Were you involved in a fender bender or a minor car accident in Florida resulting in minor damage? If so, you may be entitled to bring an injury case in Florida if you are hurt and not at fault for the accident. Just because the vehicles sustained minor damage, doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve compensation.

Initial pictures do not always tell the whole story. Your vehicle can have underlying damage that can’t be seen from a simple walkaround inspection. Often a rear bumper after a rear-end accident in Florida can look completely fine, but when the bumper is removed the rear absorber bar is dented and needs to be replaced. This type of investigation could show there was a more significant hit. Property damage is only one aspect of a Florida car wreck and could serve as evidence in your injury claim. The most important aspects are your injuries and the treatment you have received.

Medical Treatment After a Florida Car Accident

After an accident, even a minor car accident in Florida, if you are feeling any pain or discomfort, you need to get medical treatment as soon as possible. In Florida, you have 14 days to get treatment after an accident to receive your Florida personal injury protection benefits which pay the first $10,000 of your medical bills. However, even if you do not receive treatment in the first 14 days, you can still bring an injury claim but you just won’t be entitled to your PIP benefits.

Clients always ask, what is my case worth after a minor accident in Florida? The answer is, your case value is dependent on numerous factors, which include:

1. Medical Bills
2. Type of Medical Treatment
3. Lost wages
4. Pain and suffering
5. Your credibility; and
6. Who you hired as your personal injury attorney.

Hiring the Right Florida Personal Injury Lawyer After a Minor Accident

The insurance companies after a minor accident will always undervalue your claim. They will look at the property damage and argue that there is no way this type of accident could cause your injuries. This why it is extremely important to hire the right attorney. You may be wondering how can you determine who the right attorney is after a minor accident. These are the two important questions to ask your attorney.

1. Have you handled minor car accident cases before?
2. Do you litigate personal injury cases?

The second question is the most important because the insurance companies are going to undervalue your claim and give you low settlement offers. If you do not hire an attorney who litigates and files lawsuits, your case will settle for far less than what it would if you filed a lawsuit. The reason why your case will have more value in litigation is because the insurance company will actually have chance to meet you in a deposition. They will get the opportunity to ask you questions and evaluate your credibility. If the insurance companies like you and believe you are being honest, they will put more value on your injury claim despite of the severity of the impact. The insurance companies will also increase the value of their settlement offers in litigation because of the fear of going to trial and having a jury decide how much you should be compensated.

This is why you need hire a personal injury trial lawyer in Florida for your minor car accident. Here at Workman Injury Law, Devon Workman has litigated over 500+ cases and has won over 15 million dollars on behalf of his injured clients. Devon Workman is also considered top 40 under 40 trial lawyers in Florida.

After a minor car accident in Florida, call Devon Workman at 954-361-3997 for your free consultation and get the compensation you deserve.

If you were involved in a car accident and declined transportation to the hospital and havent seen a doctor yet, you still can have a case. Often people involved in car accidents do not feel pain immediately. The pain can come days, weeks or even months later. Here at Workman Injury Law we can assist and walk you through this difficult process after your car accident and help you get the compensation you deserve.

In Florida, to get your personal injury protection benefits you need to see a doctor within the first 14 days after the accident. Personal injury protection benefits is insurance you carry through you own auto insurance which pays the first $10,000 of your medical bills. I know you may be wondering, why does my insurance pay the first $10,000 if the accident wasn’t fault? This is because Florida is considered a “No Fault” State and therefore your first $10,000 of medical bills are paid as primary through your auto insurance. But if you don’t get treatment within the first 14 days, you will lose out on that $10,000 benefit toward your medical bills. But this doesn’t mean you don’t have a case.

Even if you get treatment after the 14 day window, you still have a valid case if you can relate your injuries to the auto accident. To help relate the injuries to the auto accident, it is important provide the doctor with accurate information so his report can reflect the accident and your injuries. For example, when you visit the doctor it is important to provide them with the following:

→Accurate description of the auto accident
→Accurate history of when you started to feel pain or discomfort
→Accurate description of which areas of your body are injured

Since you delayed treatment, it is even more important you hire a good personal injury attorney to fight the uphill battle. Since the insurance company will view your delay in treatment in a negative light, they will likely offer you low settlement offers. The only way to get them to pay more money is to put pressure on them by filing a lawsuit and seeking a jury trial. Here at Workman Injury Law, attorney Devon Workman has litigated hundreds of claims and will fight day in and day out to get you ever dollar possible.

If you have been involved in a car accident and still have not seen a doctor or delayed treatment, call us immediately for a free case evaluation.

