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Health care workers and first responders are known for being the first helpful faces on the scene in the midst of a crisis. That’s perhaps no more true than in the moment we’re all facing together right now. healthcare workers

Doctors, physician’s assistants, nurses, paramedics and other medical professionals are considered among the most essential workers on the front lines as we collectively navigate this global health emergency.

As most Floridians are under state and local orders to remain socially distanced, keeping each other safe by staying in, these workers do so by showing up. Often, they’re caring for the most vulnerable among us. They’re conducting roadside tests, caring for at-risk nursing home residents, admitting emergency room walk-ins and treating critically ill ICU patients.

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Our South Florida personal injury lawyers have counseled clients through some very difficult times – auto accidents, elder abuse, hurricane claims and instances of medical malpractice. Whether negligence or a natural disaster, the one constant has been our commitment to continue advocating for our clients. It’s what we do.

South Florida injury lawyers

The current public health crisis is unlike anything most of us have ever experienced.

We understand our clients have questions about what these circumstances mean for pending cases. We have been personally reaching out to each and every one to update them on the status of their claims.

Others have concerns about the novel legal questions this situation might present.  Our team remains available to you through via phone, video conferencing and email. We also continue to offer free initial consultations through these mediums. Continue reading

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Florida personal injury laws are designed to compensate those who are injured as a result of someone else’s negligence. These extend to individuals involved in car accidents, slip-and-fall incidents and injury due to use of dangerous products. South Florida injury claims

Claims for damages (financial compensation) can be pursued either by filing a lawsuit or negotiating a settlement. As our South Florida injury lawyers can explain, most claims are resolved via settlement, as these tend to conclude faster, be less costly and outcomes are more certain than in litigation.

Civil injury attorneys will usually work to negotiate a settlement with defendant insurers before going the route of a lawsuit. While each case is different, it’s usually only if those settlement negotiations break down (when an insurer tries to settle a claim for less than it’s worth) that your attorney will recommend a lawsuit. Continue reading

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Florida truck accidents have steadily risen in recent years. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reports in a single recent year, there were more than crashes involving large trucks, resulting in more than a dozen deaths and 1,000 injuries – 57 of those catastrophic.truck accidents

Still, there is little denying how critical trucks are to our economy. They have proven a lifeline to necessary products.

Recently, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) relaxed hours-of-service rules for commercial drivers carrying essential goods. It remains to be seen whether this might lead to an uptick in more Florida truck accidents. Continue reading

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When someone is injured as a result of another’s negligence – slip-and-fall, medical malpractice, car accident – often you can request a type of damages known as “pain and suffering.” This is a legal term, spelled out in the Florida Standard Jury Instruction, 501.2, that basically refers to what you had to endure.South Florida injury lawyer

As specifically stated in the jury instruction, these non-economic damages are “any that result from bodily injury sustained by you resulting in pain and suffering disability or physical impairment, disfigurement, mental anguish, inconvenience or loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life experienced in the past or to be experienced in the future.”

Unlike economic damages, which are things like medical bills, lost wages or expenses incurred as a result of your injuries, pain and suffering damages aren’t easily tallied with bills, records or receipts. These are damages you must demonstrate with your own personal testimony, testimony from your loved ones, photographs, vidoes and details about your life both before and after the injury. Jurors are more likely to award economic damages, but establishing non-economic damages can be trickier.

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A number of recent Florida boating accidents have been reported across the state, many of those young people on spring break.Florida boating accidents

Among those reported:

  • The death of a 19-year-old college freshman in a single-vessel Florida boating accident while on spring break in Sarasota.
  • The death of a 21-year-old Florida A&M University student who was in a pontoon boat with 10 others off the coast of Panama City. The young man jumped into into the water to help someone else who was in distress, but later lost his life as well. He was a senior business administration student and a member of the Army ROTC.
  • The death of an 83-year-old boater from New York who was killed while fishing when another boat on autopilot struck his vessel in the Florida Keys. Those aboard the other boat were also from New York.

As our South Florida boating accident lawyers can explain, Florida has – by far – the most reported boating accidents of any state in the country. Last year, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) reported more than 720 boating accidents. Among those, there were 66 deaths. California, the state with the second-highest number of boating accidents, tallied 350 with 50 deaths. Continue reading

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Electric scooters (also known as e-scooters) are with increasing frequency sending South Florida riders to hospitals in Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Miami. According to the Sun Sentinel, more than 100 people have been transported by ambulance to Broward Health Medical Center in the last year – more than one-third of those with head injuries – following e-scooter accidents.electric scooter injury lawyer Florida

In total last year, there were 146 e-scooter accidents reported in all of Fort Lauderdale. In Miami, there were 87 from April 2019 to mid-January of this year.

