Personal Injury

1) Seek Medical Treatment Immediately

The first and most important step is to get medical treatment immediately. Either the emergency room or urgent care the day of the accident is very important. The longer that you wait for medical treatment the more difficult it will be later to prove your injuries. Waiting to “see how I feel” is the most common mistake people make in a personal injury claim. Get immediate medical treatment and make sure that every injury and every part of your body that was injured is reported to the doctor, even if the pain or discomfort is relatively minor. By accurately reporting all the major and minor symptoms we get an excellent medical report from the doctor to help prove your case.

2) File Before Statute of Limitations

It is crucial to file your property damage claim before the statute of limitations expires. Every state has its own time limits for filing legal claims, and missing this deadline can result in the dismissal of your case, no matter how strong it is. Being aware of these legal timeframes is essential to protecting your rights.

In Florida, for instance, the statute of limitations for personal injury cases typically requires claims to be filed within four years of the accident. If you miss this deadline, you may forfeit your right to recover damages, leaving you with no legal recourse. Make sure you act promptly and consult with an attorney to avoid this critical pitfall.

3) Understand Your Insurance Coverage

You need to know the amount of bodily injury coverage carried by every at-fault driver and owner in addition to the amount of uninsured motorist coverage that you carry on your policy. In Florida, there is no requirement that a person carry bodily injury coverage on their policy. Meaning that if that driver causes a collision and injures you, there is no coverage on their policy to pay your medical expenses, lost wages or non-economic damages (also called pain and/or suffering). If you have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy, then you are allow to make a claim against that coverage if the at-fault driver either does not carry bodily injury coverage OR they do not carry enough coverage.

• Example 1: You have a $50,000.00 injury. The at-fault driver carries $25,000.00 in bodily injury coverage. You don’t carry any underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy. Unfortunately, you could only recover the $25,000.00 in bodily injury coverage and you would not be fully compensated for this injury.
• Example 2: You have a $50,000.00 injury. The at-fault driver carries $100,000.00 in bodily injury coverage. This is easy! You would be able to make the full recovery from the at-fault party.
• Example 3: You have a $50,000.00 injury. The at-fault driver carries $10,000.00 in bodily injury coverage. You carry $100,000.00 in underinsured motorist coverage In this case you would recover $10,000.00 from the at-fault party and $40,000.00 from your insurance for a total recovery of $50,000.00.
• Example 4: You have a $50,000.00 injury. The at-fault driver carries $10,000.00 in bodily injury coverage. You carry $25,000.00 in underinsured motorist coverage. In this case you would recover $10,000.00 from the at-fault party and $25,000.00 from your insurance for a total recovery of $35,000.00 and you would not be fully compensated.
• Example 5: You have a $50,000.00 injury. The at-fault driver carries no bodily injury coverage.
  You carry no underinsured motorist coverage. In this case unfortunately you would not be able to make any recovery in this case. You can see that it is very important to carry uninsured motorist coverage.

4) Understand Your PIP Coverage

PIP coverage is standard on a Florida insurance policy. If you were in your own vehicle or someone else’s vehicle that has PIP, that coverages extends to you. PIP coverage in Florida pays for 80% of medical bills up to a $2,500.00 limit or $10,000 limit depending on the injury (although most cases in Florida qualify for the full $10,000.00). This coverage is paid directly to the medical provider. PIP also pays 60% of lost wages as well as mileage to and from doctor’s appointments up to the $10,000.00 limit. PIP is primary meaning that even if you have health insurance, PIP pays first. After PIP exhausts to the full limit, health insurance will usually begin paying your medical bills. The same goes for Medicare and Medicaid. Both of these health coverages will pay only after PIP exhausts.

Sometimes you need to show proof to a health insurance provider that pip has exhausted before they begin to pay. It is best practice to provide your PIP information as well as your health insurance information to any medical provider when they start treatment so if PIP exhausts the medical provider can immediately begin billing the health insurance. PIP pays regardless if you were at fault or not at-fault. PIP does not pay for non-economic damages also called pain and suffering.

