If you’ve been injured in a car accident occurring in Fort Lauderdale or anyplace in the State of Florida, there are several different ways that you may be compensated. For one, you may receive compensation from the “Bodily Injury” (“BI”) coverage of the other driver. However, your first option for compensation may be your own Personal Injury Protection (PIP) policy. Continue reading below for more information on how to gain compensation from your own PIP policy or the bodily injury policy of the other driver.
When you buy car insurance in the State of Florida, there are several different types of insurance that you can buy. The first is called “Personal Injury Protection” (or “PIP”). PIP is mandatory – if you purchase automobile insurance in the State of Florida, you will automatically have PIP coverage. This rule is laid out in the following Florida State Statute.
PIP is also “no fault,” meaning that you are entitled to it if you’ve been in an accident whether you were at fault for your accident or not. In the State of Florida, if you’ve been in a car crash, then you will be entitled to $10,000 of PIP coverage no matter who was at fault for the accident. PIP will cover you for up to $10,000 of your medical bills and/or your lost wages (i.e., your time missed from work). However, it will only cover up to 80 percent of your medical bills and/or lost wages.
In the State of Florida, your doctor will have a certain amount of time to declare that you have an “Emergency Medical Condition.” If your doctor doesn’t do this, then your PIP will be cut-off and no more of your medical bills and/or lost wages will be paid by your PIP insurance company. This oftentimes results in a “PIP suit” in which the insurance company is sued for the remainder of the PIP benefits.
PIP is mandatory – meaning that, when you buy vehicle insurance in the State of Florida, you will automatically have PIP. However, when you purchase automobile insurance, there are also a couple of optional coverages that you can buy. The first is called “Bodily Injury” (“BI”) coverage. Bodily injury coverage is designed to protect the insured (the person who purchased the BI coverage). For example, if you negligently cause an accident and you have bodily injury coverage, then your BI policy will cover the people injured in the accident for their medical bills, lost wages and pain and suffering.
Your PIP policy will cover you if you’ve been injured in an accident which involved a vehicle in any way. In other words, you don’t have to be actually driving a vehicle during the crash in order for your PIP policy to apply. For example, if you were a passenger in a vehicle at the time of the accident, you may be able to recover compensation from your own PIP policy. If you didn’t have automobile insurance at the time of the accident, then you may be able to recover from the PIP policy that insured the vehicle you were riding in.
Additionally, if you were a pedestrian hit by a vehicle and injured, then you should be able to receive compensation from your PIP policy. In that scenario, as long as you had automobile insurance yourself, you should be protected. Again, if you didn’t have any automobile insurance at the time you were a pedestrian hit by a vehicle, you may be able to recover compensation from the PIP policy of the vehicle that hit you.
So, if you’ve been injured in a car crash occurring in Fort Lauderdale or anyplace in the State of Florida, the first place to look for compensation will be your own PIP policy (which will only cover you for your medical bills and lost wages and will cover up to only 80% of your bills and lost wages). Only if your accident was caused by the other driver, the second place to look will be the bodily injury policy of the other driver (BI coverage is different from PIP in that you can only receive compensation from your BI policy if the other driver was at fault for your accident).
If the other driver had bodily injury coverage, then you may be able to receive compensation from that policy. How much you can recover will depend on the size of the other driver’s BI policy (for example, BI policies are sold in increments – $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, etc.). You will be able to recover up to the amount of the policy limits (i.e., $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, etc.).
Bodily injury policies typically have two numbers. For example, a bodily injury policy may have policy limits of $25,000/$50,000. The first number tells how much money an individual injured person may be able to recover in a wreck. The second number tells how much all of the people hurt in the accident may be able to recover. For example, if the bodily injury policy is a $25,000/$50,000 policy, then an individual injured person in the accident can recover up to $25,000, while all of the people injured in the accident can recover up to $50,000 collectively. If there are three injured people in the crash, for instance, then they will be forced to divide up the $50,000.
If you’ve been hurt in a car wreck in Fort Lauderdale or anyplace in the State of Florida due to the fault of somebody else, the third place to look for compensation will be your own “uninsured or underinsured motorist” (UM) policy. Like bodily injury coverage, UM coverage is optional. That is, when you purchase car insurance in the State of Florida, you don’t have to purchase UM coverage. In fact, you can only purchase UM coverage if you’ve also purchased bodily injury coverage. Moreover, typically you can’t purchase more UM coverage than you have bodily injury coverage. In other words, you couldn’t purchase only $10,000 in bodily injury coverage, but $25,000 in UM motorist coverage.