As more people are riding and helmets are optional, head and facial injuries from e-scooter accidents has tripled over the last 10 years. Head injuries can range from a concussion to a brain hemorrhage and serious blunt force trauma injuries. Unfortunately, many people still don’t seem to realize how dangerous e-scooters can be – which could point to scooter companies’ failure to warn the public. One study by researchers at the University of California found that the percentage of serious head injuries sustained by e-scooter riders is double that of bicyclists. Only about 2 percent to 4 percent of injured riders were wearing helmets, according to the UC analysis. Another study conducted last year by the CDC/Austin Public Health revealed only 1 e-scooter rider out of 190 injured in that city was wearing a helmet.

But as our Fort Lauderdale brain injury lawyers can explain, whether a rider is wearing a helmet or not shouldn’t necessarily bar anyone from filing a lawsuit against a negligent party responsible for these crashes. This is especially true because as long as e-scooters don’t travel more than 30 mph, no helmet is required. Continue reading

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A city police officer struck by a van and seriously injured while directing traffic in Florida secured a claim for workers’ compensation and a settlement of $1.5 million against the at-fault driver. More recently though, he lost his claim for bad faith insurance. Florida car accident lawyer

Florida’s bad faith insurance law is designed to protect people why buy insurance and fulfill their contractual obligations (paying their premiums) by making sure the insurer acts in good faith when investigating, handling and settling an insured’s claims. Insurers are compelled to settle claims when a reasonably prudent person would. Failure to settle when extended a reasonable offer to do so can give rise to a bad faith insurance action.

In deciding whether an insurer has acted in bad faith, courts are supposed to consider the totality of the circumstances. The standard isn’t negligence but whether the insurer acted diligently with the same speed, care and rigor it would if it were in the insured’s shoes in working to avoid an excess judgment.

In many bad faith insurance claims stemming from auto accidents, the third-party injured person can obtain from the right to step into the shoes of the at-fault driver insured and pursue a claim against the at-fault driver’s auto insurer. That was what happened in the recent bad faith insurance case involving the Florida city police officer. Continue reading

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Insurance companies play a key role in the aftermath of any South Florida car accident – no matter who is at-fault. Although you may be able to manage a very minor fender-bender claim on your own directly with an adjuster, anything involving injuries or substantial property damage warrants a consultation with an attorney. Florida car accident attorney

The reason is that regardless of the feel-good slogans of auto insurers, they are not “on your side.” This is true even if it’s your own insurer you’re dealing with. The fact that you’re the one paying the premiums every month generally doesn’t make insurers any more inclined to issue a payout.

Possible Insurance Claims in a Florida Car Accident

The types of claims you can file in a South Florida car accident will depend heavily on what exactly happened, how seriously you were hurt and the terms of the insurance policies involved. Continue reading

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A South Florida plastic surgeon facing a medical malpractice lawsuit in the 2016 death of one patient is now facing a new allegation of malpractice after another patient said a breast lift and tummy tuck left her scarred for life. NBC-6 Miami reports the second patient survived, but only after emergency surgery and multiple skin grafts. Doctors at the hospital told her if she had waited another day to have her wounds treated, she would have died. plastic surgery medical malpractice

The Florida Department of Health alleges the surgeon involved breached the standard of medical care expected of him by:

  • Failing to obtain a complete and comprehensive physical examination of the patient;
  • Failing to obtain a complete medical history of the patient;
  • Failing to see or contact the patient within 24 to 48 hours after surgery.

The surgeon does not agree with the allegations, and plans to fight them in court. He was already facing allegations of medical malpractice wrongful death involving a patient who died in 2016 while under his care at a now-closed Hialeah clinic.

When Plastic Surgeons Can Be Held Liable for Damage

Plastic surgery, also sometimes referred to as cosmetic surgery, are generally elective procedures undergone by those who wish to improve their personal appearance. In some cases, they are necessary to correct the after-effects of a serious accident or illness.

Plastic surgery is a field that is attractive to many physicians because it is so lucrative, particularly in high-income areas. However, as our West Palm Beach medical malpractice attorneys have seen, a doctor who does not have the proper knowledge, training, experience, staff or equipment to safely perform plastic surgery can cause serious harm. Continue reading

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