That is what the bodily injury coverage of the at-fault driver or owner pays as well as any uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage that you have. Any medical expenses that are not paid by PIP and any amount of unpaid medical expenses are part of your damages in a personal injury case and should be made in any demand for settlement. If your total medical expenses were $25,000.00, PIP would pay the $10,000.00 and you could include the remaining $15,000.00 as part of your damages in a personal injury case.

5) Lost Wages Recovery

PIP also pays 60% of lost wages up to the $10,000.00 limit. Any lost wages that are unpaid are part of your damages in a personal injury case and should be made in any demand for settlement. Lost wages are pretty straightforward in a case when you work hourly and have missed work completely. You usually can submit your time sheet and a doctor’s note showing that you could not work for a specific period of time.

Lost wages are much more complex in cases where someone is self-employed, owns their own business or is just starting a business. When your wage is not computed hourly you may have to compare tax returns, showing profit/loss statements, bank statements or use alternative methods to show wages that you have lost. Lost wages are real claims that sometimes can be difficult to prove. If you have an extensive lost wage claim you should discuss with an attorney the best way to prove this lost wage claim so you are reimbursed the full amount of your wages.

Additionally, if you have lost the ability to earn money in the future, or have a reduced ability to earn money because of the accident, that is also a type of lost wage claim. If you have a physically demanding job such as carpenter or plumber and suffer a knee injury making you unable to work as long as you were able to work in the past, you have a claim for loss of future earning ability. Even though you are able to work, you will not be able to make as much as you could have because of the injury. This would also apply to sedentary jobs and injuries such as a traumatic brain injury, eye injury or even a back/neck injury that makes working at a computer for long periods more difficult.

6) Health Insurance Liens

Many people do not know that if a health insurance company pays for a medical bill in an accident that they are entitled to subrogation, which means that you have to pay them back out of the settlement. How much you have paid them depends on the type of health insurance plan that you have. Sometimes you have to pay them back the full amount, sometimes just a percentage of the amount and sometimes you do not have to pay them back at all.

Subrogation only applies to a settlement for injuries. You do not have to pay anything back for treatment that is not related to the accident. It is very important that you do not settle your case until you fully understand the subrogation rights of your health insurance. Subrogation also applies to Medicaid, Medicare, Tricare, Veterans Administration, etc. Virtually any service that acts as health insurance has some right of subrogation. You can be sued for not paying your health insurance and they can refuse to pay for any medical treatment in the future.

7) Determining Permanent Impairment

Florida law does require you to prove you have a 1) Significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, 2). Permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability or 3). Significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement in order to make a claim for non-economic damages. Medical expenses and lost wages do not require the finding of permanency. So you don’t need to prove a permanent injury to receive medical expenses, future medical costs, lost wages or loss of earning capacity. Proving a permanent injury is usually easy in serious cases with multiple surgeries, spinal or brain injuries or severe fractures. But it can be difficult to prove this in smaller to moderate injury cases.

You may only have an MRI finding of a disc bulge in your lumbar or cervical spine or a small partial tear of a tendon. Those injuries can still be very painful and debilitating injury but will be more difficult to prove they are permanent. The insurance companies hire their own doctors to testify at trial. Many times these doctors have testified for this insurance company for many years and made hundreds of thousands of dollars as an expert witness. These doctors routinely testify that Plaintiffs have fully healed for their injury even when they are still having significant pain.

They also routinely testify that the injury existed before the accident and was a “pre-existing” injury. You want to make sure that you have all your medical records, expert reports and radiology reports prepared and reviewed for your case. An experienced attorney will also be able to receive discovery and cross-examine the expert witness about how much money they have made for insurance companies or lawyers testifying as an expert witness against Plaintiffs.

8) Injury and Case Valuation

This is one the most difficult things for an inexperienced person to evaluate. And honestly even two very experienced attorneys, looking at the exact same case, would likely have slightly different case values (probably close, but not identical). It is also very difficult to evaluate your own case because we are not our best critic when it comes to injuries. Injury cases are unfortunately evaluated more on what the medical records say versus the actual pain complaints of the injured person.