UM coverage also is designed to cover the insured (the person who purchased the insurance policy). As in the case of bodily injury coverage, you can only recover from your UM policy if the other driver was at fault for your accident. UM coverage will protect you if you are hurt in an accident caused by somebody else who does not have, or does not have enough, bodily injury coverage. In that scenario, you may be able to receive compensation from your own UM coverage.
UM coverage is called uninsured OR underinsured motorist coverage because it will protect you if the driver who caused your accident either a) didn’t have any bodily injury coverage or b) didn’t have enough BI coverage to cover you for your injuries. If the driver who caused your crash didn’t have any bodily injury coverage, then your uninsured motorist coverage will apply. If the driver of the other vehicle didn’t have enough bodily injury coverage, then your underinsured motorist coverage will apply. In the second scenario, for example, if you are catastrophically injured in a car crash caused by the negligence of another driver and that other driver only had $10,000 of bodily coverage, then you may be able to recover the rest from your UM policy if you had one.
Uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage is also “stackable.” That is, when you purchase UM coverage, you have the option of buying “stackable” or “un-stackable” UM coverage. If you have stackable UM coverage and you are hurt in a crash caused by somebody else, then you will be able to “stack” (or multiply) your UM coverage by the number of vehicles in your household. For example, if you have $100,000 of stackable UM coverage and you have three vehicles in your household, then you will be entitled to $300,000 of UM coverage. If you have un-stackable UM coverage, then you will only be entitled to $100,000 of coverage.
If you’ve been in a car wreck caused by the negligence of somebody else who did not have any bodily injury coverage, you may also be able to recover compensation from the UM motorist policy of any “resident relative.” That is, if you live with a family member who has UM coverage, you may be able to recover compensation from that family member’s UM policy. You can only recover from the UM policy of the resident relative if you are 1) actually related to the family member and 2) live with the family member. Frequently, insurance companies will request an “Examination Under Oath” (“EUO”) of you to determine if you actually live with the resident relative.
If you’ve been injured in an accident and there is not enough insurance to cover you for your injuries (either from the other driver’s BI policy or your UM policy), then you will be forced to look at other options. If your injuries are catastrophic, the insurance policy in your case is not large enough to compensate you for those injuries, and the insurance company has refused to pay the policy limits nonetheless – then a jury could find that the insurance company is in “bad faith.”
The policy limits of an insurance policy is typically the maximum amount that an insurance company will pay you for your injuries. When you purchase car insurance in the State of Florida, you decide upon certain policy limits (i.e., the higher the policy limits, the higher will be the premium you pay each month for those policy limits).
When you’re hurt in a vehicle accident, the insurance company involved in the accident has an obligation to act in “good faith” and to pay out the policy limits if the injuries are catastrophic or the value of the injuries clearly exceed the policy limits. For example, if you sustain catastrophic injuries due to the negligence of another driver who had a $10,000 bodily injury policy, then the other driver’s insurance company has the obligation to pay you the $10,000 within a reasonable amount of time. If that insurance company does not do so, then a jury could later find that the insurance company is in “bad faith.” If the insurance company is deemed to be in bad faith, then the policy limits will not apply and you could receive compensation over and above the policy limits?
The way that this would work is that you would have to go to trial against the other driver involved in your accident (the “insured” who purchased the insurance policy and later caused your accident and injured you). If you got a verdict and resultant judgment against the other driver bigger than the other driver’s insurance policy, then there would be a second “bad faith” trial. In this second trial, the only question for the jury would be if the insurance company had acted in bad faith (i.e., did the insurance company not pay the policy limits when it should have within a reasonable amount of time). If the jury found that the insurance company had acted in bad faith (i.e., that it should have paid out the policy limits sooner), then you will receive the amount of the entire judgment. On the other hand, if the jury finds that the insurance company did not act in bad faith, then you will receive the policy limits only.
The only other option is that, in order to avoid the first trial, you may be able to enter into a “consent judgment” with the driver of the other vehicle. In a consent judgment, the other driver consents or agrees to a certain judgment (i.e., that he or she owes you a certain amount of money). If the jury in the bad faith trial decides that the other driver’s insurance company acted in bad faith by not paying you its insurance policy limits sooner, then it will be the insurance company, rather than the other driver him or herself, that will have to pay the amount of the consent judgment.
