal injury can also involve harm to a property, but it should also involve physical harm.
If you are dealing with such an injury, you can file a personal injury lawsuit in Florida. This article will discuss reasons you can file a personal injury lawsuit in Florida. First, however, let’s understand what a personal injury lawsuit is.
What Is Florida Personal Injury Law
A personal injury lawsuit is a court case in which a person is held accountable for causing injuries to someone else due to their negligence. In Florida, the injured individual can ask the other person to compensate them for their loss. Still, you need solid evidence to convince the judge and jury that the injury occurred due to the other person’s negligence.
What Are The Negligence Principles?
All personal injury cases are built on negligence. Negligence refers to an individual’s failure to uphold the standard of care required resulting in harm to another person.
When you hire an attorney to file a personal injury lawsuit, you need to take care of several things. First, you need to show that the defendant owed you a level of care. For instance, in an auto accident, the defendant must adhere to all traffic laws. Similarly, in a medical malpractice case, the health provider must provide the topmost level of care to their patients.
Secondly, lawyers need to show that the defendant failed to upload that duty, and lastly, the negligence caused harm to another person. For instance, driving while drunk.
Proving negligence can be tricky; thus, you need to gather evidence yourself by taking pictures, talking to witnesses, and filing a police report immediately after the accident to preserve evidence and reports and build a strong case.
Types of Personal Injury Lawsuits
Many types of personal injury cases are viable for a lawsuit. Let’s discuss some reasons you can file a personal injury lawsuit in Florida.
Auto Accident
Car crashes and other car-related accidents are still the primary reason for personal injury lawsuits in Florida. Such auto accident cases occur when an individual fails to follow all traffic rules or is driving while texting, drunk, or distracted. If you have been injured in a motor vehicle accident due to another person’s negligence, you are entitled to monetary compensation for your personal and financial loss.
Florida is a no-fault car insurance state, which means each individual in a car accident will have to use their insurance for medical bills and other losses of up to $10,000. If the losses exceed this amount, then the victim can file a personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault driver and collect compensation for additional costs.
If you have suffered from any of the following bodily serious injuries, you can file a personal injury lawsuit in Florida:
- Permanent
- Significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement
- Significant and permanent loss of a bodily function
- Caused Death
Slip and Fall Cases
Slip and fall cases are another common reason to file a personal injury lawsuit in Florida. In such cases, homeowners or property owners of public and private locations must adhere to a standard of care and ensure their property is safe for individuals who enter it. If your property is defective, unsafe, or dangerous in any way and another person injured themselves on your property, they can file a premises liability claim.
A premises liability claim can be filed in the event of multiple accidents. These include falling down a staircase, tripping over an obstacle, slipping on a broken tile, etc. If the individual can prove your negligence in court and that you failed to warn them or upload a standard of care on your property, you have to compensate the injured victim for their losses.
However, not all cases lead to liability. The result depends on multiple factors, such as the nature of the landowner’s legal duty to the property and the reason the individual was on the property at the time of the accident.
Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice includes the negligence caused by hospitals, doctors, or nurses that fail to provide the best level of care to their patients, leading to severe injuries. There are multiple types of medical malpractice, such as:
- Misdiagnosis
- Medication mistakes
- Pharmacy errors
- Birth injuries
- Failure to diagnose life-threatening diseases
You need an attorney specializing in medical malpractice cases as they have a medical background and hold invaluable knowledge.
Dog Bites
If a dog bites you, the dog’s owner is financially responsible for the bite and other injuries caused by the dog. The laws around dog owners’ liability vary from state to state. If the state has strict rules, the owner will be wholly responsible for the injuries caused even if their dog wasn’t aggressive. Some states often have a “one bite” rule, which means the owner will only be responsible once they find out their dog is aggressive.
Defamation
A defamation case is where an individual’s reputation is harmed due to untrue statements made against them. A famous example is the Johnny Depp defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard. Celebrities and public figures have to prove “actual malice,” which means they need to prove that the untrue statement was intentional. On the other hand, the average person just needs to prove that a false statement was made and financial loss occurred as a result.
Other personal injury lawsuits include product liability, assault, boating, motorcycle, and bus accidents. You need a professional attorney to help you collect evidence, gather reports, and build a solid case to get you maximum compensation for your loss.
Damages covered in personal injury lawsuits include lost wages, medical expenses, property damage, emotional distress and suffering, etc.
Reach out to Pompano Beach Personal Injury Lawyers. They have over 40 years of collective legal experience and cover multiple personal injury lawsuits to help you get the compensation you deserve.
Read also: Mangaforfree