This is because juries always tend to be skeptical of a plaintiff’s pain complaints and if there is any conflict with the medical records or expert testimony, they tend to believe the record or the expert. Generally, case are evaluated on the amount of property damage (minor, moderate, heavy and severe), whether there were any bone fractures, ligament tears or tendon tears, whether any surgeries happened or if any surgeries are recommended, all MRI and X-ray findings, the severity of the injuries initially, the current severity of injuries, past and future wage loss, total medical expenses, potential future medical expenses and future impairment.

If you have questions about the value of a case, it is best to contact a lawyer for a free evaluation. It is relatively easy to compute the value of a small case with perhaps one hospital visit and small medical bills, but when a plaintiff has had several weeks or months of treatment, has MRI findings suggestive of a permanent injury, and 6 months after the accident is still in pain, this is just too complex of a case for a non-trained person to evaluate. You wouldn’t try to rebuild your own transmission in your car without training, nor should anyone without training try to evaluate a complex personal injury case. Most all of us can add air to our tires or perform simple maintenance, but wouldn’t want to attempt a complex repair. When it comes to handling a personal injury case the reasoning is identical.

9) Know When to Settle and When to Go to Court

Deciding whether to settle or take your property damage claim to court can be a tough decision. Many claims are resolved through settlements because it’s often quicker and less costly than a court battle. However, there are times when taking the case to court is the best option, especially if the insurance company is offering a settlement that doesn’t cover the full extent of your damages.

According to statistics on Florida personal injury claims, only a small percentage of these cases go to court. When they do, it’s usually because the insurance company refuses to offer a fair settlement. In such cases, having an experienced attorney by your side can make all the difference in ensuring you receive what you’re entitled to. Understanding your rights and carefully weighing the potential benefits of going to court versus settling will help you make the best decision for your situation.

10) Hiring a Personal Injury Lawyer

If you have suffered a serious injury, it is very difficult to handle a personal injury case on your own and if you make a mistake, it is much more costly in a serious case versus a minor case. An attorney can determine all the available insurance coverage that an untrained person may be unable to find. An attorney can also help you bring the most value to your case. We know exactly how insurance companies will evaluate the case and which factors have the most value versus which factors make very little difference. Many times I see non-attorneys arguing a fact which helps their case very little while abandoning a very significant issue which would really boost their case.

Additionally, insurance companies know that a non-lawyer has virtually no chance in filing their own lawsuit. Insurance companies will never pay an unrepresented person the same amount as a person with a reputable experienced attorney. Insurance companies usually have claims adjusters dedicated to only handling unrepresented persons. They follow a script and offer you very little money early on with a hope that you accept it and void any chance of getting a real settlement down the road. And unfortunately many people accept this without thinking or knowing the real value of their case.

Handling a minor injury case on your with small policy limits is possible. If the injury is minor and the coverage is very small then you don’t run a risk of losing very much if you make a mistake or undervalue your case. That would be a case without any fractures, tendon or ligament tears and no permanent scarring or disability. For instance a case with an initial hospital visit and no follow up treatment for several weeks. Or a case where you only had 2-3 total medical treatments over a few months, relatively small medical bills and your injury has resolved. Even though a lawyer may be able to get more or advise you on what you can do to get more, these are cases that a person can settle on their own without worrying about sacrificing a lot of value.

It is wise to at least obtain a free consultation with an attorney early on in the case to get some idea of your case value and help decide if this is something you want to handle on your own. Consultations are free and a few minutes with an experienced attorney can save you hours and hours of research on your own and greatly reduce the anxiety of the process.

If you need help in evaluating your personal injury claim or just have questions about the process, feel free to reach out to my office with the form below. We will be in touch with you shortly. I try to handle every single case personally and give you one on one time with myself. Not time with a case manager, or with a paralegal.. but time with an experienced attorney. A consultation is free and I can usually help you with just a few minutes of advice. If you fill out the form completely and give me exact details it will help me respond to you timely and accurately.