This can also be done in the context of an uninsured or underinsured (UM) motorist claim (i.e., a case against your own insurance company). Just like the BI policy of the other driver, your uninsured motorist insurance company has an obligation to act in good faith (i.e., pay out its policy limits when appropriate in a reasonable amount of time). If the insurance carrier (i.e., the insurance company) does not do so, it can later be deemed by a jury to be in bad faith. In that case, the policy limits will not apply and you may be able to recover more compensation.
The only difference between the case of a bodily injury company and an uninsured or underinsured motorist carrier (e.g., company) in regards to bad faith is that, in the case of an uninsured or underinsured carrier, you must file a form called a “civil remedy notice” in order for a judge to later determine that the carrier was in bad faith. That form can be filed here. Nevertheless, it is always best to have an attorney do this for you.
If there is no insurance, or not enough insurance, to compensate you in your case, then the other place for you to look will be the personal assets of the other driver who caused the accident? If the other driver had a b odily injury policy, then that will be the first place to look for compensation. For example, if you are catastrophically injured in the crash and the other driver had a $100,000 bodily injury policy, then the first $100,000 in compensation will come from the other driver’s BI policy. After that, you will be stuck to pursue the personal assets of the other driver.
Again, the way this will work is that you will have to go to trial against the driver who negligently caused your accident. If you receive a judgment bigger than the other driver’s bodily injury policy limits, then you will receive the policy limits and then will be forced to go after the other driver’s personal assets for the remainder.
In Florida, it is not always easy to collect from the assets of the negligent driver. This is because the “Homestead Laws” in Florida make it nearly impossible to take the homesteaded property of another individual. Florida’s Homestead Law comes from Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution.
If you have a judgment against an individual in the State of Florida, it is best to contact a collections attorney. This attorney can run asset searches on the negligent driver to determine what, if any, assets the driver has. The collections attorney may be able to obtain the property of the negligent driver or to garner future wages (i.e., earnings at work), etc.
If the driver of the other vehicle that caused your accident was intoxicated, drinking-and-driving, or drunk, then you may be able to pursue a “dram shop” case against the person or entity who served the other driver alcohol. You will only be able to do this if the person or entity who served the other driver either 1) was habitually addicted to the use of alcohol (i.e., was an alcoholic) or 2) was a minor (i.e., under the age of 18).
Unfortunately, in the State of Florida, it is very difficult to recover compensation from an establishment (e.g., a bar, restaurant or nightclub) that served alcohol to somebody already visibly intoxicated or drunk. You will typically only be able to recover compensation if the establishment knew that the person was a drunk or a minor.
Additionally, if the driver who caused your accident was drinking-and-driving, drunk, using drugs/narcotics, or high and became intoxicated at the home of another person, then you may be able to pursue a case against the owner of the home where the driver got intoxicated. This is pursuant to Florida’s “House Party” Statute.
For example, if a teenager gets drunk at a house party and then drives away and causes an accident injuring you, then you may be able to pursue a case against the owner of the home where the teenager got drunk or the person that served alcohol to the teenager.
If there is no insurance to cover you after you’re injured in an accident in Fort Lauderdale or anywhere in the State of Florida, you may want to consider the role of your own vehicle in the accident. That is, if there was something defective about your own vehicle which contributed to your injuries or made those injuries worse, then you may be able to sue the designer or manufacturer of your vehicle. Vehicles are meant to be built “crashworthy.” This means that vehicles are meant to be designed and manufactured to withstand accidents and protect vehicle occupants in case of an accident. When they don’t do this and you are catastrophically injured as a result, you may be able to pursue an automobile products liability case.
Some examples of this are defective seatbelts, defective airbags, defective tires, defective brakes, defective car seats, defective seatbacks, defective roofs and defective fuel-pump systems (which can cause vehicle fires). For instance, if you were injured in an accident but the fact that the seatbelts, airbags, or brakes in your vehicle didn’t work or operate properly contributed to your injuries or made them worse, then you may have an automobile products liability case against the designer or manufacturer of your vehicle. On the other hand, if a defective tire (e.g., a “tire blowout”) caused the accident, you may be able to pursue a case against the designer or manufacturer of the tire. If the seatback failed and fell backwards, you may have a case against the manufacturer of the seatback.
If the roof of your vehicle failed and resulted in roof crush (i.e., the roof “caving in”), the roof can hit your head and cause catastrophic injuries such as traumatic brain injuries (TBI) or spinal cord injuries. In that case, you may have a vehicle products liability case against the designer or manufacturer of your vehicle.