Sideswipe, intersection accident, who had the green light? These are just a few types of accidents where fault is not easily determined. After an accident, the police come to scene, exchange information, check all injured parties, and talk with those involved. However, what if the police didn’t speak with you? What if the police officer didn’t speak with witnesses? What if the police didn’t really care what you had to say? What if you were transported to the hospital and the police never spoke with you? What if the other driver lied about what happened? Then you can be put a fault on the police report.

This does not mean that you do not have a claim. Under Florida Law, the police report is not admissible in court and cannot be used against you. The police report will be used by the insurance company when initial denying or accepting liability. This will effect whether your vehicle gets fixed by the other insurance company and whether they deny or offer minimal value for your injury claim. All is not lost though if you hire the right accident attorney.

Devon Workman is personal injury litigation attorney. Litigation is the key word. This is because since the insurance will be relying on the police report who found you at fault and they will be denying your injury claim or offering minimal money to settle. Because of this, your case will need to be litigated in the court system. Here at Workman Injury Law, Devon Workman handles car accident litigation and has done so by successfully litigating over 450 accident cases in court resulting in over 15 million won for his clients.

Litigation is a must in these types of accidents because depositions of all parties and witnesses involved is crucial to establishing liability and getting you compensated for your injuries.

A lot of attorneys will not take your case in the fear of having to litigate and put in the extra effort to get you compensated. Here at Workman Injury Law, we will fight for you from the beginning to end to ensure you get the compensation you deserve.

If you have been injured in an auto accident where the police report found you at fault and you truly believe you weren’t or that the other driver contributed to the accident in someway, give us a call for a free case evaluation.

Florida, just like the rest of the United States, is experiencing an increase in distracted driving accidents. In 2015, 45,740 distracted driving accidents occurred on Florida roads – causing around 40,000 people to suffer injuries. The CEO of State Auto Financial Corp. called the rise in distracted driving accidents “an epidemic issue for this country”.

When people think about distracted driving, the first thing that comes to mind is texting and driving. Surprisingly, according to a recent study by the National Academy of Sciences, texting while driving is not the most dangerous distraction when driving.

DRIVING DISTRACTIONS 

The study quantifies distractions that sober and healthy drivers face when driving. Their research claims that out of the 11 million auto accidents in the United States every year, 4 million accidents could be avoided if there were no distractions present. The study then ranked the 5 most dangerous driving distractions.

• Dialing 10 or More Digits on Your Cell Phone – Drivers who dial on their cell phones are 12.2 times more likely to be involved in an auto accident.
• Reaching for an Object – When drivers reach for objects while driving are 9 times more likely to be involved in an auto accident.
•  Texting and Driving – Drivers who text and drive are 6.1 times more likely to be involved in an auto accident.
• Using a Touch-Screen Menu – Drivers who use touch-screen menus while driving are 4.6 times more likely to be involved in an auto accident.
• Changing the Car Radio – Changing the car radio doubles the risk of being involved in a car accident.

These dangerous driving distractions show that taking your eyes off the road, even for a couple seconds, is extremely dangerous. According to NHTSA, when driving with your eyes off the road for 5 seconds at 55mph, is equivalent to traveling the length of a football field blindfolded. Unfortunately, many people understand the consequences of distracted driving, but continue to still drive while distracted.

SOUTH FLORIDA DISTRACTED DRIVING ACCIDENTS 

When driving in South Florida, we’ve all seen drivers distracted by their cell phones. We have also seen the rise in distracted driving accidents. In 2015, there were 10,401 distracted driving accidents in South Florida. What is most disturbing about this statistic, is the fact that so many individuals have been injured or killed because of these accidents. Out of the over 10,000 distracted driving accidents in South Florida – 7,850 people suffered injuries and 30 lost their lives.

According to a recent study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, teens have the highest rate of crashes of any group in the United States. The study shows that 60% of teen car accidents are caused by distracted driving. Fortunately, there are 7 apps that can help prevent teenagers from using cell phones when driving.

1. TextArrest: allows parents to control the way a phone can be used when in a moving vehicle. It will notify parents when a teenage driver overrides the TextArrest function, travels outside a certain area, or exceeds the speed limit.
2. CellControl: The app prevents behaviors such as texting, using social media, taking selfies, playing games, and much more. These behaviors have to defined ahead of time, and it can be set to monitor whether or not a teenage driver is using their phone responsibly.
3. Live2Txt: It sends a message to anyone sending a text or a call to the teenage driver’s phone that the individual is driving. The app also turns off texts and incoming calls on command.
4. DriveSafe.ly: reads incoming text messages and emails as they come in. It prevents the drivers from looking at their phone when they’re on the road.
5. Drive Scribe: The app blocks incoming texts and calls when the car is traveling above a certain speed.
6. Canary: App provides text notification to a parent any time a teenage driver texts, tweets, or answers calls when driving. It will also provide notifications when the teenage driver exceeds a certain a speed or travels outside a set perimeter on the map.
7. TextLimit: prevents features on a cell phone from functioning when the phone is moving above a certain speed.