If the fuel-pump system in your vehicle ignited improperly during your accident and led to a fire, you may have sustained severe burns and scarring. If that is the case, again you may have a vehicle products liability case against the designer or manufacturer of your vehicle and the fuel-pump system.
One thing to consider when evaluating a possible case against the manufacturer of your vehicle is whether or not your vehicle has been recalled. If your vehicle was recalled, this may be evidence that there was a problem with your vehicle which caused your accident. The manufacturer of your vehicle may be able to argue that it did enough by recalling your vehicle and is therefore absolved of responsibility. However, if your vehicle was recalled and you were not notified, then you may have a case against the entity that was responsible for notifying you (e.g., the manufacturer of your vehicle or the dealership that sold it to you).
On the other hand, if your vehicle should have been recalled but wasn’t, then you may be able to argue that the manufacturer should have recalled the vehicle and, because it didn’t, it is responsible for your accident and resultant injuries. You can check to see if your vehicle was recalled by using your vehicle identification number (VIN) at the website of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
If there is no insurance to cover you for your injuries and you find that your vehicle did not fail in any way that contributed to your accident, then the last thing to consider would be the design or condition of the roadway where your accident occurred. If there was anything defective about the roadway itself which contributed to your accident, then you may be able to pursue a case against the owner of the roadway, the designer of the roadway or the contractor that built the roadway.
For example, there may be insufficient lighting on a roadway that caused your accident. There may also be problems with the timing sequences of the lights.
Defective devises may be placed on the roadway as well. “Crash cushions” or “attenuators” are devises that are designed to absorb force or impact during accidents. Nevertheless, they may be negligently used instead of guard rails – and vice versa. If this occurs and somehow contributes to your accident, then you may have a case against the contractor that designed or constructed the roadway placing the devise improperly.
Drainage or water run-off grates may also be negligently designed or constructed. Oftentimes, these grates can be constructed leaving a gap in between the grate and the roadway. This can lead to accidents involving bicyclists (bicycle tires may get lodged in the gap) or other vehicles.
Finally, as construction is ongoing on a roadway, contractors are responsible for “Maintenance of Traffic” (or “MOT”). MOT is meant to safely guide passing traffic passed a construction site. When maintenance of traffic is done improperly, passing vehicles may drive into the construction zone and hit workers or may strike other vehicles in the roadway. For example, if “barrels” or “cones” are placed in the wrong place in the roadway, vehicles may drive in the wrong areas and strike people or other vehicles, causing catastrophic injuries.
If your accident was caused by the negligent design or construction of a roadway, you may be able to pursue a case against the contractors that designed or constructed the roadway. You may also be able to pursue a case against the entity that owned the roadway (typically a governmental entity). In Broward County, Florida, you can figure out which entity owned the roadway using these maps.
The most important thing to do after a car accident is to seek medical treatment. Your health is the most important thing, and you should immediately go to a doctor or hospital to make sure you are ok.
Another important thing to do after a car crash is to take pictures of the vehicles involved in your accident and the scene of the crash. This is important because the vehicles will most likely either be repaired or totaled, and, once this happens, it will be too late for you to take pictures of the property damage. If you end up pursuing a case, you will want these pictures to document the severity of the accident.
After a car wreck in the State of Florida, you will also need to call the police. In fact, this is mandatory. In the State of Florida, it is the law that, after an accident, either the driver, owner or occupant of a vehicle involved in the crash must report the accident to the police. If the driver is incapacitated and incapable of making a written report, then either a) the owner of the vehicle or b) an occupant of the vehicle must make the written report within 10 days. This law can be found here.
The police will come to the scene and retrieve the insurance information of the driver who caused your accident. This is critical to your ability to recover compensation in the accident. The police typically first write a report called a “Driver’s Exchange of Information.” This document typically includes information on the drivers and vehicles involved in the accident. It may also contain information regarding the insurance companies of the various drivers and vehicles. Later on, the police will typically issue a more extensive accident report. You can usually pick up that police report directly from the police agency. You may also be able to obtain the report from here.
If somebody has tragically passed away in the crash, then the police will typically issue a “Traffic Homicide Report,” although this usually takes longer for the police to issue and interested parties to retrieve.
No, anything you say to the police after a car accident cannot be used against you. This is referred to as Florida’s “Accident Report Privilege” and protects any comments you make to the police regarding the accident. As a result, if you say something to the police regarding your accident, the other side will not be able to use those comments against you in court.
As mentioned above, if you are injured in a car accident occurring anyplace in the State of Florida, you will be entitled to $10,000 of coverage from your Personal Injury Protection (PIP) policy as long as you have automobile insurance. PIP will cover you for your medical bills and/or lost wages. It will cover up to 80% of your medical bills and/or lost wages.
If your medical bills and/or lost wages exceed $10,000, you will need to look to the automobile insurance of the other driver or other sources (discussed above) for compensation.
If you’ve been injured in a car accident occurring anyplace in the State of Florida, there are a couple of people/entities that you may be able to make a claim against. The first is the driver of the other vehicle that negligently caused the accident. If the other driver was driving negligently and consequently caused the accident, then you may be able to pursue a case against that driver.
The second person or entity that you may be able to bring a case against is the owner of the other vehicle that negligently caused the accident. Drivers in the State of Florida are said to be “vicariously liable” for the actions of the vehicle driver. This is true because vehicles in Florida are deemed to be “dangerous instrumentalities” – when misused, they can cause catastrophic injuries. As such, owners of vehicles are responsible for only lending their vehicles to responsible drivers. Therefore, when a vehicle owner lends his or her vehicle to a driver who negligently causes an accident, the vehicle owner him or herself will be responsible.
If the owner of the vehicle that caused your accident was a company (i.e., if the vehicle was a company vehicle), then you may be able to pursue a case against the company itself. Again, this is because the company will be vicariously responsible for the dangerous instrumentality (i.e., the vehicle) that it owned.
If an employee of the company was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident, then the company will also be responsible for the accident under a theory of “respondeat superior.” This theory indicates that companies are responsible for the negligence of their employees. This is true as long as the employees were acting in the scope of their employment at the time of the accident. In other words, if the employee was leading the police on a high-speed chase at the time of the accident, then the employer will not be responsible because the employee was acting out of the scope of his or her employment. On the other hand, if the employee was driving to make a delivery for the employer, then the employer will be responsible for the accident under the theory of respondeat superior. This will be true even if the employer didn’t own the vehicle that was involved in the accident (i.e., if the driver was driving his own personal vehicle).
The company may be held to be directly negligent itself if the driver had a criminal history or bad driving history (i.e., the company shouldn’t have hired the driver or allowed him/her to drive a company vehicle). If this is the case, you may be able to make a claim for negligent hiring or negligent retention (i.e., the company kept the employee on the payroll even after it learned of the employee’s past or after the employee picked up a new criminal charge). If the company didn’t properly train the employee to operate a company vehicle (e.g., a bus or truck), then the company could be liable for negligent training. If the company didn’t properly supervise the employee while he was driving the company vehicle, then it can be responsible for negligent supervision.
No. After you’re injured in a car accident occurring in the State of Florida, you may be entitled to compensation for three things: your medical bills, your lost wages/time missed from work, and your pain and suffering. A permanent injury is only required in order to receive compensation for the third (pain & suffering). You may receive compensation for your medical bills and lost wages (referred to as “economic damages”) even without a permanent injury (i.e., if you injury is only temporary). However, in order to receive compensation for your pain and suffering (i.e., “non-economic damages”), you will need testimony from a doctor that you sustained a permanent injury in the accident.
The way that this will work is that, at some point during your treatment, your doctor will say that you are at “maximum medical improvement” (i.e., you’re not going to get any better with treatment). If your doctor thinks that your injury is permanent, then he will give you a “permanent impairment rating” and say that you will have permanent physical restrictions into the future.
Along with Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage, Florida law requires that holders of automobile insurance carry $10,000 of “property damage coverage.” This is mandatory. If you have automobile insurance in the State of Florida, you will automatically carry $10,000 of property damage coverage.
Property damage coverage will cover other drivers if you cause an accident and damage their vehicles. However, it will not cover you for damage to your own vehicle.
Therefore, if you are involved in an automobile crash caused by another driver, then the property damage policy of the other driver will compensate you for the damage to your vehicle.
Additionally, another optional coverage that you can buy at the time you purchase your automobile insurance is called “collision coverage.” Collision coverage covers you for the damage to your own vehicle. If your vehicle is damaged in an accident caused by another driver, then your collision coverage will compensate you or pay for the repairs to your vehicle if the other driver does not have any automobile insurance or if the property damage coverage of the other driver is not enough to cover the damage to your vehicle.