It is on us drivers to fix this distracted driving epidemic. We need to do everything in our power to prevent ourselves from being distracted when driving. We have witnessed way too many people lose their lives from distracted driving accidents here in Florida and all across the United States.

If you or your loved one has been injured by a distracted driver in Florida, speak with personal injury attorney Devon Workman today for your free case review.

The Florida Legislature passed a claims bill that would compensate a former Palm Beach County basketball star for the injuries he sustained as a result of a Wellington bus accident. In Florida, if someone is injured by a state or local government agency the law caps damages at $300,000. To get the rest of the money, injured victims must find a lawmaker to file a claims bill in the Florida Legislature. There, it must be approved by both House and Senate committees. And then passed by the House and Senate and signed by the governor. As you can see, this process takes an extremely long time, and often, the injured may never get fully compensated.

WELLINGTON BUS ACCIDENT

This incident happened all the way back in 2005, and the young man is now just getting compensated for his injuries. Back in 2005, a young man by the name of Altavious Carter was a 14-year-old freshman at a South Florida high school. At that time, he was already 6 feet 4 and a standout basketball player.

On the day of the accident, he was a passenger in a van driven by his assistant basketball coach. The coach stopped at a red light in Wellington, Florida, when suddenly, a Palm Beach County School District bus traveling 48 mph plowed into them from behind. Both Altavious and his coach were wearing their seatbelt, but due the impact of the crash, they went flying to the back of the van still attached to their seats.

Altavious was then rushed to Wellington Regional Medical Center by ambulance and was eventually sent to St. Mary’s Medical Center, where they treated his injuries. As result of harsh impact of the Wellington bus accident, Altavious broke his neck and his coach was temporarily paralyzed.

At some point after this horrendous incident, Altavious hired a Florida personal injury lawyer to sue the Palm Beach County School Board for their negligent actions which left him severely injured. Eventually, Palm Beach County School Board agreed to settle the claim for $790,000. And 12 years after the accident, the Florida Legislature has finally done the right thing and agreed to compensate the young man for the terrible injuries he sustained.

In 2017, most people are well aware of the importance of wearing seat belts. According to a recent study, seat belt use rate is hovering around 90% for all drivers and passengers. This a great statistic because seat belts are known to save lives. Research has shown that using a seat belt will reduce the risk of a fatal injury during a car accident by 45% and reduce the risk of moderate-to-critical injury by almost 50%. Because seat belts play such a critical factor in determining life or death in a car accident, states have enacted seat belt laws to protect drivers and passengers. Currently, there are 34 states that have primary seat belt laws for front seat occupants and 15 states that only have secondary laws.

FLORIDA SEAT BELT LAW

In Florida, the seat belt law requires that front seat occupants must wear seat belts. Moreover, all passengers under the age of 18 must wear a seat belt or be in a child car seat. This law applies to all Florida cars, trucks, and vans. Drivers found to be in violation of the above requirements will be cited with a ticket.

FLORIDA SEAT BELT DEFENSE 

Not only is driving without a seat belt unsafe and against the law, but it may also be used against an injured plaintiff in a car accident trial. If a plaintiff is found to have not been wearing his or her seat belt at the time of the accident, an insurance company will argue Florida’s seat belt defense to reduce the plaintiff’s damages. Florida is comparative negligence state which means that a plaintiff’s damages will be reduced in proportion to the amount they are found to be at fault. For example, if a car accident victim sues a negligent driver for a damages sustained in a Florida car accident, a jury may conclude that the accident victim was 30% at fault and the defendant driver was 70% at fault. In this situation, a plaintiff will only be able to recover 70% of their total damages due to comparative negligence.

Therefore, if a plaintiff is involved in a car accident and it is shown that the plaintiff was not wearing their seatbelt, the insurance company will attempt to show that the plaintiff’s failure to buckle up contributed to his or her injuries. This is an affirmative defense, thus requiring the defendant to bring forth this argument. It is on the defendant to show that:

1. plaintiff failed to use an available and operational seatbelt;
2. nonuse was unreasonable; and
3. failure to use the seatbelt caused or substantially contributed to the plaintiff’s damages.

If a defendant is able to establish Florida’s seat belt defense, a plaintiff’s damages will be reduced by the amount they are found to be at fault. As such, it is not only important for all drivers to wear seat belts for safety purposes, but also because it may drastically affect the amount of money awarded when a plaintiff is injured by a negligent driver.