If the driver of the other vehicle does have property damage coverage, then you will have a choice of having your vehicle repairs being paid for by the other driver’s insurance company or your own insurance company (although, if the repairs are paid for by your own insurance company, that insurance company may pursue reimbursement from the other driver’s insurance company).
If the other driver who caused your accident was texting-and-driving at the time of your accident or was distracted driving in any way (e.g., surfing the internet, looking at Facebook, etc.), then you may be able to make a claim for punitive damages against the other driver. Punitive damages are designed to punish the other driver for his or her behavior, rather than compensate you. Nevertheless, you may receive the compensation granted in the form of the punitive damages.
You may also be able to pursue a claim for punitive damages if the driver of the other vehicle who caused your accident was intoxicated, drinking-and-driving, drunk, using drugs/narcotics or high.
If an Uber or Lyft driver caused your accident, the driver will most likely have been driving his or her own vehicle. Uber or Lyft drivers typically drive their own vehicles and carry their own insurance. If the driver was not carrying passengers at the time of your accident and was not in “driver mode,” then you may be stuck pursuing a claim against the driver (and the insurance company of the driver) him or herself.
On the other hand, if the “driver mode” of the Uber or Lyft is on at the time of your accident (indicating that the Uber or Lyft driver is looking for passengers/customers), then Uber or Lyft will provide insurance coverage for your injuries. In the State of Florida, Uber or Lyft vehicles are required to carry minimum bodily injury coverage of $50,000/$100,000. This indicates that, if you are injured by an Uber or Lyft driver whose “driver mode” is on/who is looking for passengers or customers, then you will be able to recover up to $50,000 for your injuries. On the other hand, if multiple people were hurt in the crash, then they will be able to recover up to $100,000 total – which could leave them stuck trying to divide up the $100,000.
Additionally, if the Uber or Lyft driver causes damage to your vehicle, then you will be able to receive up to $25,000 in compensation for your property damage/repairs.
If there were passengers in the Uber or Lyft vehicle at the time of the accident, then you will be able to recover up to $1,000,000 in compensation for your injuries. This is because Florida law requires Uber or Lyft vehicles to carry a minimum of $1,000,000 for accidents in which there are passengers inside the Uber/Lyft vehicles. In that case, Uber or Lyft vehicles are also required to carry $1,000,000 in uninsured mot orist (UM) coverage.
So, if you were one of the passengers in the Uber or Lyft vehicle, you may be able to make a claim against the Uber/Lyft driver and also against Uber/Lyft itself. Uber or Lyft’s insurance company should provide your compensation.
On the other hand, if you either a pedestrian or in another vehicle hit by the Uber or Lyft, then you also may be able to pursue a case against the Uber/Lyft driver, Uber or Lyft itself, and be compensated by the insurance company for Uber or Lyft.
Finally, in the case where an Uber or Lyft vehicle is carrying passengers, the Uber or Lyft vehicle is required to carry a minimum of $50,000 in property damage coverage. However, this only applies if the Uber or Lyft driver has his or her own personal comprehensive and collision coverage. In that case, Uber has a $1,000 deductible, while Lyft has a $1,000 deductible.
If a taxicab driver caused your accident, then you may have a case against the driver of the taxicab as well as the taxicab company (on the theory of vicarious liability and/or respondeat superior – explained above). You may be able to pursue a case against the taxicab driver and the taxicab company if you were a passenger in the taxi which caused the accident or you were in another vehicle which was hit by the negligently driven cab.
In the State of Florida, taxicabs are required to carry a minimum of $125,000 per person and $250,000 per accident. This means that, if you are hurt in a crash caused by a taxicab, you will be able to recover up to $125,000. If multiple people were injured in the wreck, then they will be able to collect up to $250,000 total – so they may be in a situation where they are forced to divide up the $250,000 amongst themselves.
In the State of Florida, you typically have four years to file a lawsuit relating to a car accident. However, this may be different if you are filing a lawsuit on behalf of a person (or the estate of a person) who tragically passed away in a car crash. If this is the case, then you will have two years to file a wrongful death lawsuit.
If you are injured in a car accident occurring in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Miami, West Palm Beach, South Florida or anyplace in Florida (or if a loved one has tragically passed away in an accident), contact Mr. Quackenbush at 954-448-7288 for a free, no obligation consultation. If you hire Mr. Quackenbush as your attorney, he will work on contingency. This means that there is no risk to you – Mr. Quackenbush will only get paid for his work if you make a recovery in your case.