Hit and run crashes have spiked in Florida. Hundreds of hit and run crashes happen every day and unfortunately, these drivers are not taking responsibility for their actions. When these hit and run drivers decide to flee the scene, injured victims are less likely to get necessary medical care. Families of these hit and run victims are hurting and demanding justice.

Recent Hit and Runs in Florida 

On February 13, 2017, University of Florida student, Karan Khullar, was killed when he was hit by a drunk driver. He was with his friends at a bus stop on campus when the drunk driver drove off the road and hit the group. Karan Khullar was sent to the hospital and died shortly after. The drunk driver fled the scene and luckily state troopers found her on Interstate 75. The driver is facing charges of driving under the influence manslaughter, DUI with injury and leaving the scene of a crash involving death.

On February 10, 2017, a man was killed in Seminole County, Florida, after a hit and run crash. The man was 22 years old, and was riding a friend’s motorcycle in Orlando when he lost control and crashed. While on the ground, he was run over by passing driver, who fled the scene. The victim’s mother made a plea to the hit and run driver and said, “Just come forward, we don’t really blame you, but the fact that you ran over my son and just left. He was a human being. He was my baby.”

Florida Hit and Run Statistics 

In 2016, there were 99,004 hit-and-run crashes – equaling one quarter of all crashes in 2016. What is even more disturbing about these statistics, is the fact that only 15,851 of these hit and runs resulted in charges. That means only 16% of hit and run drivers are held accountable.

South Florida Suffered from a High Number of Hit and Runs 

• In Broward County, there were nearly 12,000 hit and runs and 14 people died and 119 injured.
• Palm Beach County had 7,694 hit and runs, resulting in 12 deaths and 102 injuries.
• In Miami-Dade County, there were 19,000 hit and runs and 20 deaths and 141 injuries.

Why So Many Hit and Runs in Florida? 

Some argue that Florida’s hit and run and DUI laws are to blame for the increase of hit and runs. But this was same argument made in 2013 before Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law the Aaron Cohen Life Protection Act. The new law was implemented on July 1, 2014, and was intended to discourage hit and run drivers by providing harsher penalties. Because prior to 2014, many drunk drivers involved in accidents, received lesser penalties by leaving the scene of the accident than being stopped as a drunk driver. The Act was named after a 31-year-old father of two, who was hit by a car when he was cycling in Orlando, Florida. The crash caused him to suffer life ending injuries. The driver fled the scene because he was believed to be drunk at the time of the accident. He was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and served less than two years in prison. If he stayed, he would have been charged with DUI manslaughter, and would have served more time.  The new law changed the charges for leaving the scene of a crash resulting in serious bodily injury and death. The new law created a four-year minimum mandatory sentence for drivers who leave the scene of accident involving death. The law prior to 2014, did not include a minimum mandatory, which lawmakers argued sometimes gave drivers an incentive to flee the scene. The new law also makes it a second-degree felony, rather than a third-degree felony – carrying potential revocation of a driver’s license for a driver who leaves the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injuries.

These new penalties were supposed to even out the playing field between DUI and hit and run criminal sentences. But the new law really only affects fatal hit and run crashes. And since the implementation of the new law, hit and runs have only gone up in Florida. Criminal defense attorney Lyle Mazin argues this is because, “If convicted of a crash with DUI, state law requires a minimum-mandatory sentence of probation, a suspended license, fines and a criminal record – none of which is mandating with leaving the scene.” He also argues, “part of the problem is lack of public awareness. Drivers know they’ll be in trouble for a DUI, but not necessarily for leaving the scene.”

How Does a Hit and Run Victim Get Compensated 

As the statistics show, it is very unlikely for victims of hit and runs to ever find out who hit them. If the other driver is never found, a victim may be able to collect damages from their own insurance company.

Florida is a no fault insurance state, which means when a driver suffers an accident their insurance policy will cover their initial medical expenses and certain non-medical related costs regardless of who was at fault. Florida drivers are required to carry at least $10,000 in personal injury protection (PIP) benefits, and $10,000 in property damage liability benefits. But depending on the victim’s injuries, this coverage may not be enough.

This is why it is extremely important to have uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. Florida law does not require UM/UIM coverage, but it is highly recommended because of incidents such as hit and runs. Under a UM policy, the hit and run victim’s own insurance will stand in for the hit and run driver and compensate the victim for their injuries.

In the event of a hit and run, a victim should always contact a lawyer in their area immediately. Here at Workman Injury Law, we have handled hundreds of uninsured/underinsured motorists claims all resulting in successful results for our clients. If you or your loved one has been injured in a hit and run, contact us today for your free case review.